How many accounts do you have and how many will you upgrade to SA?

[Dor of Sonoma]

No boxes, no purchase.

I'm with you on that, Nok!

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

2 Accounts, 1 will be upgraded, the other is simply a house-holder/secondary/BOD runner acct.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

The people who are complaining about the "no box" thing, you do realize some of the more popular games were/are distributed online only right? Sure some of them have expanded to included a retail box, but you do realize that many games have just as many players as UO and they have no box, or even advertising for that matter, but hey all you must has a masters in business and marketing from a very prestigious business school right? No I am not attacking anyone's education or anything like that just simply saying there is no basis for the argument of them having no box.

 

[Dor of Sonoma]

The people who are complaining about the "no box" thing, you do realize some of the more popular games were/are distributed online only right? Sure some of them have expanded to included a retail box, but you do realize that many games have just as many players as UO and they have no box, or even advertising for that matter, but hey all you must has a masters in business and marketing from a very prestigious business school right? No I am not attacking anyone's education or anything like that just simply saying there is no basis for the argument of them having no box.

What do other games matter?

We're talking about UO...and no, I'll not make a digital purchase. If/when I purchase another expansion, I'll expect it to join its brethren on my shelf.

 

[Aurelius]

Currently 5, but that will drop to 2 or maybe 1 in the pretty near future (for non-game reasons). As for 'upgrade' to SA, probably one since I'm a sucker for new places to explore, but I've no great wish to play a gargoyle so one will probably be enough.

 

[Ender]

What do other games matter?

We're talking about UO...and no, I'll not make a digital purchase. If/when I purchase another expansion, I'll expect it to join its brethren on my shelf.

So you waited for the 9th Anniversary to get ML?

 

[Rocklin]

Two and I will be upgrading both. I have considered closing one account because I am playing another MMO heavily, but the new expansion will get some love when it drops.

 

[Black Majick]

4 Accounts, 2 active...prolly upgrade 1 of them..just for imbueing purposes...other than that...play to PvP...so new fancy house tiles and new "Trammy Stuff" isnt gonna get me to buy more. Imbueing only so I can get some nice jewelry for my PvP chars.

 

[Tuferon]

4
either all will be upgraded or all will be closed
depends on...well
any fun left here?
I wonder with all the multiple accounts will we ever see a populated shard again?
how many are we really?

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

What do other games matter?

We're talking about UO...and no, I'll not make a digital purchase. If/when I purchase another expansion, I'll expect it to join its brethren on my shelf.

They matter as a basis for why you are saying it? I did not repeat the question but I guess I could have, are you serious? Why not? and lastly, you waited for the 9th age to get ml? (aside from that you have no ml box =\)

Why would you have to have it on your shelf? If that is the problem I can design a box and send it to you with a cd to boot, I really do not understand this at all and you can look to my other post as to why I do not understand it =\, but if you clarify, and it has nothing to do with "sales" or getting new players, as I addressed that, then I would be most pleased because in honesty I really just do not understand that response to this predicament.

Sorry I have just yet to see anyone explain why they have this response other than "we need a retail store presence" when digital media is actually very popular, perhaps more so than retail media (but you just can not get everything digitally so gotta go to the store for some things so its hard to compare the two; note I did not research it that's why I said perhaps )

 

[Harb]

The people who are complaining about the "no box" thing, you do realize some of the more popular games were/are distributed online only right? Sure some of them have expanded to include a retail box, but you do realize that many games have just as many players as UO and they have no box, or even advertising for that matter, but hey all you must has a masters in business and marketing from a very prestigious business school right? No I am not attacking anyone's education or anything like that just simply saying there is no basis for the argument of them having no box.

Uh, my second Masters did include quite a bit of marketing from the Academic view, but you'll never see me endorse that as any form of "end all" or “validation.” There are however, a couple things worth consideration. It does seem to matter to some folks, as you may deem valid or otherwise, so take their posts for what they're worth to you as you assess, but I'd strongly caution against discounting said opinions. The other "piece" to consider is marketing itself, within the EA context. Even when dev was "OSI," marketing was consolidated at EA HQ, and was both "technically” and "practically" above our team's "authority" and seemingly even "persuasion." There has been a prevailing logic running for nearly 5 years now that for anything other than a console game, “shelf marketing” lowers revenue and therefore is “wasteful.” While I don’t personally “buy it,” I’ve never seen the internal numbers that led to this conclusion, and do know folks I have great confidence in who have that don’t disagree with EA/ Marketing’s assessment. Akin to the opinions in this thread, I’d like to see a box, but I’d also "like" an active advertising and marketing campaign to enlarge the player base. But frankly I possess a player’s bias. If sustainment is now the collective goal, or for that matter even an incremental increase in subscriptions, then EA/ Marketing is performing IAW desired goals and objectives. Again, like those who object, I non-concur, but am “just” another subscriber. Once you discount what matters to “some,” you justify discounting everyone. I strongly caution against this.

