General questions to those still playing Ultima Online!

[Lothar LoD]

Hello all,

I had some spare time at the job and decided to pay a visit to the good old stratics website.

I hope you are all doing well, and that Siege is still THE shard to play for anyone with balls... ha ha !

Anyways, my visit here is to hear how the game is doing! Maybe some of you can enlight me on that matter?

I am curious to know the current state of UO in term of player base.
I think an expension (Kingdom Reborn) has been released during the last year?
Does anyone know how many player still play the game?
Has there been server shut down or did new server were started recently?
What about Siege Perilous itself. How is the population?
In a game where the population is most likely slowly but surely dropping, I am wondering how much attention from the game designers and programmers a shard like Siege Perilous can get.

I'm curious!
Thanks in advance!
Lothar

 

[Hoffs]

I am curious to know the current state of UO in term of player base.

Exact figures unknown. It unquestionably continues to drop slowly though. Only a few shards, like Atlantic, still seem to be maintaining a large player base. The disappearance of some good fan sites is another bad sign, and when one looks at Stratics forums like Uhall and Homes & Castles, the activity certainly seems down on what it was in the past.

I think an expension (Kingdom Reborn) has been released during the last year?

The expansion was called Stygian Abyss. This has been generally well received. Major expansions are now giving way to "Boosters", or mini-expansions, the first of which will be "Adventures on the High Seas" featuring new ships, smooth water movement, ship cannon, etc. Kingdom Reborn was their aborted attempt at making a new client. This was replaced by the Enhanced Client, which like its predecessor is full of bugs and some dodgy art; there seems little effort at present to improve it.

Does anyone know how many player still play the game?

Only the Devs for sure.

Has there been server shut down or did new server were started recently?

No and no. There have been calls for server mergers as many shards are now extremely quiet, but none have taken place and I would very much doubt they ever will.

What about Siege Perilous itself. How is the population?

Fairly awful I'm afraid. A few folk have come back after the traditional Summer break, but it is still very quiet. The Devs should have given the shard some attention a couple of years ago, but they wouldn't listen.

In a game where the population is most likely slowly but surely dropping, I am wondering how much attention from the game designers and programmers a shard like Siege Perilous can get.

Pretty much none at all. They just don't have the inclination or the resources to pay any attention to Siege. We got a change (to RoT) recently, but it is too little too late really. They need to do more and (in my opinion) advertise the shard. But no, the RoT change didn't even make the patch notes. We don't have an EM any more (one was appointed six weeks ago but seems to have disappeared without trace like many of the others).

 

[Malagar T'sarran]

i looted ur keep and place a castle at the spot several months ago, i didnt watch ur tower i think it fall too i never been able to see it again

 

[Lothar LoD]

I expected an answer like this.

From a marketing point of view, I'm affraid that UO revenue from the player base will soon be outperformed by the cost to maintain & iterate. The game probably live from the player lured in between 97 and 2005, and has failed to bring new blood in a significant matter for a long time. Surviving for so long is one hell of an accomplishment in itself.

However a big mystake was made in my opinion. The loyal fanbase.

I'm just really sad to see a game that a such a INCREDIBLE community goes down the drain. Siege Perilous is the best example of how much players tried to play as much as they could with the toy given to them by the DEV. A loyal community pretty much garanty a revenue for years. UO had benefited from this for a long, long time. But this time is almost over.

Yep, a strong community is worth gold, and I'm affraid that a major mystake was to cancel UO2, which would have assured that at least some part of their loyal fanbase would have followed them in a next-gen game that could have compete (to some point) with the guildwar everquest2 etc etc.

Well I just realized that I'm just babbling right now.
Ha ha!

 

[Lothar LoD]

i looted ur keep and place a castle at the spot several months ago, i didnt watch ur tower i think it fall too i never been able to see it again

I sure felt sad for a few seconds reading this... *sigh*
Heh Hope you enjoy the old school loot.

