Would An Annual RtB Bring Back Players?

[TheScoundrelRico]

To the UO developers: Would it be possible to have an annual RtB (with events included)?

I know I read alot of gamer boards and it seems to me that it could draw some folks back to UO at least for the time of the promotion.

Maybe it wouldn't bring back people in flocks, but it could rekindle the fire of some of the players that came back, that would renew their subscriptions.

I'm not sure there is a downside to this...what say you?...la

 

[Merlin]

It would atleast be a nice global event to do on an annual basis. UO needs more marketing and this is one of the few things they do, may as well do it semi-regularly.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

They also need someone in charge of their social media. I went to their Facebook and Twitter accounts. *yawns* There is a lot that can be done for little to no money. I see the RtB as a win-win for them. The only bad thing might be that they have to pay for more bandwidth during those months...la

 

[Deep Ellum Dan]

Ok, I feel dumb but.. What's RtB

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Ok, I feel dumb but.. What's RtB

Return to Britannia – Ultima Online ...la

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

i wonder why they didn't do RtB in 2015 like they have in years past. maybe they didn't get any people to resubscribe in prior years? maybe give it one more try with some kind of accompanying media blast?

if i were in charge of things i would do some sort of trend analysis to see if there are any periods when subs were higher than other times. then figure out what was going on to cause the spikes. for example, i reopened accounts for 1 month to claim extra holiday gift tokens and also to get the Easter plants. how many others did this? ha! now there's a thought, give us new gifts every month! hehe.

 

[MalagAste]

I think they do it regularly every other year or so.

And honestly they need to have some sort of global events going on not just EM events that last a couple of hours and are gone... if you want to attract people back give them more reason to return. Having EM events has kept me around more but it just gives me something to do on Tuesday nights when the event on my shard is... the rest of the week well needs something.

I still think they ought to rotate things like ToT and such... bring back the Vanguard and the Dread Warhorse.... the Bane and the Bane Dragons from time to time.... rotation out these things so folk don't feel these things are "impossible" to obtain and you don't create a divide between the haves and the have nots.... etc.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I think they do it regularly every other year or so.

I guess my question would be, why not every year or even multiple times a year? Make sure that houses can't be refreshed on those accounts (unless they pay again) and I think you could have a pretty good way of snagging some re-subscribers each time. What would they really have to lose by doing that?...la

 

[Ansel]

I still think they ought to rotate things like ToT and such... bring back the Vanguard and the Dread Warhorse.... the Bane and the Bane Dragons from time to time.... rotation out these things so folk don't feel these things are "impossible" to obtain and you don't create a divide between the haves and the have nots.... etc.

I agree with the gist of your remarks, MalagAste, except for this last bit. There have to be some things you can only have if you were around when they were. Plus I am not convinced that players will return due to the availability of long gone second tier pets. Rather I wonder if their reintroduction could have the opposite effect - encourage some of our die-hards to finally leave.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

@Mesanna I'd love to hear your thoughts on this discussion. Even if it is to toss out reasons why it can't be done ...la

 

[Theron]

An anual or even bianual RtB would be good along with good publicity which seems, to me at least, very scarce if any is made.

They should do some interviews with renowned gaming industry news websites and let people know things have changed. Also Steam needs to go through, but I guess they are working on it already quite a lot from what I can gather.

On the social media side they should really have a YouTube page with gaming videos, etc. YouTube is the second largest search engine right now right after google.

The game needs anything that can promote it, we all know it. Do they have anyone exclusively dedicated to advertising the game? Because they really should.

 

[Lord Nabin]

I think this is a great idea and a very good plan. Might be a good project for the EM's to put together as a team.

 

[DJAd]

It would do if they promote it properly.

For the last one I didn't even get emails sent to tell me about it. I only knew because it was posted on here or UO.com (I can't remember which).

I'm sure there are loads of old players who don't check here or uo.com but probably check their emails.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Marketing could be as easy as posting on Reddit or on the free shard forums (of course not telling the players they were part of the development team)...la

 

[Uriah Heep]

I doubt there is a long line of people wanting to play, bad enough to go thru that account management system again

 

[CrazyDave]

This sounds like a great idea. I know I have a few friends that I will contact and let know that they can "return."

