Is UO in the Catch 22 phase?

[kennykilleduo]

Was thinking today: AoC is out claiming high subscribers , WOW has an expansion coming this fall ( ?? ) , War is coming this fall ( ?? ) , Daoc not sure but based on info below , something coming soon? Based on all that it leaves UO with little chances to fully promote any new product correctly , it also lowers any true chance of UO attracting new players based on 3 huge games being ramped up in the next 4-6 months..I hope i'm wrong...

Any other thoughts?


Confusing part:

http://www.camelotherald.com/news/news_article.php?storyid=3577

-Chris Rabideau (Producer) : Isnt he UO's producer?

 

[Azureal]

Not sure if Catch 22 is the right phrase, but this is an age old question. New games come out, UO struggles to catch up, yet still retains enough subs for EA to continue its existance on their servers.

What will UO do?
What can UO do?

Im not entirely sure UO should be concerned, look at the State of the Realm on the Camelot Herald shows only 3k users logged in "defending the realm".

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

Im not entirely sure UO should be concerned, look at the State of the Realm on the Camelot Herald shows only 3k users logged in "defending the realm".

actually ... currently 40k ...

I mean ... IF your gonna believe ONE website ...
gotta believe them all

nes pas?

whuat?

thought you had a scoop ?


hehehehehehehehehehhe

 

[Azureal]

Ahh, the link I looked at only dispalyed the north american servers as of a few hours ago.

DAoC was fun, great RvR.

 

[kennykilleduo]

Im not entirely sure UO should be concerned, look at the State of the Realm on the Camelot Herald shows only 3k users logged in "defending the realm".

actually ... currently 40k ...

I mean ... IF your gonna believe ONE website ...
gotta believe them all

nes pas?

whuat?

thought you had a scoop ?


hehehehehehehehehehhe

UO needs a site like that , ohh wait we are a super secret game...

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

"Any other thoughts?"

Negative posts based on non-related games make me wonder why you bother to post here where the people that read here are mostly people playing UO.

 

[kennykilleduo]

"Any other thoughts?"

Negative posts based on non-related games make me wonder why you bother to post here where the people that read here are mostly people playing UO.

It wasn't meant to be negative , It was meant as the truth..The only thing that save UO is the fact it's an established game and if done right it wouldnt take a few hundred million $ to make it respectable again , as apposed to EA making a game from ground up..

See my link below , read over the whole thread , most of those people dont play UO anymore , but have pretty much the same reasoning why they dont play...

 

[RedDaTeef]

Is it ever possible that EA would sell UO to another company?

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

UO needs a site like that

Yeah, I was hoping now that Mythic was part of the team, we might actually have a chance to see how many are on each server...at all times. DAoC has had that available to players it's entire existence...la

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Truth usually is negative, especially in this case. What I mean though is what do you hope to achieve by telling people that the game their still playing isn't top anymore. They already know this.

On a seperate issue I'm quite amazed that anyone plays WoW, I recently looked at the screenshots and had a hard time figuring out what the hell half of it was meant to be. My niece could come up with better graphics - she's a graphic design artist - just kidding but their too gawdy and distorted for my liking.

 

[rowan_t]

Truth usually is negative, especially in this case. What I mean though is what do you hope to achieve by telling people that the game their still playing isn't top anymore. They already know this.

Ahh, but there are some that have come to the forum to see if the game has changed for the better yet, and for those of us that have, it's nice to see that it hasn't before we waste money on coming back.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I don't think we actually need a site to tell us how many players are on each shard. I think each of us that has played long enough, know that each server is not nearly as populated as they were a few years back. I'd just like to know how many people are actually on each shard at a time. On Siege there are times it seems like i am on a solo server, lol, but I do know a lot of people actually stay locked up in their homes training...la

 

[Desperado]

Not correct most posters here used to play and now just hammer these forums hoping for a change

 

[Mankind]

I watch XPlay on G4 a lot, and they do a Top 5 list. Last week or so it was Top 5 MMORPGs. Of course UO had no shot at all of being in that list, it was WoW, AoC, and 3 others I had never heard of....shame.

 

[Ericge99]

I can sum it up in 3 words ..... Advertise, Advertise, Advertise.

 

[love2winalot]

Catch-22.

