EA/Mythic - Some Insight, Please?

[deadite]

First off, I'll admit that this may just be me... but I've lost faith. I had hoped that EA/Mythic would be a "different" company than vanilla EA. I had hoped that the move to Virginia was going to be a productive push towards improving the game, but it now seems like more of a consolidation.

I would LOVE for someone from EA/Mythic to give us some straight answers about a few things.

1) Do we have a producer?
Since Darkscribe left, we have heard little or nothing from this front. There's this Chris Rabideau fellow who popped in and said he was producer, and then did the same thing over on Dark Age of Camelot's website. I know Chris is active on DAoC because he attended some recent IRC chats about the CLASSIC SERVER (ahem!) that they are releasing for the game.

I would like to know who is "in charge" of UO nowadays. I think they should address us with an updated Producer's Letter or State of the Game or ANYTHING that proves that he or she exists and has their hands in UO.

Finally, has anyone told Mark Jacobs that people still play UO? It would be nice if he acknowledged us ONE time by posting on the Herald or even here.


2) What's going on with KR?
There has been next to no development done on the new client from what the players can see... who knows how much it's being worked on behind the scenes? Nobody knows because there is ZERO communication from EA/Mythic about KR. If we are lucky, we'll get a little cryptic blurb about it and then nothing else for months. This is really tiresome but completely in-line with the old EA (pre-Mythic) style of communication.


3) Stygian Abyss?
Okay, there seems to be some lead in with the events that have been going on lately. But it would be nice to get some news about SA. You don't have to ruin any surprises, just give us an honest update on whether we can expect this or any other expansions for the game. Is it still KR-only? When will it be released? Tease us with some features, get us excited for crying out loud...


4) Cheating/Hacking/etc
Big one here. Ever since PunkBuster was dropped (and nary an explanation given... did you cave to silly privacy concerns from the few whiners?) I haven't really seen any kind of news on implementation of a SOLID system to prevent this kind of player activity. Yes, we know, you can't give details because the bad guys would take your secret plans and thwart then, yada yada yada... but has anything comparable to PunkBuster been planned or tested? The updated security in KR... I'm guessing people have to actually use this client for it to work? That's sorta easy to get around, ya know.

Look, I know we've gotten some public displays of cheater banning with the houses on fire, the duped items turning into regular items, etc. Bravo, well done. BUT... these are only addressing the CONSEQUENCES of cheating, not the ROOT problem. What is being done to PREVENT cheating so you don't have to waste dev time on fixing them or putting on public displays to placate your players?


5) Fixing Bugs
UO has a lot of bugs. A LOT of bugs. Too many to count, in fact. Some of them are not serious game breaking bugs, but some of them are actually quite a pain in the rear to players. What bugs are your top priorities? Give us a list of bugs in the order in which you would like to fix them. Sure, everyone is going to want the bug that affects them most at the top of the list, but base the list around severity first and then the amount of irritation caused in general second.


6) System Revamps or Revisits
UO needs a lot of love. From the lacking Virtues to the antiquated Loot System to the Useless Skills to the ENTIRE thieving subgame, there is plenty enough to do to keep a dev team busy for a long time. The problem is that almost all of these issues are completely being ignored instead of addressed in any manner.

I'm sorry, but I would much rather have a revamped thief system or an expanded gardening system than holiday items or turn-in items or really ANY new items. I may be alone in this, but I would love to see any of these systems revisited, tweaked or completely rebuilt...

The current push seems to be events. Okay. Hmm, how do I put this? Leading players around by the nose and doing mass events, in my opinion, goes against the very core of what Ultima Online is *supposed* to be about. Which is about player CHOICE and player OPTIONS and player FREEDOM. It's nice to see other players on the same playfield, but when an event is going on for weeks and weeks and weeks... it's always the same thing: FARM these creatures for more ITEMS so you can be like all the other players who are farming these creatures to get the same items.

UGH.

I would beg of you to stop wasting time on temporary events and give us some longer term subgames to keep us entertained. The virtue items in the old dungeons is kind of an example of this... add something permanent and then move on to add something else. Stop giving us invasion critters to farm endlessly to acquire ridiculous amounts of points to get a few items. The most exciting thing I think that has been added to UO in a long time is the ability to make chocolate and milk cows. Seriously... it was in the spirit of UO and it added something permanent to an existing play style. Awesome!


Conclusion
I know this is a very opinionated, long-winded text that lots of you are not going to agree with in part or in whole. That's okay... the beauty of UO was that it could appeal to MANY styles of gaming. The sad reality of our current version of the game is that it appeals to a much narrower set of styles.