 

[Ansel]

An anual or even bianual RtB would be good along with good publicity which seems, to me at least, very scarce if any is made.

They should do some interviews with renowned gaming industry news websites and let people know things have changed. Also Steam needs to go through, but I guess they are working on it already quite a lot from what I can gather.

On the social media side they should really have a YouTube page with gaming videos, etc. YouTube is the second largest search engine right now right after google.

The game needs anything that can promote it, we all know it. Do they have anyone exclusively dedicated to advertising the game? Because they really should.

Yes, there are so, so many ways now to promote a game on YouTube but this will require folks from the community. I followed the 15th Anniversary efforts and, sadly, our dev team does not come off well on microphone or camera. This is NOT a knock on them. Few developers are good with that sort of thing.

A good example is CCP. These are the smartest online game developers our medium has yet seen, and Eve Online is quite simply the product of most extraordinary game minds ever assembled in online gaming. Yet you don't get that from their videos. But you do get that from Rooks and Kings videos on YouTube, with more page views than the entire subscriber base of the game despite the fact that all of their videos are in "Eve-Speak."

Here's an example. But it also hints at a way we can overcome our beloved game's lack of contemporary gaming graphics You'll likely not understand a word of this...just know that the fleet boasting is the fleet annihilated utterly moments afterward. And think of this now in UO terms

OOPS: Warning.....language *blush*

​

 

[FrejaSP]

Yes they sure need to make this Account Management easier. I had seen players login at RtB but they gives up logging into the Account Management. some accounts are so old, that they are not linket to a master account and the old e-mail used for them may be long gone too. Even if the player can remember account name and password, most won't know, they need to put _uo after the account name to login and connect it to an EA account. I tryed to look at the account help pages, but could not see it anywhere. Maybe that's why very few stay after RtB

 

[Scribbles]

IM all for bringing people back to UO... However as soon as they come back its the same old problems... Account mngment sux, website isnt updated, Facebook isnt updated, fancy new em event calendar isnt updated, Sill false information on the website, Still a ton of bugs in game, still a ton of exploits in game, still no PR person, Still ruining pvp with every update, still the same staff that puts out worthless content instead of fixing or upgrading the content we do have.


Until UO focus' on itself a bit there is no reason to try to bring people in. If we cant keep the players we have, how are we supposed to get new ones...

 

[Deep Ellum Dan]

In my opinion, the most useful way to bring in new or returning players of by word of mouth. Players, post to your Facebook and tell your friends. Give out the link to the 14 day free trial (if it still exists). This has always been the best way and if everyone did this, if might make an impact.

 

[MalagAste]

I think before we go courting new/returning players there are many, many things that need to be fixed and out of the hands of EA and into the hands of the DEVs... such as the account Mismanagment that needs fixing before we do anything to bring back or get players.

A new player experience needs to happen to help folk learn the game though at this point the game is so complicated and huge that it would take forever to teach anyone... and trying to explain armor, weapons and mods and such for them etc as well as template building and such which a lot of that needs to be done before they even create a character... some get disappointed to have to delete and remake a character because they failed to understand that what they chose won't work in todays UO.

Many of the "premade" templaces like mage, ninja etc need tweaking to make them "useable" for new players without seeming like they wasted skill points and now have to turn things down....

However another big problem with that is that everyone has such variable playstyles that it's hard to have a base template anymore.

Starting gear and weapons need to be reassessed...

The graphical uglies in the EC need to be fixed. And I"m not talking about the horrible way things look if you zoom in.... I'm talking about the holes all over the shorelines, the fact that having your Circle of Transparency on makes animated object invisible..... and things of that nature.... make the game look "finished" not like a work in progress.

Once those things are done then I would support actively recruiting people.

 

[Cymidei]

Here's what I would do...make a fun UO themed APP or Browser game to reach the new generation of players. Offer rewards and incentives for trying out good old classic UO Here are some APP ideas to promote UO: Flappy Mongbat, Drama Llama Simulator, and Crappy Rare Crush. Would help if they got someone like PewDiePie to do a "Let's Play" YouTube series

 

[Lord Nabin]

I doubt there is a long line of people wanting to play, bad enough to go thru that account management system again

I disagree I hear from people looking to return aosr daily and like Rico said basic marketing could go a long way

 

[Lord Nabin]

This sounds like a great idea. I know I have a few friends that I will contact and let know that they can "return."

