Letter/E-mail sent to Jeremy D.

[ruaduck]

Jeremy,

A few friends of mine along with me were discussing the current status of UO. We have found that the game seems to be declining in the amount of exposure to people and shards are slowly becoming unpopulated. Not sure If it is just because of the Summer rush or what but we have thought of a few possibilities that EA could do.

First thing is to help with inactivity. Well I have noticed that a lot of people are complaining that the player base isn’t what it used to be. I just happen to agree with those statements. It is harder to sell in-game items and everything because of there being a lack of people out there to sell the items to. So as I thought about how to fix this problem I came to my own solution. That simply is to make less shards available and merge them together into one shard. I know that when this comes about people will complain about losing housing and all those things. So this I will discuss.

What would happen when you merge the shards together you make a new land for each shard and their houses. Basically, say you merge Sonoma with Pacific. You name the new land Sonoma and place all the houses that was on Sonoma on that land. That way people don’t lose items and also their houses that some have spent countless hours customizing or purchasing. With the Luna houses situation I would make it dual layered. So access to the Sonoma Luna houses can be accessed by going upstairs in Luna and running around the same. I think that would really help with that situation.

I believe this will help boost the economy of UO because you will have more people on a shard, less people getting certain items like Power Scrolls so those can actually hold an amount and it will bring activity to these shards. More player base means more trading and more economy. Some may complain about this and everything, but I do know that I like to play games where there are a lot of people playing next to me just for the sheer joy of everything. These are just my thoughts and I thought I would bring them to at least your attention if not the attention of EA.

I love the Ultima Online game. It has more content that WoW and still has the possibility of being one of the best games out on the market. It just needs to be played right and brought to what the market is now and possibly expand later with more shards again if the base goes up. I just don’t see the base right now. Less and less new players to the game.

Thanks for your time and listening to what I have to say.

SPC C.L.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Not this shard merging crap again...

 

[Flora Green]

Heh heh, Dermott.

*hands ruaduck a resistant suit*

 

[Gwendar-SP]

<sigh> Not everyone wants a heavy shard population. Large populations cause a housing shortage, LAG, and problems with too many people at popular places. Please stop with this shard consolidation idea. I left Great Lakes because of lag and housing shortage. It was a case of move to a low population shard or quit UO.

 

[Simon]

You gotta visit Drachenfels

 

[Connor_Graham]

If you want to live on a more populated shard then move. Don't try to force people that are happy with their shard's population to merge with another shard just because you're unhappy.

 

[rskg4]

If you want to live on a more populated shard then move. Don't try to force people that are happy with their shard's population to merge with another shard just because you're unhappy.

The point of this thread is to inform people that UO's player population is dwindling. I've been on some shards during their prime time and did not see significant amount of other players. Try shopping at Luna on lesser populated shards; I think you'll find that the item selections are less than ideal.

I think reducing the amount of servers would definitely be a step up for UO. The economy would have a better chance of revival and we wouldn't have to worry about the death of UO - although we've been saying that since the game was released.

There are no perfect solutions for the problems that UO is facing, but there are steps the devs can take to fix it.

 

[Bullet]

Will they put my 4 18x18 houses in a perfect row like they are now? Didnt think of that did ya. I say no.

 

[Farscape]

Nice post but not the answer
Admire your efforts but you have to understand EA make money in UO by doing nothing absolutley nothing so why spend anything ?
Take care

 

[Harb]

And he walked into the lions den....

Look, there is a valid case to be made for a form of shard consolidation that provides for no loss of belongings and homes, so there'll be no assault from me. But it's one of those things that I really, really....really don't like. Much will be lost in transtiion. Shard "persona" will be gone. Overcrowding may, may replace undercrowding. Issues become more universal and uncontrolable. Thats the tip of the iceberg. And what might actually be gained. Less hardware investment for EA. The possibility of new, larger player communities. Oh, and your vendor may make more profit for you, maybe.

The main thing, despite all the cons and the potential pros, is what it says about the future of our game - that there isn't one. I'm not willing to accept that, guess it'll be a ship I go down with at some point, but I'm hoping that's much later rather than sooner.

I disagree with you strongly here, but do wish you well with the post

 

[Kith Kanan]

good luck with the shard merging.. I for one sure as hell aint giving my houses up....