An updated client along with new features and bug fixes with cheating prevention could have REALLY revitalized this game. It could have brought in a whole new generation of gamer to UO. More revenue equals more dev activity equals more features and more fun. Sadly, it seems like KR blew it. They released it too early, which is completely ironic considering how many times Warhammer has been pushed back because it isn't finished. It seems that UO and UO players are at the very bottom of the list of priorities at EA/Mythic and I actually find that pretty damn offensive.

If Jeremy or Richard or Chris or Mark or Santa Claus could please address at least a couple of these points, I think it would be a good faith effort to actually communicate something important to the playerbase.

Signed,
-Disgruntled and Bored of Other MMOs
aka Deadite

 

[The_Dude_]

Ill check back in a cpl month to see if this post has gotten any dev love. Because that is how they work. I agree with your entire post its sad that most likely none of the points will be discussed other then the. WE ARE WORKING ON IT crap thats spewed at us.

 

[Loqucious]

I to would like these questions answered in an honest way. No matter what the responses I will ALWAYS play this game because I love this game. But to constantly keep your player base wondering what is going on is an insult to us. We are all grown ups here, in fact most of us are well grown up LOL, we can handle the truth and we would respect you more for speaking it.

 

[Nyses]

/signed

 

[Castor]

isnt KR like a year old now? If i remember correctly they released it right before the 2nd quarter ended

 

[ColterDC]

Sadly I believe EA/Mythic is just keeping UO around long enough to see if WAR succeeds. If WAR is a hit then I predict UO will be cancelled.

 

[Hildebrand]

Fine, we got the short term stuff, but I would really like to hear about the LONG term too. What's coming up in December? SA? KR? Anything?
Maybe the silence is proof of huge work being done? I mean HUGE?
It is very very hard to be patient when there isn't any communication.
I too agree that we can handle the truth.

 

[Santa Claus]

Ho ho ho,

We have a busy producer who needs to get Warhammer out to the public.
UO and DAoC are an afterthought at the moment, but please coninue to subscribe we use the cash for Warhammer.

KR is fine and working and we don't get any complaints anymore. Though maybe that has to do with the fact that we shoot anyone who tries to complain.

Stygian Abyss is coming and a codename for Warhammer, so look for it in your Christmas stocking

No one chats in UO. Santa would not allow it. There is not cheating! *hard stare*

We leave some bugs in to keep the player base experiencing new content all the time. Santa bets there are new bugs you did not know existed yet!

Santa thinks UO's code and features are fine. Now behave or there will be only coal for you this Christmas!

Now behave and pay your subscriptions or I will get my club out and beat the **** out of you this Christmas.

Your Santa Claus

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

well put. did you try sending a copy of this to Jeremy at all? what's the worst that could happen?

/signed

 

[deadite]

Ah, good reminder. I just did that.

I would encourage anyone else who agrees to also do this..

Oh and thanks for the laugh Santa.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Sadly I believe EA/Mythic is just keeping UO around long enough to see if WAR succeeds. If WAR is a hit then I predict UO will be cancelled.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/warhammer-time

 

[Jeremy]

- Chris Rabideau is the producer; Cal Crowner is the Development Manager. Chris's role is probably more closely comparable to Walt's than to Aaron's - Cal is a little closer to Aaron's in terms of day-to-day stuff. The titles and divisions of work are a little different, but the actual tasks are still getting done.

- There is no magic bullet for cheating, hacking, etc - if there were, it would have been used a long time ago. We have to take things a step at a time. We've been getting a lot of exploits fixed over the last half-dozen publishes, and locking down some of the house placement issues was obviously a big priority for us. We definitely want to continue to target areas like that, and hopefully we'll all see gradual improvement.

- Fixing bugs - also a big priority. When Pub 54 hits Test Center (probably tomorrow,) you'll see quite a few more fixes, including quite a few for Factions, which has desperately needed it for years. Again, this isn't something we can knock out in one patch cycle, but if you flip through the patch notes this year, you'll see quite a few fixes for long-standing bugs.

- System Revamps - something we would all love to do more of. Factions is the system of the moment, but there are tons and TONS of systems in UO, and most of them could use some love. Some just need bug fixes, some need to be completely revisited, and some are probably going to have to wait for some Gargoyle ingenuity to see a real renaissance.

- KR and SA: I'm not going to say much about KR, except that we have filled quite a few engineering positions since the beginning of the year, and that's a good thing As for SA... well, the hints we drop will become less and less subtle as the year wears on, I assure you!

