New Year....What's the Secret?

[Slayvite]

Ok @Mesanna ,
It's January so what's the big secret you couldn't reveal until the new Year??
.
.
.
What do you mean you just got back into the office....no excuse!!
Spill!!! I NEED to know.

 

[TimberWolf]

Big secret......they are shutting UO down so the never have to fix the rune atlas, or answer another email from Jirel

 

[MalagAste]

You know they don't work on Monday's right?

 

[MissEcho]

Big secret......they are shutting UO down so the never have to fix the rune atlas, or answer another email from Jirel

Naa shutting down so I NEVER get my prize for winning the Cultural Centre competition run for the 16th Anniversary. Still waiting for it to be built, and ya know what, if they weren't gonna bother giving me my prize the least they could do would be to give me something else in lieu of it. Instead, they advertise a competition, announce me as the winner, then never stump up the prize. The 'excuse' I got was it was 'too hard to build'. Seriously??? I did it on test centre in one day, and the dev's can't build and deco it? Seriously ??????? Cultural Center Comp

 

[JDs]

I think the secret is that there is a special pen on sale at the moment on the origin store.

 

[Varingian]

Big secret......they are shutting UO down so the never have to fix the rune atlas, or answer another email from Jirel

lolz

 

[Capt. Lucky]

I think it's the End Game Store.

 

[Gamer_Goblin]

When they do shut down UO I wonder who got the Highest score on the scoreboard and how it was determined.

 

[Slayvite]

Personally i'm hoping for a graphics engine upgrade, playing in quarter of the screen in an 52" tv this day and age is just wrong and dare I say.....VERY LAZY?
The other game I play Istaria (Horizons) is near 13 years old and was bought out by the original devs, so its a very small team just like UO.
Yet this year they are undergoing a massive amount of work by upgrading the engine to Unreal 4.

So really I guess I'm wondering why a subscription game like Istaria can do it with a small team and no extra income but yet Broadsword and EA cannot.......?

 

[sablestorm]

Personally i'm hoping for a graphics engine upgrade, playing in quarter of the screen in an 52" tv this day and age is just wrong and dare I say.....VERY LAZY?
The other game I play Istaria (Horizons) is near 13 years old and was bought out by the original devs, so its a very small team just like UO.
Yet this year they are undergoing a massive amount of work by upgrading the engine to Unreal 4.

So really I guess I'm wondering why a subscription game like Istaria can do it with a small team and no extra income but yet Broadsword and EA cannot.......?

How many times have they tried to release a new client with new artwork, only to have a huge number of players prefer the old look and art?

 

[Slayvite]

I'd be very happy with the same artwork, but we should be able to extend the playscreen to more than a 1/4 without having to drop resolution in this day and age.
It can be done in the enhanced client so they nearly got it right.

 

[MalagAste]

How many times have they tried to release a new client with new artwork, only to have a huge number of players prefer the old look and art?

2.

First Third Dawn.... something I enjoyed for the way the boxes and bags worked mostly and the movements. I miss dancing, falling down, and all the other things we could do..... I also miss being able to turn and rotate my characters image using the paperdoll. Ah... those were awesome things we probably will never get back sadly.

Second KR. While they got many things "right" in that client... they got it wrong in muting things to the point that they took much of the detail out of them. It was nearly impossible to tell grass from tree so navigation was a pain... they also drastically changed so many things that it no longer looked like UO. There were good parts to it..... one was the housing menu.. being able to change someone from co-owner to friend etc... adding tons of co-owners to your house was wonderful. Being able to see when your friends were online was also awesome. But some of the tile art for items in your pack were just hideous. Also some of the art went from looking rich and clean to looking like faded barn siding... chests instead of being in nice neat rows looked like swayback nags... I ran across some pics from Martyna Z'Muir when she was a reporter on The Daily Herald yesterday and was remembering the client.

