How about this as a mega subscription booster?

[AesSedai]

Give new players (~accounts) an enticing bonus:

After 1 month of play (so they are paying...) & until 1 year after the account was created:

Give new accounts 11x gold and 11x resources.

Why? So they don't feel so overwhelmed by the thought of competing with some 11 year veterans of the game. Also, because I bet many existing players would open new accounts to take advantage of this.
Sure, it would likely increase the amount of cheating cheaters, heh, but with increased revenue hopefully there could be increased enforcement added.
Increased enforcement alone (whether coded or with more GM's) would be a major boost to UO's longevity, imo.

How? Maybe an age check could be coded in that would multiply gold and resources (as in wool, ore, stone, reagents, etc. Both from monsters and the harvesting of tiles). Maybe with a character bound item that you click before clicking a monster or resource gathering tool, that multiplies its output.

This would last for a limited-time after the release of SA (or perhaps forever, but initially for a limited-time).
During that time, any new account started gets this bonus, until 1 year after the account was created.
11 months / 11 times the resources in celebration of 11 years. Yay.

Any thoughts?

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

No. Make em work for it like everyone (who didn't cheat) did...la

 

[AesSedai]

- I appreciate the feedback. Actually, I would probably say no as well...

But... I would probably say no because it would not benefit me (ahh, but it probably would, as I would likely open a new account and become a resource hound, heh).

Yet... would it benefit UO?

 

[Maplestone]

*imagines this causing a lot of people to cancel one account and open a new one*

As long as vet rewards are decorative, or decorative versions of things that can be obtained by new players one way or another, I don't think there is anything for new players to fret about.

(although, I would say that dye tubs and engraving tools are not really decorative as the things they create are not themselves vet-limited, thus becoming a part of the toolkit for crafters ... *jealously awaits being able to engrave items*)

I think specialization and variety is the key for giving new players a role in the economy, there will always be things vetern players consider tedious - zoogi fungi collecting or reagent gathering for example. If the proficiency system that was tossed around was introduced, you could have specializations for faster harvesting of very specific resources (eg: more zoogi, more reagents, more bark, etc). If it was sufficiently hard to swap out proficiencies, there would lots of niches appearing.

 

[Prince Caspian]

I would vote not.

The already overly bloated gold and resource pool is out of whack enough without this tenfold explosion of giveaway resources.

 

[kennykilleduo]

How bout give them a free 5x gm character...

 

[Viper09]

*shivers at the thought if it actually happened*
Talk about a market killer.

Kenny's idea is better.

Although I would preferably trim it down to 3x gm mainly because at the beginning you can select 3 skills.

 

[Sirus_Europa]

This would quickly be abused.

 

[In Flames]

Give new players (~accounts) an enticing bonus:

After 1 month of play (so they are paying...) & until 1 year after the account was created:

Give new accounts 11x gold and 11x resources.

Why? So they don't feel so overwhelmed by the thought of competing with some 11 year veterans of the game. Also, because I bet many existing players would open new accounts to take advantage of this.
Sure, it would likely increase the amount of cheating cheaters, heh, but with increased revenue hopefully there could be increased enforcement added.
Increased enforcement alone (whether coded or with more GM's) would be a major boost to UO's longevity, imo.

How? Maybe an age check could be coded in that would multiply gold and resources (as in wool, ore, stone, reagents, etc. Both from monsters and the harvesting of tiles). Maybe with a character bound item that you click before clicking a monster or resource gathering tool, that multiplies its output.

This would last for a limited-time after the release of SA (or perhaps forever, but initially for a limited-time).
During that time, any new account started gets this bonus, until 1 year after the account was created.
11 months / 11 times the resources in celebration of 11 years. Yay.

Any thoughts?

And during which you would see gold farmers stockpiling 11 years worth of gold.

 

[Smokin]

This would just make the script miners and choppers and gold farmers use 11 less accounts, so it would actually be a subscription killer.

Much like the bod timer thing did, look how many accounts were cancelled when they changed bods.

 

[AesSedai]

- Hehe, maybe I just created the most lopsided poll in UHall history?

So here is the thought behind my lil' brainstorm:
I've long-thought that the runaway economy / the abundance of resources/gold/items in UO are a reason for some of its stagnation and lack of new players. Heck, even some veteran players feel hopeless when it comes to competing with some billionaires (both the legitimate and illegitimate ones). My solution has always been to remove a percentage of gold/resources/and items that have the exact same properties. Kind of an artificial equalizer in order to make the gap between rich and poor a bit smaller.
For example, take away 90% from all accounts. This would make 1 billion worth 100 million; 1 million worth 100,000. A stack of 10,000 ore would be 1,000. 10 valorite hammers on an account would become 1.
This way, the rich would still have the same % of more riches than the poor. This would also take the same % away from the poorest people. But the gap would be decreased by 10 ~ it would give more fresh players & poor players a chance to compete. And it would still allow all of the rich players the advantages they had; allowing them to retain their fortunes, comparatively speaking, and also allowing them to build their fortunes again with their methods and moxie. But it would remove 90% of the flood of gold/resources/items & it would remove 90% of the items that people blatantly cheated to create (~like by duping, for instance).
Only problem is, people hate the idea of losing their items (even if everyone is proportionally losing the same amount).
So I just flipped the idea & thought I'd give it a whirl here.
So rather than equally take from all: why not give new players more items and have a mega-flood of stuffs, if nobody is willing to lose some of theirs in order to try to re-orient the economy, in order to perhaps give a truly new player a light at the end of the tunnel, where they feel they actually might be able to purchase that cool item that currently costs 100+ million?