 

[Nosuperiors_Damnfewequals]

As for SA... well, the hints we drop will become less and less subtle as the years wear on, I assure you!
---------------------------------

There! Fixed that for you

 

[Revenant2]

- Chris Rabideau is the producer; Cal Crowner is the Development Manager. Chris's role is probably more closely comparable to Walt's than to Aaron's - Cal is a little closer to Aaron's in terms of day-to-day stuff. The titles and divisions of work are a little different, but the actual tasks are still getting done.

- There is no magic bullet for cheating, hacking, etc - if there were, it would have been used a long time ago. We have to take things a step at a time. We've been getting a lot of exploits fixed over the last half-dozen publishes, and locking down some of the house placement issues was obviously a big priority for us. We definitely want to continue to target areas like that, and hopefully we'll all see gradual improvement.

- Fixing bugs - also a big priority. When Pub 54 hits Test Center (probably tomorrow,) you'll see quite a few more fixes, including quite a few for Factions, which has desperately needed it for years. Again, this isn't something we can knock out in one patch cycle, but if you flip through the patch notes this year, you'll see quite a few fixes for long-standing bugs.

- System Revamps - something we would all love to do more of. Factions is the system of the moment, but there are tons and TONS of systems in UO, and most of them could use some love. Some just need bug fixes, some need to be completely revisited, and some are probably going to have to wait for some Gargoyle ingenuity to see a real renaissance.

- KR and SA: I'm not going to say much about KR, except that we have filled quite a few engineering positions since the beginning of the year, and that's a good thing As for SA... well, the hints we drop will become less and less subtle as the year wears on, I assure you!

Thanks for replying to that guy, and yay for test center publish maybe as soon as tomorrow!

* hopes for fixes to nasty recently-introduced bug-like stuff *

 

[AesSedai]

- Gargoyle ingenuity.


(Might even c/p this for the FoF. But put it in the form of questions so some wont get upset.)

 

[deadite]

- Chris Rabideau is the producer; Cal Crowner is the Development Manager. Chris's role is probably more closely comparable to Walt's than to Aaron's - Cal is a little closer to Aaron's in terms of day-to-day stuff. The titles and divisions of work are a little different, but the actual tasks are still getting done.

- There is no magic bullet for cheating, hacking, etc - if there were, it would have been used a long time ago. We have to take things a step at a time. We've been getting a lot of exploits fixed over the last half-dozen publishes, and locking down some of the house placement issues was obviously a big priority for us. We definitely want to continue to target areas like that, and hopefully we'll all see gradual improvement.

- Fixing bugs - also a big priority. When Pub 54 hits Test Center (probably tomorrow,) you'll see quite a few more fixes, including quite a few for Factions, which has desperately needed it for years. Again, this isn't something we can knock out in one patch cycle, but if you flip through the patch notes this year, you'll see quite a few fixes for long-standing bugs.

- System Revamps - something we would all love to do more of. Factions is the system of the moment, but there are tons and TONS of systems in UO, and most of them could use some love. Some just need bug fixes, some need to be completely revisited, and some are probably going to have to wait for some Gargoyle ingenuity to see a real renaissance.

- KR and SA: I'm not going to say much about KR, except that we have filled quite a few engineering positions since the beginning of the year, and that's a good thing As for SA... well, the hints we drop will become less and less subtle as the year wears on, I assure you!

Thank you Jeremy for replying! My last request would be to get someone to sum this up and finally update your Producer's Letter link on the front page of the UO site!

You guys seem to stress that the Herald is the best place to check for updates or send feedback, etc, and I think it would be beneficial to get something up to replace that ancient producer's letter from Aaron that you have featured at the top of the middle content area.

 

[Vyrquenox]

I to would like these questions answered in an honest way. No matter what the responses I will ALWAYS play this game because I love this game. But to constantly keep your player base wondering what is going on is an insult to us. We are all grown ups here, in fact most of us are well grown up LOL, we can handle the truth and we would respect you more for speaking it.

