Being Pro Active in getting new players

[Dodger]

Hi,

This may sound silly but to my mind UO really doesn't seem concerned about getting new players into the game (I may be wrong and please correct me if I am).

My idea to try and get new players into the game was sparked by a national television show we have in Australia called "Good Game". Basically they review games and televise the reviews. So I just thought most countries must have similar shows and if we all posted links to the review requests of each show and everyone sent a message asking each show to review the game we may boost numbers.

Here is the link to ask our show to review UO, please drop them a line....

http://www.abc.net.au/abc3/goodgamesp/ask/

Also please add similar links to TV or webcast shows in your region or Country so we can all ask them to review it.

 

[Acid Rain]

Wow ! Sounds like a great idea, seriously. Id recommend adding in any message a couple
reasons why UO is a great game b/c it might not be apparent to the casual reviewer.

 

[cazador]

New players?? Why?? That just means the veterans have to take 1-2 hrs a day each explaining to them what do so they stick around for the free trial..then don't stay because they are lost once the new haven quests end..jk

 

[Tanivar]

New players?? Why?? That just means the veterans have to take 1-2 hrs a day each explaining to them what do so they stick around for the free trial..then don't stay because they are lost once the new haven quests end..jk

If their PvMers the trick is to guide them from Haven to Britain with it's low end monsters and get them settled in there so they can work their way up. Half the fun of beginning to play UO was exploring and discovering new things. It kept the game fascinating for me.

Keep in mind, those who come from most other games are used to simple games that lead you by the nose to each level, it's set quests, and set monsters. These players are not used to having to choose, evaluate, and change skills as they play, or used to a game that contains so many options and choices. They will have to be nudged the right direction off and on, but should be able to learn on their own. Some of course are not up to the challenge of facing UO's learning curve, they will likely head back to the typical monster whacking level based games out there. Some should stay though.
s a

 

[Dodger]

Wow, the lack of response to this has shocked me. Maybe only a few passionate people left here wanting the community to grow and flourish.

 

[Dodger]

Wow, the lack of response to this has shocked me. Maybe only a few passionate people left here wanting the community to grow and flourish.

 

[Dodger]

Sorry for the multiple posts this is even laggier than uo

 

[Tanivar]

Until something brings the fact that UO still exists and has 15 years of content for a new player to check out, we are not going to see many new players. They will go to the advertised games.

 

[Goldberg-Chessy]

Wow, the lack of response to this has shocked me. Maybe only a few passionate people left here wanting the community to grow and flourish.

No offense but it is not my job to promote other peoples ideas or market UO in general.

I have been paying/playing the game regularly for 15 years and have gotten a nice circle of rl friends into the game.
I know I have done more then my share.

It does seem like a pretty good way to promote the game though and I am glad that people like yourself are passionate and out there trying to promote but thats your bag, not mine.

I personally believe that if less vets were on this board spouting negativity and doom and gloom it would do alot more for the game(not meaning you in this example btw)

On Uo's own boards you have veteran players bashing the game in their posts and sigs saying crap like UO has a mortal wound, the gm's and devs are idiots, bla bla bla.

Do they seriously think that this is anything but bad for the game they also say they love and play quite regularly?
Misguided junkies all imo.

But if it makes you feel better I will open my window and give a shout out to UO in the hopes that one of my neighbors is listening

 

[Blood Ghoul]

UO is not the right game for the majority of the "new generation of gamers." It fails to provide the instant gratification the younger generation wants (and I am not even talking about waiting 15 years for a garden shed). And the graphics are still of something you'd see 10 years ago. The new player wish to turn the game on..shoot/kill...and thats about it. Advertising this game would be a joke and attract nothing compared to the investment cost. Watch SPIKE and you will see a number of games being advertised with their flashy graphics and then just imagine a commercial of UO of someone lagging around in classic client ...hahaha..