 

[Yalp]

so you have a vendor not making gold hand over fist cause peeps aren't buying your stuff.. and a red who'se ganking at spawns has resulted in less gold for those ps?

Hmm.. well seems like if you are really concerned about EA/UO.. then the you might have encouraged Jeremy to get PR off it's arse and get some product/advertising out there irl to bring in new players

 

[Yalp]

And he walked into the lions den....

Look, there is a valid case to be made for a form of shard consolidation that provides for no loss of belongings and homes, so there'll be no assault from me. But it's one of those things that I really, really....really don't like. Much will be lost in transtiion. Shard "persona" will be gone. Overcrowding may, may replace undercrowding. Issues become more universal and uncontrolable. Thats the tip of the iceberg. And what might actually be gained. Less hardware investment for EA. The possibility of new, larger player communities. Oh, and your vendor may make more profit for you, maybe.

The main thing, despite all the cons and the potential pros, is what it says about the future of our game - that there isn't one. I'm not willing to accept that, guess it'll be a ship I go down with at some point, but I'm hoping that's much later rather than sooner.

I disagree with you strongly here, but do wish you well with the post

after 11 years.. hardware would have been paid for many times over..

 

[Lady_Mina]

I agree , when i compare UO to the UO from 3-5 years ago...i do see a big diffirence in population.

But putting shards together isn't really going to help.

Aspecialy because people have houses...and you can't have two houses on the same spot...so that's already problem number 1.


I think the solution would be : some good adverticing for UO...and more and/or new staff...that have some passion for UO..fix bugs faster and listens to the players and know how to keep things exciting for new and old players.

I bet other dev teams from other games laugh for days when they see UO:KR
I thought nothing would ever suck as much as the Horizons BETA...but i was wrong.
At least Horizon was BETA...UO:KR is freakin' LIVE !

 

[It Lives]

How about you buy yourself a transfer token and move YOUR ass to a populated shard.

 

[K'torr]

Jeremy,

A few friends of mine along with me were discussing the current status of UO. We have found that the game seems to be declining in the amount of exposure to people and shards are slowly becoming unpopulated. Not sure If it is just because of the Summer rush or what but we have thought of a few possibilities that EA could do.

First thing is to help with inactivity. Well I have noticed that a lot of people are complaining that the player base isn’t what it used to be. I just happen to agree with those statements. It is harder to sell in-game items and everything because of there being a lack of people out there to sell the items to. So as I thought about how to fix this problem I came to my own solution. That simply is to make less shards available and merge them together into one shard. I know that when this comes about people will complain about losing housing and all those things. So this I will discuss.

What would happen when you merge the shards together you make a new land for each shard and their houses. Basically, say you merge Sonoma with Pacific. You name the new land Sonoma and place all the houses that was on Sonoma on that land. That way people don’t lose items and also their houses that some have spent countless hours customizing or purchasing. With the Luna houses situation I would make it dual layered. So access to the Sonoma Luna houses can be accessed by going upstairs in Luna and running around the same. I think that would really help with that situation.

I believe this will help boost the economy of UO because you will have more people on a shard, less people getting certain items like Power Scrolls so those can actually hold an amount and it will bring activity to these shards. More player base means more trading and more economy. Some may complain about this and everything, but I do know that I like to play games where there are a lot of people playing next to me just for the sheer joy of everything. These are just my thoughts and I thought I would bring them to at least your attention if not the attention of EA.

I love the Ultima Online game. It has more content that WoW and still has the possibility of being one of the best games out on the market. It just needs to be played right and brought to what the market is now and possibly expand later with more shards again if the base goes up. I just don’t see the base right now. Less and less new players to the game.

Thanks for your time and listening to what I have to say.

SPC C.L.

I'm betting he deleted it before finishing the first paragraph.

 

[Cadderly]

How about you buy yourself a transfer token and move YOUR ass to a populated shard.

IF you don't want to play a mmorpg then go play a different game. Your solo player attitudes are making a mess of uo's game play. There are no populated shards anymore!

 

[Lady_Mina]

As for the 'problems selling items' due to low population...

That's not the problem...people are simply scared to death these days to trade.

Because of the problems and the perma ban stick swinging towards the traders.