I hate to say something like this to an obviously honest and well meant statement, but the idea that we are ALL grown ups here is obviously off the mark in the 'mental' catergory for many 'legal' adults and I bet you my left kidney that there are 10 year olds both on here and in game. All you need is daddy to use his credit card and then bs some stuff about your age. People do it, trust me. I've known people who have thrown fits saying their 7 year old is playing their account so leave him alone and whatnot. I must be getting older, because now I'm at the point in my life where I wouldn't mind too awful much if some almighty being pulled a rapture on everyone between 9 and 17. And put a mute switch on the younger ones. I still remember having 4 10-12 year olds gang up on me and call me names when i went out to my car and surround me asking dirty questions to a 6 foot 3 185 pound 25 year old a few years ago. Got tired of kids then, same thing happens in game. Its the old 'meet me in fel then--okay yeah hold U lzr whle i cl my peeps on ts oK letz go and i have to wipe the floor with 5 kiddies at once, not just the one guy. Then I severely can lose.

This game is not a game where everyone is an adult, nor, lol, is this board, and a thousand screaming morons with sharpened sticks can take out a silver dragon, or destroy the willingness of people to open their mouths in honesty.

 

[Gwendar-SP]

- Fixing bugs - also a big priority. When Pub 54 hits Test Center (probably tomorrow,) you'll see quite a few more fixes, including quite a few for Factions, which has desperately needed it for years. Again, this isn't something we can knock out in one patch cycle, but if you flip through the patch notes this year, you'll see quite a few fixes for long-standing bugs.

What is happening with the threat of "all out war between players" mentioned in the book on the pub 54 test center?

 

[Fran Fury]

- Gargoyle ingenuity.


(Might even c/p this for the FoF. But put it in the form of questions so some wont get upset.)

Wouldn't surprise me one bit if they did just that. How would everyone react?
Would we be happy that something asked on the boards finally got answered in the fof or would we be upset that the fof had things already answered (since it was just answered here)?

 

[DarkVoid]

- Chris Rabideau is the producer; Cal Crowner is the Development Manager. Chris's role is probably more closely comparable to Walt's than to Aaron's - Cal is a little closer to Aaron's in terms of day-to-day stuff. The titles and divisions of work are a little different, but the actual tasks are still getting done.

- There is no magic bullet for cheating, hacking, etc - if there were, it would have been used a long time ago. We have to take things a step at a time. We've been getting a lot of exploits fixed over the last half-dozen publishes, and locking down some of the house placement issues was obviously a big priority for us. We definitely want to continue to target areas like that, and hopefully we'll all see gradual improvement.

There may be no magic bullet for cheating/hacking, but you can make software developers, Internet Service Providers, etcetera, aware that what you want is to see less of the cheating/hacking attempts succeed and more cracking down on how they're abusing systems to get into a computer in the first place.

Therefore you would of course be communicating with these people about what you want to stop or diminish in severity, and get them interested in developing means of finding and eliminating these hacks/cheats. It would mean a lot if EA/Mythic had any sort of shutdown power regarding sites that are found to be hosting illegal/unapproved 3rd party applications.

- Fixing bugs - also a big priority. When Pub 54 hits Test Center (probably tomorrow,) you'll see quite a few more fixes, including quite a few for Factions, which has desperately needed it for years. Again, this isn't something we can knock out in one patch cycle, but if you flip through the patch notes this year, you'll see quite a few fixes for long-standing bugs.

Bug fixing is one thing, fixing the bugs that crop up when a fix goes wrong, as in the recent LoS changes, is another. Fixing those "long-standing" statues and other items that are a result of an exploit, or something not being fixed - for instance abandoned barkeeps - would also be very much appreciated, not only by players but by the backup servers which have to back up all of this junk that shouldn't even be there in the first place.

- System Revamps - something we would all love to do more of. Factions is the system of the moment, but there are tons and TONS of systems in UO, and most of them could use some love. Some just need bug fixes, some need to be completely revisited, and some are probably going to have to wait for some Gargoyle ingenuity to see a real renaissance.

For the systems, I think someone should be looking at the oldest ones and seeing why they are needed, and updating them, breaking them down, rebuilding them, etc, as it's been a long time since some systems got looked at.

Cheers ...

DarkVoid

 

[Belmarduk]

- Chris Rabideau is the producer; Cal Crowner is the Development Manager. Chris's role is probably more closely comparable to Walt's than to Aaron's - Cal is a little closer to Aaron's in terms of day-to-day stuff. The titles and divisions of work are a little different, but the actual tasks are still getting done.

- There is no magic bullet for cheating, hacking, etc - if there were, it would have been used a long time ago. We have to take things a step at a time. We've been getting a lot of exploits fixed over the last half-dozen publishes, and locking down some of the house placement issues was obviously a big priority for us. We definitely want to continue to target areas like that, and hopefully we'll all see gradual improvement.

