A possible way to save UO/gain more players?

[Guest]

I am trying out WOW and so far its ok.
The graphics add a nice touch but arent a big deal.

But what is a big deal is two things:

Quests: Wow has alot of quests and they are interesting to do.

UO has alot of quests, mainly for newbies. At the top end there is either 1 or 2 or no quests for high ranking players.

But to me the biggest advantage WOW has is they sell game time cards at retail locations. I seem to remember UO doing that, but it appears they stopped for some reason.
I for one would rather use a game time card VS a credit/debit card. A game time card is nice for those that don't have or don't want to use their CC online.

 

[Babble]

Possible but not likely.

Quests are nice, but you need lots of those and for that the uo lands would probably be too small. Remember in wow 4-6 quests all lead to a part of a land to have a reason.

For the coupons ... Maybe with warhammer UO might manage to gain that again, else shops are not interested to sell one a year or so..

 

[Guest]

...

Quests would be good if done correctly. Currently, the vast majority of UO quests are NOT really done correctly and promote scripting (specifically Heartwood). The quests need to bring back the feel of the old Ultima series and the Virtues and gain within the virtues need to be tied to them.

However, this takes time and a concentrated content team which we (players and devs and UO alike) are in need of after the move.

As for gametime cards, while they are nice, I'm not entirely sure that they would necessarily bring in a substantial number of accounts.

 

[Guest]

I was under the impression that WOW is nothing but quests and leveling. No thanks.

UO offers a full world to do pretty much whatever you want, when you want. People keep screaming over all they say is wrong but obviously something is right. We are still here, playing, paying and screaming instead of searching for something else to do due to the game being shut down.

UO has alot of things that are right. Yes improvements can be made but we dont need any more "improvements" that turn us into a crappy shadow of what WOW is. I dont care about WOW. I will never try it out. And frankly I don't want to see a world I love being stripped of its identity all because another company made a wildly popular game based on wildly popular single player games that probably sold more copies than single player Ultimas did back then.

Most of my friends 12 years ago had played Warcraft. Most of them had never heard of Ultima. WOW already had a head start in consumer visibility for that very reason. Quit bothering to compare apples and donuts and concentrate on making UO as great as it can be. Quit worrying about WOW and trying to copy them and start promoting UO on its own merits.

Now I am heading to work and leaving my 100% fire order shield in front of the computer screen so my house doesn't go up in flames while I am gone.

Have a nice day!

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Quests: Wow has alot of quests and they are interesting to do.

[/ QUOTE ]

I stopped reading from here, was that meant to be a joke?

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

But to me the biggest advantage WOW has is they sell game time cards at retail locations. I seem to remember UO doing that, but it appears they stopped for some reason.

[/ QUOTE ]
Its unlikely that a store will put game time tokens on their shelves for a game that they dont even stock, and one which most of its employees dont even know exists.

If EA were to get game boxes back in the stores however, that might be a different matter.

 

[Guest]

UO cannot compete with WoW by copying them. Copying other games has always failed for UO.

 

[Nexus]

<blockquote><hr>

I am trying out WOW and so far its ok.
The graphics add a nice touch but arent a big deal.

But what is a big deal is two things:

Quests: Wow has alot of quests and they are interesting to do.

UO has alot of quests, mainly for newbies. At the top end there is either 1 or 2 or no quests for high ranking players.

But to me the biggest advantage WOW has is they sell game time cards at retail locations. I seem to remember UO doing that, but it appears they stopped for some reason.
I for one would rather use a game time card VS a credit/debit card. A game time card is nice for those that don't have or don't want to use their CC online.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sell it to someone who is willing to dedicate the time to actually Fix what's broken in it...

 

[Terraxia]

My opinion is the way to bring more players to UO is to entice people already playing UO on freeshards to become paying customers again. The most obvious methods to do so are not permitted to be discussed here, however. However there are other methods, such as showing creativity that can only be seen on the freeshards themselves, such as that huge warship picture someone posted here a ways back. Real events with real meanings to the game with outcomes that are determined by the player's actions or inactions, not a predetermined outcome then blamed on the players, like Haven's blackrock makeover. It seems draconi has some high levels of creativity but he is only allowed to excersise it on the test server, and if his ideas reach the production shards it turns out watered down, or meshed in with robbed ideas from other games.

 

[Stigmatas]

<blockquote><hr>

But to me the biggest advantage WOW has is they sell game time cards at retail locations. I seem to remember UO doing that, but it appears they stopped for some reason.
I for one would rather use a game time card VS a credit/debit card. A game time card is nice for those that don't have or don't want to use their CC online.

[/ QUOTE ]

Aye they used to have game time cards at local game shops and whatnot. I've used em ...way back when...the '90s

I don't think UO is popular enough to justify distributing those cards anymore, unfortunately.

They have game time codes in the "code store" or whatever its called though don't they? Then again, I guess you'd need a credit card to get them

If KR gets polished up and running like it should, which it is admittedly far from, then I suppose advertisement would be in order. I'd think that would be the only way to get a larger influx of new blood. Unfortunately, again, it's nowhere near ready for that.

