Trying to stay positive

[MalagAste]

I've been trying to stay positive about the future of UO but when I look around it would seem that everything I see is just killing my love of the game.

Lets start with EM Events... Every Tuesday night I roll out to the EM Event and the first thing that smacks me in the face is the 3 or 4 Multiboxers lining up and taking their places like we don't see them they don't even care... its so blatantly obvious its disgusting... Yet GMs can't seem to see it... DEV's claim they can't do anything and the producer pretends she doesn't have a clue... sickening.

Then we'll move on to fishing still broken since the beginning... the "bonus" suit for fishing is a JOKE... massive grind, next Akarat under the sea... nearly impossible for most to do also a grind, Despise ruined a really good dungeon for you guessed ... another grind, Roof you can do that 10 times or more and never get anything... yep another grind..., they ruined Doom so instead of refreshing it so there is new reason to go there they make it impossible for anyone BUT a Sampire to do... and yep another grind... even for a sampire... Why does everything have to end in NOTHING... And why does everything have to be geared to one playstyle??? or 2 people... what is the point of a guild if a group has nothing to do??? Getting keys for anything is also a grind... I spent 3 days trying to get keys for a few folk to go to Exodus... I got 1 robe and 1 knife... 3 days of killing things...

Move on to the EC... still super buggy... can't loot a public corpse... and what do they do to fix it??? Take the boss mobs from the EM Events and remove any worth to even bothering to look at the corpse... it's all basic loot with NO bonus's at all.... is this what the game is going to??? A deco drop for 20 people and #$(*R(#QW*$&(#*&$ everyone else... and no loot???

We'll continue with what's wrong at EM Events... people have become so greedy at these events with the huge groups of multiboxers and people spamming everything under the sun... can't talk can't do anything can't listen to what's going on.... but only a handful of people there care... most everyone else quit going... fed up with what they saw.

I look at the game and there are square holes of water all over the shorlines from one town to the next on one facet to the next every shore is full of holes...

I go to Nu'Jelm and look at the rooms in building after building to find that they beds are broken stacked on top of one another the entire area is in shambles yet no one cares enough to fix it...

I walk the land and find paintings, stew, watertroughs, statues, and dozens of other things littering the landscape... No one cares.

I go to M&G's to see legitimate players asking questions to be LOL'd... and ignored... legitimate concerns... LOL'd...

And they want to turn this game into some endless journey??? Journey of what???? A grind? Who's going to be here to help these "new" players??? A bunch of cheating scammers who bot and box and everything else making a living off the game... ready to scam and cheat all the new blood...

So disgusted anymore I could scream... People can't even close their accounts if they wanted to.... they can't log in!!! I have my CC update coming in a few months..... I can say this with certainty... If they think for one second that I'm going to jump through a bunch of hoops to update it and such they are full of it.... this isn't worth it.

I'm getting older and more disgusted by the lack of professionalism shown by the "team"... and quite frankly I'm not sure it's worth waiting till the end of the year anymore. I want fond memories of UO... But the last few years have been a trial in patience for me...

I've really enjoyed the new pet revamp... but the bugs, disappointments and frustrations abound... I will say at least I haven't lost a beloved pet... just ruined about 20 because the plan isn't a working plan at all...

come on people... This is the 20th year... can't we do something good???

Everywhere I look ..... bugs, garbage, holes... and cheating, scamming, boting, boxing, ......

I was in Blackthornsn both tram and fel watching someone bot day in day out day after day... and he accuses me of harassing him when I leave??? sick..... just sick. Like he owns that room...

 

[afk]

hmm came back for the mastery's and the taming upgrade(though was gone for 6 years), sadly the dungeons that you described, i have found to sadly be an accurate description of what i have found, as well. I have seen similar styles of dungeons in F2P themepark style games. I have decided , myself, to stay a year and see how things go. Now some of the stuff like taming training and mastery's are sandboxy, but what they have done with the dungeons is all F2P themepark style of play, and definitely needs redone.

 

[Captn Norrington]

I think a large amount of the problems in UO stem from the diversity of who plays the game. Most games have a particular audience they can be pretty sure will like or not like something. With UO everyone is so different and have such drastically different viewpoints and diversity in what they enjoy in the game, it results in confusion on what should be done, which leads to half finished and broken parts of the game, which just continues the cycle of one group always being unhappy because any change negatively affects someone due to all the diversity of interests and belief in where the game should be headed in the future.

