An Official UO Forum: Would you support it?

[Jirel of Joiry]

Okay I'm trying to collect data to see how much of the UO population would in fact support a Official UO forum. That is a forum accessed from the UO Herald page and tied in with your UO account(s).

The Pros:

1) Only active, paying UO players could access it. Basically if you quit and terminate your account you cannot access the official forum.

2) More contact with the Development team since it is UO's forum and not a
3rd party site.

3) No freaking Ads!!! (Sorry Stratics )

4) The UO Community would not be spread across 3 message boards

The Cons:

1) If you get in trouble/suspended/banned on the official forum it affects your UO account(s)

2) If you get in trouble/suspended/banned in UO you could not access the offical forum.

3) It would in all likelyhood take resources away from UO.

 

[Viper09]

I honestly don't care anymore. Would be nice but it would mean that EA would need to give them funding to do it since it will need dedicated moderator(s). The devs do enough as it is without having to waste their time moderating a forum.

 

[Uvtha]

The UO.com boards weren't all that great really. I don't really remember any more dev interaction on them.

I don't mind ads, and I like the fact that people who once played can pop in and say hi. And honestly I think that people will always stick with stratics or UOforums whatever, the community would still be on multiple boards.

But I'm not against it per say. I just don't think it matters much.

 

[Viper09]

Adblock fixes the ad issues wonderfully.

 

[Jirel of Joiry]

I honestly don't care anymore. Would be nice but it would mean that EA would need to give them funding to do it since it will need dedicated moderator(s). The devs do enough as it is without having to waste their time moderating a forum.

I know.

I also know I'm not alone in saying that I resent having to discuss the up coming PvP changes here.

I resent having to wade through a tsunami of trolls and flames to read what the devs have to say.

I don't doubt for a minute people are completely poed at the direction the Devs are going with UO. I KNOW generally everyone is poed about the new "Mini" Buster(as in its a "bust"). However turning a discussion into Trolls Warz and FlameFest 2011 isn't helping anything and will ultimately HURT UO.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

This is an irrelevant question; it will not happen.

Somehow I think the first to support an official forum would be Stratics.

Would take a lot of pressure off them.

But it won't happen. Never will. We are lucky we still have a team that is engaged in issues at all even if we disagree about the content.

Official forums is money with no direct return on investment. It's increasingly clear to me that EA wants a direct return on investment out of every every dollar they spend on UO, even as they ignore the steady revenue it provides.

This way they get to spend hundreds of millions on a sucky game related to an artistically dead franchise, and can blame UO when said game fails!

-Galen's player

 

[Tinsil]

Nah stratics is good. Sometimes petra could lighten up on the locks/deletes! but usually its all good here.

 

[Kas Althume]

Even tho i would support an official forum i would never use it, when it is connected to your real UO account. I've seen too much fubar going on with that in aion and other games. More than once did they feck up their session management and you ended up being logged into someone else' forum account...

 

[Krinkle]

I don't have much confidence in EA to properly run a UO forum. The company lacks vision and doesn't seem to know what it takes to do things properly in today's world. Their inconsistency speaks for itself.

 

[Farsight]

Wouldn't support it.
Wouldn't use it.

And If it does happen, I hope it would be moderated with an iron fist. Things are far too lax on some of the other UO forums.

 

[PASmountaindew]

Somehow I think the first to support an official forum would be Stratics.

Would take a lot of pressure off them.

-Galen's player

I completely disagree with that statement. As you can see under my name I am a staff member here at UO Stratics and have been for many years. I don't see this so called pressure being placed on me or any of the staff members. We are all volunteers and if at any time we think we have too much pressure on us then we are free to take a break or step down completely. But in the last couple of years I have not seen anyone step down due to pressures. I believe all of us here on staff are generally happy to be here to help this site become as good as it can be.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I completely disagree with that statement. As you can see under my name I am a staff member here at UO Stratics and have been for many years. I don't see this so called pressure being placed on me or any of the staff members. We are all volunteers and if at any time we think we have too much pressure on us then we are free to take a break or step down completely. But in the last couple of years I have not seen anyone step down due to pressures. I believe all of us here on staff are generally happy to be here to help this site become as good as it can be.

No pressure at all from being at the same time a fan site and the closest thing 50,000 players have to an official forum, eh? For a player base that is flat-out nuts even by industry standards? (And yes I include myself.)

Yes, you're volunteers; frankly, though, I'd have thought being paid for it would make it easier to put up with us. The implication seems to be that your being volunteers somehow makes it easier.

