UO.com newsletter

[DJAd]

Have I missed all of these? I checked my spam folder and just the usual crap in there. The first one was back in August and it said:

"The UO Team is happy to announce we will be sending out a newsletter every month so you can stay up to date on the latest in Britannia."

Also if any of the dev team are looking in are we going to be seeing the new account management this year? It was supposed to be in May but no year was given. Is it due this year?

 

[Barok]

Now you know why releases and stuff are always late from the devs, their calendar only has 1 month in it.

 

[Slayvite]

You got your's late, they sent them out on April 1st

 

[Uvtha]

Have I missed all of these? I checked my spam folder and just the usual crap in there. The first one was back in August and it said:

"The UO Team is happy to announce we will be sending out a newsletter every month so you can stay up to date on the latest in Britannia."

Also if any of the dev team are looking in are we going to be seeing the new account management this year? It was supposed to be in May but no year was given. Is it due this year?

Yup they did one I think (maybe 2). I mean... why bother to announce it if you don't have someone dedicated to putting one out? And no explanation as to why they stopped almost right away. Just makes them look bad.

Worst thing is I think a newsletter is something most players would really like to get, and honestly how hard could it be to do one a month?

 

[Merlin]

Even if it was something very informal like a periodic monthly update about what's new, what's being worked on by development, what's on the agenda, maybe a couple Q&A. Nobody is looking for the Wall Street Journal here. I think just the show of effort would go a long way.

 

[Ansel]

Even if it was something very informal like a periodic monthly update about what's new, what's being worked on by development, what's on the agenda, maybe a couple Q&A. Nobody is looking for the Wall Street Journal here. I think just the show of effort would go a long way.

Agreed, Merlin. Some communications strategy needs to be in place, along with letting folks know when it has been abandoned.

And it needn't be the current standard in the industry for games large and small where questions are gathered during the month and answered on camera in a video presentation at the end. It's odd. Even very small online games are doing this now. These are often amusing in unintended ways though

But I digress....

 

[Uriah Heep]

No need for a newsletter if there isn't news....just sayin

 

[Ansel]

No need for a newsletter if there isn't news....just sayin

Excellent point of course. But I prefer to view these and other elements of developer communication strategy as a "forcing function."

 

[Merlin]

No need for a newsletter if there isn't news....just sayin

Even if it wasn't monthly... shouldn't there atleast be something that can be communicated on a quarterly basis? I have a hard time believing that there is absolutely nothing to communicate. No one is asking for Pulitzer Prize winning material - but atleast a brief update about what the developers have in queue and/or even just some pics from EM events and what not.

Any form of communication showing the developers want to interact with the community is better than radio silence.

 

[Uvtha]

No need for a newsletter if there isn't news....just sayin

If they couldn't come up with TWO months of news... why create and announce the damn thing!?!

 

[Uvtha]

Even if it wasn't monthly... shouldn't there atleast be something that can be communicated on a quarterly basis? I have a hard time believing that there is absolutely nothing to communicate. No one is asking for Pulitzer Prize winning material - but atleast a brief update about what the developers have in queue and/or even just some pics from EM events and what not.

Any form of communication showing the developers want to interact with the community is better than radio silence.

I have a very hard time believing they don't have material for a monthly newsletter. Use stratics to do a monthly top 5 questions as voted on (with likes) by the players. Say what's being worked on, tackle an item or two from the "being evaluated" file (which after all the town halls has to be 5000 items long) answer the 5 questions, add in some other random tidbits or explain a mechanic clearly, include one item of lore for the hundreds of loreless items and creatures in the game... Surely they could come up with something, and surely it wouldn't be that big of a time investment.

 

[Larisa]

I was really looking forward to a monthy newsletter as well! Even every few months would be pretty awesome...

they spent time doing a fancy new website but things kind of faltered after that...

And when you go to this fancy new website, the first thing I see is..

http://i64.***********/2h88xte.png

I know we have a small, but dedicated team....all we ask for is a few breadcrumbs now and again

Maybe once every 3 months would be more manageable?

 

[DJAd]

No need for a newsletter if there isn't news....just sayin

From what they keep teasing us with there should be loads to write about!

