Mythic: Want to make money?

[Penana Car]

Alright. Here is a for real thread.

So the consensus on Stratics seems to be, no outdated "classic" UO product for active subscribers. People clearly want two clients and they want the game to stay more or less the same. People want to pay the same subscription costs, etc. I agree with that. Sounds fine. So let's leave UO alone for the paying subscribers, and let's look at a nifty alternative.

I am proposing a $29.99 booster pack for the following:

-A "free to play" low maintenance Pre-Age of Shadows ruleset shard. You could even run the server on the same box as a low-population shard like say, Lake Austin and just run it under different ports and connection settings.
-Uses the last available "Pre-Age of Shadows" server build
-Includes 1 "Advanced Character" on the F2P shard per purchase. No other advanced services available to this shard.
-Allows 3 character slots instead of 5+ on the shard.
-Streamlined to use the same "in-game support system" as paying subscribers if there is such a thing

Logging in could be separate from existing UO subscription. *new account name etc.

One time fee.

Obviously the purchases would be lower, because the present UO is so much better to play. It would probably be a low traffic farming shard. However it would provide a neat alternative to those that complain for a classic shard all of the time. It would also generate some extra resources which could help Mythic achieve profit plan (something that hasn't been done for a long time).

Thoughts?

Again this would be a separate service from UO all together, called "UO: Classic" so existing UO players have no right to complain about it impacting their game.

 

[Penana Car]

Thoughts are that this idea is not really any different than all the previous "classic shard" debates that have been run into the ground many times before. This would not really be a huge money maker

Thoughts are that this idea is not really any different than all the previous "classic shard" debates that have been run into the ground many times before. This would not really be a huge money maker either because there will be a point where people will stop buying this booster.

either because there will be a point where people will stop buying this booster.

If 5000 people bought in, it would be $150,000 sales. More contribution than most shards are bringing in over 3 years. A lot of people would buy 2 so they could run more than one account.

It's like playing Ultima IV. Nobody wants to play an old game. Nobody wants to play an old, horrid build of UO. So put a price tag on it and make it free. Maybe it will make people want to subscribe for the awesome product that pay-to-play UO is today. And it will make people like Mesanna who are accountable look smart and possibly make a bonus.

 

[Viper09]

Yes, deleted my post rather quickly. Figured I would be happier staying out of this discussion. This horse has been beat so much it has turned to dust. May not see it as a classic shard but it's still the same deal, different shard with older rules. So for all arguments for or against it I will simply refer you to the many other threads already locked, lol. Or we can refer you to the statement made by the devs in which they stated any "classic" shard idea is not going to happen.

 

[Penana Car]

Yes, deleted my post rather quickly. Figured I would be happier staying out of this discussion. This horse has been beat so much it has turned to dust. So for all arguments for or against it I will simply refer you to the many other threads already locked, lol. Or we can refer you to the statement made by the devs in which they stated any "classic" shard idea is not going to happen.

This has nothing to do with UO. It would be a seperate service. Once again, totally different login system. Likely a post-dated client build. It would be "UO: Classic" in that sense. It would basically do nothing to your game that you pay to play today, and the shard would not be available on the shard list. It is an alternate, old build of the game. It could get people hooked and make them want to pay for the newest and greatest (Stygian Abyss, High Seas, etc. who wouldn't want that?)

 

[Selurnoraa]

I think this server should still be linked to a players regular account. Basically if they want to check out say Baja one day and see whats it like they can still subscribe for a month of gametime to have access to all the other servers, however at the end of the paid time if they no longer wish to pay for a subscription then they will still only have access to 'UO: Classic'. Account Age is already tied in with subscriptions so not maintaining an active subscription means your account will not age.

Maybe money is tight one month for a current subscriber and they already have the booster pack, they can take one month off of payment and still atleast enjoy the game they love.

 

[Penana Car]

I think this server should still be linked to a players regular account. Basically if they want to check out say Baja one day and see whats it like they can still subscribe for a month of gametime to have access to all the other servers, however at the end of the paid time if they no longer wish to pay for a subscription then they will still only have access to 'UO: Classic'. Account Age is already tied in with subscriptions so not maintaining an active subscription means your account will not age.

Right, but the current product people pay monthly for would be so much better than UO: Classic, you could treat UO: Classic almost a replacement to the old New Haven Tutorial system. Buy the game, get hooked, if you like it start paying monthly for access to the relevant shards. Then have to buy Stygian Abyss to upgrade, etc.

To start out though, let's not worry about using it as a marketing tool. They should just get the idea rolling to make sales on the $29.99 deal. I mean how could a business person look at this idea and not give it an immediate stamp of approval for a dying franchise? I want to know that. EVERYBODY please bring your opinions to shed some light in this thread. Your input is needed.

 

[Penana Car]

Right, but the current product people pay monthly for would be so much better than UO: Classic, you could treat UO: Classic almost a replacement to the old New Haven Tutorial system. Buy the game, get hooked, if you like it start paying monthly for access to the relevant shards. Then have to buy Stygian Abyss to upgrade, etc.