OK, guess I'll take your word for it. Apologies for thinking this would be a rough gig.

I really should have stayed out of this thread. Damned one way, damned the other.

-Galen's player

 

[unified]

Looks like you've answered your own question.

It's a good idea for the pros you mentioned, but an overwhelmingly bad idea for the cons you mentioned.

Stratics allows for the freedom of expression that you will not be able to have if UO had an official forum again. My ability to play a game I pay to play should not be based on how I interact with others on a forum. They are separate personae. My game character is not a personification of who I am in real life and vice versa.

 

[Amber Witch]

Jirel of Joiry wrote:Okay I'm trying to collect data to see how much of the UO population would in fact support a Official UO forum. That is a forum accessed from the UO Herald page and tied in with your UO account(s).

The Pros:

1) Only active, paying UO players could access it. Basically if you quit and terminate your account you cannot access the official forum.

On one hand I like this but on the other hand I like equal access for all. There are those that quit due to financial difficulties and I would feel for them.

2) More contact with the Development team since it is UO's forum and not a
3rd party site.

I don't think that it would make a difference to the Dev team where they post. It would be the same work load regardless.

3) No freaking Ads!!! (Sorry Stratics )

I know it's been posted already in this thread but if the Ads bother you Adblock is a blessing. Give it a try!

4) The UO Community would not be spread across 3 message boards

I think people will just add another forum to their reading. Maybe over time they will gravitate to the one that suits them best but it would probably even fracture the community more.

The Cons:

1) If you get in trouble/suspended/banned on the official forum it affects your UO account(s)

2) If you get in trouble/suspended/banned in UO you could not access the offical forum.
3) It would in all likelyhood take resources away from UO.

If this were a perfect world and EA actually funded a project such as what you are suggesting these 3 elements would be groovy. This requires resources and management. EA had potential legal issues with the volunteer councilor program and had to can that. The number of staffed positions this would require to do it well would be a significant add'l cost in this day and age.

 

[Black Sun]

Going solely on the conditions you gave, I voted no.
- I do not want my forum account tied to my UO account in any way, shape or form. It's just too risky.
- I don't like the inactive members not being able to post. Back when I took a few years off I would pop in occasionally and see how things were going. If I wasn't able to do that, I doubt I would have come back to UO at all.


Additionally,
- Ad free is not a guarantee. I would be more than willing to bet EA would have banners stuck up promoting their console games and other products that aren't a direct competition for UO.
- UO had official forums. They closed them down. I doubt they would revisit what they saw as either a failure or a money drain. It's a good business model if you think of it. Why pay someone to manage something when there are people willing to do it for free?
- Increased Dev participation is not a given either. Dev's will post when and if they have something to share and spare time to be spending on message boards. Just because it's an official board doesn't mean they will suddenly be able to post more.
- Trolls are trolls. No matter where they go, they will not change. On person's 'troll' is another's 'opinionated poster'.
- Official boards or not, people are still going to go to their preferred forum. I was a regular on the official forums way back before they closed. When they finally did close, I moved over to Stratics with nearly everyone else. I've been coming here for so long I can't even remember exactly how long it's been. I wouldn't want to leave, to me this is as comfortable and familiar as UO itself.

Besides, UO is not the money maker for EA that it once was. In reality, we all know we're past the point of no return. IMO EA would be foolish to dump any money into maintaining and staffing an official forum this late in the game.

 

[Capn Kranky]

At the time EA had UO forums under their guard, more Dev presence was on here and Crossroads of Britannia boards than there.

I voted no ... I would not support it for one of your very CON items. It might take resources away from the game. We have a hard enough time now, why should we jeopardize what we have?

Besides, Stratics and UOGuide have more accurate and up to date info than the UOHerald therefore supporting my allegation EA cannot support what they have now to any good level, why add more in?

 

[gunneroforgin]

I loved the old Uo boards. EA decided it was cheaper to let Stratics host its boards a long time ago. To change back now seems counter productive.

Oh and concerning adds. I never look at them anyway(sorry Stratics) but I love the forums here.

 

[Lady Michelle]

Going solely on the conditions you gave, I voted no.
- I do not want my forum account tied to my UO account in any way, shape or form. It's just too risky.
- I don't like the inactive members not being able to post. Back when I took a few years off I would pop in occasionally and see how things were going. If I wasn't able to do that, I doubt I would have come back to UO at all.