The problem with UO is that it's tile based. KR tried to get away from that. Though IMO the art was HORRIBLE. Trouble with much art anymore added to UO is that newer artists hired can't seem to understand the perspective... and they fail totally at the detail of the old art. You look at many of the walls, floors, doors, and such in the old tiles and you can see such detail... down to imperfections of the wood, cracks in the stones, defects in the bricks, hardware and even nail holes. Newer art lacks much of that detail... some of the best more recent art that "compares" would be the roses in the vase we got for Valentines as a clicky a few years ago as well as the smaller Easter plant... the base of that is closer to proper perspective and is in line with good art of the past. The sundial while it was improved now lacks detail... it became so bland... the new housing tiles while nice lack imperfections and such making it look far too "clean" to be normal and looks almost cartoon like in it's perfection... There are many things that of late are just plain TOO FREAKING BIG. The rockinghorse we got is a good example of that.... it's insanely large... while yes it would lose some detail as a smaller object it has little use or practicality as an enormous object, one 1/4 the size would have been really neat... Kinda like that new flower print dress we got... if you look at the UO plain dress and fancy dress you can see the stitching almost... they have obvious hemming and such.... the flower dress is nothing more than a cut out pasted on the paperdoll with a pasted on floral pattern and it looks horrible. There is no shading, no stiching, it has no hems or seams... it's just a blob rather like the gargoyle robe that looks like a burlap bag... looks ok in the backpack but when you put it on there is no detail at all... just a painted blob on your character.

If they did a true 3d totally revamped everything and brought UO into the modern gaming era... sadly many of the jurassics still would hate it. Even if it had graphics on par with EQLandmark, Final Fantasy XIV, LoTRO, and WoW.... they would still hate it.

My hope is that they rethink not improving the EC graphics... that they continue to work on it slowly and perhaps allow folk to submit things... giving them credit in the form perhaps of either game time or some in-game recognition... or some such. And that they continue to fix graphical issues with the EC and also fix some of the problems with packet loss and such causing crashing, lag spikes and such... while they continue to release art in both 2d and the EC but that they focus more on the EC playablity, reliability and experience until more and more of the Jurassics finally succumb to the dark side and join us... at which time they can finally retire the old client... Honestly though I think if they want to continue working with the old CC they ought to consider hiring or taking things directly from the Free Sharders... and take some of what makes them popular and put that into the real client.

But that's me I guess.

 

[Slayvite]

Shhhh!!!!! You know your not allowed to mention the "free shards" and their art cos it makes the devs here look like liars when they say "it cannot be done" ect.

 

[hungry4knowhow]

As much as I wish all free sharders played here instead, my hats off to what some of those devs have done.

They have made transparent water, increased resolution of classic client, upgraded graphics while keeping the original feel, its just amazing.

Google Essence UCS. or reddit user "anymudz" Some downright jaw dropping stuff this guy has been doing for the last year year and a half.

 

[Hannes Erich]

@MalagAste -- some weeks ago, I asked what had happened to the once-touted development of high-res art for the Classic Client; you and Dot Warner replied that it was never going to happen. I quietly hoped that you were wrong... until Mesanna herself confirmed those plans were dust (in that awwwkward interview with Ultima Codex). At the time, I had (finally) been using the Enhanced Client for a while. My carpel tunnel was thanking me, but as a person who grew up playing Ultima since UIII, the character and creature art in the EC is almost offensive. In other words, if the high-res update had come, I've always been prepared to switch back to the CC in a heartbeat, damn the infinite click-fest in a tiny window that it is. It had good art direction.

The reason I bring this up is because I experienced a kind of fan boy epiphany after that. I made one last ditch effort to ask Classic Client users if they could even see themselves embracing a Quality of Life user interface improvement; taking all of the Classic Client art, effects, paper doll and containers... and shoving them 100% into the Enhanced Client as a full-blown replacement option. Essentially, giving them the Classic Client, but with full-screen support, customizable hotbars including clickable macros, hot bags for auto-looting and auto-dressing. About a quarter of the clicking-and-dragging that the CC requires. The very first response I got was from Capt'n Norrington; replying that, no, he wouldn't embrace those things, because they wouldn't be improvements to him; they would be changes to something for which he feels a special familiarity. The likes rolled in, and so did all the comments in support of Norrington's feelings.

I have to respect those people and their preferences, but more importantly, so does Broadsword. For the majority of this community, the tiny window, the unaccommodating user interface, those are both as endearing as the wonderful art. So I have to believe that even a high-res update would have been rejected by the majority of the community, and I think Mesanna realized this at some point (it, too, would have been a change). As an aside, you can put retro RPGs on Steam and bank on them, but you cannot put retro user interfaces on Steam and bank of them. Whether or not Broadsword knows this, I assure you, EA knows this.