 

[Yalp]

IF you don't want to play a mmorpg then go play a different game. Your solo player attitudes are making a mess of uo's game play. There are no populated shards anymore!

then we'd all be screaming about the horrible lag!

 

[Uriah Heep]

Riddle me this

You want to merge two shards. fine. What happens to those of use who ahve built houses all next to each other, and those spaces arent available on the destination shard? What happens to the EM/Seer/GM/Counselor placed/created/blessed items and areas on the closing shard? Shard history is lost? I see....

Nope, If you want to watch a wounded animal in its death throes, institute this idea...
And get out of the way and watch the exodus.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

How about just starting my imaginary event. That would work better.

 

[O'siris]

hmmm i would like this im tired of seeing the same 8 people every day.

as for shard history, who cares theres 3 people on your shard who care about it!!!

 

[Lady_Mina]

hmmm i would like this im tired of seeing the same 8 people every day.

as for shard history, who cares theres 3 people on your shard who care about it!!!

LOL i know the feeling.

I've been seeing the same face at Brit West Bank...over and over.

We have like 9 people at the bank during primetime !

 

[MalagAste]

I've thought about this many, many times.

There are good and bad points to consolidating shards... However I have NO desire to ever leave where I am....

There is only one thing that would get me to even remotely concider moving to another shard. That would be if they made shards specific to different playstyles. Such as an all out PvP style shard. A shard for Role-play, a Shard for PvM.... things of that nature... Now for myself a strict Role-play shard... where they had EM's or whatever to help with stories and things....where there was NO npcs. Where players gathered and crafted and grew everything they needed and bought and sold things to each other that would be what I would want... That might make me move.....

However like dozens of other roleplayers on dozens of shards.... we really like our history, our unique area's those blessed homes and spots.... those mean quite a bit to us... we don't want to lose that... It's a part of our characters lives. I don't foresee me ever leaving Great Lakes.... Granted Great Lakes has a larger population but even now I see mid-size plots all over the place... while they may not be "max" storage the land is wide open with open space... something that wasn't there when I began UO... When I started you could travel for weeks searching and searching and searching and never ever once find a spot to place even the smallest of plots... How times change.... now part of that would be due to the fact that with WoW and all those other distractions out there less folk play..... another part would be there is now Malas and Tokuno for folk to place houses in.... add in the fact that people have reduced the number of accounts they have as well.... and there you have it..... Now add with that the recent bunch of homes that EA has gone and removed and house decay going through how many mass drops... where they have gone over the books so to speak and put houses into decay that were on invalid accounts and all... All this adds to the drop in house's...

NOw you look at another thing and you have all of Malas, All of Fel, All of Trammel, a bunch of new dungeons, all the old dungeons, Tokuno and all it's land and dungeons and lets not forget the lost lands, and Illshnar and your comparing this to a time when it was Just Sossaria and maybe the Lost lands???? Think about it.... If UO never lost one person from that time and you spread all the people that used to be around then and put them into the vast world we have now and then you'll see that indeed we truly may not have the population loss that your thinking we do..... (especially if you add in the fact that there are more shards now than there were then too)

Yeah I know a bunch of my old friends have come and gone... but I've also made new friends.... I've seen many old friends return as well.

One thing I can say is this...... UO is unique.... there is NO other game out there remotely like UO... NONE with the depth and overall scope of UO.... With the housing, the ability to really "change" the world around you ..... build what you imagine.... and really pour your creativity into the game... The other games dictate almost every aspect of your experiance.... you must do this to get that ..... you have to have that to do this... and so on and so forth.... UO doesn't do that...... It is more of a "You can do this if you want to..... Or if you feel like that you can do that... Or you can make up your own playstyle.... It's not all laid out.... and everyone can express their own individualism in their own way.... Everything we interact with we can pretty much change to suit our individual style.... You can't do that in other games...... You can't build a city with your friends... In UO the only limit to the game is your own imagination. THAT is what EA/UO needs to capitalize on..... That is what makes this game so addictive.

 

[wrekognize]

Merging shards is not the answer. The shards were populated at one time, and they continued to lower in numbers. What makes you think that this would not be true if the shards were merged to increase people per shard. you would eventually see those numbers fall. The real solution is to come out with an expansion that populates all the current shards for years down the road.

