11th Anniversary items collection of EA Japan

[Beefybone]

UOGamecodes has for years steadfastly refused to acknowledge that my account even exists. Anything I buy comes from 3rd party traders.

 

[olduofan]

ALL I would like to get from EA at this point would be some ADVERTISEMENT of UO

 

[DevilsOwn]

sorry to drag this to the front again, but I'm all confused now....

the post about the 11th anniversary goodies for UOJapan appeared here on the 16th of October, does that mean that the boxes over there went on sale at that time? and does that mean, according to the statements at the Town Hall tonite, that they will not be available here (in code form) until November 16th? (30 days lead time for the boxes to sell)

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

sorry to drag this to the front again, but I'm all confused now....

the post about the 11th anniversary goodies for UOJapan appeared here on the 16th of October, does that mean that the boxes over there went on sale at that time? and does that mean, according to the statements at the Town Hall tonite, that they will not be available here (in code form) until November 16th? (30 days lead time for the boxes to sell)

I wouldn't try to put a "Firm Date" on when they will be available or in what form until you see a post from Jeremy or someone about it on either their website or here. I know they mentioned it at the Town Hall but in terms of when the 30 days starts, how much they will cost or will they be sold in singles or packs of x tokens or whatever...

I'm sure they all know we want details and I'm betting that Monday we'll see something "Official"... I'm disappointed that no one could post something official sooner but I'm guessing Japan EA caught them off guard and they the US people weren't ready yet.

 

[Basara]

I suggest people do what I did.

Go to uoherald.com and click on feedback.

Ask them to provide 1 of these tokens per active account (even if it is by email - recommend they use a mailer NOT on every ISP's blacklist, this time), in addition to selling them on the site.

And, also suggest them giving us the (2006?) "Spring decor" tokens, that were part of the Japanese box set back then, and were temporarily available on uogamecodes.com After all, those tokens were only of limited availability here (the web site, and IIRC Chessy getting them for some server downtime), and would make excellent gifts (even if old ones).

 

[christy1221]

I suggest people do what I did.

Go to uoherald.com and click on feedback.

Ask them to provide 1 of these tokens per active account (even if it is by email - recommend they use a mailer NOT on every ISP's blacklist, this time), in addition to selling them on the site.

And, also suggest them giving us the (2006?) "Spring decor" tokens, that were part of the Japanese box set back then, and were temporarily available on uogamecodes.com After all, those tokens were only of limited availability here (the web site, and IIRC Chessy getting them for some server downtime), and would make excellent gifts (even if old ones).

I'm going to go do that now. I hope they will listen.

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

I did the same... it looks from the transcript like Jeremy said there would be some sort of 11th anniversary that you don't have to pay for but whether it would involve any of these items was unclear...

We still need the official post from Jeremy which I hope comes sooner rather than later.

 

[Harb]

I'm not opposed to paying for the items. Anything dev can do to generate revenue for mothership EA isn't a "bad" thing for us, though certainly none of us "like it" per se. That said, I do have a couple complaints. Play your cards "face up," we should not attain knowledge back-channeled from EA Japan. When you do tell us what's going on, explain yourself fully, otherwise imaginations will wander, mine included. And remember that "words" matter. Calling something an anniversary gift has meaning, intended or otherwise. Gift, reward, and collection each mean something different, and are perceived differently. But that returns you to source, Jeremy we need better communication, and I'm sincerely not picking on you!

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

I'm not opposed to paying for something of value either, and I understand not giving tokens to every toon because so many people have 3 accounts with newbie toons set up for x-shard trading you would have hundreds of tokens per person easily...

I'd like to see one token code sent to any ACTIVE (paid) account with more than 12 months of paid service as a "Thank you gift for supporting UO" and that token could be used by any toon on any server but only once... then they could sell 1 or 5 packs of tokens or whatever they want on the code store and if resonably price, I'd buy several.

I just need to see communication and something reasonable from Mythic.

 

[Coppelia]

Hmmm well so now I have to pay even more to get new stuff ingame?
Is it still a game or a cloth shop?

