Revitalize UO

[mudshark]

I have never seen any other game that let players set up free shards of the original game. I have even read that Scrabble has sued sites using their game and was told to discontinue violating their copyright.
So I would like to see all UO free shards discontinue so that all those players will have no choice but to return to the real, paid subscription Ultima Online Servers.
I almost guarantee that there would be an influx of players returning to uo and bring life back to our community. I have lost soo many friends the last few years that leave to go to thwe free shards and it hard to believe that EA games let this continue to this day. I do hope that bringing up this topic will drum up support by other paying members and will make EA game rethink this terrible decision made long ago of allowing a player run shard.
So join me in voicing your concern and lets make a push to revitalize UO.
Thanks in advance
Madshark OATH
chesapeake

 

[Mitzlplik_SP]

I don`t think their allowed by EA but they are ignored.

 

[Beer_Cayse]

FS have been around since at least the introduction of Trammel in 2000 (??). Most likely before that.

My thinking is that the reason some players are on these sites is because UO has changed to where they do not wish to play it any longer ... in its current form. Should the FS go away I doubt that an influx of players would happen to the prodo shards.

I would love to see some of the AOS and later stuff simply go away - I'm not really happy with the way UO has gone. However, I also will not play FS for any reason - I signed onto this ship and with this ship I will sail.

 

[Llwyd]

EA could probably prevail in a lawsuit and have them shut down. However, lawsuits cost money and it's doubtful EA would care to spend it. In addition, it's highly unlikely that freeshard players would want to pay subscription dollars to the Corporation that took their free game away from them.

 

[Aran]

Free shard players are taking quite literally zero business away from EA. If they wanted to play by EA's current ruleset, they likely would.

 

[mudshark]

well, I thought I should add that there's a few laws that change everyday that we all would disagree. But thats life and time is changing. We have no choice but to go with the flow and readjust our way of thinking. One example that I can think of that we all are use to today, was giving women the right to vote.
We can't imagine it otherwise nowadays but back then it must've shocked plenty of men that had to accept that change.

 

[AesSedai]

Free shard players are taking quite literally zero business away from EA. If they wanted to play by EA's current ruleset, they likely would.

~ Pirated games, movies and music are taking quite literally zero dollars away from the IP owners. If people wanted to enjoy those forms of entertainment, they likely would pay the creators for it.

(Here's the theory I've matured enough to believe in: Pirates stealz stuffs for free and as a result prevent many creative people from being able to afford to share their talent with the rest of the world that legitimately rewards them for their talent ~ cheaters are bad)

 

[mudshark]

I also wanted to add, that I just google UO FREE SHARD and the first thing that popped up was
top 200 free shards.
that's only the top 200.
how many others are there out there.

 

[deadite]

Let me tell you something about free shards.

There's a handful that are populated. There's dozens that sit nearly empty, or have a player base that maxes out around 20 simultaneous players.

The ones that ARE populated are all based on old rulesets and most of them allow AFK Macroing. These are not people who would come play the current version of UO.

The ones that are NOT populated tend to be heavily customized (graphics and rules) and are played by folks who like to share some specific fantasy setting. Again, not people who are going to come play here.

Also, many of the free shards are not English language. These are people who probably couldn't play UO on their dial up connections from their home countries anyway.

Trust me. Free shards are not all that impressive. They aren't really taking much, if not any, business from EA.

 

[Gowron]

The only way that FS are legal is for the production of artwork. The user agreement clearly stated that I agree not to play on one.

Thus, EA does have a legal ground to stand on to shut down free shards, but I doubt highly that they would. First, they would have to go to court (costs money and other risks) to have them declared illegal, then they would have to sue/prosecute each free shard producer and each player. This would be too damned impractical to implement.

I have a feeling that if EA were to shut down the free shards, that the backlash won't just be limited to UO, but will include the wide range of EA games.

 

[mudshark]

well, I've also thought that EA would not consider suing and hiring lawyers for such a venture. But, in most cases, just a threat from ea games would convince most FS administrators to close up shop and discontinue their FS.

 

[UOKaiser]

~ Pirated games, movies and music are taking quite literally zero dollars away from the IP owners. If people wanted to enjoy those forms of entertainment, they likely would pay the creators for it.

(Here's the theory I've matured enough to believe in: Pirates stealz stuffs for free and as a result prevent many creative people from being able to afford to share their talent with the rest of the world that legitimately rewards them for their talent ~ cheaters are bad)

I disagree. Simply here is my example I have this song name bibabadabinba and send it to you. Like it or not would have you ever gone and use your money to buy bibabadabinba let alone care enough to actually listen to it. Everything I download I would of never bought anyway.

 

[Sargon]

Free shard players are taking quite literally zero business away from EA. If they wanted to play by EA's current ruleset, they likely would.