So if it isn't clear by now, my fan boy epiphany was that Broadsword cannot make a successful Ultima Online client for the modern era. No studio can. Ultima Online's playerbase will never have it. The only way forward for Ultima Online as a modern MMORPG would be a sequel; but that sequel would not be made for this community, and even if it were (misguidedly so), this community would not play it. And there's nothing wrong with that. The upside is, I think we're well past the point when a UO2 would in any sense be competition for UO.

 

[Slayvite]

The "sequel" to UO is actually underway right now, and you can play the Alpha while they build it.
It's called Shroud of the Avatar and once finished will be a fully 3d modern take on the UO universe.
Looks quite promising, but I don't want modern....I want Classic Client, I just want to see the damb game without squinting into a corner of my monitor.

 

[MalagAste]

@Hannes Erich Oh trust me I've considered that. Jurassics make the world go round... they don't like to leave the comfort zone. Sadly that zone is also what's IMO killing the game. The inability to move forward. Anytime anything is added people scream... anytime NOTHING is added people scream...

What kills it for me is the move from community to commodity. UO is all about collecting and gathering and getting money and making cold hard RL cash. People have milked that cash cow to death and then left for greener pastures after destroying the community. By killing the economy, cheating, and hacking others, making folk so frustrated and/or hurt they have left UO forever... add that up with the continued downsizing from EA, constant moving of the DEVs to every corner of the map and the lack of proper forums and account management and you have what has destroyed the UO we all hold dear.

That destruction has left many of us clinging to a lost joy... hanging on hoping that the "golden" era will somehow magically return. Nostalgia keeps many of us here so that too is what keeps many from moving to the EC.

New client or new art doesn't matter to many... they won't give up the old this I know... So I continue to look for a new place to go. One that gives me what I want... modern graphics and UO style play.... no levels, sandbox.... but nothing ever comes close. Shards is interesting.... but I highly doubt it will deliver. Landmark was promising but it's fallen FAR short of the mark.

While many of you can't move on... that's fine whatever continue to play your old client... I just don't want that to stop the rest of us from enjoying the EC. I personally will NEVER return to the CC. I'd rather /wrists. I don't miss much if any of it. Some things that annoy me about the EC would be the fact that it's damn near impossible to tell what is blocking house placement in the EC because you honestly can't tell if there is a lump in the terrain... The Circle of Transparency sucks totally..... and is near worthless.... not to mention it renders all animated objects invisible which is extremely annoying. Placing a boat can be a challenge as well as the targeting is off.... but it is in the CC too if you move your screen out of the upper left hand corner. Something I find extremely silly... but whatever...

At any rate I doubt there ever will be a consensus of clients... what there is though is a love of the game and a deep sense of nostalgia for it. I have a great many hopes for the future of UO. But I highly doubt much if any will come to pass.

 

[MalagAste]

The "sequel" to UO is actually underway right now, and you can play the Alpha while they build it.
It's called Shroud of the Avatar and once finished will be a fully 3d modern take on the UO universe.
Looks quite promising, but I don't want modern....I want Classic Client, I just want to see the damb game without squinting into a corner of my monitor.

Shroud isn't even an MMO.... it's lousy.

 

[Hannes Erich]

Well, it's also incorrect to call Shroud of the Avatar UO's singular spiritual successor; not only because Shards Online has some of Origin's old team working on it, but so does Crowfall. Albion Online is also trying to pick up that mantle, and LinkRealms just announced plans for Steam. Pretty sure I'm missing a couple. There is a sandbox resurgence going on out there, and almost all of them mention Ultima Online as their major inspiration right on their front page. Most of these projects are run by industry veterans who want to keep the spirit of Ultima alive for the next generation, but none of them have the franchise rights. As a long-time Ultima fan, I'm a fan of a body of work that includes UO, but is much larger and older. I've seen UO's dev teams get it right and I've seen them veer off course over the years. UO is unique and I'm still a fan, but any Ultima game that takes almost twenty years to implement the virtues has some problems in its approach to Ultima. Ninjas and samurais and Elves all slid in first.

@MalagAste -- Re: nostalgia, I've only been able to come back and enjoy UO since I let go of the nostalgia. UO used to be this big immersive EXPERIENCE; I forged the kind of friendships that lead to 2 a.m. calls lol. I was a silly twenty-year old. I shouldn't glamorize those memories too much, I spent too much time playing a game. But I used to come back to UO in search of a feeling, and that's not rational. Nostalgia never made me stay here, it only made me quit--very often--and real dissatisfied.