Lately it seems like a lot of groups are more unhappy than usual though.

This picture reminds me a lot of what UO players are like:

 

[MalagAste]

Here is one of the big issues with UO:

If you beef up crafting so crafters have something worth selling then people complain that loot sucks and they can get crafted stuff that is way better... if you beef up loot crafters complain they can't make a living in UO... and no one wants to buy what they sell as they can loot way better stuff...

If you give people a fix to balance PvP you nerf PvM... If you make things more balanced for one skill you screw another... or make them more invincible... there are too many variables IMO to really balance anything... add in the power creep and you have a massive mess...

It's my opinion that that putting "carrots" in to get folk to go to Fel to experience PvP is all wrong... It creates resentment and only benefits those who can control the carrot... Others are irritated because folk don't go to Fel...

The Global chat while great for telling folk you are doing something and getting help with things... like announcing you have Keys to something, asking for help getting a level 6 focus... or trying to find someone or buy something or what have you... however given the nature of folk lately you hear way too much name calling, sick nasty threats, disturbing blow ups... vulgarities galore... etc... the negativity in Gen Chat alone is enough to make folk run away and question the sanity of continuing to hang with such a group of folk...

You give tamers a boon finally and then castrate it for the PvP crowd... which yeah I get... but still it's sad. And once again we are at the mercy of being forced to Fel and things we don't care for... the serious flaws of the RNG and yep... more grinding.

What is the answer??? No idea...

I'm all for giving Fel and PvP something... but I don't think it should be something that gives a group like that exclusive rights to control somthing that every group needs... Some may argue that about PvM and such but everyone has a fair opportunity in PvM... at least more so than Fel... Not everyone has a group of friends who have trained in PvP for years... not everyone uses mapping programs, and other programs... giving unfair advantage to the attackers... besides which those doing spawn are already engaged... having a bunch of seasoned PvPers show up right at the end isn't exactly a "fair" or honest fight... I'd rather something was done to make PvP more engaging... more balanced, and on a more level playing field... with incentives that match... not stuff that everyone needs to play the game... but things that are perhaps bound to Fel... or titles and leader boards and such but the problem again comes from exploits... it's nearly impossible to make something such as that which cannot be exploited...

I like the Huntsmans quests for those that enjoy PvM but even that isn't without it's issues and the RNG doesn't help it either... Many idea's are given for adding to these quests and making them more fun... from using tracking to luck and others...

Fact is that the entire game is becoming a grind... which is dull boring and very unsatisfying... and many believe only promotes scripting and boting... Which has been PROVEN... in everything from IDOCs to Blackthrorns and many other things... resource gathering, gold farming.... it's all there... and then we haven't even gotten started on the annoying bot that drops books in Luna and at every moongate, as well as some major other spots... and the guy who spams continuously about a gold sale site...

I've played countless games and haven't seen so much cheating, exploiting and boting go unchecked. And the "anyway you want to win you win..." will never be forgotten.

 

[Meltedmantis2]

It not just UO, it's all these games. One of the problems is this flawed expectation of balance. I've played MMO's starting with UO second age back in 99( or whatever) and going on to EQ, AO, Wow... etc etc. Never once has "balance" ever been achieved. Never for a single day, yet still players pancake and moan about the fabled "balanced" mmo that has never existed.

 

[Meltedmantis2]

Think of balancing for what it really is, a never ending circle of appeasing one part of the player base and upsetting another, which starts the cycle over to the next appeasement (balancing)

 

[MalagAste]

Yeah something like that...

Only seems to me certain groups end up on the short end of that stick more often than others... *coughs* archers *coughs*...

 

[Slayvite]

I think a large amount of the problems in UO stem from the diversity of who plays the game. Most games have a particular audience they can be pretty sure will like or not like something. With UO everyone is so different and have such drastically different viewpoints and diversity in what they enjoy in the game, it results in confusion on what should be done, which leads to half finished and broken parts of the game, which just continues the cycle of one group always being unhappy because any change negatively affects someone due to all the diversity of interests and belief in where the game should be headed in the future.

Lately it seems like a lot of groups are more unhappy than usual though.