This is not true. I have a friend who loves UO and I keep trying to talk him into playing on an official server again, but his attitude is basically "why pay $13/month when I can play for free". If free servers weren't an option, I'm fairly certain he would subscribe to EA's service.

 

[Beastmaster]

Kinda hard to prevail in a lawsuit when they actually released the code free to the public on their own ftp server many years ago, even though it was accidental.

 

[Stupid Miner]

"Revitalize UO"

Inaccurate prefix.

 

[Edmond_Dantes]

Feed the machine!

 

[Malimus]

Im starting to think it might be a good idea to go back to the pre-tram classic free shard i tried a few months back. It actually felt magical like UO did when it first came out. Current UO just doesn't feel like home anymore... If you know what i mean

 

[ZippyTwitch]

I saw a couple posts saying it would cost ea to sue and all that jazz. Well in a way they sorta would have to pay. However, anyone that knows about lawsuits is the loser of the case has to pay all the court costs and the lawyers from the other side. So EA would win the lawsuit and in the long run cost them nothing but time. I say sue and shut em down. FS do take away business from EA.

 

[UOKaiser]

I saw a couple posts saying it would cost ea to sue and all that jazz. Well in a way they sorta would have to pay. However, anyone that knows about lawsuits is the loser of the case has to pay all the court costs and the lawyers from the other side. So EA would win the lawsuit and in the long run cost them nothing but time. I say sue and shut em down. FS do take away business from EA.

I doubt people who run freeshards have enought to pay. If I was running a shard I would declare bankrupcy while ea had to pay 100's of thousands of dollars in fees for lawyers, appeals, tracking people down, losing customer base etc.. And that budget comes out of UO profit which then they will lower the manpower for us. I think we are already way under budget.
There not free shards cause they make money. It has the word free in it for a reason.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

People play free shards for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons though is that they won't pay for what is now an old game with old graphics and they wouldn't pay EA to play even if there weren't any free shards.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

I have never seen any other game that let players set up free shards of the original game. I have even read that Scrabble has sued sites using their game and was told to discontinue violating their copyright.
So I would like to see all UO free shards discontinue so that all those players will have no choice but to return to the real, paid subscription Ultima Online Servers.
I almost guarantee that there would be an influx of players returning to uo and bring life back to our community. I have lost soo many friends the last few years that leave to go to thwe free shards and it hard to believe that EA games let this continue to this day. I do hope that bringing up this topic will drum up support by other paying members and will make EA game rethink this terrible decision made long ago of allowing a player run shard.
So join me in voicing your concern and lets make a push to revitalize UO.
Thanks in advance
Madshark OATH
chesapeake

The funny thing is, the freeshards offer a lot better gaming experience than the productive shards. They have implemented such great features that it makes your eyes water when you see them. Instead of increasing the landmasses and items, they focus on quality. That's why they are so popular.

However, the other problem is that most freeshards are extremely individualistic, so they attract only a small portion of players. Some freeshards have a cool monster and animal AI, but are too complicated and annoying to play due to their strict rules. Others offer a lot of freedom, but allow too many uber items. Again others are great, but have too strict role playing rules.

Anyway, the UO Developers could learn a lot from those freeshards, cause they really have invented features that enhance UO a lot. Implement those features on productive shards, and people will come back all by themselves. Prohibiting freeshards will not change anything about dwindling player numbers on productive shards. It would be the wrong approach.

 

[Paps]

I agree that EA really wouldnt get much of a population boost if they did get fs shut down.People in general don't play them to save 10-13 a month [some do sure but not the majority] They play them because they have features/publish/rulesets that are simply not available on regular production shards.Some of the FS are set up program wise on different systems/comp languages that they might not fit under copyright laws[completely reworked code from ground up,ect]
I see your desire for a more populated UO but the `glory days` are gone.People play WOW now.It looks are better than both UO clients.PVP can be done without having a super fast ISP and from those i know that play it Blizzrds customer support is by far superior to EA`s
About the only thing i can really see to push populations up are the ever unpopular idea of shard mergers [personally i think they should seperate the clients from shards as well (meaning C.C. client only shards and E.C. client only shards)]

 

[Angel121]

Blizzrds customer support is by far superior to EA`s

This is a Scary concept. Having seen and witnessed their support to say this would be to say EA's customer support would have to be a sub section of a mental institute for the terminally brain dead. I don't think anyone is as bad as that.

Maybe I've been lucky but I've had no problems with the EA one.

The Blizzard support was a joke of epic proportion, it was a combination of Benny Hill and Tommy Cooper with a tangy aftertaste.

 

[siyeng0]

I agree with what people are saying here. Freeshards cater to a niche market; if the freeshards weren't there, the niche market wouldn't go back to production shards - they'd just not play UO at all.

That doesn't mean that EA shouldn't make moves to defend their own intellectual property, though.