So previously paid veteran accounts have to wait 120 days, before EJ kicks in?

[Thrakkar]

You can read about it here:
Endless Journey – Ultima Online

That's some kind of bummer. Having to take a break for 4 months sounds less endless to me, as I was expecting.

I can understand, that the 90 days house period plays into this. But i would have hoped, that as long as no house is placed or the house has fallen, we go immediately into EJ....

 

[Captn Norrington]

I'm guessing it's a way to prevent the truly addicted people from unsubscribing. If they could play for free immediately they might try it, but if they know they have to go four months without UO and would be having withdrawal symptoms the whole time, then they would be more likely to just keep paying the subscription.

 

[Lady Michelle]

Being in the hospital and nursing homes the first 5 months of this year I'm so over withdrawals. My UO passion is housing and decorating so endless journies is not for me I shutter to think about losing all my junk, and UO treasures.

 

[afk]

Well this may bring some people in, which would be nice, although i would not play an EJ account (mine would be either paid or not played, the F2P does not interest me). Currently I'm far more interested in the High Seas 2.0 and any info about it.

 

[Pawain]

You can go into endless journey 120 days after the account has been closed.

The storage issue and not being able to use containers in a house are some tough restrictions for me.

 

[Thrakkar]

Yes, it is very restrictive. Too restrictive to be considered as a real F2P solution, at least in my eyes.
But quite optimal to have a quick peek into your account after a longer absence, hence the 120 days. Their main focus definitely seems to be more to bring back old players than offering an enjoyable F2P experience.

 

[The Craftsman]

You can go into endless journey 120 days after the account has been closed.

You can go straight into EJ if you drop the house before the account closes.

 

[Lore]

I'm guessing it's a way to prevent the truly addicted people from unsubscribing. If they could play for free immediately they might try it, but if they know they have to go four months without UO and would be having withdrawal symptoms the whole time, then they would be more likely to just keep paying the subscription.

It's more likely to prevent people from abusing it to keep a house without paying.

 

[Thrakkar]

You can go straight into EJ if you drop the house before the account closes.

I thought that as well, but the FAQ explicitly states:

previously paid veteran accounts that have been closed for at least 120 days are eligible for Endless Journey

House or not, once you quit your sub, you have to wait 4 months.

 

[Poo]

I thought that as well, but the FAQ explicitly states:


House or not, once you quit your sub, you have to wait 4 months.

what FAQ?
where did you see a FAQ?
i havnt even seen a release of info from Broadsword yet!

 

[Poo]

never mind, found it.

 

[Basara]

Yes, it is very restrictive. Too restrictive to be considered as a real F2P solution, at least in my eyes.
But quite optimal to have a quick peek into your account after a longer absence, hence the 120 days. Their main focus definitely seems to be more to bring back old players than offering an enjoyable F2P experience.

While they never quite said it (EA reps were present), it was inferred, especially outside the recorded venues, that nearly everything that they have mentioned in the past wanting to do that was related to the revenue stream, but never did, was because EA wouldn't let them. One thing they were able to say out loud, was that EA was the one that nixed UO being available on Steam.

 

[CovenantX]

The point of the endless journey is to give New & Returning Players more time to decide whether or not they enjoy the game.

Not for existing players to abuse. (There probably wouldn't even have to be any restrictions aside from housing if this wasn't an issue...)
The in-game economy & inflation is bad enough, which is farmed by mostly paid accounts it would become incredibly bad when it's free to farm what ever, where ever, when ever...

Here is the current "Endless Journey FAQ" on UO.com.

 

[Tyrath]

Now that I see it does not or will not have any impact on Subbed accounts......... I could careless about EJ.

 

[Tyrath]

Why not just take the lowest pop shard and make it the EJ shard? EJ accts could not transfer off and at worst they could xshard Iron and leather via subbed accts that could transfer on and off shard. Drop some of the restrictions like no house, dungeon and skills......but limit them to 1 character per acct and throw them a bone when and if they sub by giving them a transfer token. Seems to me that would give them a better experience and not be as restricted but still restricted enough to not have a impact on the global economy. ALso might benefit the low pop shards vendors by being able to sell enough stuff to make it worthwhile to stock vendors or atleast break even.

 

[MalagAste]

Why not just take the lowest pop shard and make it the EJ shard? EJ accts could not transfer off and at worst they could xshard Iron and leather via subbed accts that could transfer on and off shard. Drop some of the restrictions like no house, dungeon and skills......but limit them to 1 character per acct and throw them a bone when and if they sub by giving them a transfer token. Seems to me that would give them a better experience and not be as restricted but still restricted enough to not have a impact on the global economy. ALso might benefit the low pop shards vendors by being able to sell enough stuff to make it worthwhile to stock vendors or atleast break even.

Because folk are under the misguided assumption that the EJ will be used by returning players and new players (where they think those are coming from without advertising is anyones guess)... and not current players wanting free accounts to script/cheat/scam and everything else nasty with...

 

[Tyrath]

Because folk are under the misguided assumption that the EJ will be used by returning players and new players (where they think those are coming from without advertising is anyones guess)... and not current players wanting free accounts to script/cheat/scam and everything else nasty with...

Can't see any current player downgrading to EJ even the cheaters with the still soupy restrictions.

 

[MalagAste]

Can't see any current player downgrading to EJ even the cheaters with the still soupy restrictions.