This picture reminds me a lot of what UO players are like:

View attachment 69210

This day and age, you'd have to change the 1st and 3rd ones around
The kids have all the Time and money, the oldies just have time and skill......no money

 

[Lore]

I was in Blackthornsn both tram and fel watching someone bot day in day out day after day... and he accuses me of harassing him when I leave??? sick..... just sick. Like he owns that room...

Devil's advocate here... and I agree with the rest of your post... but, how did you know he was botting? He talked to you. He may of had a routine. I like Blackthorn's dungeon. To me, it's the next step in training when I get bored with New Haven Mine. I'm in there a LOT.

I think SOME of what we are seeing as apathy from the GMs is caused by people mislabeling what they see and expecting action.

I also think that some people tag GMs so much in the forum for silly things that it makes me wonder how much they do in game that causes the GMs to just stop paying attention to them.

 

[Lore]

It not just UO, it's all these games. One of the problems is this flawed expectation of balance. I've played MMO's starting with UO second age back in 99( or whatever) and going on to EQ, AO, Wow... etc etc. Never once has "balance" ever been achieved. Never for a single day, yet still players ***** and moan about the fabled "balanced" mmo that has never existed.

League of Legends manages it fairly well. You can watch all their eSport top teams play numerous different champions. And they have A LOT more options than WoW or UO to balance. The only balance issues they have is if a champion is so easy that in lower ranks people can abuse them. But at the upper ranks it's all very balanced.

 

[MalagAste]

Devil's advocate here... and I agree with the rest of your post... but, how did you know he was botting? He talked to you. He may of had a routine. I like Blackthorn's dungeon. To me, it's the next step in training when I get bored with New Haven Mine. I'm in there a LOT.

I think SOME of what we are seeing as apathy from the GMs is caused by people mislabeling what they see and expecting action.

I also think that some people tag GMs so much in the forum for silly things that it makes me wonder how much they do in game that causes the GMs to just stop paying attention to them.

Everytime anything new came into the room he says the same thing... Quit harassing me all the time I paged a GM on you! and he then teleports out of the dungeon to return 1 min later...

 

[Lore]

Everytime anything new came into the room he says the same thing... Quit harassing me all the time I paged a GM on you! and he then teleports out of the dungeon to return 1 min later...

Sounds like what I would tell my kid to do if they encountered a person that always wanted to "share" a spawn they were already camping. I wouldn't page a GM, but like I said... a lot of people think that's the right course of action in a socially open world like this. He probably returned because that's the spot he likes to farm and to see if you were still there.

I'd probably even macro it for her so she just has to click a button instead of typing it out to you.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Nice post, well said, and all so very very true.

 

[ShriNayne]

@MalagAste yes you can sound very negative at times, but that doesn't mean you are always wrong. I agree with a lot of what you said.
A grind-fest in free-to-play games is the trade-off for it being free! Grinding everything in a subscription game is just not fair or fun. Lengthy access quests which take longer than the content you want access to is just plain ridiculous. Revamping content that people actually enjoyed or at least used in it's current state, into something nobody asked for or wanted, is just bonkers!
What happened to Despise was beyond stupid, they could have left it alone and put their new dungeon idea anywhere else! The number of returning players that have been saddened by the loss of Despise is huge.
My guild used to enjoy guild hunts in Doom, we went once after the 'revamp', we haven't been back since. Content should be fun.

 

[Deadly Serious]

In regards to Crafters reforging is good but there needs to be something else added to them to bring up to scratch with people stumbling on legendaries.

In regards to balance I've devoted a lot of time to straying away from typical samp/ABC/Tamer builds and all i'll say is people need to put more effort in fine tuning their specs similar to the samps who are solo'ing doom (75 resist kit etc...), skill adds + utlizing masteries to their best potential and it's frightening how little discording or bards in general, these skills are so underused.

You can't just build a template with 4 or more real 120's (unless you are a bard xD ), don't make me laugh.

 

[Uriah Heep]

In regards to Crafters reforging is good but there needs to be something else added to them to bring up to scratch with people stumbling on legendaries.

Crafting needs to have it's RNG and stuff toned down. It should be a linear thing, for the most part...if you do A and B you will get C 90% of the time. No more burning thru hammer after hammer wasting charges and pieces trying to get a result. And let their goods be top shelf items. Fix the loot where a nice legendary spawns rarely...and figure out a way where things don't last forever.

