Increasing revenues for UO........

[popps]

With all of the current mass IDOCs falling, I was thinking, "what if", in order to increase revenues for Ultima online and make it easier for old players to return to the game, there was a change of policy about Houses and their contents ?

It could work this way, when an account having a house goes inactive, the House contents are automatically removed from the House and placed in a special container, like a house warehouse or whatever that is tied to the now inactive account. It would not be the bank box but something separate, just so that items do not get lost for good.

Now, the House is let fall and the space made available for other Houses to be placed by other players.

Now, say that time after the owner of the account comes back, the new policy would allow, for an additional fee (say 25$ ?), the ability to have access to that special House warehouse and thus retrieve all of the contents once the player has gotten a new House in the game.

Such a new policy would, IMHO, have several positive benefits :

- Not flood the market with a lot of items/resources when there is fewer players left to buy/sell;

- Make it easier for returning players to get back into the game and thus, make it so that players might be more willing to return to the game and thus bring in new subscriptions;

- Add extra revenues to the game to be able to retrieve the items from the House warehouse;

- Still allow the inactive account House to decay thus making room for new houses to be placed;

I think there would be far more gains for the game overall than negatives.

What do players who recently returned to UO think ?

Would their decision to return to Ultima Online have been easier and a faster one "if" they had known that their old House items where still there to be found and retrieved even though for a fee ?

That is, would such a changed policy make it possible for Ultima Online to gain back more returning players and thus increase its revenues for a better maintainance and new content for the game ?

just a thought.........

 

[Heartseeker]

With all of the current mass IDOCs falling, I was thinking, "what if", in order to increase revenues for Ultima online and make it easier for old players to return to the game, there was a change of policy about Houses and their contents ?

It could work this way, when an account having a house goes inactive, the House contents are automatically removed from the House and placed in a special container, like a house warehouse or whatever that is tied to the now inactive account. It would not be the bank box but something separate, just so that items do not get lost for good.

Now, the House is let fall and the space made available for other Houses to be placed by other players.

Now, say that time after the owner of the account comes back, the new policy would allow, for an additional fee (say 25$ ?), the ability to have access to that special House warehouse and thus retrieve all of the contents once the player has gotten a new House in the game.

Such a new policy would, IMHO, have several positive benefits :

- Not flood the market with a lot of items/resources when there is fewer players left to buy/sell;

- Make it easier for returning players to get back into the game and thus, make it so that players might be more willing to return to the game and thus bring in new subscriptions;

- Add extra revenues to the game to be able to retrieve the items from the House warehouse;

- Still allow the inactive account House to decay thus making room for new houses to be placed;

I think there would be far more gains for the game overall than negatives.

What do players who recently returned to UO think ?

Would their decision to return to Ultima Online have been easier and a faster one "if" they had known that their old House items where still there to be found and retrieved even though for a fee ?

That is, would such a changed policy make it possible for Ultima Online to gain back more returning players and thus increase its revenues for a better maintainance and new content for the game ?

just a thought.........

Bad idea.

It's obvious you don't support the idoc system as your many posts elsewhere suggest.
People aren't returning because they have moved on.

The only reason there is that many idocs happening now is that the system was down for a long time and was bugged.

There will be the same amount of people playing as before, just less houses around....

 

[popps]

There will be the same amount of people playing as before, just less houses around....

Since we have the 1 House per account, for each IDOC there is 1 subscription gone as far as revenues go for Ultima Online.

I have no idea whether new or returning players over the course of these months have been in such a number to make it up for all of the current IDOCs and subscriptions lost (I was told of a player with 10 full rune books = 160 IDOCs and subscriptions lost, just for the Catskills shard...), but my point was that "perhaps", if players who once left the game where able, for a fee, to get their items back, this would ensure more players coming back to UO and also more revenues to Ultima Online which is good, because more resources can alllow for better maintainance and addition of new content for the game........

My suggestion, in additon, would also preserve the "shard history" as items would not get lost but show up again whenever the player owning them would come back to UO........

 

[pgib]

Compared to other games, UO is quite expensive as it is, i don't think having to pay even more would be wise, especially considering the "free to play without the free part" model they adopted.

 

[popps]

Compared to other games, UO is quite expensive as it is, i don't think having to pay even more would be wise, especially considering the "free to play without the free part" model they adopted.

Well, it could be a voluntary charge "if" a player wants to retrieve one's own old house items upon returning. Not necessarily mandatory, just an additional option for the game safely storing all one's own old house items while being away.........

 

[Ta_Mira]

As a player who has returned, I always make sure to bank anything I don't want to lose before I cancel. I would not want to pay extra to get my stuff back. I think most people would make sure their stuff is banked or given away.

 

[Shakkara]

I rather have more real content to pay for than this ransomware approach for players who have already QUIT and are thus highly unlikely to pay anything in the future.

I want to pay $15 to have my house porch extended by 4 tiles and being able to lock down stuff there.
I'd pay $20 for an extra storey on my house, even if it's limited to rooftiles.
I'd pay an extra $5 per month for a classic shard.

Or just pump out more item-based microtransactions:
$10 to remove cursed/brittle/cant-repair property off an item for example.

I'd pay for that.

 

[evil randy]

I rather have more real content to pay for than this ransomware approach for players who have already QUIT and are thus highly unlikely to pay anything in the future.

I want to pay $15 to have my house porch extended by 4 tiles and being able to lock down stuff there.
I'd pay $20 for an extra storey on my house, even if it's limited to rooftiles.
I'd pay an extra $5 per month for a classic shard.

Or just pump out more item-based microtransactions:
$10 to remove cursed/brittle/cant-repair property off an item for example.

I'd pay for that.

This.

 

[LordDrago]

Bad Idea.

Remove part of the game which some people enjoy, so that in the off chance that someone quit UO, but did not bank their valuables, that they would be willing to pay to get their stuff back?

Besides, how many complaints there will be if this were implemented, and a random bug popped up which would delete all the items from someones house and then held it for ransom. LOL.

There you go, a new revenue stream for EA or a gold sink in game. You log in one day to find your house wiped clean of all items, and a note left tacked to the door demanding a ransom for their return.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Come on Popps, give it a rest. The reason the game is in the shape it's in now is all the pointless changes that have been made in the last 5-6 years. (or more)
Now you want to remove yet another playstyle from the game, the ones who enjoy it will quit, and there will be even less people.

And in the end, MythicEABiowardOrigin and the peeps that had to have everything "changed" will be sitting there scratching their head trying to figure out what happened....

Not all change is good, for proof, check out the US government now *grins*

 

[Uriah Heep]

And I didn't mean that post to be as rude as it may have sounded. But I do, really do, feel part of the problem we have is that too many people spent time and money "fixing" things that were not broken. I believe if the devs put their minds and hearts into it, and did some serious research, they could probably find better things to spend their programming/bug fixing time on.
[/tongue-in-cheek]

I vote no

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Ummmm, they kinda already have this imo Popps. It's called a bank boxes, and char packs. If there are items people want to hang onto they stick them in there, 6 chars can hold a good bit of stuff that way. If they wanna keep any more than that they need to keep paying the monthly fee imo. *shrugs*

 

[Uriah Heep]

Ummmm, they kinda already have this imo Popps. It's called a bank boxes, and char packs. If there are items people want to hang onto they stick them in there, 6 chars can hold a good bit of stuff that way. If they wanna keep any more than that they need to keep paying the monthly fee imo. *shrugs*

amen

 

[Viper09]

Want to talk a great idea for UO that involves houses? How about a really useful one where you can pay slightly extra to place a second house on your account.