 

[Duskofdead]

- I appreciate the feedback. Actually, I would probably say no as well...

But... I would probably say no because it would not benefit me (ahh, but it probably would, as I would likely open a new account and become a resource hound, heh).

Yet... would it benefit UO?

It will never, ever happen, so I consider it all a theoretical discussion.

That being said, if they did implement what you say, a lot more money would go to UO. Instead of to third party gold buying sites. So it would be a win-win from EA's point of view.

However, I believe we will never, ever see it implemented, or anything even close.

And as for Rico's comment about "work for it like everyone else", LOL. You guys have had it so easy in the last few years, from when I left so much more gold is given as rewards and drops from monsters, in my day even farming lich lords and other good gold-droppers 180ish gold was a "lot" to drop on a single monster. That's 3 mongbats today.

However, the problem with an old, established server (on any MMO) is that there is almost zero demand for the goods and services a newcomer will be able to find, create, or try to sell. And there is inflated demand exacerbated by so many very old rich accounts driving the price up on very useful items that most players want (like power/stat scrolls, good gear, etc.) So the new player finds out after a few weeks that almost any goal he might want to pursue... be it having his own vendorhouse or getting his Blacksmithing to GM or having high enough combat skills to do Champ spawns, is going to wind up in one form or another, requiring millions worth of gold. Either to buy things outright or in an equivalent amount of time to farm and grind.

Enter gold buying sites...

 

[Uvtha]

I've long-thought that the runaway economy / the abundance of resources/gold/items in UO are a reason for some of its stagnation and lack of new players.

I doubt that highly. I think most people who don't play have no idea of the massive internal problems in this game. I think they think its a 10+ year old game with 10+ year old graphics and code.

It's not the economy keeping people away, and even if it were, this would only make matters worse.

 

[AesSedai]

- Aye, this probably would make matters worse; but the alternate solution (equally wiping much of the influx of stuff) has rarely been well-received by many.

Yet, when a new players starts out and finds they can make perhaps 100K per hour of play with a fairly developed character, and then they see that it can cost 100+ million to get an uber item... yeah I do believe it has become 'a reason for some of its stagnation and lack of new players', imho.

 

[Fox (Europa)]

This is pretty much the answer countries such as Weimar Germany and Zimbabwe today have applied to hyper-inflation: print more money. Its an unhealthy band-aid that doesn't fix the underlying cause.

Fox

 

[AesSedai]

- Aye, another grand point: The underlying issues are of primary importance.

(Btw, I don't think I'm going to vote in this poll! But I am appreciating and interested in both the feedback and results nonetheless.)

 

[Maplestone]

- Hehe, maybe I just created the most lopsided poll in UHall history?

AesSedai, I think you should be appointed our designated community unifier

 

[Tina Small]

- Aye, this probably would make matters worse; but the alternate solution (equally wiping much of the influx of stuff) has rarely been well-received by many.

Yet, when a new players starts out and finds they can make perhaps 100K per hour of play with a fairly developed character, and then they see that it can cost 100+ million to get an uber item... yeah I do believe it has become 'a reason for some of its stagnation and lack of new players', imho.

Here are a couple of things that I think would help newcomers actually stay and play UO for longer than just a month:

• An improved tutorial/preview of the game in KR and the SA client for when you create a new character. So much could be added to it, including something like the short world tour that The Wanderer gave for a year or two not that long ago. It would probably also be very helpful to split it into parts that you can complete one by one at your leisure.
• A well-written New Player Guide. What we have now on the UO.com site is dated and incomplete.
• A well-written guide on how to set up your desktop and customize it in KR and the new SA client.
• A thorough update of the Playguide on UO.com. I consider it absolutely inexcusable that you must visit third-party sites to find information about such things as quests or anything added to the game in the last 5-6 years.
• Additional NPCs and quests in Haven for the rest of the skills.
• A very clear explanation for new players about the Skill Tutor, how to obtain it, and perhaps an alternative method for obtaining it.
• A better patch screen in both 2d and the KR/SA clients that reminds folks where to go for more information and that is updated regularly and frequently with important news.
• Easier access to and a search engine for publish and patch notes and Five on Friday posts.
• Additional tools for managing guilds, guild houses, and "guild resources" that make it easier to bring new players into a guild. Perhaps also recruit guild leaders of some successful guilds that accept new players as members to write articles or be interviewed about how their guild helps bring those folks up to speed.
• An additional type of party system that retains the party chat and "sticky" life bars (i.e., life bars that don't poof when the character dies) but that don't give everyone in the party the ability to loot the corpse of monsters killed by anyone in the party and doesn't divvy up fame and karma among the partied characters. This would make it easier to do things like go hunting with someone you believe is a new player without having to give up what your efforts earned and while not giving the new player an unrealistic expectation of what his efforts can earn. I don't mind helping new players using the existing party system. However, I vastly resent it when someone that I suspect may not be a new player asks me to help them hunt something because they are supposedly new and inexperienced and then immediately parties me and takes all the loot from every kill. I would be more inclined to "get involved" helping such folks if I didn't feel like I was just being taken advantage of. [There's nothing quite like that feeling you get when you've helped a person or two and all of sudden after that every time you go to the bank you are approached by supposed "new players" who want your help with all kinds of expensive or time-consuming things. It's flattering at first but after a while you start to realize someone put a sign on you that says, "This person is a push-over." You just can't see it at first.] Keep the existing party system, but give us an alternative for when sharing everything is not desirable.
• A revitalized and improved buddy referral program.
• A building on every shard with permanent communication crystals built in that could be used as a classroom, auditorium, or community gathering place.