Pet revamp?
High res art?
New account management?
Getting UO on Steam?
New player experience?
Bug fixes?
Easter, valentines, Christmas stuff?
Event arcs?

etc etc..

 

[Taylor]

There's a deeply-rooted culture of secrecy at UO. This has been especially evident after Tim and Cal left, but I think it's existed a long time. You can see it in the various interviews we've done--a palpable apprehension to reveal too much, nervous fidgeting when asked unexpected questions.

I don't think it's intentional. If anything, part of the genesis was community backlash over past unfulfilled "promises" (I use the word loosely, because some developer brainstorming has unfairly been called “promises" over the years). But whatever the reasons, it's part of the team mores now and will be difficult to interrupt. A newsletter, Five on Friday, etc., seems in conflict with this culture. Here's hoping it changes.

 

[MalagAste]

There's a deeply-rooted culture of secrecy at UO. This has been especially evident after Tim and Cal left, but I think it's existed a long time. You can see it in the various interviews we've done--a palpable apprehension to reveal too much, nervous fidgeting when asked unexpected questions.

I don't think it's intentional. If anything, part of the genesis was community backlash over past unfulfilled "promises" (I use the word loosely, because some developer brainstorming has unfairly been called “promises" over the years). But whatever the reasons, it's part of the team mores now and will be difficult to interrupt. A newsletter, Five on Friday, etc., seems in conflict with this culture. Here's hoping it changes.

This is exactly right. There has been this insane secrecy thing. Watch any video or interview and you see the "shushing"... Glares of "don't say that!"

Never really understood. But yeah I get that sometimes folk think it's a "promise" if you mention something. But I don't see anyone here who is asking constantly when we are getting gardens. I recall having a talk with the Devs on these very forums about how it would be cool if we could get "garden" tiles. Where we could plant things which included veggies, reagents etc... but that chat was just a dream chat and I don't think anyone actually thought it would happen anytime in the near future.

Just like the 100's of things we talk about with ideas and what-not ..... I find though that the current team is super dedicated but I just wish they were as dedicated to communication as they are to other things, like the silly secrecy. Yes I like being surprised by getting something unexpected for Christmas, Valentines, the Anniversary.... etc... and that's all good. But some things shouldn't be too secret or set in stone that we can't talk about them and improve them.

It's like I mentioned after Heritage tokens came out I'd had a chat with Draconi and asked him why they didn't do the carpets and tables like a Banner Deed. 1 choice could be several different items this way you wouldn't feel you had to use 12 tokens to get 4 carpets in 3 styles. You could just use 4 tokens and change the carpets out at will. Well fortunately for us players they gave us carpet tiles later. But sometimes if they would just ask about thing we players who actually do spend countless hours using this stuff could give some better input on the outcome. Like suggestions that the runes in the new Atlas be made so you can move them up or down in the order. Suggestions to improve the functionality of the Seedbox by letting us "chose" the # of seeds we remove instead of 1 or all.

Argh rambling again... sorry... Monday sleep typing.

 

[CrazyDave]

I subscribed to the newsletter when I came back and all I've received is the confirmation e-mail. It does say, 'For questions about this list, please contact:
[email protected]"

 

[CrazyDave]

I don't see anyone named Brendan on the broadsword webpage. http://broadsword.com/about.html

 

[NuSair]

Communication has been bad since the original devs left. Not sure why people think that would change. Year after year they keep saying 'better communication' and always fail.

 

[CovenantX]

Mesanna is putting the News letter together it will be ready "soon™", She also mentioned the next publish will be coming around in/near March. We may have a bit of time, so we shall see.

 

[Kirthag]

they need a dedicated marketing/pr person who knows how to balance the secrecy and sharing information.

if i lived back in the (frigid) east, I'd actually offer my services.

 

[nextwindow]

I bet a few people have "unsubscribed" because of the lack of communication between devs and paying players. I know I have thought about leaving because of that.

 

[DJAd]

I bet a few people have "unsubscribed" because of the lack of communication between devs and paying players. I know I have thought about leaving because of that.

Its kinda of funny because so far the has been nothing to unsubscribe from.

