9th Anniversary Tiles - FINALLY

[Nastia Cross]

So anyone who read this thread: http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=179438 knows that I lost access to the 9th Anniversary tiles upon upgrading to SA. Well, I'm happy to say that EA finally got someone on the case:

Thank you for contacting EA games support.

I can really understand the frustration you are enduring at the moment for not getting a timely reply, but please know that we are receiving contacts in high volumes above the normal range. Rest assured, we are striving our level best to get back to you as soon as possible. Accept my sincere apologies for the unintentional delay.

I have manually entitled your account with Ultima Online: 9th Anniversary Collection, please let us know if you are now able to access the 9th Anniversary house tiles.

Should you have any further questions, please take a moment to review our Knowledge Base site at http://support.ea.com or do let us know.

Sincerely,

EA Rep Brad
Electronic Arts

I emailed him back immediately after I received this message and he replied within 10 minutes to further assist me with manually upgrading my other account with the 9th Anniversary.

I would advise anyone who has this problem to contact EA and have patience.

 

[Tazar]

Nice to hear. Thanks for letting us know the outcome!

 

[Beastmaster]

2 questions.

When the problem existed did your account page show you were entitled to them?

Does your account page now show you are entitled to them?

 

[Nastia Cross]

2 questions.

When the problem existed did your account page show you were entitled to them?

Does your account page now show you are entitled to them?

1- No, it did not. It showed as "Not Registered"
2- Yes, now if does.

 

[Flora Green]

Glad you got that resolved, Nastia. Now if they would just release them to the rest of us. Your title had me excited for a second.

 

[Nastia Cross]

It's pleasant to see you enjoy housing features too.

You'll find, La Belle, that I am a very multi-faceted individual... ogres ARE like onions after all... insert gratuitous Shrek reference here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZnztwiWZo4

I *think* what is going on is that EA intended to make the 9th Anniversary tiles part of the SA entitlement, but it was lost in the shuffle (perhaps it is coded differently since it is not an expansion). Anywho, seems to me that anyone can simply log on to their account through support.ea.com and request that the entitlement be manually applied to their account.

 

[Flutter]

It's pleasant to see you enjoy housing features too.

You'll find, La Belle, that I am a very multi-faceted individual... ogres ARE like onions after all... insert gratuitous Shrek reference here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZnztwiWZo4

.

LOL I think she really honestly believes that we don't play the entire game of UO.


Anyhow I am actually kind of excited to see that you actually got a valid response to an issue. Someone actually took the time to help fix your problem. With the short staff and lack of communication this is a good sign.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

You'll find, La Belle, that I am a very multi-faceted individual... ogres ARE like onions after all... insert gratuitous Shrek reference here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZnztwiWZo4

I *think* what is going on is that EA intended to make the 9th Anniversary tiles part of the SA entitlement, but it was lost in the shuffle (perhaps it is coded differently since it is not an expansion). Anywho, seems to me that anyone can simply log on to their account through support.ea.com and request that the entitlement be manually applied to their account.

I don't *think* that at all. You very clearly stated that you did indeed purchase the 9th AE and had used the upgrade code on your account. After applying the SA upgrade you said you lost access to the 9th AE house tiles and even showed unregistered on your account page.

In one of the other threads it was pointed out that someone from Mythic did indeed comment that the 9th AE was not intended to be included with ML free upgrade. Why would it be included with the SA upgrade?

This is that post from Tazer
http://vboards.stratics.com/showpost.php?p=1599656&postcount=8

Apparently it was Chrissay that had said this.

 

[Damien Softstep]

I don't *think* that at all. You very clearly stated that you did indeed purchase the 9th AE and had used the upgrade code on your account. After applying the SA upgrade you said you lost access to the 9th AE house tiles and even showed unregistered on your account page.

In one of the other threads it was pointed out that someone from Mythic did indeed comment that the 9th AE was not intended to be included with ML free upgrade. Why would it be included with the SA upgrade?

This is that post from Tazer
http://vboards.stratics.com/showpost.php?p=1599656&postcount=8

Apparently it was Chrissay that had said this.

Because the ML upgrade was free and the SA upgrade we paid for...

 

[Nastia Cross]

I don't *think* that at all. You very clearly stated that you did indeed purchase the 9th AE and had used the upgrade code on your account. After applying the SA upgrade you said you lost access to the 9th AE house tiles and even showed unregistered on your account page.

In one of the other threads it was pointed out that someone from Mythic did indeed comment that the 9th AE was not intended to be included with ML free upgrade. Why would it be included with the SA upgrade?

This is that post from Tazer
http://vboards.stratics.com/showpost.php?p=1599656&postcount=8

Apparently it was Chrissay that had said this.

No reason to get snippy. I said *think* because it is my assumption based on my correspondence with several CURRENT EA employees. As to why it would be included in the SA upgrade, again I would assume because it is no longer being sold.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

I didn't intend to be "snippy." I apologize if my post came across that way.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Because the ML upgrade was free and the SA upgrade we paid for...

That's all very true. IMO, however that still doesn't mean the 9th AE content, that everyone else paid for, should now be handed out for free. The Mondain's Legacy expansion included a huge amount of content. It brought elves, peerless and peerless ingredients, weapons and armor and much more. It's pretty much industry standard that buying the next expansion of a game usually also includes the content from previous expansions. Regardless, at more than two years after the fact, everyone that paid for the expansion and it's content really have no reason to oppose everyone having access to it eventually for no charge.