To my point basic marketing

Word of mouth is excellent how about another get yur friend to come back and you get xxxx after 6 mo

Well 7 months to be fair need a re sub

 

[Lady Storm]

I hate repeating myself ...but here goes...
EA still owns UO.
EA might require permission for this "event" as that means possible lost revenue from some.
Remember EA is short on brains when it comes to UO.
Top to that Mesanna just gave all of us who paid in the 3 months up to the release of ToL the publish free.... EA could have made us pay for it.
I know its hard for some of you who are of the mind of "what have you done for me lately"....
if you really add up all your getting for your time and money your getting away with murder!

 

[Slayvite]

There is no indication the RtB has ever increased the population of UO so I doubt a regular one would either.
What they need to start doing was even highlighted in the recent Origin meet and greet.
They need to stop trying to attract "new" players, it's not gonna happen while they don't do anything "new".
New lands re-hued mobs ect. great but nothing which would attract a new player while it sits behind a pay wall.
Upgrade the servers to something post 2000 for a start, that would take the strain off the database that they use as an excuse for everything these days.
Change the Classic client view window to bigger than 1/4 of the monitor.......we use 1080 and above these days so get with the time and get Hi-res!.

UO is about the most expensive old RPG and it shows, the free shards are thriving while the production ones die a slow painful death.

They need to start trying to attract the old players back, they know how to do it. They just don't want to undertake the workload.
Istaria (horizons) has just completed a major server upgrade and it shows ingame instantly, now they are proceeding with the hi-res graphics update.....all with a dev team smaller than Broadsword.

Broadsword needs to apply for a hostile buyout of UO in the US courts, its clear EA has no intention to inject any funding into its future but also wont let it go as it's money for nothing.
I'm sure there are laws against this sort of thing in the US ?

 

[WootSauce]

Do RTB again and then blackout stratics like last time for maximum angst!!!

 

[Kirthag]

Broadsword needs a professional marketer who will actually take care of their social media, keep up with the (monthly??? where?) newsletter and create good blog posts on their site that generates SEO and traffic....

This person must also understand community - be the liason to the fansites, and be able to generate interest no only within the established community, but outside and beyond. Should know how to stream, manage video content.... public speaking... go to conventions and dang it all, maybe even cosplay a UO character at a convention!

Basically be a UO -Evangilist.

Oh, and basic requirement - MUST PLAY UO!


Anyway....

*goes back to scouring over job boards*

 

[OREOGL]

I think we fool ourselves into thinking the bump in accounts is something other than spare accounts.

You might drag a couple back but is generally short lived.

Three months later a mass housing decay happens and phat lootz drop.

They'd almost be better off offering a discount for multiple accounts under the same master account.

 

[MalagAste]

I think we fool ourselves into thinking the bump in accounts is something other than spare accounts.

You might drag a couple back but is generally short lived.

Three months later a mass housing decay happens and phat lootz drop.

They'd almost be better off offering a discount for multiple accounts under the same master account.

They would be even more better off if they offered things like Increased Storage, a Basement(on another facet like just in some black area you teleport to your basement)... they could offer tons of things like catch up on your account age and get rewards and such by paying for months of service... to bring your "new" account back up where your old account you can't get back because of XYZ would have been.... A chance to get things that you can't get anymore like selling packs of Heritage Tokens, Shadow and Crystal deeds, Anniversary items from days gone by.... New stuff... that is in game but we can't get... there are plenty of things that are actually IN the client already art wise that we don't have access to via the crafting menu and they aren't drops of any kind... like the church like bench... stone benches and such that they could put up for sale that folk would buy... It wouldn't "hurt" the rares collectors if they made that church like bench and stuff a deed.... rubble benches would still be "rare"... They could even sell recipes that would make folk really happy. They could sell pet dyes... (One would hope NOT in gaudy colors but nice colors... there are plenty of cool colors out there... and one would also hope that it would just "dip" your pet in paint)..... but you know...