 

[Uvtha]

Its kinda of funny because so far the has been nothing to unsubscribe from.

heh from the idea of a news letter.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

while i don't like the secrecy i understand it. once an idea has been voiced it becomes gospel. this applies to everything in life, not just uo.

it would be cool if one of us could collaborate with the dev team to draft the newsletter.

 

[Taylor]

Stratics has provided a variety of services to UO for over eighteen years, all for free. If the dev team asked the staff for support, I'd be surprised if they declined.

 

[ioelis]

it would be cool if one of us could collaborate with the dev team to draft the newsletter.

this newsletter would be a great platform to push information on "what people do in UO/ what UO is all about" ... it can serve as information as well as advertisement that can be forwarded/ linked on social media hubs......... this is something akin to what @Capt. Lucky is looking to do (the advertising or creating awareness of UO for the general public), and this newsletter would serve as a great placeholder to put it on and push it forward, reaching out all over and leading all back to uo.com.....

they have the infrastructure and design; looks like a missed opportunity to me

 

[Ruppy2]

Mesanna is putting the News letter together it will be ready "soon™",

Who was the attorney at the USPTMO that allowed the mark for the word soon? I'm possibly going to be fined millions for all the uses of it with my kids and co-workers alone

 

[Dot_Warner]

Volunteering to do PR for a for-profit company is silly, unnecessary, and likely illegal.

EA/BS could easily afford a PR person to whip the UO (and DAoC, not that it needs it, since they've had 7 news posts to our 2 since the beginning of January) website into something worthwhile. As it stands, it appears that they simply don't care enough to do so.

The shard M&Gs are cute, but trend towards the player's point being easily lost/muddled/completely misconstrued. The devs would be better off collecting questions and answering them more in-depth in a weekly Five on Friday, with extras in the mythical newsletter.

Speaking of the newsletter, its yet another squandered opportunity to generate general buzz and community interest. Mesanna needs to shatter the cone of silence and broadstroke the goals of each following month; things like "This month, Kyronix is continuing work on Eodon and its lore. Bleak is continuing to work on outstanding bugs, server stability and reported lag issues. Onifirk is working closely with Kyronix on new things for Eodon and secret Valentine's gifts. We're almost done on the new account management site and can't wait to reveal it!"

Simply put, public, visible communication has to improve in short order. UO seems to be the only MMO that doesn't get that fact.

 

[Ender]

Every other MMO I've played, and some that aren't even MMOs, have some form of developer diaries released frequently to let players know what's being worked on BEFORE the patch is basically ready to go live. They don't even need to be that in-depth, just broad strokes of what's being changed, why and what the goal is. Shouldn't take long at all to release one a month.

 

[Zosimus]

On the GW2 site we always see the updates on patches. changes to the game, events, promos and such. We even see them as soon as we open the game before we sign in.


On the forum page we always have dev interaction in all forums. We recently had a patch on the 26th. Gaile Gray is the ArenaNert Forum Communication Team lead, On the post about the patch she posted

Every week I prepare a forum report for management. For while many of us read the forums every day, a once-a-week report is helpful to the various teams as a sort of overview of what’s happened recently and as they consider what might be a focus in the future.

I’d like to ask for some help with this week’s report, because the January 26th build was huge, and it had a lot of components that touched on nearly every part of the game. Because it did, feedback could appear in any of our sub-forums instead of in an overview thread.

So could you share (or re-share) your top reactions to the build in this thread? If you’re posted elsewhere and simply want to repost in this thread, that’s fine. But if you’ve posted a long set of comments and could give the Cliff Notes here — maybe a one-liner for each of your top several thoughts? — that would be marvelous!

I’m asking for your appraisal of the quarterly build: likes, dislikes, etc. I’d like to not veer off into debates about what wasn’t included, or suggestions about what should be coming, but a snapshot, or “This was the dinner, what’s your restaurant review of the meal?”

Thanks so much to those of you who choose to post!

Now we also have Rubi Bayer who posts on Twitter and Facebook. We have Dev interaction with Twitch and Reddit.

I have even played with some of the devs on my server. Talked to Gaile many times in the game. I even was in a sPvP match against a dev.