...

 

[timbeOFbaja]

OP, don't worry. I've actually thought through a good solution to this and will share it in due time. I've actually got a handful of UO's problems resolved, but am waiting for some place more high profile and controllable to present them. Sounds arrogant as hell, I know, but this really is good stuff.

 

[Yalp]

hmmm i would like this im tired of seeing the same 8 people every day.

as for shard history, who cares theres 3 people on your shard who care about it!!!

that's amazing how the same 8 peeps follow you all over the shard all the time.. how do you manage that?

Maybe most peeps on your shard don't hang at the same spot every day? Just a thought..

 

[O'siris]

well one thing i hate is i can run around most dongeons and there is no one in there. remember the days of the bone knight wall or despise slappen around the earth ele's. the closest thing to that now is the line of golems outside luna. ever since i was able ive used the nu'jelom moongate bank. i mean shoot you can log and use the bank at the same place. but anyway what im getting at is its a dead city. maybe osi should start gettin rid of these huh? i mean were not using them...

uo was alot funner when people actually had to go to dongeons and train, but those times are over, and now if there is no one in yew there is no one to pvp, even the pvm guilds on pac dont seem to be too active. yes sure there a couple that still do the occasional champ spawn but there just isnt the numbers.

thats my main reason of supporting shard merging, not that it will ever happen. but hey give me some free char transfers every year as a vet reward and maybe people will move to a certain shard and boost numbers there. but like hell if im gonna pay some 20 bucks to take a chance to travel to another shard to find it unpopulated.

 

[O'siris]

that's amazing how the same 8 peeps follow you all over the shard all the time.. how do you manage that?

Maybe most peeps on your shard don't hang at the same spot every day? Just a thought..

no they do. well then again i dont go to doom so maybe thats where they are all hiding.

 

[Yalp]

well one thing i hate is i can run around most dongeons and there is no one in there. remember the days of the bone knight wall or despise slappen around the earth ele's. the closest thing to that now is the line of golems outside luna. ever since i was able ive used the nu'jelom moongate bank. i mean shoot you can log and use the bank at the same place. but anyway what im getting at is its a dead city. maybe osi should start gettin rid of these huh? i mean were not using them...

uo was alot funner when people actually had to go to dongeons and train, but those times are over, and now if there is no one in yew there is no one to pvp, even the pvm guilds on pac dont seem to be too active. yes sure there a couple that still do the occasional champ spawn but there just isnt the numbers.

thats my main reason of supporting shard merging, not that it will ever happen. but hey give me some free char transfers every year as a vet reward and maybe people will move to a certain shard and boost numbers there. but like hell if im gonna pay some 20 bucks to take a chance to travel to another shard to find it unpopulated.

make a toon on the shard you'd like to check out... see how it goes before you think about dropping cold cash to move.

How did your shard look during the Melissa spawn? I think that was a good indication on our small shard. I think also, there's alot happening in real life that is hitting peeps hard.. I'd love to know the actual subscription numbers before action was taken.

If there was some magic way to make some shard consolidation fair and just, some way to eliminate all lag, some way to incorporate all the shard's history, some way to ensure all items of the moving shard made it there easily, some way to transfer alliances and guilds, I'm not entirely certain that I'd trust the devs to get it right.. this would be a one shot deal.. and if even just a couple peeps had their accounts screwed up in some way.. it would be all hell breaking loose.

The great thing about the game.. is if you don't personally like the place/ people/ shard you play on..there's an easy remedy to fix it.

 

[AesSedai]

- Yup, Yalp.

And hey, one could always develop characters and co-exist on multiple shards with just one account. Sure, you will only have one house but just place it on the shard that you prefer more.
This shard merging stuff just has bad vibes written all over it no matter how good the intentions seem to be. Merge shards and people will see EA giving up on UO & some people will simply quit playing - guaranteed.

 

[O'siris]

oh beleive me they would mess it up lol... but i merely like the idea

as for the melissa event that did spark some movement among the shard. but i would like to see use of the old dongeons and stuff. like they did with the wisp dongeon.

one way to save on lag delete the unused citys! hehe. i know that would be a bad idea but its not like there being used. i mean i placed a house near the yew gate last week lol. that was an impssible feet a few years ago.

i would just like to see more movement on my current shard, not that pac is one of the suffering shards.