- Fixing bugs - also a big priority. When Pub 54 hits Test Center (probably tomorrow,) you'll see quite a few more fixes, including quite a few for Factions, which has desperately needed it for years. Again, this isn't something we can knock out in one patch cycle, but if you flip through the patch notes this year, you'll see quite a few fixes for long-standing bugs.

- System Revamps - something we would all love to do more of. Factions is the system of the moment, but there are tons and TONS of systems in UO, and most of them could use some love. Some just need bug fixes, some need to be completely revisited, and some are probably going to have to wait for some Gargoyle ingenuity to see a real renaissance.

- KR and SA: I'm not going to say much about KR, except that we have filled quite a few engineering positions since the beginning of the year, and that's a good thing As for SA... well, the hints we drop will become less and less subtle as the year wears on, I assure you!

I dont believe it.... We get a ..fairly.. straightforward answer.
Thx Better late than never
As for KR - thats very cryptic again.. *sigh*
There are 2 possibilities as I see it:
1. KR is dead eg. it will stay in its current state.....
2. KR is being revamped totally which would not fit into several patches but will be a "new client-release"

Well lets see - my account runs out soon, must get stuff into banks soon...so that my stuff is still there IF I should return...

 

[altarego]

I think they are being cryptic for a reason. I know what it's like to provide development and support for (essentially) two different platforms with little in the way of continuity. I have a feeling that there is more to KR than just the client and having to develop for both is both time-consuming and tedious. The differences in how the servers store and handle KR vs 2D information are probably much more complex than the superficial differences between the clients may lead you to believe. It's almost seems like, at this point, the data is being "translated" into KR "speak". Or that KR was released too early in the process in the hope of preventing the shock of such a dramatic change.

However, after the initial lukewarm reception, the devs received a less than cheerful response to the idea that Stygian Abyss will only be offered to KR players. That, plus the recent geographical move probably led to some fairly heated meetings and a subsequent change in resources. They probably didn't realize how much effort they would have to spend to placate vintage players. I know it may not seem like it, but I believe that the reason we have such slow development and lackluster transition to new events is because it was originally intended to take place on the KR side of the equation, with less emphasis on 2D.

Now, if anyone knows the Ultima history, they know how the Shadowlords, the Underworld and the Stygian Abyss are intertwined. Part of the reason they don't want to talk about KR, right now, is because some of the changes will be intricately linked to Stygian Abyss, and they can't promise on what they can't deliver...just yet. I don't think Jeremy is being vague, I think he's giving us a clue to the scope of the changes and their link to the new expansion.

Now, some of you may cry foul, and complain about the fact that we shouldn't have to wait for a new expansion to get a fully-functional client. Unfortunately, we have only the stubborn 2d client users to blame.

I dont believe it.... We get a ..fairly.. straightforward answer.
Thx Better late than never
As for KR - thats very cryptic again.. *sigh*
There are 2 possibilities as I see it:
1. KR is dead eg. it will stay in its current state.....
2. KR is being revamped totally which would not fit into several patches but will be a "new client-release"

Well lets see - my account runs out soon, must get stuff into banks soon...so that my stuff is still there IF I should return...

 

[deadite]

Now, some of you may cry foul, and complain about the fact that we shouldn't have to wait for a new expansion to get a fully-functional client. Unfortunately, we have only the stubborn 2d client users to blame.

It's hard to call the 2D users "stubborn" when 2D is the *only* choice to play the game without features missing or performance issues or gamestopping client bugs. I was a big proponent of KR and kept the faith until the updates just... stopped.

I know a fair amount of people who use KR for resource gathering or other tasks, but it feels like you could count the number of people using KR full-time on your fingers and (maybe) toes.

I was sad to see KR released early, sad to see it flop and sad to see it seemingly abandoned. I sincerely hope that something good comes of KR, because I think my UO days are over until EA/Mythic can prove to me that there *IS* a long term plan for UO. Otherwise, I'll waste my time in another game that I feel like will be around for a while... I'm a casual player and it takes me a long time to build good characters.

It's pretty disappointing when the same reason I don't play on free shards (here today, gone tomorrow) is the same reason I'm now reluctant to play on the official shards.

 

[Dhaerin]

- Fixing bugs - also a big priority. When Pub 54 hits Test Center (probably tomorrow,) you'll see quite a few more fixes, including quite a few for Factions, which has desperately needed it for years. Again, this isn't something we can knock out in one patch cycle, but if you flip through the patch notes this year, you'll see quite a few fixes for long-standing bugs.

i hope you guys are aware of the new dupe exploit and will be fixing it...

ill wait and see what comes with pub 54 in terms of bug fixes.. especially for pvp and factions

 

[Melina Havelock]

Now, some of you may cry foul, and complain about the fact that we shouldn't have to wait for a new expansion to get a fully-functional client. Unfortunately, we have only the stubborn 2d client users to blame.