Now I can see why the UO team cant take time and post news about UO. You have around 5 devs. GW2 has around 350 devs. Now Capt Lucky actually has a good idea. I had preached the same idea before that it falls on UO community shoulders to promote the game and talk about it. YouTube videos, Twitter, Facebook, and any social media you can use. Any player can take time and make a news letter about their shard or the game itself. PvP videos can be made or make any type of PvM video. Do dungeons, crafting or just something.

You all pay a sub and the community feels it should be done but it isn't. It's the same thing year after year anymore. The saying goes " If you want to do it right then do it yourself." My daughter finds all kinds of YouTube videos about online games I didn't know existed. Sometimes she puts them on my 75 inch flat screen just to watch them for hours. I even got caught up in watching them with her. Graphics on some are god awful terrible than UO's and has not even the depth of UO but billions of of people around the world plays these games. I see more free shard UO videos on YouTube than I do the prodo shards.

 

[MalagAste]

On the GW2 site we always see the updates on patches. changes to the game, events, promos and such. We even see them as soon as we open the game before we sign in.


On the forum page we always have dev interaction in all forums. We recently had a patch on the 26th. Gaile Gray is the ArenaNert Forum Communication Team lead, On the post about the patch she posted



Now we also have Rubi Bayer who posts on Twitter and Facebook. We have Dev interaction with Twitch and Reddit.

I have even played with some of the devs on my server. Talked to Gaile many times in the game. I even was in a sPvP match against a dev.


Now I can see why the UO team cant take time and post news about UO. You have around 5 devs. GW2 has around 350 devs. Now Capt Lucky actually has a good idea. I had preached the same idea before that it falls on UO community shoulders to promote the game and talk about it. YouTube videos, Twitter, Facebook, and any social media you can use. Any player can take time and make a news letter about their shard or the game itself. PvP videos can be made or make any type of PvM video. Do dungeons, crafting or just something.

You all pay a sub and the community feels it should be done but it isn't. It's the same thing year after year anymore. The saying goes " If you want to do it right then do it yourself." My daughter finds all kinds of YouTube videos about online games I didn't know existed. Sometimes she puts them on my 75 inch flat screen just to watch them for hours. I even got caught up in watching them with her. Graphics on some are god awful terrible than UO's and has not even the depth of UO but billions of of people around the world plays these games. I see more free shard UO videos on YouTube than I do the prodo shards.

Oh where to begin..... So My thoughts are always why should I do the job of the DEVs and EA? I surely don't want to support EA in the least. I can't stand them for their gross mishandling of the game I love. Secondly... My other major thought is why would I go out of my way to get more people to look at playing UO if I don't really think that it would benefit UO? I mean lets just say that 10k in subscibers joined tomorrow and played for at least the next 6months... Do you think for one second that EA would then give UO more than a second backwards glance? Would they invest in more staff for UO? Rather doubt it. Would they give us better customer service and hire more GMs? I rather doubt that too.... so then why bother? And finally my biggest thought is.... Until the world is given a polish and I quit seeing what looks like someone has taken a zipper or something down the coastlines and quit finding 100's of missing tiles and other horrible things quit seeing my shirt lag behind my character as I ride.... actually be able to see my boots when I wear the new Evening Gown... etc... I am NOT promoting the game. I'd be ashamed to have folk see it in it's present state.

 

[PwnySlaystation]

Joys of having Dev's who are just there for a payday and a good time in the office all month.

 

[nextwindow]

Joys of having Dev's who are just there for a payday and a good time in the office all month.

I'd be surprised if they were having a good time. they act like they are grumpy.

 

[Aurelius]

I don't see anyone named Brendan on the broadsword webpage. http://broadsword.com/about.html

Not sure that page is still accurate any more, since their Linkedin profile is different -

Broadsword Online Games

"Team of 14" apparently, while the page you linked to lists 16.... but as usual the issue is their communications about everything are consistently poor.

One thing regarding the mysterious 'Brendan' though,

Brendan Elliott Broadsword Online Games at Website Informer

And his linkedin profile says

Brendan Elliott
Director of Network Operations at Broadsword Online Games

And apparently still there.... but not a game dev, so presumably why he's not on the list of employees on the Broadsword.com page.