No but I see them activating a bunch of "freebe" accounts to do shady stuff with.... under a "new" account management name... just saying.

 

[THP]

its obviously to stop the 90 day house abuse.. its logical in that sense or folks would pay once per month to get the house for free 3 months and go EJ [free to play ] for 3 months ..then pay a months sub again to refresh the house... then go back to EJ [free to play] for the next 3 months..... kinda no brainer by the devs to be honest...as it WOULD GET ABUSED BIG TIME

 

[Petra Fyde]

If I understand correctly, you can play EJ if you want - but while ever you do you'll be aware that people around you who subscribe play differently.

EJ players visit Sosaria, Subscription players live there.

The whole point is to encourage new and returning players to take the plunge, subscribe and join us, the addicts. Not hover around the edges playing bits of the game.

 

[swroberts]

I worry. Mostly UO has always been a respectful game. Anonymity and no consequence has made for some pretty vicious trolling. Before, getting banned would be a big deal and a loss of years of work. Now.. who cares... Ill just make a new account.

Maybe if they gave new EJ characters a specific shard, and after 6 months they could travel to any shard... so if you get banned you can't immediately create a new account and go right back to immediately cause more trouble.

I would also limit them from champion spawns... for i suddenly see a new avenue for afk scouts to alert guilds a champion has popped. I always believed that raiding a spawn should require a patrolling effort.

 

[ShriNayne]

If I understand correctly, you can play EJ if you want - but while ever you do you'll be aware that people around you who subscribe play differently.

EJ players visit Sosaria, Subscription players live there.

The whole point is to encourage new and returning players to take the plunge, subscribe and join us, the addicts. Not hover around the edges playing bits of the game.

That's the whole problem with free games, they are generally disposable, my son and his friends play a different free game every couple of months or even less time if they find something new. They don't feel obliged to stick around for any time as they didn't invest anything. I just hope people who try EJ will actually stay around long enough to give UO a fair try. Unfortunately most of the younger players won't subscribe as the whole free-to-play mentality makes many people move on very quickly.
My son used to play UO a long time ago, but he moved on to other games and never came back, he won't play anything with a subscription any more, he did try a couple of free shards last year though. My older sister is exactly the same and she's a middle-aged lady, she tries every new free-to-play game that comes out, but she never stays long. Also they really need to advertise, at the very least get a couple of gaming magazines to do some articles, before the 20th year runs out! We won't get many new/returning players if nobody knows about it!

 

[GarthGrey]

Well this may bring some people in, which would be nice, although i would not play an EJ account (mine would be either paid or not played, the F2P does not interest me). Currently I'm far more interested in the High Seas 2.0 and any info about it.

You and I are both interested in High Seas 2.0.....Let's touch base with each other this time next year to check on the progress.../sarcasm

 

[TheDrAJ]

I think EJ will be bad for Siege (but I could be wrong!).

I am more interested in castle modifications.

 

[Kehleyr]

I must say that as a former player, I am looking forward to it! I haven't played in years because of life and kids

Hoping my hubby might get into it as well!

 

[DJAd]

I just hope people who try EJ will actually stay around long enough to give UO a fair try. Unfortunately most of the younger players won't subscribe as the whole free-to-play mentality makes many people move on very quickly.

I fear this will be the case unless they add a proper tutorial / new player experience.

They should do this before introducing EJ along with better account management.

 

[ShriNayne]

Sounds like account management wont be for a long time from what Messana said.

 

[Basara]

The one thing that she mentioned concerning account management that was positive was that they were going to go ahead and work on a better system to link & delink game accounts from the master account, before tackling the full management revamp.

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

The one thing that she mentioned concerning account management that was positive was that they were going to go ahead and work on a better system to link & delink game accounts from the master account, before tackling the full management revamp.

EA is just a huge boat anchor, in the shape of a middle finger. If only Garriot would have chosen a different company to work with all those years ago...

 

[Madicay]

So if I decide to return to my UO I will be the town drunk? Do I get get access to all things updated?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Danpal]

Maybe this will be good in the UO market. I am sure a lot of old items and pets will be with the old accounts. Maybe a few lost event items will come out of this. But hoping that my old friends would come back even more.

 

[StarstrukK]

I feel its a bad decision to discourage players from purchasing gametime by restricting access for 90 days after the time expires. As long as unpaid houses are inaccessible while an account remains in Endless Journey is sufficient enough. If someone wants to have a house but can't pay every month we shouldn't punish them further by being unable to play let them keep their house and pay to play when they can and if they fail to resub within the 90 days it would fall as normal. Don't turn away potential gametime sales by making people choose between never paying or just not playing.

Also I think this is a perfect time to add gametime tokens in-game where they can only be sold to a NPC vendor for a fixed priced say 100million which circulates large amounts of gold regularly and the vendor could also have a 10% transaction fee which can act as a gold sink to remove large chunks of money from the game completely. Making tokens available in-game will give players another opportunity to maintain a subscription without spending real currency.

I see no good coming from preventing anyone from playing for 90 days regardless if they have a house or not. No one is going to choose to activate a subscription if they are going to be punished for not being able to maintain it.

 

[yars]

interesting, i might take a peek into my old acct and see whats up.

 

[Fingers]

Deleted my snarky response. Ill just post the non-snarky one......open a second account. Pay and play one for 4 months, then kick it to the curb for the free one. Addiction solved!