 

[It Lives]

IF you don't want to play a mmorpg then go play a different game. Your solo player attitudes are making a mess of uo's game play. There are no populated shards anymore!

Thats the whole point! If you want more interaction with players move to a populated Shard( no need to combine ). It A players choice.

Solo play has its place even if you dont like it, especially when a large portion of the player base is pathetically corrupted, Imo.

 

[O'siris]

Thats the whole point! If you want more interaction with players move to a populated Shard( no need to combine ). It A players choice.

Solo play has its place even if you dont like it, especially when a large portion of the player base is pathetically corrupted, Imo.

they made this game on nintendo called ultima, it was a single player based game, go play that.

 

[Cadderly]

Stop telling players they need to move to a populated shard It's not a choice because I've been to them all. There are no more populated shards they all empty. Every shard is a ghost town of it's former self.

 

[It Lives]

Played that many years ago, Thanks..

Just to get things strait O'siris I am highly active in uo community, but solo play has it place in uo( up late no one on? ).

Logically if you have social needs you go some place where there are people. (there is no need to combine shards)

Cadderly uo is not as lively as it used to be agreed, but as an option ea has provided the means for anyone to transfer to a shard of their choice.
Shard merging is a poor alternative and will be shot down.

Name me one benifit that does not conflict with someone elses time put into game, their housing, their history on shard and game style and I will be silent for a minute or two. There is always choice.

 

[Cadderly]

Just some more food for thought. If WAR is a big hit and we loose another 20-30 thousand players... then will you start considering that yah maybe we need to consider shard merging... we all no that there will be no advertising anymore for uo....

 

[Silly Seadog]

Arrrr, there be no way 20-30k UO players are a-gonna jump ship to WarHammer (run by EA)! I'll bet me peg-leg on it!!

 

[It Lives]

Possibly. But I highly doubt that kind of turn-over for war. Personally one bug infested game for me at a time

 

[Eslake]

Basically, say you merge Sonoma with Pacific. You name the new land Sonoma and place all the houses that was on Sonoma on that land. That way people don’t lose items and also their houses that some have spent countless hours customizing or purchasing. With the Luna houses situation I would make it dual layered. So access to the Sonoma Luna houses can be accessed by going upstairs in Luna and running around the same. I think that would really help with that situation.

And what about the rest of the world map?

The player base in general is never going to agree to something that costs them their housing. Doing it anyway would just send the majority of them packing.


Doubling the lands (Pac-Britain and Fel-Britain servers for example) might look like it would work, but when you figure it all up they would need equipment far superior to what they are using now.
They can't just take the equipment for both and link them, because every little burp in syncronization would lead to problems from as simple as new dupes, to as serious as characters being comletely lost(deleted) while moving between lands.

I doubt EA has any intention of investing the resources to get new equipment to operate a game that is already running pretty low on the viability meter.

 

[Sgt.Slaughter]

you know, im sick of reading this thread already, theres all these carebares who say if you want a more popluated shard go here, go there, how bout they make 2 shards combine, one on west coast, and one on east, then give every character a xfer token to goto the new shard or to leave the shards (one way tickets) and then call it good. or just ban all the carebares who complain about everything like link of hot does.

 

[Flora Green]

How about just starting my imaginary event. That would work better.

 

[NaKasha Saran]

I'm personally quite happy with my small populated shard. It's homey and "warm". The people there are my family and friends. It's why I keep coming back to UO time and time again. It's not the game, it's the people.

I play on Legends, which at one time was called AOL Legends and available to AOL members only. It was even more like family then. Everyone knew everybody else. It was personal. I was all for opening up AOL Legends public, expanding the population, but unfortunately the thing that suffered most was the one thing I love most, the community. As the shard has grown larger (which doesn't even compare in sizes to the bigger ones), the community nature which drew me to UO has dwindled. Yes, that community is still there, but there are more and more people on the shard that I don't know, even being a part of a very popular guild.

There are pros and cons for both. With smaller shards the economy is also smaller as you stated, but I personally would not sacrifice my friends & community for the increased economy I could benefit from on a larger shard.

I like my community precisely how it is.