 

[Taylor]

Brendan Elliott
Director of Network Operations at Broadsword Online Games

Matt Kidder was still Director of Operations last time was there, Rob's number 2. I suppose Director of Network Operations could be a different role.

 

[Zosimus]

Oh where to begin..... So My thoughts are always why should I do the job of the DEVs and EA? I surely don't want to support EA in the least. I can't stand them for their gross mishandling of the game I love. Secondly... My other major thought is why would I go out of my way to get more people to look at playing UO if I don't really think that it would benefit UO? I mean lets just say that 10k in subscibers joined tomorrow and played for at least the next 6months... Do you think for one second that EA would then give UO more than a second backwards glance? Would they invest in more staff for UO? Rather doubt it. Would they give us better customer service and hire more GMs? I rather doubt that too.... so then why bother? And finally my biggest thought is.... Until the world is given a polish and I quit seeing what looks like someone has taken a zipper or something down the coastlines and quit finding 100's of missing tiles and other horrible things quit seeing my shirt lag behind my character as I ride.... actually be able to see my boots when I wear the new Evening Gown... etc... I am NOT promoting the game. I'd be ashamed to have folk see it in it's present state.

There isn't a righteous face palm pic on the internet to even reply to the post.

You have posted how UO has so much to offer than any other MMO out there now but you throw all that away when you post what you did. Unbelievable! I know you love and are dedicated to UO but pick a side and stick with it. You will stand your ground and debate your point to your digital death on things that you feel would ruin your UO. Right now you just stabbed UO in the face.

My message in my post was to anyone way more positive than you that would like to take the dedication to advertise/promote if they wanted to and was giving them other avenues to look at. I am not making excuses for the dev team but I don't blame them for the mess that has been handed to them either. EA controls UO financial decisions. BS have to work with what they have within their financial budget to work on the game that is allocated from EA.

I respect the UO devs for 80% of the bull crap they have to put up with. If they actually took the time to do what you wanted and fix the game like so many threads that get posted by others fix this and that and the graphics and art they be mentally mad by the time they got it all done. They have a small team. They try to fix bugs and such but have to add things so people will still stay and play the game. If they focus on just fixing and polishing the game on code that is so outdated as an Atari game system, then god save them. These boards would be lit up with why haven't they given me this, that and the other. We want, we want and we want but you better do this and fix that or I will just fake rage quit by posting it on Stratic sand wont really do it and still complain they suck at their jobs. I know many think that will show the UO devs for not caring about ME by posting non reality threats of quitting ha ha ha .........

This comment

"I surely don't want to support EA in the least"

is so wrong. You may not want to support EA BUT you do. If you truly don't want to support EA then close your UO account(s). It's that easy to do and your making a stand. Reminds of people who complain that they don't get paid very much and threaten to strike. When it comes down to actually striking they don't because they have to pay bills as an example or talking out their ass. While others take up their cause and face penalties for it and even lose their jobs. You ever think maybe some ex UO players have taken that stand already for you? Not wanting to support EA? Wonder why some just do the minimum on housing every 3 months when they only have to pay 4 times out of the year versus a person who pays all year? Maybe come back here and hope its taking a better direction?

Like I said above...not a face palm on the internet that can do any justice.


Anyway since you don't want to take the cause of trying since you feel you shouldn't be doing their jobs, maybe others who may want to get into making UO vids, or making their own newsletter of the shard, the game, their guild adventures, their character adventures or whatever may want to give it the old college try. The biggest point I will make is show how fun the game can be. For anyone else that loves the game enough and want to have new interactions with actual new players on a more daily basis, or old vets coming back, or just old friends returning then this message is to you. IF EA and BS just wont do it then it falls on the community shoulders to promote UO. The leaders of the community has to step up and if not then let new blood become the leaders and try. At least if you felt like you made an effort then you can always look back and have no regrets. Anybody will never know if they would succeed if they don't try to make an effort. Fearing to succeed is worse than failing itself.