It's a big dungeon crawler with lots of neat systems and mechanics. I'm not too serious about it anymore, thank goodness.

 

[Ansel]

Astonishing discovery behaviors and the essential dependence of players on each other created the magic for me. This is what I see when I read MalagAste and Hannes Erich: this was the juice for them too.

And those two foundation features were soon long gone. But I keep returning. Yet, like Hannes Erich, I know I can't fall in love with the same game a second time. Instead I like the people in my guild. I'm enjoying the people I'm reading here. Simply being among people who remember that experience that meant so much to me, and knowing it meant much the same to them, is more than I can get anywhere else in an online game.

Different things matter to contemporary online game players. They're not bad things...they're just not my things But this also means that attempts to restore, revive, or reboot the core UO experience for a large commercial audience will likely fail.

The great irony of UO is that, while it may have introduced a mainstream audience to the concept of online games, it was NEVER itself a mainstream online game. I prefer to consider that a tribute to its astuteness

 

[Hannes Erich]

I'm glad you found a reason not just to return @Ansel but new stuff to enjoy (that's the way to do things!). I had to look in some very old PMs to make sure, but I knew you looked familiar! We had some correspondence a few years ago, I think right before you left the game for a long while. Welcome back.

 

[Corwyn]

The memory of the game is exactly why I come back time and time again. The reasons I played originally are long gone. Sometimes, I can't really understand why this game brings me back time and time again. In the end, I think that the most basic concept of the game is what I love about it... something I can't replicate anywhere else. It's the freedom. I can do anything I want in the game.

I finally trained my original main character up to legendary blacksmith. Tailoring comes next. Then I'll finish fletching, and he'll be a finished character... finally. I have also started fishing again, something I have found to be immensely enjoyable, even though I still don't have a clue which items I should keep and which I should dump.

My wife is working on a treasure hunter, which is something she enjoys doing. I'm sure she'll want me to follow her on her treasure hunting excursions, and we'll have a good time doing it.

I have other goals to work towards, and as long as the goals are still there, I'll still play.

I do very much miss the days of standing at the Brit forge, repairing armor. And I miss the days of item simplicity. But overall, I'm having fun. That's all that matters.

 

[MalagAste]

The memory of the game is exactly why I come back time and time again. The reasons I played originally are long gone. Sometimes, I can't really understand why this game brings me back time and time again. In the end, I think that the most basic concept of the game is what I love about it... something I can't replicate anywhere else. It's the freedom. I can do anything I want in the game.

I finally trained my original main character up to legendary blacksmith. Tailoring comes next. Then I'll finish fletching, and he'll be a finished character... finally. I have also started fishing again, something I have found to be immensely enjoyable, even though I still don't have a clue which items I should keep and which I should dump.

My wife is working on a treasure hunter, which is something she enjoys doing. I'm sure she'll want me to follow her on her treasure hunting excursions, and we'll have a good time doing it.

I have other goals to work towards, and as long as the goals are still there, I'll still play.

I do very much miss the days of standing at the Brit forge, repairing armor. And I miss the days of item simplicity. But overall, I'm having fun. That's all that matters.

I do enjoy Treasure Hunts. Quite a bit of fun. And taming... RP, Fishing, so many things to enjoy... design and deco... community.

 

[Corwyn]

I do enjoy Treasure Hunts. Quite a bit of fun. And taming... RP, Fishing, so many things to enjoy... design and deco... community.

I might have to create a roleplay character. I do miss roleplaying quite a bit. I've never done it in UO, but I've done it in another game, and of course, D&D.

 

[Ender]

You know they don't work on Monday's right?

Wait, really? 3 day weekend every week?

 

[MalagAste]

I might have to create a roleplay character. I do miss roleplaying quite a bit. I've never done it in UO, but I've done it in another game, and of course, D&D.

I've always loved RP in UO. It's very immersive. Wouldn't play any other way.