 

[Malagar T'sarran]

I sure felt sad for a few seconds reading this... *sigh*
Heh Hope you enjoy the old school loot.

i sold it all but ya i enjoyed the 6 turn in soulstone ethys, and the castle spot,

was ur tower better than the keep?


you had so many rune of ur house couldnt find it sadly

 

[Lothar LoD]

Rejoice, you didn't miss anything. The keep had all my stuff. Ha ha !

 

[The Cheapsuit]

Sup Loth, damn seeing your name brought back some old memories. Was thinking about the lance days hehe. Good to see ya though.

 

[Chardonnay]

Lothar!

You decide to come back i'll supply you with what you need...along with info on all the new stuff...

Good to see an old school nemesis...

 

[Draxous]

Yep, a strong community is worth gold, and I'm affraid that a major mystake was to cancel UO2, which would have assured that at least some part of their loyal fanbase would have followed them in a next-gen game that could have compete (to some point) with the guildwar everquest2 etc etc.

Actually canceling it was genius on their part. No other MMO has run for as long as UO has and the costs of maintaining this archaic game are minimal compared to what they rake in.

When UO does shut down, UO2 is still an option and one that I'm positive this niche market will gladly follow into.

Anyway...

 

[Hoffs]

There is some fascinating historical data available in Tina Small's Uhall post. On the face of it, Siege does not seem so bad. It appears to show Siege with about half the population of when I started, and perhaps at about a third of its peak. But is sure seems a lot quieter than that. Perhaps people have more accounts per person now? Perhaps many people keep accounts open but don't actually play as much these days?

 

[Lothar LoD]

Actually canceling it was genius on their part. No other MMO has run for as long as UO has and the costs of maintaining this archaic game are minimal compared to what they rake in.

When UO does shut down, UO2 is still an option and one that I'm positive this niche market will gladly follow into.

Anyway...

I have to disagree.

On a short/mid term run, what they are doing is without question profitable, or else you guys would simply have no game to play with right now. No company runs a game making them lose money.
However the fact that more and more player keep leaving for other game show a missed opportunity at keeping loyal fanbase (because yes, they did lose VERY loyal players, and a lot of them).

Losing a community can be somewhat easy, but gaining it back is something a lot more difficult. I have a strong believe that if they were to release UO2 next week, A LOT of players would NOT go back for UO(2), but would stick with their current MMO where they invested hours of play in their new game. Let alone all the player that will just not pay attention to the release of a new MMO.

Also,
Starting to work on UO2 from now would be ONE HELL of a job and would be very risky. The whole UO2 DEV team is spread across different projects or left EA long time. Having a new team to take over a project that was closed down about 5(?) years ago is ONE HELL of a huge task. Believe that.
Add to that the fact that on a marketing point of view, investor or management would be GREATLY reluctant to put their money into a engine or game that was developped YEARS ago while other company are most likely working on next gen stuff.
I highly doubt that we will see UO2 in the form that we saw a few years ago, in the different trailers that were flying around.

 

[Lothar LoD]

Cheapsuit & Chardonnay,

Hi to both of you!
It's always good to see that I can recognize some name around! I hope that you guys are kicking ass!


Thanks a lot for the offer Chardonnay, I really do appreciate.

 

[QueenZen]

I think the population of UO in general has declined a lot.

The technology has so changed over the past couple of years, that nowadays younger folks are too busy texting, face booking and are not as much into online games especially one as old as Ultima Online.

And if EA spent even a penny worth of tv advertising for UO, and gave it a store shelf presence, compared to the thousands or millions they may blow on advertising their games for Wii or other gaming home systems etc. on tv....maybe UO would grow again.

I have even noticed a decline on Chespeake. I still play here primarily even though I have no balls. LOL But when I do log in there, just to refresh all my chrs. I do walk around, and I see huge empty spots all over the place even in TRAMMEL where homes of players once all stood. Unreal !

Siege is for die hards with or without any balls. Folks that disliked insurance or whatevers that made them come here...and here we remain, well some of us from HERE are playing ATL *cough* no clue why, perhaps they like banksitting in stat loss in LUNA there on ATL shard, as opposed to HERE but whatevers !!