So let's sum it up :
- UO is 11 years old, old graphics, lots of bugs due to the messy code and became confidential in terms of number of players and communication, and the customer service is inexistant.
- I pay a monthly fee that is at the heigh of the top dogs of the market.
- I pay each new extention.
- They ask me more money to get new stuff ingame?

Are you kidding? Ain't I already paying for it?

Service this, service that... now it's not about transfers, it's about ingame content! What a scandal!

 

[Harb]

Hmmm well so now I have to pay even more to get new stuff ingame... What a scandal!

Sure it can get frustrating, but at the end of the day, if we want our game to continue, there is a revenue expectation from EA that must be satisfied. Don't get me wrong, matching an anniversary title to item purchases irritates me also, but as above, if EA needs more of my money, I'll give it to them. I don't "like" giving money away, but UO for the wife and I comprises the majority of our entertainment dollar, so for us, sobeit.

I would like more dialogue and explanation, in fact, it seems more than fair to demand that.

I'd also like to see the game codes store fixed before another experience in frustration, especially since that seems the route we'll be going on this one. While some legitimately post they've had no bad experience on the codes site, this is only because of how/ what they order. When you try and increase the quantity of an item to 2 opposed to 1, the site will not allow it. Lets say for example they package 5 tokens for $10. You can order 1 package, but then must repeat the entire process to order another 1 package. Once you've done this twice, you will recieve an error message that you must wait 30 days before ordering again. So lets say you want one of each item, you're looking at a three month process as things currently stand. Not good for us or dev, we get frustrated and dev falls short of potential in meeting revenue objectives for EA, all due to a site glitch that has existed since it opened.

 

[Holise]

Nah, dont even bother trying to convince them on anything anymore... they just dont care, its obvious that they dont give a penny abt us UO players anymore...what they really want is just $$$... spending your money on the promotions every year...while dupers make money and selling for real cash,make yourself look like an idiot playing on a game that which they allow cheaters to do anything without punishments...after we all get tired of this bs we can all just quit and so they can shut down this game.

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

Sure it can get frustrating, but at the end of the day, if we want our game to continue, there is a revenue expectation from EA that must be satisfied. Don't get me wrong, matching an anniversary title to item purchases irritates me also, but as above, if EA needs more of my money, I'll give it to them. I don't "like" giving money away, but UO for the wife and I comprises the majority of our entertainment dollar, so for us, sobeit.

I would like more dialogue and explanation, in fact, it seems more than fair to demand that.

I'd also like to see the game codes store fixed before another experience in frustration, especially since that seems the route we'll be going on this one. While some legitimately post they've had no bad experience on the codes site, this is only because of how/ what they order. When you try and increase the quantity of an item to 2 opposed to 1, the site will not allow it. Lets say for example they package 5 tokens for $10. You can order 1 package, but then must repeat the entire process to order another 1 package. Once you've done this twice, you will recieve an error message that you must wait 30 days before ordering again. So lets say you want one of each item, you're looking at a three month process as things currently stand. Not good for us or dev, we get frustrated and dev falls short of potential in meeting revenue objectives for EA, all due to a site glitch that has existed since it opened.

I hope if they do offer the codes on their store, the least they could do is offer them in 5 / 10 and 25 packs so people can get the size pack they need and not run into the "I can't buy 3 packs problem...."

 

[Harb]

I hope if they do offer the codes on their store, the least they could do is offer them in 5 / 10 and 25 packs so people can get the size pack they need and not run into the "I can't buy 3 packs problem...."

Certainly, that technique would address the upcoming issue at hand. But they really need a solution to the problem overall, doing nothing displays a disturbing sense of apathy. I'll give you a current, up to date scenario. We had attrited our accounts from 7 to 2 over the last few years, when I decided a couple weeks ago to reactivate a third account based on what we're hearing about SA. My probelm was that of the 14 characters on the two accounts, I didn't see any of them becoming gargolyes and all have a role as we play today. So on the reopened account, I moved three characters "off shard" with old transfer tokens. While playing around a bit on their new shard, it dawned on me I could have a little fun there also. After a bit of analysis, I decided I needed around 5-6 soulstones. So off to the game codes store for me, afterall, we've been posting about it for some time, so maybe it was fixed. Nope. Two soulstones are my limit until next month, and to be frank, I'm not sure if I'll still have the interest there by then. Maybe EA will get the other $40, maybe not. Had I been able to order them when I wanted them, they had it for sure.