 

[Uriah Heep]

more CC/EC arguing. Just make the screen in CC where it can be enlarged, and forget the art. Seriously, do NOT do anymore art, ever. When it first released (EC/KR) the landscape looked like a watercolor painting that had been left out in the rain for a week...fuzzy blurry, not EVERY flower in the world is a pastel...Ossies were the size of dragons, and you sat on their heads.Sideways. You can only make a good first impression once. They failed. And this is the stuff that makes you scratch your head and say WTF?!?!?! Didn't they even look at this stuff before they sent it out?!?!?!?>They still have artwork ingame (wearables) that hide, or poke thru, or whatever. The new art seems to be oversized, off-kilter, sometimes sloppy, very very seldom in keeping with the style already ingame.

Do NOT do anymore art...just recolor and rename stuff already here. And fix the CC where the screen will stretch=happy campers

 

[Slayvite]

Well, it's also incorrect to call Shroud of the Avatar UO's singular spiritual successor; not only because Shards Online has some of Origin's old team working on it, but so does Crowfall. Albion Online is also trying to pick up that mantle, and LinkRealms just announced plans for Steam. Pretty sure I'm missing a couple. There is a sandbox resurgence going on out there, and almost all of them mention Ultima Online as their major inspiration right on their front page. Most of these projects are run by industry veterans who want to keep the spirit of Ultima alive for the next generation, but none of them have the franchise rights. As a long-time Ultima fan, I'm a fan of a body of work that includes UO, but is much larger and older. I've seen UO's dev teams get it right and I've seen them veer off course over the years. UO is unique and I'm still a fan, but any Ultima game that takes almost twenty years to implement the virtues has some problems in its approach to Ultima. Ninjas and samurais and Elves all slid in first.

@MalagAste -- Re: nostalgia, I've only been able to come back and enjoy UO since I let go of the nostalgia. UO used to be this big immersive EXPERIENCE; I forged the kind of friendships that lead to 2 a.m. calls lol. I was a silly twenty-year old. I shouldn't glamorize those memories too much, I spent too much time playing a game. But I used to come back to UO in search of a feeling, and that's not rational. Nostalgia never made me stay here, it only made me quit--very often--and real dissatisfied.

It's a big dungeon crawler with lots of neat systems and mechanics. I'm not too serious about it anymore, thank goodness.

You do know that's its actually based on UO and it's head designers are Richard Garriott and Starr long? Basically the 2 people who brought us UO in the first place.
SotA is the closest thing there will ever be to a "modern" UO.......I do hate the movement controls in it though.

 

[SugarMMM]

We all know that there are 2 different clients to play this game so you either use the CC or the EC.

So IMO to call someone that plays the CC instead of the EC a "Jurassics" isn't necessary on these forums and name calling isn't helpful for the community.

 

[Hannes Erich]

I think you ought to pay attention to the context in which Malag-Aste used "Jurassic" and the post she was responding to (one of mine). It seems Malag-Aste shares my admiration for the CC's wonderful art direction (and yours!), as she clearly defends the CC's original, early art in her posts above. What she was actually relating to was my realization that many CC users are so caught up in their nostalgia, that a large number of them even admitted in a recent thread (as explained above) that they wouldn't even want Quality of Life improvements related to software accessibility, such as customizable hotbars for their macros, auto-loot hot bags to reduce mouse-clicking, or full-screen support (things that have nothing to do with the look and feel of the world inside the CC). Jurassic, when used this way, is the nice way of suggesting that a person or group might be cutting off their nose to spite evolution and adaptability in an industry and genre that require it. It wasn't an inappropriate use of the term. It was more blunt than I like to be, but there are far blunter people here than Malag-Aste.

You do know that's its actually based on UO and it's head designers are Richard Garriott and Starr long? Basically the 2 people who brought us UO in the first place.
SotA is the closest thing there will ever be to a "modern" UO.......I do hate the movement controls in it though.

Easy there, tiger. I'm not dissing SotA, I'm looking forward to it, along with the other games I mentioned. The producers behind most of those games have voiced a lot of support for each others projects, so there's no reason to pretend to pit them against each other. More to your point, I've followed Richard Garriott's (and Long's) pursuits since I was a kid. But a lot of people don't realize, while Garriott single-handedly created the Ultima universe, he and Long are faaarrr from being UO's singular creators and designers. Garriott was actually very hands-off during UO's creation; he was too caught up in UIX, bless his heart (nobody's perfect, not even the King). I think Garriott would disagree with your sentiment that SotA is (or has to be) UO's only worthy successor; he's expressed much disappointment throughout the years that UO didn't have all kinds of successors five or ten years after launch.

