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My blog about making UO Free to Play

  • Thread starter Sorcon Gartius
  • Start date
  • Watchers 2
Lynk

Lynk

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Allow me to be the first to say I won't be reading your blog.
 
D

Dakkon Blackblade

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
The enhanced client is based on the Gamebryo engine which powers games like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Rift. Yes, Rift.
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The engine is impressive there is no doubt about that, what they have done with it up to this point however is not at least in my opinion.

This is EA, they are not a charity.

If UO dips below a certain point, they will simply end it. They've made plenty of money from it over the years and it's quite clear that EA has no sentimental attachments to anything related to Origin. They even let the Ultima name be dragged through the mud with that "Lord of Ultima" crap. EA has a history of killing games and franchises, both online and offline, that fail to generate the profits they want.

UO loses staff members when other games lose money, even when UO is making money. EA does not care about UO as much as some think they do. Look at Warhammer - it sank like a rock, and EA gutted its staff, along with UO and Camelot even though those two are profitable. Warhammer sticks around simply because they invested so much into it that they are trying to recoup some of those costs. Not so with UO - it's made its money back time and again. Warhammer probably won't survive the launch of Star Wars.
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As a long time game player I am well aware of EA not being a charity as well as it stifling established franchises. Keeping in mind I have no dog in the fight as far as UO is concerned.

If a superior sequel was ever developed I could see myself subscribing to it and probably enjoying it. I am not even a huge fan of free to play, having tried many of the games using the model and finding that you usually end up having to spend far more on them than you would on your monthly subscription.

However I do not think EA would completely take the free to play option off the table, if they believed they would make more money through the item mall approach. In order to do that however they would have to impose a lot of restrictions on accounts, in order to make the mall a necessity, as the game stands right now I am not certain how necessary the items available on UO Game Codes are.
 
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