Ok i will post my 2 cent as a "shard owner"
Idk if i can post this here but let's:
Actually i "run" a "freeshard" we are online have years, i support official ultima online server, i love uo simple as that.
Let me tell why players play on freeserver in place of "osi" , at least was what my friends tell me, and i experience everyday.
1st and MOST IMPORTANT, latency, is IMPOSSIBLE to a brazilian player (my case) for example play pvp in osi on ANY server actually, because the latency due regional distance, I have characters on Legends, on Atlantic, i have invested over 10plat in my character, but i simple can't compete against a player casting 3 times faster then me, because he ping 30ms and i ping 230ms.
2nd a staff more next to the players (players like be listen, and like answers) simple as that, players like when need help send a page and a gamemaster who knows the game reply you in 5 minutes, and have a good time chatting and giving tips, its the new player experience that have on free-servers and lack on official one.
3rd events, some servers have events (pvp, pvm, rpg, raffles) every 2 - 3 days, gm come talk with players, organize pvp events, and this type of interaction, event is something with contact and a event that players want, not just a story that we need follow for months, to win deco items while sitting with our gd looking the pain.
4rd price, actually 15usd for a month is too much for a game where you usually have 3 - 4 accounts, if you like pvp you need have 3 accounts because you will want do an harrower with a pvm and let a pvp afk in the spot, if the pvp fight start in the middle of the encounter because you wont will have 5+ minutes to switch char, if you do that you lose the spawn. so it isn't 15usd its 30-50usd usually
5rd Is so hard start play on a official server atm, you need buy, UOSA, UOHS, UOTOL, Rustic, kings theme, gametime, you need look for a lot of items that are expensive ( a new player need 200usd to get started on uo let`s be honest), while on a free-server you install the game, patch until last version, install uoassist or any 3rd party tool, hit start and play, and if you have any question just go to the site or facebook of the server and you will find answers.
some servers have 700+ online players, so its not all that small, and some servers are online haver 10+ years, without any revert, so players don`t lost nothing in the last 10 years.
I tried work with broadsword more then once, and i will be happy in close a regional server, when uo open a server in my country, and i will be glad in help any player from my country in get started on osi, but while it doesn't happen the kids still playing the most near a real uo experience they can have.
If you only want sitbank, or rpg, latency, account-price, bureaucracy to get started doesn't matter, but if you want stream the game(like i like do), want go pvp, want go high end pvm without try smash your keyboard every 2 minutes, is impossible play the game with 180-350ms, without any support or help of the staff team.
The atual freeshards don't change any of the UO EA property code, then don't run any ea emulator, we have 5 or 6 emulators of the game, where the PLAYER change the login.cfg to put the ip address of the server to log on the private(pirate) server. So i think won't will be easy do ea or broadsword close a server, since they are not using any ea property, the player witch mod their client to play on the emulator is the one against uo tos.
Free-shards are doing a favor to ea, promoting the game, since you can find more videos and streams in internet from free-shard player then from official players, since you can find more paid advertise, in facebook, twitter and such from free-servers then from EA:UO,
An free server some months ago did a pvp event with 1000usd ins prizes , and invested over 5000usd in advertise on facebook campaigns, hired staffs and such, when you saw an announcement of EA:UO in facebook, or anywhere?
A group of developers are making an whole new client to work with emulators a REAL 3d one, and the player can select if he want use 2d, enchanted, kr, or the new client. (yeah all the clients working at same time on a server) and here we can't even have a high res client...
(ps, i edited some wrong typos (i hate my autocomplete)
