Here's a hypothetical question: What about a Kickstarter-style campaign for a game already developed but may need help? How many would donate to get more additional content/bug fixes/have a larger say in the game we are already paying for and playing?
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Woodsman
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EA is a billion dollar company with thousands of employees. EA found several millions of dollars to create a brand new Ultima game.
I'm paying the same amount I was last year, and the same amount before I took my last break, and there are fewer developers than last year, and much fewer developers before I took my break from UO.
If they want more money from me, they can hire more people, get together an expansion, booster, or theme pack or something, and sell it to me.
And I wouldn't want players to have a larger say, because a lot of UO's issues stem from catering to groups of players or being afraid to upset groups of players.
Still, EA is not an independent company, they are the opposite of it, and if they can find millions of dollars to make a brand new Ultima game for iPads, they can find a million to hire a bunch of devs and get UO's development team back up to the same level it was a few years ago.
I'm paying the same amount I was last year, and the same amount before I took my last break, and there are fewer developers than last year, and much fewer developers before I took my break from UO.
If they want more money from me, they can hire more people, get together an expansion, booster, or theme pack or something, and sell it to me.
And I wouldn't want players to have a larger say, because a lot of UO's issues stem from catering to groups of players or being afraid to upset groups of players.
Still, EA is not an independent company, they are the opposite of it, and if they can find millions of dollars to make a brand new Ultima game for iPads, they can find a million to hire a bunch of devs and get UO's development team back up to the same level it was a few years ago.
I feel a sense of deja vu here ... 
A hypothetical kickstarter scenario: What would make you donate and how much? | Stratics: A Career Path in Gaming
My answer's still the same though.
A hypothetical kickstarter scenario: What would make you donate and how much? | Stratics: A Career Path in Gaming
My answer's still the same though.
What this game needs more than anything is for EA to leave it the Frell alone and let the DEV's really do their job... And give them the resources to do it. But everytime EA gets some new idea for a game or whatever they rob us of DEV's and such to the point were there just is nothing left. We now share even our customer support to the point where they don't even know jack squat about UO. Most the GM's haven't got a clue what your calling about or how they should help you.
Do I think it can be fixed? I don't know anymore. I'm almost afraid that things have gotten to the point where anyone and everyone knows how horrible things are under EA and they won't put up with it. They know that there are bugs and problems with issues like clipping and art woes and things getting lost, hacked, stolen whatever and they don't want to come back to that. And a bunch of folk who play WoW and all that know what REAL customer support is like now and they won't come back to UO. And there are droves of folk who have moved on for the eye candy which UO lacks.
I know the team under Mesanna is a very dedicated team and all... I'm only concerned that it's too small to really do what really needs to be done to bring UO out of it's rut. Holidays are upon us and we get thru that and see what comes of the bug push... then I'll maybe get excited. For now I'm once bitten twice shy about getting excited about things. EA has all too often gotten me excited only to ruin it by mismanagement.
Take Kingdom Reborn:
Was supposed to be a new 3d like client... showed images that were fresh and neat.... only they were blurry and looked like crayon or something... but showed images of players SITTING on beds! Yes that's right it had an image of a player actually SITTING on a bed. I got my hopes up...... WAY up. I beta tested it... My interest HOUSING.... deco and design.... I was excited about many of the new housing tiles and such... but a bunch of them were off... and even more of them lacked pieces to make them useful... many are still missing corner tiles and many other things.
I was excited about the new housing menu... I could co-own all my characters to my house.... Was awesome! Then they took it away.
The paperdolls were TERRIBLE... they sort of fixed the female doll but it still looks dike to me.... but the male doll just looks terrible... still that way.
Then they did a massive step backwards and put that ugly 2d stuff in and called it the EC.... Wasn't much enhanced about it after they pillaged KR. I'm no computer programmer I don't know thing one about UI's or any of that.... so in order for me to USE the EC I need someone who knows WTF they are doing to build a decent UI... Took a long time before someone came along with one.. sure there were mods to the skins to make things "look" better..... but until Pinco came along no one was really building a UI like intended... What Pinco has done for the EC is really show off what it's capable of.... and also has shown many of us what ought to be in the game anyway.... Some of the things added really now make the game.... we shouldn't need calculators to tell us if an item is decent enough to unravel.... I shouldn't have to use a 3rd party program to run my ship or find treasure maps or MIB's...
I shouldn't need that... I should only need the actual client... if I want to change the skin then so be it. But most of what Pinco has added to the UI ought to actually be IN the game as a basic option...
Books still can not be written in properly in the EC for anyone else to read them. Anytime I try using a book in the EC it does NOT come out too pretty in 2d.
Then what happens after all that is they give us the High Seas.... one of the most buggy god awful things pushed out the door ever. This honestly should have been in development for at LEAST 4 more months before it even went BETA then it should have been BETA tested for another 4 or 5 months before being released.... but NOOOOO they pushed it out FAR too early and really upset a bunch of folk who lost tons of items and hours of work and time... Not to mention the frustration of it all... Even more is they ought to have listened to players about most all of it. But no... Didn't happen either.
Then we get the worst thing the 2 deco mini expansions..... both I must still say INCOMPLETE..... I don't care what they say but if I'm going to pay for a new house tile set it ought to be A SET. Which SHOULD include FLOORS, walls, DOORS, stairs (in ALL directions not just 1 or 2).... and a matching ROOF. But no..... they didn't. Bare minimum was done for them... and once again shoved out the door FAR too soon.