If the jewelry sets and some talismans wore out and didnt last forever, might make some crafted ones more desirable.

 

[elster]

Anyone else feeling major fatigue from these posts? This same thing is posted everyday.

 

[Cymidei]

I've been trying to stay positive about the future of UO but when I look around it would seem that everything I see is just killing my love of the game.

Lets start with EM Events... Every Tuesday night I roll out to the EM Event and the first thing that smacks me in the face is the 3 or 4 Multiboxers lining up and taking their places like we don't see them they don't even care... its so blatantly obvious its disgusting... Yet GMs can't seem to see it... DEV's claim they can't do anything and the producer pretends she doesn't have a clue... sickening.

We'll continue with what's wrong at EM Events... people have become so greedy at these events with the huge groups of multiboxers and people spamming everything under the sun... can't talk can't do anything can't listen to what's going on.... but only a handful of people there care... most everyone else quit going... fed up with what they saw.

In my opinion...the whole EM program lost it's soul to the rares community and profiteers. We used to have a SEER program that benefited the community and a variety of play styles. I miss that. The issue is that rares collectors are catered to by an EM program that is made up of rares collectors and providing content that is designed to solely benefit them. So at the end of the day, there's nothing left to do but grind items, sell items, etc. because the story, community, etc. dried up a long time ago. We just have to make our own fun!

 

[Thorak]

This whole thread is like a cry baby please feel bad for me story. You complaine because you have to grind, but doesnt that make it worth the reward?? You then complain because things are just given too frrely and you can't see dduring an Em event where stuff is free. Then you go on to cry about you have to go to fel to get a PS or some other thing.

I say I love the grind to get items. Makes them so much fun to get. I love the events. Get the community out for the most part. Maybe the rp crap bothers some of us like me total nonsense but we dont begrudge you doing it. Take away tram and make ish a pvp area. I dont like to pvp but I can if I have to. If I die to a person big deal its pixle crap. If I die to a monster darn more pixle crap. The risk of getting the items and possibly killed makes it so much more fun. The biggest problem with Uo besides gen chat is the whinney people who come on her and post cry baby crap like this for people to read. If you dont like the game don't play it. No once forces you to play. I left a few times and disnt post a boo hoo thread why I left just grow a set and move on.....

 

[Uriah Heep]

Anyone else feeling major fatigue from these posts? This same thing is posted everyday.

You would think sooner or later someone might listen...

 

[Uriah Heep]

If you dont like the game don't play it.

We had a dev one time said the same thing to us...I guess that kinda set the tone for the attitude of today

 

[Lady CaT]

I've been trying to stay positive about the future of UO but when I look around it would seem that everything I see is just killing my love of the game.

Lets start with EM Events... Every Tuesday night I roll out to the EM Event and the first thing that smacks me in the face is the 3 or 4 Multiboxers lining up and taking their places like we don't see them they don't even care... its so blatantly obvious its disgusting... Yet GMs can't seem to see it... DEV's claim they can't do anything and the producer pretends she doesn't have a clue... sickening.

Then we'll move on to fishing still broken since the beginning... the "bonus" suit for fishing is a JOKE... massive grind, next Akarat under the sea... nearly impossible for most to do also a grind, Despise ruined a really good dungeon for you guessed ... another grind, Roof you can do that 10 times or more and never get anything... yep another grind..., they ruined Doom so instead of refreshing it so there is new reason to go there they make it impossible for anyone BUT a Sampire to do... and yep another grind... even for a sampire... Why does everything have to end in NOTHING... And why does everything have to be geared to one playstyle??? or 2 people... what is the point of a guild if a group has nothing to do??? Getting keys for anything is also a grind... I spent 3 days trying to get keys for a few folk to go to Exodus... I got 1 robe and 1 knife... 3 days of killing things...

Move on to the EC... still super buggy... can't loot a public corpse... and what do they do to fix it??? Take the boss mobs from the EM Events and remove any worth to even bothering to look at the corpse... it's all basic loot with NO bonus's at all.... is this what the game is going to??? A deco drop for 20 people and #$(*R(#QW*$&(#*&$ everyone else... and no loot???

We'll continue with what's wrong at EM Events... people have become so greedy at these events with the huge groups of multiboxers and people spamming everything under the sun... can't talk can't do anything can't listen to what's going on.... but only a handful of people there care... most everyone else quit going... fed up with what they saw.