P.S. "Ever" is a long time, Slayvite.

 

[kronides]

You do know that's its actually based on UO and it's head designers are Richard Garriott and Starr long? Basically the 2 people who brought us UO in the first place.
SotA is the closest thing there will ever be to a "modern" UO.......I do hate the movement controls in it though.

SotA is nothing at all like UO, it isn't even in the same genre, it doesn't have remotely similar combat, skills, or any readily identifiable resemblance to UO at all. I don't know how you figure this except that Garriot is making it.

 

[Hannes Erich]

Not entirely true, both games are in the fantasy sandbox genre, and it has a lot of Garriott's sensibilities embedded into it like previous Ultima titles. Living world, classless, most items you see in the world are good for something, etc. It's 3D, but none of Origin's old canceled plans for UO sequels were 2.5 isometric. My own bias is somewhere in the middle I guess. I suppose I don't really consider SotA recognizable as a spiritual successor after all, but I do think of it as a close ancestor (edit: oops, relative). I look forward to checking it out.

 

[Slayvite]

The 12th now.
Considering that in December they were super excited to tell us some news but couldn't until the new year.....that news is ?????
Has it fallen thru already,
Has it joined the queue behind the UO shop and revamped accounts page,
Have they even returned from the festive holls yet?

 

[Deaol]

well after the meet and greet on Origin tonight, I would say the secret is... Mesanna is not going to put her name on anything else in the game from this day forward.

 

[Hannes Erich]

What happened?

 

[MalagAste]

What happened?

Dunno but I sure hope someone posts a transcript.

 

[Uvtha]

Ok @Mesanna ,
It's January so what's the big secret you couldn't reveal until the new Year??
.
.
.
What do you mean you just got back into the office....no excuse!!
Spill!!! I NEED to know.

A new color of untamable dinosaur! It poisons, it disarms, it parries, it has 90 in all resists and 10000 hps! Loot: 300 gold, and no items!

 

[Prime.]

Oh!!!

I hope it's 1166 hued artifact/armor dyes, and unicorns, and dragons, and dread war horses, and arrows, everything pink!

 

[Victim of Siege]

Dunno but I sure hope someone posts a transcript.

someone got on stage and basically stated that Mesanna had personally ruined the economy of UO by creating things with her name on them, and show favoritism in how she handed said items out. intentionally creating 500gazillion gold items and an Obama-esk society or something to that effect. I am sure @Larisa or someone else, will have the the transcript out soon. i am not certain about the Obama part, at that point i was kinda half listening.

 

[MalagAste]

someone got on stage and basically stated that Mesanna had personally ruined the economy of UO by creating things with her name on them, and show favoritism in how she handed said items out. intentionally creating 500gazillion gold items and an Obama-esk society or something to that effect. I am sure @Larisa or someone else, will have the the transcript out soon. i am not certain about the Obama part, at that point i was kinda half listening.

Well sounds like once they brought RL politics into the conversation all of the validity of the conversation went out the window.

But seriously we have had stuff with DEVs/EMs/GMs names on them since the dawn of UO. Even the Demons are named for DEVs.

Some of my more treasured names are "Draconi, Willow, CatHat, TheGrimmOmen, MsTroublmaker, Wilki...

 

[Uvtha]

Well sounds like once they brought RL politics into the conversation all of the validity of the conversation went out the window.

But seriously we have had stuff with DEVs/EMs/GMs names on them since the dawn of UO. Even the Demons are named for DEVs.

Some of my more treasured names are "Draconi, Willow, CatHat, TheGrimmOmen, MsTroublmaker, Wilki...

I don't mind the devs popping their names in here or there, especially one monsters (so you can take out your frustrations on your least favorite designer) or common little keepsakes like the named pumpkins or whatever (for when a designer you liked leaves and you want to honor the work they did during their time in UO) but Messana has a whole sector of the rares market to herself, and that has always rubbed me the wrong way.

I don't think it's important to the economy or anything but it comes off as a bit self-aggrandizing.

 

[MalagAste]

I don't mind the devs popping their names in here or there, especially one monsters (so you can take out your frustrations on your least favorite designer) or common little keepsakes like the named pumpkins or whatever (for when a designer you liked leaves and you want to honor the work they did during their time in UO) but Messana has a whole sector of the rares market to herself, and that has always rubbed me the wrong way.