If they "really" wanted to make money they could... there are 100's of things they could add to the game that people would buy. How about the ability to have a "vanity" slot? Somewhere you could put that mask or whatever item that would be strictly for vanity. Would not add anything to your resists or anything but it would "replace" the graphic of what you had for the slot it was.... so say you hate the Mempo of Fortune but you use it for your character ..... you could put say an ankh pendant in the vanity slot and it wouldn't work like an ankh pendant does but it would change the appearance of the Mempo to that of the pendant.

I could come up with idea's all day long but sadly I don't think EA is interested in that... and I'm not sure the DEVs would do it anyway... I can dream that when they get control of the game and put in some sort of "in-game" store that such things might be possible and they might even let us pay with UO gold.

 

[OREOGL]

They would be even more better off if they offered things like Increased Storage, a Basement(on another facet like just in some black area you teleport to your basement)... they could offer tons of things like catch up on your account age and get rewards and such by paying for months of service... to bring your "new" account back up where your old account you can't get back because of XYZ would have been.... A chance to get things that you can't get anymore like selling packs of Heritage Tokens, Shadow and Crystal deeds, Anniversary items from days gone by.... New stuff... that is in game but we can't get... there are plenty of things that are actually IN the client already art wise that we don't have access to via the crafting menu and they aren't drops of any kind... like the church like bench... stone benches and such that they could put up for sale that folk would buy... It wouldn't "hurt" the rares collectors if they made that church like bench and stuff a deed.... rubble benches would still be "rare"... They could even sell recipes that would make folk really happy. They could sell pet dyes... (One would hope NOT in gaudy colors but nice colors... there are plenty of cool colors out there... and one would also hope that it would just "dip" your pet in paint)..... but you know...

If they "really" wanted to make money they could... there are 100's of things they could add to the game that people would buy. How about the ability to have a "vanity" slot? Somewhere you could put that mask or whatever item that would be strictly for vanity. Would not add anything to your resists or anything but it would "replace" the graphic of what you had for the slot it was.... so say you hate the Mempo of Fortune but you use it for your character ..... you could put say an ankh pendant in the vanity slot and it wouldn't work like an ankh pendant does but it would change the appearance of the Mempo to that of the pendant.

I could come up with idea's all day long but sadly I don't think EA is interested in that... and I'm not sure the DEVs would do it anyway... I can dream that when they get control of the game and put in some sort of "in-game" store that such things might be possible and they might even let us pay with UO gold.

Lot of good ideas. I would pay to cAtch up account age.

They should be selling items that are no longer able to be farmed i.e. Mempo of fortune.

A side note, I haven't had a lot of coffee yet, can you break these lengthy posts into more paragraphs? It's a little easier to read that way.

 

[FrejaSP]

What about. when you pay for 6 month on your account, you can have one free upgrade pack or booster pack or something else uo code from the store.
This way, a returning player can activate SA, if he choose to pay for 6 month and next time he pay 6 month, he could activate High Sea or claim a codes for $xx on the stores

 

[TimberWolf]

Problem is marketing is outside the scope of Broadsword, just like they have virtually no control over the EA Store. EA doesnt have an upside to market and pump money into UO, way more profits can be realized by putting money elsewhere. Broadsword doesnt have a budget or mandate to do it. UO has a small loyal following that will never grow and will only slowly decline. I speculated that RTB was used more by existing players reactivating accounts then it ever was by retired players returning... I am sure it helped many existing players place and or keep housing active
Frankly if it wasnt generating revenue that could be matched to the program 6 months out.....then it was a bad move.

 

[Shane Douglas]

They'd almost be better off offering a discount for multiple accounts under the same master account.

This would probably generate more revenue than trying to attract new players. The monthly rate is too high for such an old game to attract loads of brand new players. A bit too high for me to pay for another house or extra mule slots.

Secondly, like mentioned above, recovering an account is a pain. I had quit in 2005 and tried to come back in 2009, but trying to recover the account using EA customer support was so frustrating and I gave up. Though in October, I sent an email to broadsword support and was playing UO the same day...but I had to try and remember email addresses and such from 1997!

 

[Ansel]

Dang, this time zone thing.....I go to bed, wake up and see this thread PACKED with ideas and not a single bad one in the bunch.

Now please, phuleeeeze do not take this negatively but this thread sounds like the minutes of a particularly snappy and inspired meeting of an especially good marketing department.