To start out though, let's not worry about using it as a marketing tool. They should just get the idea rolling to make sales on the $29.99 deal. I mean how could a business person look at this idea and not give it an immediate stamp of approval for a dying franchise? I want to know that. EVERYBODY please bring your opinions to shed some light in this thread. Your input is needed.

Once people see how great UO: Classic is, they will want to see the game in its greatest shape. That by using the Enhanced Client. They could sell the Enhanced Client as an upgrade booster pack to UO: Classic as well, which would be sweet.

 

[Viper09]

If it's completely separate then it needs more than a one time payment, especially if you're asking for this current dev team to put their attention on this separate system.

 

[Viper09]

But if you're just looking for a way to draw people into this game you don't want to draw them in with a dated client. Just because they will like the dated client doesn't mean they're going to like the new one, it's completely different. If you want to draw people into this new game then a better idea would be like a permanent free trial account with proper limitations until they wish to pay for a full account.

Grr, got drawn into this again, I'm out...lol

 

[Penana Car]

If it's completely separate then it needs more than a one time payment, especially if you're asking for this current dev team to put their attention on this separate system.

Attention?

So digging an old client build and an old server build out of the archives is extra attention? Then selling it as a basic, separate log-in subscription code and having existing GMs monitor the queue? That is a lot of attention? It sounds like a 3-day job for 2 or 3 employees to get the basic build and serverside configurations ready. Easy work. Average their wage out at $29.99 / hr * 8 hours * 3 people x 3 days = $2159.28 for $150,000 sales. Man I don't even know what to say. Have you seen the volume of work Blizzard puts out on its games? Not taking a dig at Mythic. But as a business person this makes total sense and they are paid to be productive so let's see some production. If I was their VP I would be riding them so hard for results right now. All jokes aside. I'm not even paid and I'm doing a better job of doing that right now.

Let's see something for the players.

You people treat Ultima like it's some sort of home or something. Your home ain't going to stay standing if it doesn't innovate and change with the market. Just like the car industry. Things will fold when under pressure.

Somebody at Mythic has to be reading this knowing it is partially, if not wholly, true. Yes I am deducting marks just to show that I have an opinion I am not just a troll.

 

[virtualhabitat]

I am not just a troll.

Funny.

Penana, you're just another troll.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

Can we please stop with "creative" methods to attempt an old ruleset shard?

By the way... all of your presumptions about what they would make, as well as what it would cost to implement this idea, are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off base.

And since you mentioned Blizzard, let me give you their answer to a pre-Burning Crusade, pre-whatever-change-someone-didn't-like-ruleset server: NO.

What seems pretty obvious to you is what all these companies have already realized: There is no win-win in bringing out old rulesets. There are reasons those rulesets were retired. And once you open the floodgate on one ruleset, you end up opening the floodgate on ALL rulesets. For UO, some want pre-T2A, some want pre-UO:R, some want pre-AoS, some want pre-SE, some want pre-ML, some want pre-SA... Some want AoS without the itemization changes. Some want T2A with the itemization changes. They plain and simply cannot make an ala carte ruleset for UO.

If you want to play UO from the old days, go out, find a group of friends with skills, and build an original game with an original story and use original graphics to create an original client that integrates with an original server that happens to have the things that you liked most from UO. And then market that product. Come back here in four years and tell us how well this grand experiment went for you. But stop with the neato groovy ways of saying, "Please make a classic server." The bus has already sailed, and the boat is in deep woods. NO.

 

[Spoontoes]

<snip>
So digging an old client build and an old server build out of the archives is extra attention? Then selling it as a basic, separate log-in subscription code and having existing GMs monitor the queue? That is a lot of attention? It sounds like a 3-day job for 2 or 3 employees to get the basic build and serverside configurations ready.
<snip>

I'm guessing you don't work in an IT related field. Who says that they have all iterations of previous code in an archive? If they do it could take days to find it, weeks to get it into some sort of working order with the current OS's (presuming it won't need any recoding for more modern hardware/devices and just runs 'as is') then it will need to be thoroughly tested (nother couple months). After that you just have the ongoing support of the hardware - the groups of GMs on hand to sort out live help problems, a team to work on the old bugs that were ironed out with the newer releases due to the amount of screamig and shouting on the forums about how the 'new' 'old' UO: Classic doesn't work proerly and is full of bugs.........

So basically what would be required - is exactly what is in place now - duplicated. Or perhaps you thought they would just find an old backup tape, dust off an old server somewhere and open it up to the public eh? lol.

£150k in revenue hehehehe it'll cost more than that to get it up and running.

 

[Tazar]

If 5000 people bought in, it would be $150,000 sales. More contribution than most shards are bringing in over 3 years. A lot of people would buy 2 so they could run more than one account.

It's like playing Ultima IV. Nobody wants to play an old game. Nobody wants to play an old, horrid build of UO. So put a price tag on it and make it free. Maybe it will make people want to subscribe for the awesome product that pay-to-play UO is today. And it will make people like Mesanna who are accountable look smart and possibly make a bonus.

This subject has been brought up 1,000's of times before and it always ends up a heated debate with many totally ignoring the reality of what it would take to create and maintain such a server. Given these 1,000's of prior locked threads and the Developer statements of "it's not going to happen" - it's time to stop this before it becomes yet another train-wreck.