 

[imported_Chad Sexington]

The only simple way to get more players that doesn't involve any drastic changes (and an idea that's been thrown around over and over) are free accounts.

The free accounts would have some restrictions, like no housing, 1 character, limited banking, capped at 600 skill points, limited to trammel (no t2a, fel, malas, or tokuno).

 

[Stigmatas]

Was Magincia's blown up state not a direct effect of player actions? I wasn't playing at the time (damnit) but thats what I thought I heard.

You have to tread lightly where freeshards are concerned. I dabbled for about a week on a freeby once. Some of the "content" they have on a lot of the freebies is rather lame. Super neon gates with super neon pixie crap all over the place. Thats just one example that would get flamezorized by a lot of people (including me) Then again, yes, there was cool stuff.

Cool stuff like what we have now in Heritage Tokens. Heritage tokens are good, heritage tokens are wise. Added more junk to the player's environment. I dig it. Too bad they are not implemented within the game though like through a quest.

I know it would make lots of people get pissed, but if there was a way to kill all the freeshards then you can bet a bunch of UO fiends would come back. Most certainly. People do not play them just because they think EA's UO sucks. I'm of the opinion that most people play them, well, because they are free.

 

[Guest]

Trail accounts: Turned out to be a joke.
But how about a new spin:
Free Accounts? Just allow people to play UO but restrict them.
IE: No house owner ship, accounts limited to 1 char. per shard. Chars limited to a cap on skills of 80, or failing that, free accounts can't leave the main land or travel to lands added after 2nd age.
Gives people a taste of what an open ended unquest filled game is like.

I did get a chuckle out of the "All I hear about WOW is quests and leveling". Well wake up and smell the coffee. Currently UO is nothing more then "What is the quickest way I can get X skill to 125?" sounds simaler to the Wow comments.

UO does need a better quest system. For all level of players, and maybe a specail set of titles to go with it, as well as rare items that only come with doing the quests.

Graphics are just eye candy.
UO does have the advantage of having player created events.

 

[Guest]

If its just a big pile of fetch and kill quests, who cares. I for one don't find that to be very much fun.

I do like the idea however that soemone else came up with for natural quests, that don't tell you your on a quest, you just have to find out things for yourself.

 

[Terraxia]

One thing about freeshards that keeps me away from them is that they are not owned by EA but by private individuals, all of whom can be reasonably expected to be capable of favoritism toward any given individual, and can do pretty much what they want to whomever they want, since they are the boss. Im sure there is a ton of less than creative features there like the neon moongates you mention, but there are some neat features and retro content that might do well on production shards, which are MOSTLY free of corruption.

As per magicina the thinking is that the abyss portal will be there, which required magicina out of the way. It was stated by the devs that most shards "saved" magicina by defeating the rift guardians, but the terrain is still altered to show up on a cntl-shift, and highlightable, which means that magicina is really no different than when the demons were spawning. No rebuilding is taking place, the event is not totally turned off, and the NPCs are still gone. I doubt anything would be much different if some buildings were spared the rubble craze. We would have tile-highligtable buildings still standing in the ghost town awaiting the devs to finish the event. This lack of event wrap-up is getting old.

 

[Babble]

Just wondering why everything stopped with magincia.
Simple system would have been to add counters like they have with the donations. Then let people donate wood, granite and some other trash and then you can take a break for a month and start rebuilding.

 

[the 4th man]

Playing free with strict limitations works.....seen it on another game.
Copying WoW won't work, cause that's all quest and level building.....Uo is a do what you want, where you want, when you want game.....alot of game players can't fathom that. One, they see 2D and say why waste my money, but, given a freebie chance, and they may bite, hell, I would.....

couldn't hurt to try.

 

[Sees Far]

I was reading through the thread, thinking about how I might reply, when I saw LordBradens post. I strongly second his remarks.

I want no more of these grand, world-changing rewrites of the UO client. I want the bugs fixed, the scripters stopped, and occasional content additions and events that fit in with the UO world. We will figure out the rest, thank you. UO players invented most of the playstyles the other MMORPGs now emulate. Those with no imagination, who are impressed by shiny pictures, or who like being told what to do may go play WoW.

<blockquote><hr>

I was under the impression that WOW is nothing but quests and leveling. No thanks.

UO offers a full world to do pretty much whatever you want, when you want. People keep screaming over all they say is wrong but obviously something is right. We are still here, playing, paying and screaming instead of searching for something else to do due to the game being shut down.

UO has alot of things that are right. Yes improvements can be made but we dont need any more "improvements" that turn us into a crappy shadow of what WOW is. I dont care about WOW. I will never try it out. And frankly I don't want to see a world I love being stripped of its identity all because another company made a wildly popular game based on wildly popular single player games that probably sold more copies than single player Ultimas did back then.

Most of my friends 12 years ago had played Warcraft. Most of them had never heard of Ultima. WOW already had a head start in consumer visibility for that very reason. Quit bothering to compare apples and donuts and concentrate on making UO as great as it can be. Quit worrying about WOW and trying to copy them and start promoting UO on its own merits.

[/ QUOTE ]