I still feel the orneriest die hardiest stubborn fun personalities opt to keep logging on HERE on Siege for whatever reasons, perhaps the more insane fun people just hang out here stealthing or showing up, like so much dust in the wind of a declining UO population shards wide. Maybe we just not into facebooking or texting or other dorky new techy crap, so we remain HERE. I am sure there are newblets playin online games like hello kitty or whatever dorky junk on their blackberry ! BLEH !

 

[kelmo]

Return to Britania is running for a couple of weeks. You can log in now just for old times sake...

 

[Draxous]

Actually canceling it was genius on their part. No other MMO has run for as long as UO has and the costs of maintaining this archaic game are minimal compared to what they rake in.

When UO does shut down, UO2 is still an option and one that I'm positive this niche market will gladly follow into.

Anyway...

I have to disagree.

On a short/mid term run, what they are doing is without question profitable, or else you guys would simply have no game to play with right now. No company runs a game making them lose money.
However the fact that more and more player keep leaving for other game show a missed opportunity at keeping loyal fanbase (because yes, they did lose VERY loyal players, and a lot of them).

Losing a community can be somewhat easy, but gaining it back is something a lot more difficult. I have a strong believe that if they were to release UO2 next week, A LOT of players would NOT go back for UO(2), but would stick with their current MMO where they invested hours of play in their new game. Let alone all the player that will just not pay attention to the release of a new MMO.

Also,
Starting to work on UO2 from now would be ONE HELL of a job and would be very risky. The whole UO2 DEV team is spread across different projects or left EA long time. Having a new team to take over a project that was closed down about 5(?) years ago is ONE HELL of a huge task. Believe that.
Add to that the fact that on a marketing point of view, investor or management would be GREATLY reluctant to put their money into a engine or game that was developped YEARS ago while other company are most likely working on next gen stuff.
I highly doubt that we will see UO2 in the form that we saw a few years ago, in the different trailers that were flying around.

Um... I'm not sure you said anything to disagree with me.

Why would they take over an outdated project that was shut down? UO2 is just a name for the next gen. Ultima. It would be a brand new game and one these niche players would definitely play.

 

[Lothar LoD]

Um... I'm not sure you said anything to disagree with me.

Why would they take over an outdated project that was shut down? UO2 is just a name for the next gen. Ultima. It would be a brand new game and one these niche players would definitely play.

I wrongly assumed that you were suggesting they could bring back UO2 (as they develloped) back to life.

where I disagree: "Actually canceling it was genius on their part. ".
I think it was a mystake.
Like I was saying, IMO, That was a good decision in short/medium period of time, but came to a high cost in long term which we can observe right now: the player base of UO being as low as ever. Lots of this playerbase would be extremely hard to lure back to the franchise, that is IF EA even had the desire for that.

 

[Draxous]

where I disagree: "Actually canceling it was genius on their part. ".
I think it was a mystake.
Like I was saying, IMO, That was a good decision in short/medium period of time, but came to a high cost in long term which we can observe right now: the player base of UO being as low as ever. Lots of this playerbase would be extremely hard to lure back to the franchise, that is IF EA even had the desire for that.

what cost in the long term? If they would have went ahead with UO2 (which was 10 years ago) then the current UO wouldn't have lasted as long or been as successful as it has been thus far. You act like the 14 years UO's been up and running is just a trivial accomplishment when how many other games have popped up only to close doors?

People grow up, grow old, life changes and they die. I have no clue why you think the way you do about UO's niche player base. It doesn't make sense.

If UO2 was produced right now, most everyone who's involved in the current niche would froth and foam at the mouth for new stuff. A new engine, new world, new everything. Instead of putting this game out way back when and ruining what they had... they tucked this little 'ace' up their sleeve and held the right to play it at any time in the future. In fact, this is probably the smartest move EA's made regarding this game. When Ultima Online closes its doors (and it will eventually happen) this gives everyone the opportunity to continue playing an Ultima game.