 

[Giani Saran]

I have to agree with you, sis... Our shard is great just as it is. I play UO for the friends I have here and the new ones I make .. and I dont think I want my houses sitting " on top of " other peoples or stuck over on some lag infested " new * area ...
I am sure I am one of the few remaining people that live in the boonies and am stuck playing on dail up .. which is close to impossible on the over populated shards.. UO as it is .. suits all types of players, the slow pokes{aka, me}, the speed demons { everyone else } .. and the gold mongers and the solo players... Hearing players say.. they arent making enough gold, kinda irks me ... but thats just me .. i always thought UO had plenty of things to kill to make gold * shrugs *

 

[Bobar]

Arrrr, there be no way 20-30k UO players are a-gonna jump ship to WarHammer (run by EA)! I'll bet me peg-leg on it!!

Totally agree, I love UO and will probably play till the bitter end, but, comes the day when I do move on, it most definitely will NOT be to a game run by EA.

Having seen the shambles of the KR expansion and experienced what EA laughingly call customer support, seen the non-response to customers querys and requests, witnessed the way the recent bannings were carried out, OH NO, not for me I'm afraid.

 

[Stigmatas]

Stop telling players they need to move to a populated shard It's not a choice because I've been to them all. There are no more populated shards they all empty. Every shard is a ghost town of it's former self.

Quoted for lies (QFL)

I coined it! I think.

There are not as many people around true, but my shard is far from dead. Many others are also far from dead.

Solo playstyle has always had its place in MMORPG's. Live with it. The whole grouping up to do anything in the game is exactly what ruined SWG. Thanks groupy noobs, you messed that one up good. That was a good game until they screwed it up and made just about anything worth doing require a group.

MMORPG's are about choices. Choices where to hunt, who to hunt with, what to do. The end. UO has always had solo content. And for it to hold onto its smallish playerbase, it needs to continue to do so. That said, I would also like to see more group content like peerless put in. Even though I can solo most peerless, I CHOOSE not to all the time. Get that?

Shard merging is lame. They do this, the writing is on the wall. What they needed to do was actually work on KR but they SCREWED THE POOCH on it and now over a year later its freakin trash. Yea I said it. I supported KR back in the day, but when they called it released and said "smell ya later!" then quit updating it, there is nothing more to call it than a total pooch screw. They had a chance to have something to advertise to bring in fresh players but they messed it all up. Lame.

 

[wee papa smurf]

Totally agree, I love UO and will probably play till the bitter end, but, comes the day when I do move on, it most definitely will NOT be to a game run by EA.

Having seen the shambles of the KR expansion and experienced what EA laughingly call customer support, seen the non-response to customers querys and requests, witnessed the way the recent bannings were carried out, OH NO, not for me I'm afraid.

Thats the exact way i feel too

 

[Yalp]

We might as well use our efforts to yell about the lack of PR and shelf presence IRL. If EA spent even a fraction of their budget on generating some PR we'd see alot of new players, and a good chunk of some old players come into the game, on all shards. That is by far a better solution than combining shards and creating a fiasco that results in the loss of even more players.

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

As a player, account owner, house owner ...

I have to give you credit ... you introduced a reasonable way to handle housing merger if they ever did this.

But is probably the best to describe the idea. I have a keep right where I wish it to be, not some sterile flat lands with no spawn around (Malas for a great part). I like the reapers, gargoyles, elementals and such ... my lower characters get good practice on the doorstep!

Sorry, gotta vote "no".

 

[hawkeye_pike]

While a high shard population sounds promising, merging shards probably won't solve anything. Why? Because you have to get to the root of the problem! And the root is that hardly any new players are buying UO.

Instead of merging shards (which, to my opinion is practically impossible and would cause even more players to leave), EA should think of ways about how to make the game more attractive to new, young customers. It has to be achieved that new players

- hear about UO (marketing)
- are interested in learning more about the game (eye candy)
- are learning about what makes this game special (coverage).

However, before such measures can be started, the game should be in a state which promises a good chance of success. You won't attract new players...

- with the current graphics engine
- with the current game engine (outdated scripting language -> extremely time-consuming bug fixing and enhancing)
- with the current economy problems and inflation
- with the current duping/scripting/cheating issues unsolved
- with practically non-existant player support

First solve the main problems! Then take the right measures! Only then you'll get new players!