 

[Dor of Sonoma]

So you waited for the 9th Anniversary to get ML?

Aye, for two reasons:

1. I'm not into digital downloads

2. There is nothing about Mondain's Legacy that particularly attracts me. Pretty much the opposite, actually. So really, it was the 9th Anniversary box that got me to upgrade (against my better judgement

 

[Nok]

You're kidding, right?

Hi Ender. Nope. I'm serious.

Just curious, what is so important about a box and CD/DVD?

Hi Setnaffa, fair question. Collectibles. Not that it gets much attention, but probably a sizable number of UO players have some of their original boxes & CDs, t-shirts, maps, pendents, and so on... not all players do, but many do. I still have most of my UO boxes and the goodies that came in them proudly displayed on a couple of shelves.

Do you only buy your music by buying CD's? No downloading mp3's? No iPod? No MP3 player?

Personally, the ability to download software is one of the biggest advantages of the internet once you have a high-speed connection.

And now that I have a Blu-ray player that can stream Netflix, I may eventually never need to buy another movie disc either.

I buy CDs. I have a few downloaded songs, not many though... and a MP3 is not a game or an expansion, much less a collectible special edition of a game. Nope, no iPod. Yes, I have a MP3 player (Creative ZENStone Plus S).

Yes, I have high speed. Downloading is great, do it all the time. But it is not how I choose to buy a game that I would like to put on my shelf.

Box = trip to the store. Hope they aren't sold out. Wait in line. Buy the box. Get home and load the software.

Online = Trip to the website. Download the software and documentation. Load the software.

Please. You're talking to a guy that sometimes orders groceries online. Both brick & mortar and online have their place and time... recently one of the kids wanted EA's Spore while we were at Walmart, all I had to do was reach my arm out and pull it from the shelf two feet away from the shopping cart. What was I going to do? "No Skippy, we have to go home, go to the web site, find it, put it in the site cart, go to the site cart and checkout, put in my details and card info, submit, wait 30 seconds for the verification, pay full retail price, get the authorization code for the download, download the thing, and install it. That's not my consumer choice. Another option...

Box Online = Go to the site of your favorite retailer, pick it, buy it cheaper than a digital download, they ship it, and I get it in a day or two... usually with free shipping, with a game box within a shipping box to boot.

Amazon, Buy.com, Newegg, and TigerDirect are your friends.

I'm with you on that, Nok!

Hi Dor... BOOOYAH! Stay down with your gamer-self!

The people who are complaining about the "no box" thing, you do realize some of the more popular games were/are distributed online only right?

Hi C&D. Some might be complaining, some might not... for some of us it is about consumer choice. I choose not to spend my money (hang on, checking my wallet, ya... it's still mine) on a product I do not want. The product I do want is not available, I may be disappointed... but I'm not complaining, just stating that I'm not buying what I don't want.

If/when I purchase another expansion, I'll expect it to join its brethren on my shelf.

Collectors unite!!!

Why would you have to have it on your shelf?

For the same reason that there are millions of people that collect every conceivable thing that can be collected. Baseball cards, cars, coins, figurines, stamps and so on... for some UO players, it's UO collectibles.

Sorry I have just yet to see anyone explain why they have this response other than "we need a retail store presence" when digital media is actually very popular, perhaps more so than retail media (but you just can not get everything digitally so gotta go to the store for some things so its hard to compare the two; note I did not research it that's why I said perhaps )

Wanting a box is not a condemnation of digital media... digital media is just another channel of content distribution.

Most players asking for more shelf presence have good intentions, but don't know the in's & out's of distribution. But it is not up to EA to place a SKU on a retailer's shelf, EA cannot tell a retailer what product to carry... EA could print up 100k copies of UO:SA, but if Best Cry and Waldo's World doesn't want it on their shelves EA cannot force them to. A retailer sells what they want to sell.

Shelf space at a store is at a premium, every space on that shelf has to generate a certain margin of profit and sell a determined number of units to attain that margin. So the store decides (actually their buyers at corporate or distributor specialists) which SKU (product title) will sell the most in any given space and how many units they can expect to turnover. Retailers don't care about UO, they care about margin. Just for an example, UO in one space might sell 30 units at $29.99, but Sims 3 could sell 1000 units at $49.99... any retail product manager that chose UO instead of Sims 3, would be fired on the next office meeting.

EA doesn't have a UO to sell right now, but when Mythic has UO:SA ready... a limited run of standard editions and collector's editions (say 50k & 10k respectively) could get get a SKU for retailers and the EA store because of the limited exclusivity of a small number of units. While also making UO:SA available as a digital download as well.

Once you discount what matters to “some,” you justify discounting everyone. I strongly caution against this.

Hi Harb. Edited for length, but well said.

By the way, for anyone curious... here's two photos I took for this post.