Don't get me wrong there are a few newer players who'd like UO but honestly UO needs to make the current player base happy as well as attract back former players. Those should be the targets but we would need a new expansion or something most likely and a decent one at that. My three best friends (we are all late 30's early 40's) play games a bunch and all three started UO on day one but quit. I was able to lure them back 5 or so years ago and they lasted 1 year and quit again. If you are not a collector of rares/items UO has no depth. Most people do not want to kill headless miners 10,000 times for golden shovel.

UO does not need new players..There are millions who played and quit and that should be the target.

 

[Theo_GL]

If their PvMers the trick is to guide them from Haven to Britain with it's low end monsters and get them settled in there so they can work their way up. Half the fun of beginning to play UO was exploring and discovering new things. It kept the game fascinating for me.

Keep in mind, those who come from most other games are used to simple games that lead you by the nose to each level, it's set quests, and set monsters. These players are not used to having to choose, evaluate, and change skills as they play, or used to a game that contains so many options and choices. They will have to be nudged the right direction off and on, but should be able to learn on their own. Some of course are not up to the challenge of facing UO's learning curve, they will likely head back to the typical monster whacking level based games out there. Some should stay though.
s a

Yes, but you forgot - in catering solely to the veteran players - they revamped the low end creature dungeons (Despise, Shame, etc) so now you have to be a mid level character to survive or play those dungeons.

All the dev team has done lately is add complexity that make the learning curve so steep that rarely do new players stick around long enough to climb the cliff.
UO has become nothing but an exercise in maintaining as many current players as possible and extracting as much $$ as possible from them (read UO store, forged metal tools etc).

 

[Theo_GL]

Until something brings the fact that UO still exists and has 15 years of content for a new player to check out, we are not going to see many new players. They will go to the advertised games.

It should be actually quite embarrassing that after 15 years this game has about 20 dungeons and 4 land masses and about 100 misguided, hard to find with little reward quests.
Honestly - you would think in 15 years we would have a mountain of content but we really don't and the destroying of old haven, magencia etc actually ruined content IMHO.

This game feels like what it really is - a solid original concept with a bunch of half developed stuff bolted on and never finished.

 

[DJAd]

They can advertise on TV, they can hover a blimp in the air. I don't think it will make much difference as the learning curve for a new player is just ridiculous. If a new player does decide to sign up they have very little to help them out apart from other players. I've met many (young) players who don't even know what a moongate is, or how to travel to other areas. I feel this needs addressing before advertising.

 

[Flagg]

Gaming as a hobby/industry keeps getting bigger and bigger. Yet, you see less and less TV shows devoted to gaming. There is a very good reason for that. When compared to everything Internet can provide, TV just makes a very unnatural and clumsy medium for showing&telling about games. I have never seen a gaming related TV show that would for one second consider reviewing a 15 years old game that isn't even getting new expansions anymore. ...Aside from some nostalgic Ye Olden Times - featurettes perhaps.

Imagine some 5 min long review of UO on TV. Some dude learning the game, running around with EC on... Can't see how it'd do the game much good. Can't imagine a x/10 type of a number in end that wouldn't be depressing.

I recon getting some more UO related articles to largest (PC) gaming sites on net would be way better visibility to UO than than reviews in some TV show(s). I have mailed Rock Paper Shotgun a couple of suggestions on what I think make potentially interesting UO articles but they haven't responded in any way. Ever since High seas, there has been highly questionable amount of anything newsworthy happening in UO. Kinda makes it undesireable and difficult for anyone to write an interesting article about the current state of the game. "Ultima Online is still alive! This game is SO old!Still loyal playerbase!Loyal fans, blahblahblah" You can only write that same article so many times.

The largest gaming magazine of Finland released a pretty hefty four page article on Ultima Online only last month. This was purely from nostalgic angle though, today's UO got maybe half a dozen sentences. Still, interesting article and good visibility.

