New EAMythic Account System

[deadite]

accounts.eamythic.com

Looks nice. But just for DAoC and WAR? That's weird. Will UO be rolled into the new system?

I was hoping this would be a step towards an all-inclusive subscription model (UO, DAoC, WAR), but maybe it will just be DAoC & WAR?

Is UO getting left out again? I feel like we're Harry Potter... Living under the stairs, but having the most potential to be great.

 

[Olahorand]

I think also, that integration of UO in such an account system could bring some more popularity for our ancient game.
*Salute*
Olahorand

 

[Nok]

Hi deadite & Olahorand,

accounts.eamythic.com

Looks nice. But just for DAoC and WAR? That's weird. Will UO be rolled into the new system?

I believe I read or heard the Mythic billing system isn't actually new, just slightly revamped. UO's billing is not handled by the UO Team, but another division within EA does (just a guess... probably the same division as Pogo, and likely out of Austin (pure speculation on my part)).

I was hoping this would be a step towards an all-inclusive subscription model (UO, DAoC, WAR), but maybe it will just be DAoC & WAR?

I think also, that integration of UO in such an account system could bring some more popularity for our ancient game.

Ideally UO would be on the same billing system as DAoC & WAR for a lot of reasons... closer ties to Mythic and the UO Team, better customer service, and a multi-IP discount for the all the MMO titles.

 

[Ravenspyre]

I was hoping this would be a step towards an all-inclusive subscription model (UO, DAoC, WAR), but maybe it will just be DAoC & WAR?

If Ultima X Odyssey was left to come into light, then you would of had your model, you would of had a competing face in the market.

Is UO getting left out again? I feel like we're Harry Potter... Living under the stairs, but having the most potential to be great.

I'm sorry to inform you, but UOs potential is gone. It had several windows of oppurtunity, and missed them all. All but one, the one that started this genre of MMOs. Whether you can face facts or not, doesn't matter, but the UO player base itself has insured that UO will never have the potential to be great again. The UO playerbase continually holds back the potential of UO, and also prevents UO from ever being able to market anything reasonable or even beyond competable.

Housing is no longer the even remotely UOs selling point as there are other MMOs out there that do it, and do it just as well as UO.

Graphics and playability are definitely not a selling point for UO, because people keep toting the 2d client like it's the second coming and it's mouse based tile system is uber crappy to begin with, not to mention the user interface in UO is so many levels of crap, that it automatically maeks new players to the game wary.

The 2d playerbase also keeps telling the devs, no matter how much work, effort, or how much better they do it, any new graphics engine to the game is unwanted and undesired, and will always be crap, no matter how untrue the statement is, to the 2d graphics engine.

UO has had so much unchecked cheating, exploiting and duping going on, that any new player to the game barely has a hope of competing. All of UOs best selling points are now garbage points, or done better by someone else. Crafting, completely useless in UO now. Housing, others have it, and the real estate doesn't push back the level of adventure areas. Quests, hardly any in the UO engine, and every other game out there does quests better than UO. The list goes on.

 

[deadite]

Raven, I appreciate your opinion. And I agree that EA has blown more than several good opportunities to make UO relevant again.

Which is why I had hoped that Mythic would treat it differently.

 

[Ni-]

Does Sony have a multiple game/acct thing where you pay a certain fee and can play any game under that umbrella?

I'm not sure if they'd be able to do that with UO because I am sure that one acct name for UO for one person could be the same account name for DAoC for another person. Unless, ofcourse, there was different multi account name that linked to each person's games acct name.

That might be kinda nice to pay maybe $30/mo for one acct of each UO, DAoC, & WAR. I might actually try WAR if that were the case. I already tried DAoC and didn't like it a whole lot, but a friend of mine plays so with this kind of multi-acct then I'd have the option to visit! Interesting...

 

[Amber Moon]

Does Sony have a multiple game/acct thing where you pay a certain fee and can play any game under that umbrella?

Yes, not every game they have but most of the ones they develop. They do publish for others (PotBS) and those aren't included in, I believe it's called, a "Station Pass".

My general take from others is that currently it's not such a great deal since the price is greater then two separate subscriptions.

 

[Ravenspyre]

Yes, not every game they have but most of the ones they develop. They do publish for others (PotBS) and those aren't included in, I believe it's called, a "Station Pass".

My general take from others is that currently it's not such a great deal since the price is greater then two separate subscriptions.

Depend son how many games you use out of the Station to how much. If you only play two games, yea, teh pass is crap, but then agian, a Station pass, last I checked, was many multiple online games, EQ, EQ2, Matrix Online, SWG, Planetside(?) and a few others.

 

[Harb]

I'm sorry to inform you, but UOs potential is gone.

Being one of those around this game forever, I'm not as convinced as you that your statement is an absolute, but would agree without reservation that we're as close to that status as we've ever been. I suspect evidence lies in a new boxed retail product and efforts directed toward the KR client. No major movement in either direction likely indicates that our future is either abroad or simply in sustaining the current customer base. Either way, we're probably moving toward an inevitable end. Personally, I'll be around until that end, but am disappointed in EA's commitment to the game and likely will never purchase another of their products and invest so heavily the time I hiold dear should they proceed in this manner.

Should any effort be made to keep us viable, it'll have to be done "on the cheap," not so fatal provided resources are focused where they need to be. Everyone has their own opinion as to where that should be. I'm one of those 2D holdbacks you refer to, but sincerely would like to embrace KR, I just don't want to change the way I've interfaced with the game. Get the client right finally, change the currency, "tag" created items in such a way they can't be duped without providing a legally sufficient trace, resource to provide better control of improper player behavior, provide events quarterly and drop a couple dungeons/ lands each year and sustainment will solidify, with the potential for some growth. Said growth determines future resource commitment beyond stated requirements.