Additionally,
- Ad free is not a guarantee. I would be more than willing to bet EA would have banners stuck up promoting their console games and other products that aren't a direct competition for UO.
- UO had official forums. They closed them down. I doubt they would revisit what they saw as either a failure or a money drain. It's a good business model if you think of it. Why pay someone to manage something when there are people willing to do it for free?
- Increased Dev participation is not a given either. Dev's will post when and if they have something to share and spare time to be spending on message boards. Just because it's an official board doesn't mean they will suddenly be able to post more.
- Trolls are trolls. No matter where they go, they will not change. On person's 'troll' is another's 'opinionated poster'.
- Official boards or not, people are still going to go to their preferred forum. I was a regular on the official forums way back before they closed. When they finally did close, I moved over to Stratics with nearly everyone else. I've been coming here for so long I can't even remember exactly how long it's been. I wouldn't want to leave, to me this is as comfortable and familiar as UO itself.

Besides, UO is not the money maker for EA that it once was. In reality, we all know we're past the point of no return. IMO EA would be foolish to dump any money into maintaining and staffing an official forum this late in the game.

Same reasons he posted ( thank you Black Sun for saving me the time on this)
adding most likely uo user names would be used for the uo forms, and that is a big no no for me.
Stratics is the only place I will use forums at.

 

[Taylor]

Indifferent. I will say this, though. Look at the information on uo.com (timeliness, exhaustiveness, accuracy, broken links, etc.). Look at the information on uo.stratics.com.

Yep.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

This is an irrelevant question; it will not happen.
Somehow I think the first to support an official forum would be Stratics.


Would take a lot of pressure off them.
We are lucky we still have a team that is engaged in issues at all even if we disagree about the content.
Official forums is money with no direct return on investment.

I agree w/ the first part
Some mods ALSO moderate (or more) on Other Forums, and have for a long time. They do it cause they like it and they enjoy it - it's not all about UO for them.
No return - think tax breaks, plus free advertising for their successful games.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Indifferent. I will say this, though. Look at the information on uo.com (timeliness, exhaustiveness, accuracy, broken links, etc.). Look at the information on uo.stratics.com.

Yep.

You hit the nail on the head. uo.com=broken

 

[Ludes]

I wouldn't support it.

Stratics gets the job done quite well for me, and since I've been using Stratics off and on for like ten years now, it feels comfortable to me.

I also agree with the folks that stated concerns over whether EA could do a good job.
I remember UO.com and did post on it... But it was never as active or as well informed as Stratics.

 

[Storm]

no I like it here

 

[Woodsman]

I honestly don't care anymore. Would be nice but it would mean that EA would need to give them funding to do it since it will need dedicated moderator(s). The devs do enough as it is without having to waste their time moderating a forum.

Oh please, they have moderators for the official BioWare forums which include moderators for their 15 year old DOS games and they have 15 moderators listed for the official Warhammer: Age of Reckoning forums which is a Mythic title. Star Wars: The Old Republic has its own forums although I believe they share mods with the other BioWare forums, and the rules are basically the same.

They have dozens of moderators for the official BioWare and Mythic forums, it would take them less than 20 minutes to add on a few UO forums and designate some of the existing moderators. They have a blanket policy as far as rules so they wouldn't have to train new moderators or anything.

BioWare has worked on their community and networking stuff, unlike the old UO.com forums. It's like night and day.

UO and Camelot are the only two active BioWare titles that don't have official forums. They have Facebook which is really dumb when you read the comments.

 

[Woodsman]

Besides, UO is not the money maker for EA that it once was. In reality, we all know we're past the point of no return. IMO EA would be foolish to dump any money into maintaining and staffing an official forum this late in the game.

BioWare has official forums for DOS games that haven't seen a retail shelf in over 15 years, so it's not a question of money making. They have 15 moderators for the official Mythic Warhammer forums and I doubt that Warhammer is all that much bigger population wise or revenue wise than UO.

As much as I love Stratics, here is a major reason why I'd like an official UO forums: New players. It doesn't look good for UO when the only official communications/interaction listed on UOHerald.com are Facebook and Twitter. UO's facebook page is atrocious and I'm still not sure why they don't delete the posts mentioning 3rd party shards. BioWare has official forums for all of their games, including their DOS games, and they have them for Warhammer.

UO and Camelot are the only two BioWare/Mythic titles that don't have forums, and it doesn't look good if a new player visits the BioWare site and sees UO virtually ignored, and visits UOHerald.com and is referred to a Facebook page with a lot of pancakes and 3rd party shard links.

 

[TheMac]

Adblock fixes the ad issues wonderfully.

Exactly.... What adds? lol

 

[Nexus]

I'm saying no for a couple of reasons...