 

[WildWobble]

1 account and no desire to get any more.
Unsure if i will upgrade want to but am a box fan also
I might break down and DL the expansion but i don't know will depend if i want to come back in 3 months time or not. Might just give up on online games again they do waste lots of time that could be better spent.

I don't need shelf space box i just want to buy a box even if it is off the web and shipped to me it is nice to have a hard copy of stuff for my game collection.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

Harb, you can see my post after the one you quoted in here, I did not mean to discount anyone it is just that the only reason I have had anyone say about the matter was from a marketing perspective and that is what I addressed in the post you quoted. Sorry if it seemed other wise, was not my intention =\

Nok, Thank you for your explanation on my question, not to sure why you went into the marketing aspect unless only to further explain what I had said. I am thankful tho in any case, as I said I really had only ever seen a marketing standpoint for the whole box/shelf thing, it is true people do collect things odd to others from that stand point I can see part of the issue, tho I am not sure I would take it so far as to not upgrade based on this alone (could be a future box you could buy just the same for this particular matter) but to each their own that is just my opinion on that matter.


As a marketing argument I made my case (and Nok helped me =p). From a Collectors point of view I can only give my opinion, and it would not be worth much on this topic, Thank you again Nok and apologies to anyone who took me the wrong way.

 

[Fink]

2, both.. my brother and I share two accounts. We each have half our characters on one and half on the other.. yes, it's messed up.. so for me to upgrade all my characters both accounts need to be done (same goes for his chars, obviously).

 

[King Durango]

1-0

 

[Nyte Doombringer]

3 accts that are active and played and 3 will have to be upgraded.

 

[twoburntfouryou]

I have 1 my hubby has 1 and probably will be upgraded at some time or another wow never knew so many had 3 or more accounts

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Number of accounts: 5

Number of upgrades: 0

No boxes, no purchase.

Digital distribution is the way of the future. Better get used to it.

 

[Ender]

1-0

And why would this be?

 

[NuSair]

5 Accounts between my wife and I (well, one is mine, rest are hers)-

We'll probably upgrade 4 of them...the 5th is just there to hold a Yew Gate house and so we can give ourselves a max level focus when no one else is on (then again, with my medical issues lately, I haven't been on much myself).

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Box, Digital Download, whichever doesn't make too much of a difference to me, however I absolutely HATED the way they did LBR as a boxed expansion. I might not have minded buying a box if I could buy an upgrade code only for the second account, but I in no way wanted a single BorgThorn doll much less one per account.

A box would suffice for one account, after that, let us have a way to purchase the upgrade codes only, so that's why I have no problem with digital distribution.

 

[Lord Drakelord]

we have five, and it will depend on when the exp comes and what it has to ofter us. During the 9th age only two accounts were upgraded for that to get the housing deco ofter to mess with the housing tiles on two account with new housing the other accounts had housing we did not wish to mess with.

 

[Wilde1]

2 accounts, will upgrade at least one, probably both

 

[Magdalene]

...

Box, Digital Download, whichever doesn't make too much of a difference to me, however I absolutely HATED the way they did LBR as a boxed expansion. I might not have minded buying a box if I could buy an upgrade code only for the second account, but I in no way wanted a single BorgThorn doll much less one per account.

A box would suffice for one account, after that, let us have a way to purchase the upgrade codes only, so that's why I have no problem with digital distribution.

This.

Having a box and a collectible of some sort is OK, but being made buy numerous boxes sucks. Especially when you live in Europe, have to order them from overseas (with respective p&p costs and delay) and if customes open a package with, say, 5 identical boxes they are going to tax you into oblivion (good luck proving it's not for resale).

 

[Bluebottle]

???

8 but now just 3 active, may drop to 2 - very unlikely to upgrade to SA given the miniscule amount of time I have to play.

 

[Taylor]

4 x 4

 

[THyRoID99]

I have one, and I will upgrade none of them

But that's only because I don't play anymore. lates!

 

[Assia Penryn]

I have 1 account left.. not sure if I'll upgrade it. Will honestly depend on what is included. I don't really have a lot of desire to dungeon diving, so I'll be looking at what else is going to 'open up' crafting/decor wise.

 

[Mitzlplik_SP]

2 accounts and 2 will be upgraded.

 

[Lady-Tor]

I wont even activate one of my many accounts for it.

 

[Kaleb]

16 but will only upgrade 1-2 being that over the years mostly since i gave up on siege, I have been slowly shutting down my accounts.coupled with the fact they are my only active accounts that remain.

 

[RoseBlue]

1 - 1 (probably : because of the new pets, or stuff, we might get)

 

[blublub_9]

2 accounts
My major account has ano more empty char spots, unless they adda 7th slot included in SA I won't upgrade.
Other account is not ever going to be upgrade.

So we will have to see how greedy EA are.
Why do you think the old pigments does not drop...cos they sell them in asia for real money. Same they do with 7th char slot, so guess no upgrade.

 

[Belmarduk]

0 - 0

 

[Lore Master]

I have 3 accounts I will be upgrading all 3.