If you really wanna street team about, imho best idea would be to write a good, inspiring and informative post about Ultima Online to a gaming forum you visit.

..Ultimately it isn't up to players to get new players. FreetoPlay is only vaguely realistic option to bring anything resembling crowds to the game. Considering resources of today's dev team, Ultima Online 2 by some EA studio or another is little more likely to happen I guess.

 

[Flagg]

Honestly - you would think in 15 years we would have a mountain of content but we really don't and the destroying of old haven, magencia etc actually ruined content IMHO.
This game feels like what it really is - a solid original concept with a bunch of half developed stuff bolted on and never finished.

I realize this is Off-topic but..
...YES. THIS. It is infinitely ironic that when they finally decide to do a city-makeover they actually end up wrecking the only (pre tokuno) city I thought was genuinely pleasant to the eye.Not only that, the replacement looks depressing and terrible. There would have been well over dozen cities in game in much more need of a makeover.

 

[Uvtha]

I realize this is Off-topic but..
...YES. THIS. It is infinitely ironic that when they finally decide to do a city-makeover they actually end up wrecking the only (pre tokuno) city I thought was genuinely pleasant to the eye.Not only that, the replacement looks depressing and terrible. There would have been well over dozen cities in game in much more need of a makeover.

Yeah I was tottally shocked by how terrible new mag ended up looking. Like they just didn't even care. At first I thought that the sand roads were like supposed to give the impression that the area was under construction... but nope.

What they should have done was design a whole new town that looked good, and inside of it were a bunch of already placed unaccustomed houses, rather than make the whole town empty plots, and plop a few npc buildings down by the docks. Terrible. Ugliest place in UO.

 

[Dodger]

Gaming as a hobby/industry keeps getting bigger and bigger. Yet, you see less and less TV shows devoted to gaming. There is a very good reason for that. When compared to everything Internet can provide, TV just makes a very unnatural and clumsy medium for showing&telling about games. I have never seen a gaming related TV show that would for one second consider reviewing a 15 years old game that isn't even getting new expansions anymore. ...Aside from some nostalgic Ye Olden Times - featurettes perhaps.

Imagine some 5 min long review of UO on TV. Some dude learning the game, running around with EC on... Can't see how it'd do the game much good. Can't imagine a x/10 type of a number in end that wouldn't be depressing.

I recon getting some more UO related articles to largest (PC) gaming sites on net would be way better visibility to UO than than reviews in some TV show(s). I have mailed Rock Paper Shotgun a couple of suggestions on what I think make potentially interesting UO articles but they haven't responded in any way. Ever since High seas, there has been highly questionable amount of anything newsworthy happening in UO. Kinda makes it undesireable and difficult for anyone to write an interesting article about the current state of the game. "Ultima Online is still alive! This game is SO old!Still loyal playerbase!Loyal fans, blahblahblah" You can only write that same article so many times.

The largest gaming magazine of Finland released a pretty hefty four page article on Ultima Online only last month. This was purely from nostalgic angle though, today's UO got maybe half a dozen sentences. Still, interesting article and good visibility.

If you really wanna street team about, imho best idea would be to write a good, inspiring and informative post about Ultima Online to a gaming forum you visit.

..Ultimately it isn't up to players to get new players. FreetoPlay is only vaguely realistic option to bring anything resembling crowds to the game. Considering resources of today's dev team, Ultima Online 2 by some EA studio or another is little more likely to happen I guess.

Good game is very well known up and coming show in Australia , they also archive shows for people to watch online. They feature games THEY like sometimes one game per episode depending on how involved the game is.

I know its not our job to promote the game but I really dont want to play beat the flush while peeing where this game is involved, anyone passionate about the game can see it needs a liitle bit of a heart pump......calling all medical staff..........patient is critical!

 

[old gypsy]

I don't think advertizing will help much at this point. The best hope of increasing population is to find a way to bring back former UO players. Younger folks usually flock to whatever is new (something I regret but can also understand).