 

[Ansel]

Problem is marketing is outside the scope of Broadsword, just like they have virtually no control over the EA Store. EA doesnt have an upside to market and pump money into UO, way more profits can be realized by putting money elsewhere. Broadsword doesnt have a budget or mandate to do it. UO has a small loyal following that will never grow and will only slowly decline. I speculated that RTB was used more by existing players reactivating accounts then it ever was by retired players returning... I am sure it helped many existing players place and or keep housing active
Frankly if it wasnt generating revenue that could be matched to the program 6 months out.....then it was a bad move.

Agreed, Wolf, and proof of that is that we STILL NEED TO REFORMAT CODES FROM THE STORE......sorry for shouting there but that one really gets to me

 

[Elenni]

I think @Mesanna mentioned they'd be announcing a roadmap of some sort for 2016 at the start of this year, so perhaps some of these ideas/thoughts will come clearer when we hear about that. Stratics would be happy to host an interview or video chat if Broadsword were interested, and help market an RtB through our social networks, registration base, and the gaming network we began establishing with the Bring Stratics Home campaign. After all, why not leverage the oldest MMO/UO gaming site on the 'Net? Seems to me that could be part of the reason we're here...

As for myself, some thoughts about increasing the potential success of an RtB campaign:
-- Latest Expansions: Really think that it would help for Broadsword/EA to offer a "package" signup for returning players that included all the expansions up to the present one, for a discounted price.
-- Mythic Account Signup/Account Linking: this actually *does* work today, as I managed it with my (very) old accounts in August -- but it's a little convoluted. Stratics has a few threads that explain the ins and outs. We could pull together a consolidated feature article that explains what you have to do, and feature it prominently on the site.
-- Returning Player Guide(s): Returning players have a steep path to get re-established, as I found when I returned. Who in the Stratics Community would be interested in helping put together some ideas, articles, and/or videos on Stratics to help guide returning players? This series could start out simply at first and grow from there, perhaps.

@Kyronix

 

[Merlin]

I see some people saying something along the lines that they shouldn't be marketing to new players until all bugs are fixed. I hope people understand that will simply never be the case. We're never going to have a completely bug free game. Marketing, bringing in new players, as well as addressing bugs and improving the game all need to be happening simultaneously. You can't simply stop one effort entirely to address another area. Even with their limited resources, that's not how running a business works. I know they need to do a better job on their social media outreach, the EM event calendar and (most importantly) the account management page, but all other areas need to still be addressed continuously.

And any new RtB campaign could be as simple as brining back some of the town invasions and maybe doing something like extending the free trial to a month or something over the summer. They can change and tweak the RtB campaign every year they do it to keep it fresh.

 

[TimberWolf]

I see some people saying something along the lines that they shouldn't be marketing to new players until all bugs are fixed. I hope people understand that will simply never be the case. We're never going to have a completely bug free game. Marketing, bringing in new players, as well as addressing bugs and improving the game all need to be happening simultaneously. You can't simply stop one effort entirely to address another area. Even with their limited resources, that's not how running a business works. I know they need to do a better job on their social media outreach, the EM event calendar and (most importantly) the account management page, but all other areas need to still be addressed continuously.

And any new RtB campaign could be as simple as brining back some of the town invasions and maybe doing something like extending the free trial to a month or something over the summer. They can change and tweak the RtB campaign every year they do it to keep it fresh.

Agreed ....even though we know broadsword has no ability to market UO...if there was marketing and if there was a RTB and there was something for returning players to do....IE invasion...now you have a potential winning combination. Returning players meet existing players at invasion....help is given, friendships are formed...addicts are created.... MMOs arent addictive,...the human interaction is addictive. You need to find them...remind them..and connect them with new friends...

 

[Corwyn]

Have any of you ever played any of the fantasy RPG games out there on Facebook? Most of them are 2D isometric view, and the graphics aren't nearly as good as what we have. Yes... I'm serious. They are mostly pay to win games, and the "better" ones have thousands of players. In all honesty, UO should be targeted towards that audience. It's better than any of them I've played. And I've played a few.

Honestly, UO should have more of a presence on Facebook, complete with a showing of how many accounts there are actively playing.