I look at the game and there are square holes of water all over the shorlines from one town to the next on one facet to the next every shore is full of holes...

I go to Nu'Jelm and look at the rooms in building after building to find that they beds are broken stacked on top of one another the entire area is in shambles yet no one cares enough to fix it...

I walk the land and find paintings, stew, watertroughs, statues, and dozens of other things littering the landscape... No one cares.

I go to M&G's to see legitimate players asking questions to be LOL'd... and ignored... legitimate concerns... LOL'd...

And they want to turn this game into some endless journey??? Journey of what???? A grind? Who's going to be here to help these "new" players??? A bunch of cheating scammers who bot and box and everything else making a living off the game... ready to scam and cheat all the new blood...

So disgusted anymore I could scream... People can't even close their accounts if they wanted to.... they can't log in!!! I have my CC update coming in a few months..... I can say this with certainty... If they think for one second that I'm going to jump through a bunch of hoops to update it and such they are full of it.... this isn't worth it.

I'm getting older and more disgusted by the lack of professionalism shown by the "team"... and quite frankly I'm not sure it's worth waiting till the end of the year anymore. I want fond memories of UO... But the last few years have been a trial in patience for me...

I've really enjoyed the new pet revamp... but the bugs, disappointments and frustrations abound... I will say at least I haven't lost a beloved pet... just ruined about 20 because the plan isn't a working plan at all...

come on people... This is the 20th year... can't we do something good???

Everywhere I look ..... bugs, garbage, holes... and cheating, scamming, boting, boxing, ......

I was in Blackthornsn both tram and fel watching someone bot day in day out day after day... and he accuses me of harassing him when I leave??? sick..... just sick. Like he owns that room...

If you are to the point that a game irritates you so much that it fills you with disgust, makes you want to scream and everywhere you look you see "bugs, garbage,holes...and cheating, scamming, boting, boxing,....". Why do you continue to play? Cherish the time and memories you enjoyed over the years. And try to let others do the same.

 

[MalagAste]

If you are to the point that a game irritates you so much that it fills you with disgust, makes you want to scream and everywhere you look you see "bugs, garbage,holes...and cheating, scamming, boting, boxing,....". Why do you continue to play? Cherish the time and memories you enjoyed over the years. And try to let others do the same.

I'd rather the DEVs got up and did something to fix the game and make it look more professional before they open the can of worms and make this game free to play.... I'd rather they opened their eyes to WTF is going on and started to see the game from the players point of view and quit destroying the game... But hey appearently YOU don't care that the game looks like trash..... or that it is full of bugs, or that it's driving people away in droves because of the cheating, scamming, botting and boxing that's going on..... maybe your one of those types... But whatever... I LOVE UO and I'm mad as hell seeing it in the state that it's in and I want something done about it before it's too late. Once that flood gate is open with F2P there is no going back... and first impressions are first impressions you don't get a second chance...

So I'd rather they fixed these things before it's too late. I don't want to see UO die. But I believe I'm seeing it gasping for breath on the death bed.

 

[Uriah Heep]

LOL
Free to play...
Right
They can't even make a decent account management page
Can't make Origin give you codes on time, and they run out of codes...
Don't see F2P happening

 

[Nexus]

LOL
Free to play...
Right
They can't even make a decent account management page
Can't make Origin give you codes on time, and they run out of codes...
Don't see F2P happening

Maybe... F2P is their fix for those thing?

 

[Uriah Heep]

I guess time will tell...but my faith level is currently hovering about -20

 

[petemage]

You would think sooner or later someone might listen...

Why would they as long as people keep paying the subs and spent money in the store. They can say 500 times a day how they work on UO for the love of the game, but their actions rather say "paycheck" to me . Not that there is anything wrong with it, but people should be realistic enough to see that.