1. They don't have the resources set aside for UO to do so.
2. It further fragments community
3. Tying accounts to Forums is bad Juju. Much easier to exploit BB software and steal info.
4. They can't keep the UO Herald's Play Guide, or EA Knowledge Base up to date what makes anyone think managing a ever changing forum will be easier?
5. For all the gripes and complaints here, things are lax compared to any "Official" game forums I've been on.

 

[Jirel of Joiry]

Wow! First let me thank everyone for their feedback. This is great let's keep this going. You brought up alot of things I had not thought about.

Too true BB software is highly expoitable/hackable. *Cough-Cough* Al Qeada hacked through a webforum. (they deserved it )

I apologize for my lack of clarity I mean to say you couldn't post if you weren't active. I was basing it on the WoW offical forums. You can read all you want there but no WoW account = no posting for you.

I differ when it comes to inactive and non-uo players. I don't believe that someone that is NOT paying for the game should have any say on what changes etc. are made to the game. This only my opinon I'm not asking anyone to like it or agree with it.

I have to agree that EA doesn't have a great history of doing things right and often when they do, do things they're half-assed. Between UOHerald.com (should be called brokenjunkheep.com) or all thelovely giltches in the other EA games I am silly enough to own. One could hope they could sucessfully pull off an offical forum, but their history ain't in their favor.


Anyway thank you again, keep up the voting and great posts.

 

[Aran]

MyUO was the best UO forum.

 

[Woodsman]

I have to agree that EA doesn't have a great history of doing things right and often when they do, do things they're half-assed. Between UOHerald.com (should be called brokenjunkheep.com) or all thelovely giltches in the other EA games I am silly enough to own. One could hope they could sucessfully pull off an offical forum, but their history ain't in their favor.

I would stop thinking of terms of EA when it comes to UO and forums and community.

If there were official forums, they would be run through BioWare, and BioWare literally has dozens of moderators and a forums website already setup. It would take 10-20 minutes to add a half dozen official UO forums and assign some of the existing moderators to them.

Other than an outdated Neverwinter Nights website which was neglected, BioWare does a good job of running their main official forums and the official Star Wars:TOR forums.

The Star Wars: The Old Republic forums alone have over 5 million posts and the main BioWare forums have roughly 4.5 million. That's million. I'm pretty sure UO never came close to that activity.

There is nothing stopping BioWare from adding a half dozen UO and a half dozen Camelot forums to replace the Facebook posts.

 

[Tina Small]

Jirel, go take a look at the official Warhammer Online forums. This link takes you to the General Discussion forum:

Choose Language | BioWare Social Network

There is no less complaining and bickering there than you see here. Perhaps because the game is in endless trial mode, it's apparently not difficult for former players to still make posts. (See all the "thinking about returning, is it worth it" threads.)

If you look in the WHO Developer Roundtable subforums, you'll notice the threads are old and developer responses are as well.

About the only thing they have that we don't have here is Kai Schober (who is also one of our "community" people but apparently still isn't up to speed on UO enough to talk to us) occasionally promising to track down further information about something, sorta like Jeremy used to do but not quite with her spark or feistiness. (I miss Jeremy.)

My concern with pushing for an official forum is that EA would perhaps get the bright idea to raise fees or make us actually have to pay something more to access them. Seeing how dead things have gotten around here lately, I think that idea would fall flat on its face. We're not even using something that we can use for free, why would we use something we'd have to pay extra for?

 

[5% Luck]

I voted no. Now the reason I did isnt that I think its a bad idea. I voted no because I know players have and will continue to gravitate here to stratics for their UO posting needs.

It simply put is a better resource for information. If uo had a site with updated information in as well done manner as here on stratics it would have 1/2 a chance. In the past that has never been the case. The only other site that comes to mind, at least to me, is uoguide. They have a very few tidbits that statics does not have and vice versa.

With that, I will acknowlage most other games I have played had the forum account tyed to the game account. Weather it be for proper poll results or player accountability, I dont know but here on startics I dont see a lot of the problems that come from not having it set up that way. That is of course unless the moderators here are simply doing their jobs well enough that a consistent poster like myself simply does not notice!

Thank you! to the whole stratics team!

 

[Aran]

Stratics was a lot quieter before they closed down the MyUO forums.

 

[Lord Gareth]

If they did thats fine, if they don't that is fine as well.

Only thing I would be upset about is if they increased the monthly fee, which I guess I could just counter by shutting down a few UO accounts.