Anniversary Edition content is different. It's advertised as new cool stuff you can't get any other way but to purchase it. It's usually advertised as Limited time only. It did not include any game changing content that future players can't live without. The crystal and shadow house tile sets and the Heritage tokens were really the only reason to buy the 9th AE. There are so many Heritage tokens available for as low as 500k that that leaves really only the house tile sets as significant to the players that paid for the 9th AE. Not having those two tiles sets in no way lessons a player's experience playing UO. Not like not having access to the ML content would. If they give the crystal and shadow house tile sets away for free, why would anyone in the future pay them for Anniversary Edition content when you could just wait it out and get it for free?

 

[Damien Softstep]

That's all very true. IMO, however that still doesn't mean the 9th AE content, that everyone else paid for, should now be handed out for free. The Mondain's Legacy expansion included a huge amount of content. It brought elves, peerless and peerless ingredients, weapons and armor and much more. It's pretty much industry standard that buying the next expansion of a game usually also includes the content from previous expansions. Regardless, at more than two years after the fact, everyone that paid for the expansion and it's content really have no reason to oppose everyone having access to it eventually for no charge.

Anniversary Edition content is different. It's advertised as new cool stuff you can't get any other way but to purchase it. It's usually advertised as Limited time only. It did not include any game changing content that future players can't live without. The crystal and shadow house tile sets and the Heritage tokens were really the only reason to buy the 9th AE. There are so many Heritage tokens available for as low as 500k that that leaves really only the house tile sets as significant to the players that paid for the 9th AE. Not having those two tiles sets in no way lessons a player's experience playing UO. Not like not having access to the ML content would. If they give the crystal and shadow house tile sets away for free, why would anyone in the future pay them for Anniversary Edition content when you could just wait it out and get it for free?

The same reason they gave ML away for free and i paid for it three times...its called do you want the new content now or do you want it 4 years down the road...

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

The same reason they gave ML away for free and i paid for it three times...its called do you want the new content now or do you want it 4 years down the road...

Well, again not untrue. The difference I see though, is that players coming to UO today would be significantly disadvantaged and slighted if they couldn't access the ML areas. The peerless for example. Not be able to create an elf character for example. That is significant content which new players should be able to access. Not so with the house tile sets. There are dozens of house tile sets. Not having access to only two of them is in no way a game breaker.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Heck, if I could give mine away I'd gladly do so. They're horrid.

 

[Flora Green]

There is no reason, when other content that has been paid for and eventually "given away", that the 9th tilesets shouldn't be as well. At the very least they could be put up on UOgamecodes at a reasonable price instead of people having to pay 30+ for something years old WHEN it can be found. They are tilesets afterall and as you said, not game breakers. They gave away the heritage tokens, that people paid for, as a means to appease people because someone seriously dropped the ball on the 10th anniversary. IMO that makes the 9th tilesets fair game to become free content.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, we STILL haven't received the 11th in game FREE gifts that Draconi, Kilandra and at least one other person said was coming. Is it really a big deal to toss in two tilesets from the 9th year?

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

By the same token, is it really a big deal if they don't?

 

[Nastia Cross]

No worries, I was probably reading too far into it lol. Anyway, some people really happen to like the 9th Anni tile sets (myself included) so for us it kinda is a "medium" deal, especially for those that want it and can't purchase it. I know many of us haven't really asked for it for free, we've even said they should just sell a code for it on the uogamecodes.com website. I just hope my little ordeal will help anyone else who lost access to the 9th Anniversary tiles and would like them back.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Completely agree it should be available at uogamecodes. It's really dumb that it's not available there. Just another example of EA's failure to recognize an opportunity to get a little money and satisfy it's player base.

 

[Flora Green]

I don't understand how someone could be opposed to housing tiles not being made free when the promotion is long over. Plus, it was stated officially they were finding a way(which can't be hard) to release them to the public and another part of that paid for promotion was handed out for FREE to not just the current playerbase at the time, but to people who hadn't played in years as well. They gave out the heritage, which were far more desired, like candy but won't allow everyone access to TWO tilesets. It's illogical.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

I don't understand how someone could be opposed to housing tiles not being made free when the promotion is long over. Plus, it was stated officially they were finding a way(which can't be hard) to release them to the public and another part of that paid for promotion was handed out for FREE to not just the current playerbase at the time, but to people who hadn't played in years as well. They gave out the heritage, which were far more desired, like candy but won't allow everyone access to TWO tilesets. It's illogical.

Anyone could be opposed to them being given out free for many reasons. Most of which have already been stated. It doesn't matter that the promotion is long over. That's the whole point of a promotion is it not? Available for a limited time only means just that, Limited time. There was nothing critical to succeeding in the game in the 9th AE content. Absolutely nothing there that future players can't play just fine without.

It was never stated anywhere "they were finding a way to release them to the public." Unless you're counting the email to Nastia from the obviously misinformed customer service rep. It's been posted that Chrissay said officially that the 9th AE content was not included with SA. So which version is correct?

You're right about the Heritage tokens. They did give out thousands of them to every character. I don't see how that justifies tossing the rest of the 9th AE content out for free. It's not "illogical" to not just hand out the last part of the 9th AE content for free. From a purely customer service point of view, why PO the customers that paid for it by giving it to new customers for free. If so, I'd ask for my money back. Ask Apple. They took a huge black eye for lowering the price of the iPhone $100 unannounced. There were thousands of POd loyal customers. It was BAD customer service.

There's absolutely no reason why they should hand the crystal & shadow tile sets out for free. There isn't a single reason why all new accounts must have the tile sets. The game's content is just fine without them. It is typical EA boneheadedness that you can't buy a code for them at uogamecodes. Even without being upgraded to the 9th AE content, it's still possible to get a house built with those two tile sets. There is a workaround. It may not be convenient but it works nonetheless.

If EA decides to give them away for free, so be it. I for one paid for those two ugly tile sets five times over. I'm not the only one who thinks they should not be given away for free. I doubt anyone could be found opposed to them being sold at uogamecodes though.