 

[Kirthag]

This picture reminds me a lot of what UO players are like:

View attachment 69210

THIS

 

[Lady Storm]

Every game I have beta tested...and played over the last 20+ years has had this Mal.
I even know of one that nearly had WoW on its knees.. they found a way to get to the bit map on any shard/facit and mine up the valuable ores as they spawned... this was driving down the players ability to get any of this high end ore and they set super high prices ...
The Dev of WoW tried to find out how they got in...
A player who was mining and saw a node pop up saw a fellow player fall under the ground and the ore and other ores poofed on their ore map.
GMs called caught the "player" soon after the bug to get to the bit map was solved.
WoW is not a cheap game and they do pay for full coverage of its games and catching flaws being used are always going on.
You forget UO has 5 people... its all EA left them with when they fired/laid off staff before they announced they were dissolving Mythic.
UO and DaoC were penciled for Sunset..
For a while there we had no GMs...
UO became the lawless west.... its the only term I can equate to the way players went rogue.
Language was turning foul enough that the air on one shard I played was blue morning, noon, and night...till they fell asleep.
People I knew shut down the game due to this .. they didn't need their kids or themselves around this much bad play. I don't blame them.
You ask for reasons, I am giving them...
Mesanna has put in a lot of time on cleaning up using in game fixes and trying to not ban, in the hopes it would stop if a presence was seen.
Advisors who are NOT of the Counselor program but shared some aspects of were to bolster help and good will to the players to keep more in game and help out where GM's were thin.
They do good work.
I hear many giving off mouth on them and its pains me to see the louder argument of untruths given to get rid of them....
Cheating ...do you know how long this has been in the world??
Way before the internet heck if truth be told its has been around way before the pyramids!

Did you know there is a church saying on people who cheat as the game of solitaire... its over a 100 years old!

You cant get it out of people... if they are going to cheat there is little you can do to stop it...
Asking a game to do something the world cant do or the religious orders is unfair.

Boot 1 and 2 pop up... its not going to end. People who want to make $$ money are going to go the easy route every time.

Small note: WoW has a huge budget for its games and its protection of cheating and it still has issues of it.
EA who started this off was not a online company and its budget was set for box games which made up 90% of its bulk sales. UO was a side note to their business.
We got just that in the legal coverage of cheating in the ToS..and RoC.

Right now most of you are ether denying this fact or agreeing but want action still.

5 people are Broadswords total UO team... *give or take a few side help for publishes*

Now you guys with the big brains and the calc uses add this up......

5 people who work the average hours of a business 8 to 12 hours a day.... 5 days a week
Plus
27 shards at 23.5 hours a day
plus
weekends, holidays, vacations interrupted for emergency disruption when a system failure happens.
now remove
The vacation days left over and the sick days used

If they were peanutbutter on toast you would be asking where the spred was...
And all this with making new content, fixing bugs and adding in more older bugs you really expect them to jump to your beck and call?????????

Special note to a member here ... for your information Mesanna is the LAST Lead Producer UO is getting... she goes so does UO. EA will shelf UO.
Her dedication to this game is something I admire, I have known of her from our early days and she is the good in the game.

We have had over the years ups and downs ... its about time we stuck up for the game. It should be our duty to keep the channels clean and the game healthy.
This means do not buy from cheaters or scammers.. no matter how cheap they want to sell you that new EM item. It will take a steel will. And everyone to do this.
If you hear of Duping or Cheating report it...
As for players needed... omg you all must have facebook, twitter, or any of those other modes of communications... USE IT. Invite people. Tell them we are old and its a home world of a game... Family can play and be together across the country!
Look lets face it, EA would love to shut us down.
Its got to be up to us to stop that from happening...

 

[petemage]

...

Keep finding excuses for them

How many people does it take to ban a multi-boxers at the end of an EM event? I doubt they come back again and again when they get jailed *after* they had their army run for an hour and go home empty-handed.

How many people does it take to ban a person making death threats in genchat?

How many people does it take to ban an multiple times reported 23/7 bot?

Nobody asks for them to stop 100% of cheating. But they don't even punish the very worst 5% of them. They completely turn a blind eye to everything! And that's where people loose faith. Don't paint the picture all black and white.

If they at least tried, people would maybe be more positive.

 

[Uriah Heep]

And the l;anguage is even worse now, seems to have spread from Atlantic to the other shards. I guess now I will have to watch it when the grandson is playing so he doesnt hear all that.

 

[Kirthag]

I'm always saying UO need to market itself. If we, as players, do that - well... we might not hit the mass-effect big money does, but we can still "advertise" and get new subs. Of course, those new subs may not stay long as without the companionship and population we all enjoyed back-in-the-day.... new subs get bored. At least WoW pushes the advertising and is able to keep a steady stream of new subs.
I know, - but is the truth of the matter.