 

[TimberWolf]

there is a total snob fest thing that existing with programmers and developers...almost a class system

those that do mobile games or fb games are seen as a lesser form of human then those who are involved with serious games.

Casual gaming market is huge and F2P has a huge advantage to our present model for gamers and developers. A good marketer with the existing staff and free reign over creating a "UO store" Could easily triple present revenues. And that is with no new content....leaving our present programmers free to fix all the bugs that exist.

then 6 months out you tweak siege and market it as a hardcore pvp shard.

6 months later your dev team will have had time to bring out good new content...tested content.... or we would have had time to replace present dev team and give new team a year to get upto speed.

Oh and you only allow expansion....and new players to play are certain shards... Build up 6 or 8 shards that are as busy as atlantic and not ghost towns.



PS...and yes I fully understand this would cause MaLagste to quit UO and close her 20 accounts..... LOL

 

[callum_fitzhugh]

To the UO developers: Would it be possible to have an annual RtB (with events included)?

I know I read alot of gamer boards and it seems to me that it could draw some folks back to UO at least for the time of the promotion.

Maybe it wouldn't bring back people in flocks, but it could rekindle the fire of some of the players that came back, that would renew their subscriptions.

I'm not sure there is a downside to this...what say you?...la

Probably not. But then again doing ANYTHING to promote UO is better than nothing. If UO were my business I would be doing everything I could to attract new subscribers and returning players. UO is still a lovely little nichemarket sand-box game with LOTS of different play styles. It just needs some love. And money and effort spent on marketing it.

 

[MalagAste]

I don't think the problem is attracting new players..... it's keeping them. I think in order to keep them we really have to learn to work together as a community and stop treating other players the way many do.

Now I know there are a BUNCH of really wonderful players out there. But there are also a bunch of really BAD apples too.

Honestly we need to put together a serious new player guide. Something that we can put on the web and refer new players to. Something that the DEVs could put a link to on the start screen... something that would help them BEFORE they make a character. Needs to be something that has an index... something that would help them to find exactly what they are looking for.... from account management to how to train skills... where to find what you need. Spellbooks, scrolls, weapons, armor, the best training spots and such... things we as long time players know but new players wouldn't.

You know when I first started UO:R it came with a nice fat book that was a comprehensive guide for the most part to a great many things... from character creation, to movement, to things as simple as putting on and taking off armor, weapons etc.. the use of potions, details of each skill... some suggestive templates... lists of spells and such...

Then I also have 2 of the old Prima guides. I still refer to the on occasion. New players haven't got any of that. Hell they don't even know about Stratics, UOGuide... etc...

You know if we were serious about getting, keeping and attracting new players... this is somewhere we could already start, build and maintain as a community. And it should start perhaps with a detailed guide of the account MisManagement system.. so they get off on the right foot. This will also be extremely helpful for returning players. Personally the thing gives me nightmares.

Anyway that's just my thoughts.

 

[FrejaSP]

Honestly we need to put together a serious new player guide.

The Player Wiki on UO come will cover some of it, thanks to Petra
On Siege, we do have a guide about how to start on Siege, Maybe UHall need one for how to get started on normal shards.

I don't think the problem is attracting new players..... it's keeping them. I think in order to keep them we really have to learn to work together as a community and stop treating other players the way many do.
Now I know there are a BUNCH of really wonderful players out there. But there are also a bunch of really BAD apples too.

Are there really a bunch of really BAD apples in UO or do they just have a different playstyle? I feel it is hard words.

 

[MalagAste]

The Player Wiki on UO come will cover some of it, thanks to Petra
On Siege, we do have a guide about how to start on Siege, Maybe UHall need one for how to get started on normal shards.



Are there really a bunch of really BAD apples in UO or do they just have a different playstyle? I feel it is hard words.

Well that's because you hide out on a dead shard that at one time back when people played there... had it's own form of player justice that worked for it. However... If you were on the normal shards with all the dupers, cheaters, hackers, scammers, etc... you would know. Feed the Greed and you feed the desire to make a quick buck at ANY cost. The more people are willing to spend great deals of RL dollars... The bigger the gap between the haves and the Have nots and the more you find folk who will stop at nothing to get what they desire.... even if they have to take it by nefarious means. And I'm not talking about stealing. If their is a will there is a way... Sadly there are many out there who have already ruined the game for 100's of players whom we will likely NEVER get back. While yes there are fewer and fewer of them all the time there are also fewer and fewer decent folk out there who aren't breaking the ToS.