What a ridiculous statement, yet again, about 2D users. I suppose those of us who tried many, many times to run the game are stubborn vets. Days on end of trying to patch also equates to stubborn, right? From last May until October I tried more times than I care to count to run KR and it's ugly graphics (on a system that easily can handle it) until I was sick of trying. Eventually getting in game only to not be able to move or have the game even fully load hardly makes it easy to test and report bugs. I finally deleted it and have no intention of bothering again until it's worth my time. That is a problem on EA/Mythics part, NOT mine. Way to generalize.

 

[Belmarduk]

What a ridiculous statement, yet again, about 2D users. I suppose those of us who tried many, many times to run the game are stubborn vets. Days on end of trying to patch also equates to stubborn, right? From last May until October I tried more times than I care to count to run KR and it's ugly graphics (on a system that easily can handle it) until I was sick of trying. Eventually getting in game only to not be able to move or have the game even fully load hardly makes it easy to test and report bugs. I finally deleted it and have no intention of bothering again until it's worth my time. That is a problem on EA/Mythics part, NOT mine. Way to generalize.

They are many people who never even tried KR even though it would run on their machine - Those are the stuborn ****s - No change just for the sake of it.

People who tried but either it would not run on their machine - They couldnt download/patch it - Gave up after the updates stopping because of frustration are a totally different matter !! Thats ONLY EA/Mythics fault

Then there is the 3rd category like me - Who just dont logg in anymore because they are totally frustrated about the clients (2D being no option)( only being able to do low end content gets boring after a while...)

IF (very big if..) they are working on KR or a different new client they should give us more information - soon
There is no point releasing a new client if all players have left.. (those for who 2D is no option) I am now the ONLY player left in my guild who is an ex-3D user..... And my account runs out in 3 weeks...

Throw us a "life-line" EA !!!!!!!!!!

 

[Finch]

Now, some of you may cry foul, and complain about the fact that we shouldn't have to wait for a new expansion to get a fully-functional client. Unfortunately, we have only the stubborn 2d client users to blame.

When KR gets to the point it runs on my current machine like 2D does, with no death lag, then MAYBE I will try to learn how it works and play it. I have tried KR, and I do like most of KR's graphics, and I think it will be great. But right now I only try it when I'm not hunting as I really hate to die. I don't have a tremendous amount of gold in the banks to cover insurance, so I avoid dying at all costs.
I used to play 3D but switched to 2D when I realized I didn't have near the lag, I'll do the same with KR when I can play lag free.

 

[Erekose]

The fact that simple bugs like non-functional bulletin boards are STILL in KR, and it still crashes the graphics driver at random intervals, there is at least one question answered.

I think I agree, sadly, that they are just keeping UO on life support until Warhammer ships. They'll probably offer UO players some special deal to jump over to the new game when they pull the plug.

 

[Warsong of LS]

I think I agree, sadly, that they are just keeping UO on life support until Warhammer ships. They'll probably offer UO players some special deal to jump over to the new game when they pull the plug.

I doubt that EAMythic will offer anykind of deal to jump to Warhammer. The specs will be too high for most UO users. It is a strength that they fail to use, that UO runs well on older computers.

A more likely deal imo would be the option to charge $5 to $7 more a month which would then give you access to DAoC in addition to your UO account.

 

[Demonous]

When KR gets to the point it runs on my current machine like 2D does, with no death lag, then MAYBE I will try to learn how it works and play it. I have tried KR, and I do like most of KR's graphics, and I think it will be great. But right now I only try it when I'm not hunting as I really hate to die. I don't have a tremendous amount of gold in the banks to cover insurance, so I avoid dying at all costs.
I used to play 3D but switched to 2D when I realized I didn't have near the lag, I'll do the same with KR when I can play lag free.

i would not play KR no matter how good they made it, no matter how many people play it, I'm always going to be playing 2D and the true veteran players should have this view as well

also they aren't going to cancel uo regardless of how many people play warhammer, as long as people keep playing uo and they make profit its going to stay uo, the devs have been doing a lot lately as opposed to years past with all the new publishes and changes, i mean look we have faction changes! when was the last time anything was done regarding factions... this is a good sign !