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

I can see your frustration at not being able to buy "normally" as you can from other stores... but I can see it from the vendor perspective too, because of the likelihood of credit card fraud in online transactions, especially small dollar value (under $20??)... I don't work in retail so I can't tell you exactly how this is all done, but I know that some industries are charged much more because of the assumed risk of "Charge Back" based on the credit card transactions they put through...

That being said, they should find a way to sell us codes when we need them, even if it is "Outside their core competancy, which small one-off transactions, clearly are..."

They could allow you to purchase more than Quantity 1 only if you have a credit card file on your account that has been successfully charged for the past 3 months and you are using that same card to pay for this transaction, for example... or they could allow you to pay for more than 1 only if you pay through PayPal with a "Verified Credit Card / Bank Account / Address" on file and maybe only if the PayPal address matches the address linked on the account?

They could do more than they are... that's for sure... otherwise... find an "iTunes" type solution where we buy "$50" worth of "Script" or whatever... then when you try to buy a soulstone token it takes $7.50 or whatever from yuor "script" account... and let's you know when you need to restock it...

 

[Harb]

I can see your frustration at not being able to buy "normally" as you can from other stores... but I can see it from the vendor perspective too, because of the likelihood of credit card fraud in online transactions, especially small dollar value (under $20??)... I don't work in retail so I can't tell you exactly how this is all done, ...

Well, after 26 years in the Army/ government, over the last 6 I have worked in retail and for the past few have owned my own business, processing credit cards along the way, corporately and small business. I'm 99.9% sure it has nothing to do with chargebacks, processing fees, fraud, etc. It was either a bad decision (unless there's something I'm totallly unaware of - always possible) or a poorly set up site (likely). I am sure from a business perspective, if somebody wants to give us money - we'll take it. My best guess is that the host for the site charges fees to EA based on number of transactions, thus their insistence on single purchases per transaction. Whether that fits into the bad decision or poorly set up site, you make the call! As for how credit cards work, its not as complicated as one may perceive, the only thing irritating as a merchant is you're charged processing fees from both by the parent and processing/ support organizations. One card in particular charges the merchant more than the others, which is why you'll often see smaller businesses only accept Visa/ MC/ Disc.

 

[Kyrie_Elaison]

I'm completely miffed over this whole thing. I have been paying for 11 years only to find out that the Japanese are getting special treatment?

What is the deal with this?

Now to top it off they do it again;

Ultima Online service to commemorate the 11 anniversary of the great game of 11 types of items stuffed in a package that appeared limited to Japan.
There are limited, so do not miss this opportunity!

The product of the mass-market stores nationwide, PC shops, specialty stores and online games are available in shops.
販売数限定のため、売り切れ御免！ Because of limited sales, so SOLD OUT!
発売予定日：2008年11月13日（木） Release Date: 2008 Thursday, Nov. 13

Apparently these items were released Nov. 13 to the Japanese player base only!


This is not acceptable!

Why is the Japanese player base being given special treatment? I would really like a response from EA/Mythic on this.

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

Jeremy's already said it's only limited for 30 days... then we can buy on the code store... why we have to "Buy" and don't get one for free or anything, I'll never know but that's the way it is... Why the Japanese are getting special treatment probably has to do with what side their bread is buttered on, but you will never get EA/Mythic to confirm this.

It is what it is, we'll have access to purchase codes for this in mid-December and find out costs closer to December...

 

[Warrior of Time]

It is hard to believer that you think you must pay for a Gift. On top of that we don't even know what the gift will be.
Also it should be one per char like in the past. Look at the little blue and the black boxes they one time. Also how was Christmas gifts was given out. It was per char not account.

I think we need to see what the offer is going to be.

This is not suposed to be a pre-release item, like they most likely will have for UO:SA. It is suposed to be an annaversery Gift. The attendent was sold there and a Gift here.