A thought that troubles me right now is the possibility that SoTA, if it is successful, may result in further population decline in UO.

 

[Madrid]

There's nothing to advertise. The game looks atrocious because it's supporting a ****ty client that's 15 years old with outdated graphics. UO went from high resolution to low resolution.

The only reason I returned to play UO again was because I saw the high resolution graphics. You know how many games I've played where I've said to myself "If only Ultima Online looked like that!".

What a short sighted decision by Mesanna or Calvin Crowner who decided to pull the plug on KR and go from high resolution to low resolution removing any chance whatsoever of attracting new players. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

You think SoTA is going to be released with low resolution graphics and people are going to flock to it.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until/unless something is done with the GRAPHICS which is the first thing new players look at UO will continue it's downward spiral.

A big round of applauds everyone for the short sighted jurassics and Devs who can't see the forest for the trees and have all but all but assured UO's demise by sabtoging it's future.

*Slow Clap*

 

[Goldberg-Chessy]

There's nothing to advertise. The game looks atrocious because it's supporting a ****** client that's 15 years old with outdated graphics. UO went from high resolution to low resolution.

The only reason I returned to play UO again was because I saw the high resolution graphics. You know how many games I've played where I've said to myself "If only Ultima Online looked like that!".

What a short sighted decision by Mesanna or Calvin Crowner who decided to pull the plug on KR and go from high resolution to low resolution removing any chance whatsoever of attracting new players. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

You think SoTA is going to be released with low resolution graphics and people are going to flock to it.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until/unless something is done with the GRAPHICS which is the first thing new players look at UO will continue it's downward spiral.

A big round of applauds everyone for the short sighted jurassics and Devs who can't see the forest for the trees and have all but all but assured UO's demise by sabtoging it's future.

*Slow Clap*

Yo do realize that everything you say about the cc and graphics in general is oxymoronic (best word ever btw)

In your own words you came back to UO for nothing other then pretty graphics and yet you are still playing how many years later all the while complaining about the graphics?

Btw did you see the post by trippss the other day? He is a brand new player looking for some advice.
I wonder what he was looking at when he decided to start playing?

Just figured I would bring that up as you always seem to enjoy trashing the game(nice sig btw)and referencing other posts that trash the game.

 

[Flagg]

I don't think advertizing will help much at this point. The best hope of increasing population is to find a way to bring back former UO players. Younger folks usually flock to whatever is new (something I regret but can also understand).

Account managment that doesn't equal a ridiculous grind through ****, blood and agony would be a good start.
Imagine the infinitely consuming process a returning vet who..
A) Hasn't played UO in..say, 6 years,
B) Wants his old acc/chars back,
C) has forgotten his password
...goes through.

I suspect there is a good amount of people like these who just don't bother due to the completely alienating and confusing hazzle involved. Process of re-activating such account in UO is completely unlike anything in any other MMO. It is like Mythic doesn't want people to return.

In another news, largest and most prestigious gaming Mag of Finland has published 2 ratther large articles of UO on 2 months in a row now. 1st one was mainly from POV of nostalgia, other one dealed with state of game as it is today. Latter was very bleak in tone. Still, good visibility. Grand total of some 8 pages of our fav game.

 

[Assia Penryn]

I would love to see UO make a very informative tutorial. I'd also like to see EA make a UO wiki with some bonuses for contributions. I have a hard time recommending the game because it is so complex and most quit due to frustration.

 

[Gb8719]

I would love to see UO make a very informative tutorial. I'd also like to see EA make a UO wiki with some bonuses for contributions. I have a hard time recommending the game because it is so complex and most quit due to frustration.

I have the exact same problem. The several people in real life that I've recommended to the game have quit pretty quickly due to confusion.
One friend summed it up perfectly: "I logged in and thought 'this is pretty' awesome and then uninstalled it about half an hour later when I realized I had no idea what the hell I was doing."