EA: "Lets make the KR client, and then add Stygin Abyss as an expansion, and really increase the number of players we have, and at the same time make the current player base even more dedicated to the game"

Reality: KR did not unify the current player base, it instead divided it. KR did not achieve the status it wanted, and did not provide the end product that EA thought it would.

The Catch 22: Maintain Status Quo, or proced with the SA expansion as KR only, and for every 1 new player they gain, they will loose 2 current players. Try to go ahead with 2 clients, and gain players, but not make any more profit, as it cost a lot more to run 2 clients than it does 1. Stick with 2d only, and be stuck with an Old game.....status quo.

What would "YOU" do, uo subscriber?

 

[Nosuperiors_Damnfewequals]

Option #4.
Throw away the cloak of secrecy, and come out and admit KR was a flop. Scrap it, put it on the back shelf of "lessons learned", and assign a few devs who have played the game for any length of time, to start over on a new client, with a UO interface, not another games interface. Announce that this client will be *the* client that is supported, but for everyone not to run away, that this client will be UO. Get in done, in 6 months, and released. Make it compatible with 2d, IE, macroes can be imported, etc., to ease the transition. The world, and its items, will be sharply defined in the new client, not watercolor fades.

And as part of this, go ahead and admit SA won't be coming online, until this new client is polished, bugproofed, and has had some honorable mention, both in the gaming world and the player base .

Yeah, this will take a few resources...will it pay off?
Yes! Not only will you be presenting a "new" MMO to the masses, drawing in new players, but you will be presenting Ultima ONline! in a new package, which will pull those who have left us back in, if for nothing else, to see what the deal is.
It's at that point up to EA/Mythic to get em and keep em.
1. Box presence on the shelves...
2. Advertise, anywhere!

 

[Lord Kynd]

i don't fully understand why EA doesn't promote UO atall. i meen no store shelves at all anywhere, no advertising..

game is doing kinda good considering all of that.

how about trying something new, promoting UO instead of bashing it ?

 

[kennykilleduo]

Gettingclose to the end of the summer and no news yet onwhats going onwith events , Focus group ,do we still have a comm rep , whats the future of UO as relates to Mythic changing its name back?

 

[Inspector]

I think that if we want new players to join we might have to do the advertising ourselves, that's pretty much how I got into UO my friends played it way back when and then i started playing on their accounts then got my own soon after....
I say we all just go to every gaming site and spam them with UO ad's and links to some of the info to the cooler aspects of the game.

 

[Draxous]

Catch-22.

EA: "Lets make the KR client, and then add Stygin Abyss as an expansion, and really increase the number of players we have, and at the same time make the current player base even more dedicated to the game"

If the KR client UI wasn't a clone of the other MMOGs out there... it would have been a huge success.

The targeting system is horrible. Playing KR does not feel like I'm playing UO at all... and they have done nothing or nothing noticeable at least... to change this.

People who love UO for the most part... love it because of its uniqueness. Something the people who own/run this game seem to be trying to kill repeatedly.

I really don't get it.

 

[Redxpanda]

I personally would like to see them do more to gain subscribers. Will they? Thats up to EA and i doubt they will even bother. I think they will string us along until it's no longer profitable enough and then announce the end of it.

 

[Violence]

It does feel like we're abandoned and SA crashed and sunk.

As far as KR being a flop I completely disagree- Here's my experience after 10 years of 2D and switching to KR after the last major KR patch;

2D

The Good : Crashes less.
No freeze when using Animal Form.
Nostalgia(?).
Better Circle Of Transparency.
Better AllNames system.
Larger numbers of Damage etc.
Speech Font/Colour options.
BOD/Hair Colour/Dye Tub Colour etc menus working better.
Container Art.

The Bad : Laggier.
Choppy.
Small resolution.
Not enough animations, or badly done.
Artwork not convincing, both World and Character.
Interface isn't fluid.
Macro system outdated.
Vital functions missing so you have to use UOA.
Cheats work.
Inferior targetting. Example: You have to manually time and set it so that you don't get the Target Cursor when casting, as to minimize wait time for spell usage.
Lots of Pixel Crack missing- starting with KR's hair styles and Body Types.
No WideScreen.
No special effects such as Reflections etc.

I'll pick KR any day. Upgrade your comp, adapt to the interface, change your attitude.

Just like PB and the Professions system, so it happened with KR.
Arrogant and/or ignorant people came here bashing.
One of the points was their systems couldn't handle KR.
Devs made KR crappy to please them.
Said players didn't even use KR.

