This game went off the rails a long time ago
Honestly, I can´t stand the negativism on this board. I played five other MMORPGs in the last 8 years, including LothRo, STO and WoW. And I can tell you: The basics in this game are still fine. The other games cannot compete with UO - only the graphics are better and there is more advertising, support of the company and marketing/merchandising.
So, here are my top four wishes:
(1) Do more advertising and try some innovative merchandising: "We are still here" / "Others are not better than we are" / "Here are some news you wouldn´t have expected"... There has to be more communication about UO. Communication is everything: There has to be more traffic on Facebook and so on. There are alot of games which don´t look like 21st century but became "cult". Why? Because people were communicating - POSITIVELY! This board, however, sounds like "doomday ahead", everything is crap... and so on. And the devs / company is too quiet. I know, they have difficult times...
(2) Communication only matters, if you have to tell a new / other story. So, the devs / company people have to tell us some new / other stories. Make a little new booster pack - compared to High Seas. Nothing special - but funny, perhaps. UO has to be visible in IT-journalism. There are no reports in the gamer-journals, if there is nothing "new " to tell those writers there. So, we need some news value. And best for creating news value is adding some (small) new content and TALKING about it offensively. On all channels: Gamers Magazines, Blogs, Social Media and so on. It could be so easy - and wouldn´t be THAT expensive. You just need PR and some small new stories to tell... Kings Collection is a good example: Talk about it! Tell everybody, what a fantastic product you have! (You don´t have to believe it by yourself).
(3) Re-think "free-to-play". You don´t have to delete the old paying-system. But people I know want to try the game for some months (2-4 or more) before they decide to pay regularly or buy a lifetime membership. So, instead of developing sophisticated FTP-models, you could just give trial accounts for, lets say, 3 months, with a nice package of helpful stuff (fully charged rune book, LRC-suit, full spellbook and so on), that vanishes after the 3 months and can´t be sold. These people should able to experience UO (even high-end UO) in all its directions (including housing). And give them a better "tutor-system" that guides them through the most important beginners-aspects. Alternatively, you could decide to make a FTP-alternative that restricts certain aspects of UO but allows to play without for a longer time (let´s say a year, dunno...). And if you decide to do this, TALK about it offensively.
(4) Work on the client - as aestethcs matter. But I know, you are working on it.
Last comment: I made so many positive exeriences in the last years. For example, everybody is complaining about the billing system. Heck, I dunno why. Everything worked fine for me. No difficulties. Same with GM-support: I called GMs three times in the last 2 years and everytime I got exactly the support I needed. Next thing: Everybody complains about the Devs not listening and communicating. But when I look back the last 3 years, my impression is, that they were listening very much and communicated with us.
Point is: We (here in Stratic) take us too important sometimes. Our discussions are full of negativism and we are focusing on the wrong behaviour of a minority (e.g. duping) which is mainly playing on one shard (ATL). But this is not the whole story.
Thanks