 

[Lady Storm]

Petemage its not excuses.
Facts are there is so many out there doing things at times when the team is gone for the day and all there is is a GM to answer those 27 shards calls.
Advisors do take up some but that's when they can offer time of their own to do it. And they cant stop a cheater or scripter without a GM.
Your giving a wide coverage reply to a pinpoint question.

multiboxing

Its hell to catch as its a switch...how I know is I asked a game producer here in Calif. UCLA grad.
His explanation and why its so difficult to catch is very enlightening.
It boils down to near impossible to have the GM there when its used.
What we see is the after effects of the switch used. Not the use of it.

As for banning them....

EA's legal department has given guide lines for the game to follow in Banning situations. They are quite strict.
If your not a lawyer and have one, ask if they owe you a favor and have them read it to you.... in plain English.

As for them banning a player for it... they have. I know of one personally who got caught and his accounts are gone.

This mind you don't mean he is gone... there are ways around every line EA put out on getting an account if your on the banned list.
Customer Service for EA is not completely a tight ship.... nor is our management billing service.
This is not the programs fault. its how things can and will be manipulated.
I remember a guy who for days back in 98 kept returning to UO after he was banned. He took great relish in getting the GM's goats.
They shut down every way he could get in and yet he was back the next day.....

Capt N please forgive me but this needs to be known... its not unfathomable for even Clops to be in the game right now. Gold can be bought, Suits of armor , skill gains easy, and setting up a whole new id ..... So you see....
Evil will find a way.

 

[petemage]

...

I actually don't feel like putting my vita down here, but I feel pretty much knowledgeable about software to sincerely not buy all those stuff Mesanna makes you believe about how things work Believe whatever you want and have a great day.

 

[Marquis de Sade 209]

I think a large amount of the problems in UO stem from the diversity of who plays the game. Most games have a particular audience they can be pretty sure will like or not like something. With UO everyone is so different and have such drastically different viewpoints and diversity in what they enjoy in the game, it results in confusion on what should be done, which leads to half finished and broken parts of the game, which just continues the cycle of one group always being unhappy because any change negatively affects someone due to all the diversity of interests and belief in where the game should be headed in the future.

Lately it seems like a lot of groups are more unhappy than usual though.

This picture reminds me a lot of what UO players are like:

View attachment 69210

Very accurate description! As much as i want things to change this made me realize that changes I want may piss other people off. Great point. It would be a vicious circle of sorts.

 

[Captn Norrington]

Capt N please forgive me but this needs to be known... its not unfathomable for even Clops to be in the game right now. Gold can be bought, Suits of armor , skill gains easy, and setting up a whole new id ..... So you see....
Evil will find a way.

I agree completely, in fact I heard that he never actually left, just went under the radar. Supposedly one of his accounts was missed when he got banned and is still active.

He supported that himself in his thread here on Stratics as well, if you go back and look at those he didn't say all his accounts are banned... he said "most of my accounts are now banned".

 

[Lady Storm]

petemage my nephew is in university for this very subject,..... I get the newest drift from him.. im an old programmer btw.
Mesanna is only telling you facts. there is limits.
There is very old saying that fits .. walk a mile in her moccasins...
Outside size your feet will hurt along with your brain after you get down to the brass facts of what you can do legally.
That point has changed over the years too... they have less power...then you think.
All thanks to lawsuits not just on EA... that have the rules changed. these tie hands.

Aye Cptn. he did. How someone so trusted could hurt the game he so liked... and to hurt his standing with EA. and Mesanna who trusted him to the bone. It hurt a lot of his unknowing friends... too

 

[Fridgster]

I actually don't feel like putting my vita down here, but I feel pretty much knowledgeable about software to sincerely not buy all those stuff Mesanna makes you believe about how things work Believe whatever you want and have a great day.

Actually she nailed it on the head as far as the switch goes. You also seem to be under the impression that uo is a thriving money making machine that can support financially 24/7 monitoring on all shards. Thats just not the case. Like it or not we are considerably closer to the end of the game than we are to the beginning. We should keep that in mind when accusing the devs of being lazy or uncaring. They can only do so much with what they have.

 

[petemage]

I agree completely, in fact I heard that he never actually left, just went under the radar. Supposedly one of his accounts was missed when he got banned and is still active.