 

[MalagAste]

@Zosimus..... The game is NOT ready for new players. Without proper support and a proper New player experience and without some help in the department of how the game looks it will be seen as a complete joke and what I DO NOT want is to have this go public and have a bunch of people come look at or try UO in it's present state and not SEE or KNOW what the potential is for this wonderful game because they WILL NOT be able to see past all the obvious flaws enough to find out... By the time they actually manage to create an actual account, attempt to play but find rude people who are nasty and terrible to them or start on some remote shard where NO ONE is seen for days on end and find they have NO CLUE how to play or find people or even figure out WTH the game is about..... and before they look around at all the flaws and such I'd like all that crap fixed...... because god forbid any of them should attempt to page in-game help and have to wait 5, 6,10 hours, days or weeks to get any reply at all like oh so many of us already KNOW will happen..... I'd like this **** fixed, because DANG it I WOULD indeed like more players but UNLESS this stuff is fixed I WILL NOT promote this game in the least because I do NOT want people to try it and become disgusted to the point they will NEVER try it again.... I'd like to at least fix all these things that have made thousands of folk HATE UO in the past... IS THAT sooo TERRRIBLE??!?

 

[Slayvite]

@Zosimus..... The game is NOT ready for new players. Without proper support and a proper New player experience and without some help in the department of how the game looks it will be seen as a complete joke and what I DO NOT want is to have this go public and have a bunch of people come look at or try UO in it's present state and not SEE or KNOW what the potential is for this wonderful game because they WILL NOT be able to see past all the obvious flaws enough to find out... By the time they actually manage to create an actual account, attempt to play but find rude people who are nasty and terrible to them or start on some remote shard where NO ONE is seen for days on end and find they have NO CLUE how to play or find people or even figure out WTH the game is about..... and before they look around at all the flaws and such I'd like all that crap fixed...... because god forbid any of them should attempt to page in-game help and have to wait 5, 6,10 hours, days or weeks to get any reply at all like oh so many of us already KNOW will happen..... I'd like this **** fixed, because DANG it I WOULD indeed like more players but UNLESS this stuff is fixed I WILL NOT promote this game in the least because I do NOT want people to try it and become disgusted to the point they will NEVER try it again.... I'd like to at least fix all these things that have made thousands of folk HATE UO in the past... IS THAT sooo TERRRIBLE??!?

Unfortunately that's just how the game is going to be seen to the Steam community once EA greenlights it.
Then once they realise they cannot bring anyone new to the game it will go one of two ways.
Either they will focus on improving for the current (ignored) players that keep the game running
OR
They will just give up and stay in maint mode till we the players get bored and quit.

Either way, Broadsword will continue to pull a salary until EA kills the game.......not much of an incentive to "change" the game is it......getting paid the same either way......just sayin'

 

[MalagAste]

Unfortunately that's just how the game is going to be seen to the Steam community once EA greenlights it.
Then once they realise they cannot bring anyone new to the game it will go one of two ways.
Either they will focus on improving for the current (ignored) players that keep the game running
OR
They will just give up and stay in maint mode till we the players get bored and quit.

Either way, Broadsword will continue to pull a salary until EA kills the game.......not much of an incentive to "change" the game is it......getting paid the same either way......just sayin'

That's what I was trying to say. And even if we do work and bust tail to try to bring new people to the game (which in it's present state I DO NOT think is a good idea).... it won't help Broadsword and it won't get us any more support or GMs or anything like that.... It will line the pockets of EA execs and our game will still have only the bearest minimum of life support.... and until Bonnie and Company say otherwise then that's what I will continue to believe. If I thought for one second that it would bring more DEVs more GM support or anything like that I might give a hoot.... but since even the raise in fees they put in some while back hasn't kept any of that over the years I fail to see what having 2 more people join UO only to get fed up and quit will do to help the game any at all.

 

[Slayvite]

yup, for this game to survive first it needs to die.

 

[It Lives]

Should be no gathering needed even for the highest circle they just need to nerf word of death :]


lolfrong tread must be frunk.

 

[Corwyn]

That's what I was trying to say. And even if we do work and bust tail to try to bring new people to the game (which in it's present state I DO NOT think is a good idea).... it won't help Broadsword and it won't get us any more support or GMs or anything like that.... It will line the pockets of EA execs and our game will still have only the bearest minimum of life support.... and until Bonnie and Company say otherwise then that's what I will continue to believe. If I thought for one second that it would bring more DEVs more GM support or anything like that I might give a hoot.... but since even the raise in fees they put in some while back hasn't kept any of that over the years I fail to see what having 2 more people join UO only to get fed up and quit will do to help the game any at all.

