• Hail Guest!
    We're looking for Community Content Contribuitors to Stratics. If you would like to write articles, fan fiction, do guild or shard event recaps, it's simple. Find out how in this thread: Community Contributions
  • Greetings Guest, Having Login Issues? Check this thread!
  • Hail Guest!,
    Please take a moment to read this post reminding you all of the importance of Account Security.
  • Hail Guest!
    Please read the new announcement concerning the upcoming addition to Stratics. You can find the announcement Here!

Probably asked before.... why allow freeshards now?

morPR

PRmeister
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Just noticed UO Stratics is not an officially listed fan page any more.
 

Taylor

Former Stratics CEO (2011-2014)
VIP
Alumni
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Benefactor
Stratics always treated its partnership with UO with reverence, even when it meant the Stratics volunteers were surrogates for community anger that should have been directed at the publisher. But Stratics hasn't received any reciprocal treatment since at least 2013, probably longer. UO was even given the opportunity to buy Stratics, but decided instead to launch their own community and staff it with former Stratics volunteers who routinely singled out community members for personal reasons rather than any objective community standards. Don't get it confused, UO left Stratics--not the other way around. In my uninvited opinion, the decision to open Stratics to the entire UO community--not just Broadsword's instance of UO--was made reluctantly, but was overdue.
 

Lex Darion

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
Ah.. remember when Stratics was so ingrained in UO customer support that the old IRC servers had Queue bots bi-directionally connected to the in game support system? lol
 

AdamPD

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Don't get it confused, UO left Stratics--not the other way around. In my uninvited opinion, the decision to open Stratics to the entire UO community--not just Broadsword's instance of UO--was made reluctantly, but was overdue.
I agree. To be honest, they treated every other site like ****, they would make promises over and over, but never lived up to them.
The best times, were when people like Wilki, Draconi, Cathat etc were part of the team, because they would engage with everyone, even on occasion, on UOForums, which as corny as it sounds, really made us feel special, if just for a moment, but it really did lift our spirits when they did.
It really started to go downhill for UOForums AND stratics I feel, when Mythic took over, they didn't have or want an "official fansite" program, so that was the first sign they didn't give a damn about fansites.
They would make promises like "Oh we'll start a discussion thread on XX in a few days", never happened and it was promised repeatedly.
At the end of the day, this site is for the community, not the company, I'm glad Stratics has embraced free shards again like it did in the distant past.
If these sites didn't exist anymore, UO would probably cease to exist as well, it's a shame they don't realize that, I personally feel they abused Stratics for years with the whole official/unofficial/slightly official status of the forums here.
 
Top