A request:
Devs, the guys you were trying to attract by REMOVING features from KR's graphics DITCHED KR.
THEY'LL NEVER UPGRADE AND NEVER ADAPT.
Can the rest of us dedicated to KR get it in full power now? We know what the engine can do.
You know the other guys will never pick KR. Why keep the client tweaked to work on Caveman-level machines any more now?

*EDIT*
Come to think of it, only people who like 2D keep saying how UO is sinking.
So on top of that previous request here's another logical step forward.
If EA is pulling the plug eventually, go with a boom- remove 2D, make KR unplayable for low-spec machines. Give us candy..
Since everyone else is so displeased, right?

 

[Masuo Kenji]

UO needs to take a good look at itself, and stop playing the "catch up" game. It needs to look at its best core game values and use that as a direction for the game. It's time they made the game stand out from the other games, and not copy them.

I decided to write a separate thread on how they can do it (since it was fairly long).

 

[hawkeye_pike]

I'm a little annoyed by those pessimistic opinions that have been popping up in UO message boards since 10 years now. They should go to the rant section!

I personally am convinced that...

1.) ...UO is far from dead or being shut down.
2.) ...UO has enough subscribers to pay the salaries of a group of developers
3.) ...the number of subscirbers increases and decreases like a sinus wave. Over all the number seems to have stagnated.
4.) ...the UO team is working hard on some major fixes and improvements of UO. The recent events and storyline have shown that they are putting a lot of effort into improving and evolving the game.
5.) ...reading these boards can easily affect your opinion about the game in a negative way. That's because people tend to post negative things on a board, rather than things they like.
6.) ...UO still is the best MMORPG out there (of course, not graphics-wise, but concering the possibilities and freedom it offers to each player).
7.) ...UO has serious issues, like any other MMORPG. Duping, scripting, cheating. All games fight those monsters! Even the most successful WoW.
8.) ...everybody is whining about anything. (I won't exclude myself here!) However, over all this complaining we keep forgetting that UO has improved A LOT during the past 10 years, concerning weapon balance, skill balance, diversity, complexity, content. It is more balanced than most of the other MMORPGs out there (I played several of them).
9.) ...we have to continue laying our fingers in the wounds and showing the UO team where we think the flaws of this game are. However, we shouldn't forget that the game, as it is, already is in a very good state. (The worst thing, to my opinion, is the inflation, and the duping and scripting activities causing these issues.)

 

[Joyous2K]

I think that if we want new players to join we might have to do the advertising ourselves, that's pretty much how I got into UO my friends played it way back when and then i started playing on their accounts then got my own soon after....
I say we all just go to every gaming site and spam them with UO ad's and links to some of the info to the cooler aspects of the game.

Come join UO... You can't use half of the fun stuff because it is vet reward or out of your price range. But join anyway!! You will enjoy being called loser newb and grinding through skills. SKills especially when you realize that you need to be Boobian Algeabra wizard to figure out how to be effective with them. Ahh the items! You will love those. We have more junk on our items than you can imagine!! DCI HCI HLD MR LRC LMC Luck to name a few, join up to learn how to sort through monster corpses quickly. Maybe you could try the exciting run hide and heal steal PvP. You will lose to chars with higher skills and better items but you will enjoy the "trammy" tag that is added to the "loser newb" phrases.

Veterans and the items and the overcomplication have pretty much ended any influx of new players coming to UO.

 

[Amren]

The sad thing is, the only reason why this game is still around is because of people like on on this board that play weekly.

I have not seen a "new" player in quite some time. What happens when we all get board and start quitting? it costs a lot of money to keep servers running. Face it, computers are getting more and more powerful (and to some extent cheaper_ people will want to push them to the limits and see spectacular visuals. No one is going to price out a $4k gaming machine to play UO.

 

[Strawberry]

The gamers who demand "spectacular visuals" that push the limits of their new $4k gaming machines are never going to play Ultima. Even if the dev team travels twenty years into the future and brings back unbelievable advances in video game design, those early adopters will never be back. In their world, there are no bragging rights in playing a ten-year-old game. EA should think about the audience it actually has and the demographics it could reasonably reach.

Also, according to Wikipedia, Sims Online closes down in a week. EA should have tried to lure those players into Ultima.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

UO is already dead.

Haven't you seen my website? It says so.