I see a few comments about assigning other mods to do both...dont we already share a In-game support staff....why would you want to share another support staff?

15 moderators is nice but whats the official UO Stratics dedicated staff count for Moderators, New managers, News Reporters, Content Editors, Administrators and those tech peeps behind the scenes? Is that above 15? And other forums what is their staff count? Is that above 15?

If they did make official forums and I was one of their moderators being assigned extra work you bet id be demanding a raise lol

 

[Aran]

Serious question: Were those of you against this actually around when the MyUO forums existed?

 

[Woodsman]

Only thing I would be upset about is if they increased the monthly fee, which I guess I could just counter by shutting down a few UO accounts.

I see a few comments about assigning other mods to do both...dont we already share a In-game support staff....why would you want to share another support staff?

BioWare already has forums up and running with millions of posts up and running with dozens of moderators already and there would not be any additional costs. UO traffic would be a drop in the bucket compared to other BioWare titles. Star Wars alone generated 5 million posts since those forums went live.

 

[LadyNico]

I wouldn't support anything which would stretch the UO staff rubberband even thinner.

There is absolutely nothing preventing you from setting up your own fan site in which you could rule it however you best see fit, eg no advertising, rules to suit you, etc.

@ aran: Yes, I was around for the old account linked forums. Only when it ceased to exist did I move to Stratics.

 

[Percivalgoh]

I would be all for it except that the historry of online stuff from official sites is that it is quickly outdated and slow to update. All the negatives you listed would be positives to me.

 

[unified]

BioWare already has forums up and running with millions of posts up and running with dozens of moderators already and there would not be any additional costs. UO traffic would be a drop in the bucket compared to other BioWare titles. Star Wars alone generated 5 million posts since those forums went live.

I hope others heard you. You've pointed this out more than a few times, and no one has commented on it. I find it interesting that they have forums for their other games. As for whatever caused them to close the official forums eight years ago, I am certain they have learned whatever lessons made that happen.

 

[unified]

I would be all for it except that the historry of online stuff from official sites is that it is quickly outdated and slow to update. All the negatives you listed would be positives to me.

These are probably separate issues. Often, forums are separate from content. Accept for FAQ's, even Stratic's UO game content is separate from its forums.

 

[Woodsman]

I hope others heard you. You've pointed this out more than a few times, and no one has commented on it. I find it interesting that they have forums for their other games.

Every major game in BioWare's stable, including Warhammer Online, has dedicated BioWare forums except UO and Camelot

They have forums for DOS games that haven't been on store shelves in 15 years, but no UO or Camelot

And BioWare has officially taken control of the Ultima franchise.

I'm going to laugh and cry at the same time if the Ultima Forever stuff gets official BioWare forums while UO and Camelot continue to be ignored.

 

[Black Sun]

Serious question: Were those of you against this actually around when the MyUO forums existed?

I was and my vote stands.

 

[Vlaude]

Hmm. Reliable fansites with moderators who care more about the game and community than any official staff ever would vs more headaches and complaints that come along with running a forum with EA staff. Tough choice for them. Nevertheless, I'd support them doing one, I just don't see it happening.

 

[Kojak]

I used to love when the uo forums were around - it got all the whiners off the Uhall - it was a dark day when it shut down and they all came back

 

[DeathNote]

I vote no, because they would then go and make this place official, which is bad. Just too many ads and new players get bombarded by even more ads when going here. Ads on an official forum is just bad.

I visited the old uoforums before going here and it doesn't have ads, despite they have the same operational costs as stratics. (so I was told by the staff I pm'ed and it makes sense) So if they used that forum I might change my vote from no to yes.

 

[Lord Gareth]

Well with all the explanations on how it would work and such, if they do cool if they don't cool. Would be nice to have some less ads on the content pages

 

[DeathNote]

Saw you wrote about ads on the content pages and I went to check their information on the resent expansions since I have been away for a while, but holy hell on a stick, lots of ads there too.

Thank god uoguide is still up and running. Maybe uoforums and uoguide could work together to make ad free or very few ads for UO content.

 

[Tazar]

What ads?

(Firefox with ad-block ftw!)

 

[DeathNote]

What ads?

(Firefox with ad-block ftw!)

Why would you block your own sites ads if you were for them? And not all of us have the ability to block ads or want to block ads. I browse a lot from my work place and they use IE and at home I don't want to block ads in general, only stratics has made me want to get an ad blocker all of a sudden.

 

[Lord Gareth]

What ads?

(Firefox with ad-block ftw!)

Thanks Tazar *installed*