He supported that himself in his thread here on Stratics as well, if you go back and look at those he didn't say all his accounts are banned... he said "most of my accounts are now banned".

To be fair, that's a case where they at least showed some action. I don't blame them for not getting everything right, but for sure there is no question this guy took a big hit from Mesanna's actions. So I call that a good effort.

 

[petemage]

petemage my nephew is in university for this very subject,..... I get the newest drift from him.. im an old programmer btw.
Mesanna is only telling you facts. there is limits.
There is very old saying that fits .. walk a mile in her moccasins...
Outside size your feet will hurt along with your brain after you get down to the brass facts of what you can do legally.
That point has changed over the years too... they have less power...then you think.
All thanks to lawsuits not just on EA... that have the rules changed. these tie hands.

Yea, I said already, not putting my vita down here and playing the stupid "who has the biggest" game. Someone was in university. Wow. Guess who's been there too?! lol. Have a great day!

 

[petemage]

that can support financially 24/7 monitoring on all shards.

Please read my posts again. Nobody asked for that, nobody expects that. Black and white but no ground in the middle, huh?

 

[Fridgster]

Please read my posts again. Nobody asked for that, nobody expects that. Black and white but no ground in the middle, huh?

Sometimes it has to be a more white or more black. Bottom line is none of us actually know.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Still kinda funny tho at EM events. We can stand there and watch, and know who is using "the switch". No way someone is multiclienting 5 people at the exact same time legally.

Wait.
Nevermind.
If you don't get busted for it I guess it *is* legal.

 

[petemage]

using "the switch"

SCNR!

 

[Dot_Warner]

I wasn't going to post in this thread, but the delusions surrounding multiboxing seriously need to stop.

They aren't using a KVM switch. Mesanna is dead wrong, likely knowingly so.

Multiboxers use one of several well-known programs to coordinate their actions and cross-heal their own characters via scripts. A KVM switch couldn't do that.

Also, the idea that EA Legal has laid out some sort of draconian pro-cheater anti ban policy is just stupid. EA Legal would first have to acknowledge UO's existence (Hint: It was clearly proven that they don't via Pub 94's sloppily plagiarized ToS).

Via the ToS (ANY version) EA/OSI/Redwood Shores/Mythic/BioWare-Mythic/Broadsword could ban your account for pretty much anything. EA owns all your pixels, all your characters, all your accounts - you're essentially just renting. The choice not to ban blatantly obvious cheaters is just that, a choice. And bad one at that.

 

[Skalazar]

Team | Citadel Studios

isn't it a little strange that the president of Broadsword is an 'advisor' for a game in direct competition with ours?

 

[Luc of Legends]

Lady Storm I get what your saying about "the switch"... No they can't monitor 23/7 but setup a "sting". We all know that on event day there will be multi-boxing. So setup something to watch for "The switch". You can have it start monitoring as soon as server resets or set for say 6 hrs before event. I would not pick Atlantic since has such a large population but pick a small shard GL, Legends, Baja, etc.

I get it we have 5 dev team members, I get we are on skeleton gm crew. I agree doubtful it is a KVM switch but either way.

 

[Captn Norrington]

Team | Citadel Studios

isn't it a little strange that the president of Broadsword is an 'advisor' for a game in direct competition with ours?

I also find it pretty strange that the words Ultima Online aren't even mentioned in his description despite him being in charge of it....

"As one of the two founders of Mythic Entertainment, he is responsible for creating one of the greatest online RPGs of all time, Dark Age of Camelot."

Interesting to see that UO doesn't even get an afterthought, as only DAoC was listed.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Interesting to see that UO doesn't even get an afterthought, as only DAoC was listed.

We're used to that

 

[Dot_Warner]

I also find it pretty strange that the words Ultima Online aren't even mentioned in his description despite him being in charge of it....

"As one of the two founders of Mythic Entertainment, he is responsible for creating one of the greatest online RPGs of all time, Dark Age of Camelot."

Interesting to see that UO doesn't even get an afterthought, as only DAoC was listed.

Denton is little more than a corporate

Spoiler

vaginal cleansing apparatus

Notice DAoC's number of devs compared to what UO has. Which game do you really think has more players? (Hint: I highly doubt that it's DAoC...) Broadsword is just Mythic 2.0 with the same people, just a new and hilariously inaccurate tagline.