This has become the "norm" for UO... bare minimum effort... to gain my money. Well I put my foot down on the last set of garbage and I didn't buy it like I normally would have. Normally I would have had those expansions on every single one of my accounts... but since I was so disgusted by it.... I bought only 1 copy of each.... and I have yet to use hardly any of either of them... leaves a sour taste in my mouth still. I won't buy them either on my other accounts... not until they are actually COMPLETE.
I know I'm not alone either in being disgusted with EA... but I wait... new DEV's new Producer..... I'm holding out a lot of hope that Mesanna can turn things around and erase YEARS of poor management.... but she's got a LONG history of BS to overcome... I just hope she's up to the task. I know she has the passion for UO of that I have NO DOUBTS... I just hope she can deliver... She has quite a lot to overcome... the current increase in communication is helping tremendously... it needs to continue.
Do I think it can be fixed? I don't know anymore. I'm almost afraid that things have gotten to the point where anyone and everyone knows how horrible things are under EA and they won't put up with it. They know that there are bugs and problems with issues like clipping and art woes and things getting lost, hacked, stolen whatever and they don't want to come back to that. And a bunch of folk who play WoW and all that know what REAL customer support is like now and they won't come back to UO. And there are droves of folk who have moved on for the eye candy which UO lacks.
I know the team under Mesanna is a very dedicated team and all... I'm only concerned that it's too small to really do what really needs to be done to bring UO out of it's rut. Holidays are upon us and we get thru that and see what comes of the bug push... then I'll maybe get excited. For now I'm once bitten twice shy about getting excited about things. EA has all too often gotten me excited only to ruin it by mismanagement.
Take Kingdom Reborn:
Was supposed to be a new 3d like client... showed images that were fresh and neat.... only they were blurry and looked like crayon or something... but showed images of players SITTING on beds! Yes that's right it had an image of a player actually SITTING on a bed. I got my hopes up...... WAY up. I beta tested it... My interest HOUSING.... deco and design.... I was excited about many of the new housing tiles and such... but a bunch of them were off... and even more of them lacked pieces to make them useful... many are still missing corner tiles and many other things.
I was excited about the new housing menu... I could co-own all my characters to my house.... Was awesome! Then they took it away.
The paperdolls were TERRIBLE... they sort of fixed the female doll but it still looks dike to me.... but the male doll just looks terrible... still that way.
Then they did a massive step backwards and put that ugly 2d stuff in and called it the EC.... Wasn't much enhanced about it after they pillaged KR. I'm no computer programmer I don't know thing one about UI's or any of that.... so in order for me to USE the EC I need someone who knows WTF they are doing to build a decent UI... Took a long time before someone came along with one.. sure there were mods to the skins to make things "look" better..... but until Pinco came along no one was really building a UI like intended... What Pinco has done for the EC is really show off what it's capable of.... and also has shown many of us what ought to be in the game anyway.... Some of the things added really now make the game.... we shouldn't need calculators to tell us if an item is decent enough to unravel.... I shouldn't have to use a 3rd party program to run my ship or find treasure maps or MIB's...
I shouldn't need that... I should only need the actual client... if I want to change the skin then so be it. But most of what Pinco has added to the UI ought to actually be IN the game as a basic option...
Books still can not be written in properly in the EC for anyone else to read them. Anytime I try using a book in the EC it does NOT come out too pretty in 2d.
Then what happens after all that is they give us the High Seas.... one of the most buggy god awful things pushed out the door ever. This honestly should have been in development for at LEAST 4 more months before it even went BETA then it should have been BETA tested for another 4 or 5 months before being released.... but NOOOOO they pushed it out FAR too early and really upset a bunch of folk who lost tons of items and hours of work and time... Not to mention the frustration of it all... Even more is they ought to have listened to players about most all of it. But no... Didn't happen either.
Then we get the worst thing the 2 deco mini expansions..... both I must still say INCOMPLETE..... I don't care what they say but if I'm going to pay for a new house tile set it ought to be A SET. Which SHOULD include FLOORS, walls, DOORS, stairs (in ALL directions not just 1 or 2).... and a matching ROOF. But no..... they didn't. Bare minimum was done for them... and once again shoved out the door FAR too soon.
This has become the "norm" for UO... bare minimum effort... to gain my money. Well I put my foot down on the last set of garbage and I didn't buy it like I normally would have. Normally I would have had those expansions on every single one of my accounts... but since I was so disgusted by it.... I bought only 1 copy of each.... and I have yet to use hardly any of either of them... leaves a sour taste in my mouth still. I won't buy them either on my other accounts... not until they are actually COMPLETE.
I know I'm not alone either in being disgusted with EA... but I wait... new DEV's new Producer..... I'm holding out a lot of hope that Mesanna can turn things around and erase YEARS of poor management.... but she's got a LONG history of BS to overcome... I just hope she's up to the task. I know she has the passion for UO of that I have NO DOUBTS... I just hope she can deliver... She has quite a lot to overcome... the current increase in communication is helping tremendously... it needs to continue.
No as before... Just no. IF uo went independent, THEN I would support a kickstarter. While its owned by EA it would be a mockery of the kickstarter concept, and not deserving of a dime.
D
Davin Darkblade
Guest
Kickstarter exists so people don't have to turn to someone like EA...
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This ^^^