I don't think it's important to the economy or anything but it comes off as a bit self-aggrandizing.

Some people compensate in other area's...

Anyway... I don't see anything wrong with it. Some encourage it a bit much. My only beef is that Kyronix, Misk, and the others don't get to do events too. I would like it if they did.

My biggest thing with it is that it seems like a control issue... and it seems very one sided... and well I'd kinda like to see what some of the other DEVs could do if given the opportunity to do such events.

 

[Hannes Erich]

Yes, because sword control and affordable bandages (MesannaCare) are very serious topics for Britannians in 2016.

I doubt one player's opinion can change Mesanna's policies just like that. Lots of players appreciate that kind of stuff. That player needs to lighten up.

I do think it would be awesome if she shared the love a little more and put other dev names on stuff more often. But maybe she already does and people just don't display them as much(?).

 

[MalagAste]

Yes, because sword control and affordable bandages (MesannaCare) are very serious topics for Britannians in 2016.

I doubt one player's opinion can change Mesanna's policies just like that. Lots of players appreciate that kind of stuff. That player needs to lighten up.

I do think it would be awesome if she shared the love a little more and put other dev names on stuff more often. But maybe she already does and people just don't display them as much(?).

To the best of my knowledge there has only been ONE time that we were given things with DEVs names on them where her name was strangely omitted. And that was with the Lobsters. There are NO Mesanna prepared Lobsters. Now whether that was an oversight or intentional or maybe she hates Lobster we may never know.

 

[Uvtha]

Some people compensate in other area's...

Anyway... I don't see anything wrong with it. Some encourage it a bit much. My only beef is that Kyronix, Misk, and the others don't get to do events too. I would like it if they did.

My biggest thing with it is that it seems like a control issue... and it seems very one sided... and well I'd kinda like to see what some of the other DEVs could do if given the opportunity to do such events.

Well, I personally hate the "rares" market, I think it's fueled a lot of the most negative aspects of this game, and it doesn't encourage me to see the head designer glorifying herself by making more uber rares (the most sought after items in this game) with her name on them.

It really doesn't effect me, because it's not really a thing on siege, but I just think it's dumb. If peeps like it more power to them.

 

[MalagAste]

Well, I personally hate the "rares" market, I think it's fueled a lot of the most negative aspects of this game, and it doesn't encourage me to see the head designer glorifying herself by making more uber rares (the most sought after items in this game) with her name on them.

It really doesn't effect me, because it's not really a thing on siege, but I just think it's dumb. If peeps like it more power to them.

While I'm inclined to agree with you there... The EM events are almost a double edged sword. One it's brought life back to the game.... but 2 it's fuel for the greed that is IMO killing the game and the community.

I personally liked city invasions.... I liked when you could farm drops from them all day long at your own pace and didn't have to be on at the right time in the right place on the right day...

 

[Uvtha]

Yes, because sword control and affordable bandages (MesannaCare) are very serious topics for Britannians in 2016.

I doubt one player's opinion can change Mesanna's policies just like that. Lots of players appreciate that kind of stuff. That player needs to lighten up.

I do think it would be awesome if she shared the love a little more and put other dev names on stuff more often. But maybe she already does and people just don't display them as much(?).

When are we gonna build that wall on the fel border?!

 

[Uvtha]

I personally liked city invasions.... I liked when you could farm drops from them all day long at your own pace and didn't have to be on at the right time in the right place on the right day...

Yup. I am 100% pro on static events rather than one time rng scrambles. For a lot of reasons.

 

[Larisa]

someone got on stage and basically stated that Mesanna had personally ruined the economy of UO by creating things with her name on them, and show favoritism in how she handed said items out. intentionally creating 500gazillion gold items and an Obama-esk society or something to that effect. I am sure @Larisa or someone else, will have the the transcript out soon. i am not certain about the Obama part, at that point i was kinda half listening.

I thought that bit was rather amusing...I WAS going to ask her if she would dye my mask but after the night she had I didn't dare...she probably needed a drink or two after that meet and greet!

I will have the transcript up later today, so sorry @Mesanna that you had to deal with all of that nonsense, and thank you again for coming to Origin, some of us Originals do appreciate it!

 

[Cymidei]

Yep you guys be nice to Mesanna and the Devs because they keep this game going and that's no small task. Sure it's not a perfect game but it's still running after all these years.