I'll remain skeptical until I see a strategic business plan with the EA name on it, or minimumly information from our senior Dev folks that provides a sense of where we're going over the next few years, something that FoF from the community coordinator can not provide. And frankly, and with no ill intent toward Mythic, I've never seen anything from them that says or even implies any commitment from them toward UO, my read with them is that UO wasn't, isn't, and will never be "their" product. It was never really EA's either, thus all the difficulties we've seen with the products organizational support structure, funding, direction, etc. And EA isn't going to let RG have the title back.

Guess we'll see.

 

[deadite]

I played UO since beta. The only game that pulled me away for any significant time was DAoC. I enjoyed that game immensely and played for a few years... sometimes with a UO account active, sometimes without.

I used to think: "Man, it would be AWESOME if EA sold UO to Mythic, because it really seems like they are a good group and could turn UO around."

Years later when I heard that EA was acquiring Mythic, I was a little more jaded over Mythic's handling of DAoC after getting the WAR rights, but I was still excited because Sanya (man I had a crush on that woman) was going to be doing community stuff for UO!

But then she left EAMythic. And UO's march towards obscurity continued.

Too bad it didn't work out like I had envisioned.

 

[Ravenspyre]

I played UO since beta. The only game that pulled me away for any significant time was DAoC. I enjoyed that game immensely and played for a few years... sometimes with a UO account active, sometimes without.

I used to think: "Man, it would be AWESOME if EA sold UO to Mythic, because it really seems like they are a good group and could turn UO around."

Years later when I heard that EA was acquiring Mythic, I was a little more jaded over Mythic's handling of DAoC after getting the WAR rights, but I was still excited because Sanya (man I had a crush on that woman) was going to be doing community stuff for UO!

But then she left EAMythic. And UO's march towards obscurity continued.

Too bad it didn't work out like I had envisioned.

The world at large does not care about the has beens. You can hire yourself a band a trumpets to get things out, but when most people do not care, and will rather likely callt eh police on you for disturbing the peace, there is a time when you have to just settle into the reallity, that it's greatness is not coming back. Mythic won't od much for UO, not the way the players hope anyways. At best, they wll continue to supply events, and might give it a shelf spot. Reallity is retailers don't want to give up valuable shelf space to products that are fading into obscurity, no matter what the players of said product may think.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

The UO playerbase continually holds back the potential of UO, and also prevents UO from ever being able to market anything reasonable or even beyond competable.

Uh... so it's the playerbase that is responsible for how KR turned out? Because KR could have been the stepping stone UO needed. And EA did it on the cheap. So don't point all of the fingers at the playerbase, thanks.

Housing is no longer the even remotely UOs selling point as there are other MMOs out there that do it, and do it just as well as UO.

While SWG has a good housing system, the game was destroyed. Other than SWG, I've yet to see a game that does housing "as well" as UO, and unless I've missed some miraculous game, none of them have customizable housing, save UO.

Graphics and playability are definitely not a selling point for UO, because people keep toting the 2d client like it's the second coming and it's mouse based tile system is uber crappy to begin with, not to mention the user interface in UO is so many levels of crap, that it automatically maeks new players to the game wary.

All of which KR was supposedly going to fix -- THAT is not the fault of the playerbase. There are MANY players, myself included, that would embrace and switch solely to the KR client IF it were reliable and did EVERYTHING the 2D client did. It doesn't.

Also, the 2D interface is not uber crappy. It is actually rather logical once you get beyond the initial portion of it. And what I mean by this is movement, targeting, and item use are all very stable. Now, there are inconsistencies in the deeper interface -- quests, crafting, et cetera -- that could be fixed simply with consistency, but then, the KR client (which was developed from the ground up) not only has inconsistencies, but also incomplete interfaces, as well as certain logical design decisions that were NOT made.

The 2d playerbase also keeps telling the devs, no matter how much work, effort, or how much better they do it, any new graphics engine to the game is unwanted and undesired, and will always be crap, no matter how untrue the statement is, to the 2d graphics engine.

Nice broad-stroking, and misconceptualizing, but it's not true. First, yes, there are a very vocal MINORITY of players who are complaining that better graphics means UO won't work on their Tandy Color Computer anymore... MOST of the 2D playerbase that complains about upgrading graphics speak true about their complaint. They're not saying, "No new graphics." They're chanting, "Fix the game first." There's a difference. Then, there are a SIGNIFICANT number of people who play 2D simply because KR is NOT a viable alternative. Which means they'd switch IF KR had been built appropriately. It wasn't. So a lot of people who would switch won't.

UO has had so much unchecked cheating, exploiting and duping going on, that any new player to the game barely has a hope of competing.

I'm not sure that I'd call that a true statement. I would say it might be a bit intimidating to a new player to see Luna prices, but none of the cheating or exploiting or duping going on TRULY affects a new player just getting to know the world.

Crafting, completely useless in UO now.

Crafting is completely useless in MOST games. SWG used to have it mostly right, but then, I haven't played since they blasted the good game out of it, so I don't know how that is anymore.

Housing, others have it, and the real estate doesn't push back the level of adventure areas.

This is true, but hardly what's killing UO.

Quests, hardly any in the UO engine, and every other game out there does quests better than UO.

This is very true, and I'll not bother trying to dispute it. UO had lots of other games to model their quest system on, and failed to do so. They also failed to implement it well. That's one area they need to fix... but they seem to be stuck on the mantra of fixing server side issues with using existing server-side style issues. Instead of looking at new ways to do things, they find ways to hack stuff into the existing code.

Which again returns UO's death to the developers, NOT the playerbase.