From the harassment of players running for Governor, to exploiting bugs, to using illegal 3rd party programs... While I'd like to play the ostrich and pretend it doesn't exist.. I think we all know better.

But I also know some very wonderful people in UO. People who routinely take time to put on events, help new players, help returning players, give things away, help and heal others, teach people... raise money and gold... for any number of noble causes. From feeding the hungry to aiding the families of 9/11 victims... and many other wonderful things this community has done over the years.

 

[TimberWolf]

Well that's because you hide out on a dead shard that at one time back when people played there... had it's own form of player justice that worked for it. However... If you were on the normal shards with all the dupers, cheaters, hackers, scammers, etc... you would know. Feed the Greed and you feed the desire to make a quick buck at ANY cost. The more people are willing to spend great deals of RL dollars... The bigger the gap between the haves and the Have nots and the more you find folk who will stop at nothing to get what they desire.... even if they have to take it by nefarious means. And I'm not talking about stealing. If their is a will there is a way... Sadly there are many out there who have already ruined the game for 100's of players whom we will likely NEVER get back. While yes there are fewer and fewer of them all the time there are also fewer and fewer decent folk out there who aren't breaking the ToS.

From the harassment of players running for Governor, to exploiting bugs, to using illegal 3rd party programs... While I'd like to play the ostrich and pretend it doesn't exist.. I think we all know better.

But I also know some very wonderful people in UO. People who routinely take time to put on events, help new players, help returning players, give things away, help and heal others, teach people... raise money and gold... for any number of noble causes. From feeding the hungry to aiding the families of 9/11 victims... and many other wonderful things this community has done over the years.

There are no illegal third party programs.....Mess has stated it....and confirmed it just the other day at the meet and greet. Anyone could see that she scanned the player in question and had him dead to rights. But she just doesnt care anymore. They can detect some of those programs...they know they are being used...they just dont care even when they are being flaunted right in front of them at a dev meet and greet!

If you are attended...script away...if you are attended multibox....if you are attended...cheat...just pay us cause that is all we care about now...the pay check!

 

[MalagAste]

There are no illegal third party programs.....Mess has stated it....and confirmed it just the other day at the meet and greet. Anyone could see that she scanned the player in question and had him dead to rights. But she just doesnt care anymore. They can detect some of those programs...they know they are being used...they just dont care even when they are being flaunted right in front of them at a dev meet and greet!

If you are attended...script away...if you are attended multibox....if you are attended...cheat...just pay us cause that is all we care about now...the pay check!

She herself said "anyway you want to win you win"..... *sighs shaking head*... Just disgusts and disturbs me.

 

[Merlin]

New players need new interaction. They can read about whatever they want in a Wiki or New Player Guide, but they're not going to understand it until they witness it from someone else.

In the experiences in my guild, new players benefit greatly from getting into our TeamSpeak channel, too. Makes communication a thousand times easier, especially when its small issues like where to find something in settings, how to set up a macro, talking someone through the Stygian Abyss entry quest, so on and so forth. No guide can top that human interaction. We also see that these players who come into our TeamSpeak channel stick around a lot longer and participate a lot more. We have some folks who come into the channel and don't even set up a microphone to talk themselves, but just to listen to the rest of the group. It goes a long way.

 

[Deep Ellum Dan]

The Player Wiki on UO come will cover some of it, thanks to Petra
On Siege, we do have a guide about how to start on Siege, Maybe UHall need one for how to get started on normal shards.



Are there really a bunch of really BAD apples in UO or do they just have a different playstyle? I feel it is hard words.

With all due respect the UO wiki is a joke. For this reason, I wholy stand behind uoguide.com and volunteer my time in updating many parts and adding content there.

 

[TimberWolf]

She herself said "anyway you want to win you win"..... *sighs shaking head*... Just disgusts and disturbs me.

Really???? I thought it was just me that disgusts and disturbs you.......I thought UO devs just frustrate you!!!!! ...