I have to disagree on this. If I was to help out with creating videos, walk-throughs, essays or promotions, it wouldn't be to help EA or Broadsword. It would be for more selfish reasons... to keep UO going as long as possible so *I* could continue playing as long as possible. Even if they didn't add more staff to the game, just being able to log in to the game when I wanted would be incentive enough for me. But, on top of that, by creating those helpful things, we would be possibly introducing people to a truly great game. I've played several, and this one beats them all in my opinion, even with the graphic glitches, broken systems, obsolete skills and low population servers. And to be honest, if I could bring one player in that would look at what we have and think, "damn, this is a great game!", then why not?

I've already given some thought as to creating a video on starting the game for the very first time, but I have research to do first, since my knowledge of the game as it sits now is very limited.

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

Mesanna is putting the News letter together it will be ready "soon™", She also mentioned the next publish will be coming around in/near March. We may have a bit of time, so we shall see.

Did she happen to mention March of what year?

 

[Uriah Heep]

New players need to start with some decent armor, and based upon their character choices, decent necessities. Full spellbooks, if a warrior, decent swords maces bows, whatever. And a mil (at least) in the bank. If I started today, and saw what I was given upfront, and where I needed to be to compete on any decent level, I would just shut it down and uninstall...

 

[CovenantX]

Did she happen to mention March of what year?

Haha, no she didn't mention a specific year.. I assume 2016... but I guess she left that part open for a reason eh?

 

[Uvtha]

I have to disagree on this. If I was to help out with creating videos, walk-throughs, essays or promotions, it wouldn't be to help EA or Broadsword. It would be for more selfish reasons... to keep UO going as long as possible so *I* could continue playing as long as possible. Even if they didn't add more staff to the game, just being able to log in to the game when I wanted would be incentive enough for me. But, on top of that, by creating those helpful things, we would be possibly introducing people to a truly great game. I've played several, and this one beats them all in my opinion, even with the graphic glitches, broken systems, obsolete skills and low population servers. And to be honest, if I could bring one player in that would look at what we have and think, "damn, this is a great game!", then why not?

I've already given some thought as to creating a video on starting the game for the very first time, but I have research to do first, since my knowledge of the game as it sits now is very limited.

I think it's a great idea to do those things if they want to, for the exact reasons you mention. On the other hand, I aslo agree it's not the responsibility of the player base to advertise, or provide a new player experience as many often suggest it is.

Good idea yes, duty no.

 

[HP_Zoro_HP]

What I thought was a little funny was we are almost into February 2016 and UO.com still has it posted as 2015?

 

[Lady Storm]

Well
Did you all forget they had not only just the publish to get out, but add in anniversary gifts, rewards, Halloween, Thanksgiving and all its goodies, Christmas gifts to be turned on. Top this with December being a vacation month for them and the EM staff. (and mind you Kyronix and Bleak did work on every thing from shard issues to wild bugs.....) Not to mention hiring new GM's (one in japan shards to speak to the English players), looking for replacements for retiring EMs in Asia, and ours too.
This takes a lot of time.... they do have home lives that are not part of UO. (though many don't think in that light)
All this and now a snow storm that had made life a bit more difficult.... we are not talking a few measly inches.
I do know that a few well voiced players nearly scuttled any pet revamp for those of us who wanted out older pets brought up to speed... thanks a lot guys... not!
Bugs being worked on is this next publish.... and yes they got a ear full of the resent bugs we have been stuck with.
As for Stream..... well Mesanna said its in EA's court.... and It looks like its a dead issue. its EA we all know those idiots cant fight their way out of a paper bag much less do something right for us.
I do know the Dev are working (when the roads are plowed) on things to come.
I know your like little kids who want it now,,,, but give them time... this game is like Rome... not built in a day.

 

[Zosimus]

@MalagAste "golf clap"

I'm going to do a link to the off topic in my next post since I was doing some UO YouTube homework for the others who may want to see some ideas to work with

 

[Zosimus]

Ok posted some UO vids on this thread for anybody else that may be interested in ideas on making their own videos.

UO Training Vids