They canceled UO's servers several months ago. Sooner or later the server owners will realize they aren't getting paid, and the shards will start closing one by one.

-Galen's player

 

[Extra Value Meal]

No amount of advertising will bring UO any fresh blood. It's all about the returning customers. Why do you think newspapers and magazines hassle you when you cancel your subscription? Because they know they have a better chance of getting you to resubscribe than pulling any average Joe off the street and trying to sell him a subscription.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Truth usually is negative, especially in this case. What I mean though is what do you hope to achieve by telling people that the game their still playing isn't top anymore. They already know this.

On a seperate issue I'm quite amazed that anyone plays WoW, I recently looked at the screenshots and had a hard time figuring out what the hell half of it was meant to be. My niece could come up with better graphics - she's a graphic design artist - just kidding but their too gawdy and distorted for my liking.

Truth is either negative or positive. How we make sense of it is.

But aside from that.

I agree, why do people keep saying...

Other games have more subscribers.
Other games have expanisions.
Other games are coming.
UO is losing its playerbase.

Who cares. Been this way for year.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

No amount of advertising will bring UO any fresh blood.

EA/Mythic has known this for awhile, and thus why they stopped advertsing the game...la

 

[Gildar]

I only use 2D in situations where KR simply doesn't work (leaving Hythloth as a ghost, for example)... but you're being a bit overly harsh on the 2D client S!ck.

The Bad : Laggier.
...
Artwork not convincing, both World and Character.
...
Cheats work.
Inferior targetting.
...

Which client is laggier depends on playstyle, play location (location in the game), and computer specs. For most (as far as I can tell from where I'm sitting), 2D will be laggier if the computer being used can handle both clients properly (and it isn't difficult or expensive to obtain a computer that can run both [though it's very reasonable for 'being able to play KR' to not be a good enough reason to get a new computer]).

"Convincing" is a poor choice of words I think for the artwork - I'd say that it isn't consistent... or as you said for the interface - it isn't fluid.

Cheats work in both 2D and KR.

Targetting in both systems has advantages and disadvantages. Many PvP mages will probably prefer 2D for targeting, and most PvMers would prefer KR for targeting.

You know the other guys will never pick KR. Why keep the client tweaked to work on Caveman-level machines any more now?

Lots of people on "caveman-level" machines play KR. KR being made to work on lower-end systems is not one of the things that is bad with KR.


UO needs lots of relatively small fixes for the KR client, a crash fix for both the KR and 2D client (the "recall crash"), and a serious overhaul on the property system (item properties, benefits from spells that mimic item properties, etc). But even with none of that... UO would still be fun for plenty enough people to keep the servers running.

 

[Prince Caspian]

When Ultima Online came out, it was like a DeLorean in the 1980s.

Now, Ultima Online is like a DeLorean in 2008.

(No flux capacitor jokes please)

 

[the 4th man]

AoC is out claiming high subscribers = talk is cheap...back it up with numbers.
WOW has an expansion coming this fall = wow's a fad, and a kiddie game, no big deal there.
War is coming this fall = seen what they had to offer, wouldn't touch it with a 10 ft. pole.
3 huge games being ramped up in the next 4-6 months= well overstated opinion.....

Games are like music, after awhile, they borrow from each other and originality is lost.....UO's got nothing to worry about.

 

[azmodanb]

UO needs a site like that

Yeah, I was hoping now that Mythic was part of the team, we might actually have a chance to see how many are on each server...at all times. DAoC has had that available to players it's entire existence...la

Would be nice, who cares if there is 100 people on at peak .. at least we would know ... that or put each time zone together via a moongate so we could at least all visit eachother on eachother's barren shards.

 

[canary]

Is it ever possible that EA would sell UO to another company?

I wish.

 

[Amren]

The gamers who demand "spectacular visuals" that push the limits of their new $4k gaming machines are never going to play Ultima. Even if the dev team travels twenty years into the future and brings back unbelievable advances in video game design, those early adopters will never be back. In their world, there are no bragging rights in playing a ten-year-old game. EA should think about the audience it actually has and the demographics it could reasonably reach.

Also, according to Wikipedia, Sims Online closes down in a week. EA should have tried to lure those players into Ultima.

I think it's sad really.

Ultima games through the past always had better graphics (and story) then the ones before it.

I guess the exception is Ultima 9, which had amazing graphics however it was very buggy.