P
Pad_OLion
Guest
The Past
In the beginning, long before the lands were torn apart and Trammel emerged you could find player run towns on every shard. Back then those little towns were the center of RP on each and every shard, a place to meet, to roleplay and to find thrilling quests and events for newbies and veterans alike, for hard-core roleplayers and those trying to roleplay and even for PvPers. Some of those towns got so famous, that they were blessed by OSI over and over again. OSI was so proud of them, they advertised, promoted and showed them off everywhere. If you wanted to take part in a quest, these were the places to go. Of course back then, those towns too had problems with PKs, but since the comunities were that strong, that never was a serious problem. Also the lands were full of adventurers to rob and murder, so the PKs had lots of victims everywhere. Griefers were rare in those days as people had enough to do and since I think griefing is a side-effect of people being extremely bored it never really applied in those days or was met with determination to get rid of the offenders quickly.
Then Trammel came ....
The Present
When Trammel was implemented a lot of towns tried to move to Trammel, although almost all of them didn't survive that move. The landrush and the new housing rules simply made it impossible for a successful transition of a player run town, especially the large ones didn't manage. So the comunities were torn apart. Some stayed behind and some moved on to build new towns. Those staying behind soon realized, that with all their clientel moving to Trammel their towns were robbed of the most important ingredient ... people. Still some of those towns managed to survive to this day, but those are very very few.
Right now, when you take a tour through those famous towns of the past you'll still find marvelous places with ponds, hedges, fountains and statues, but what you won't find there is people ... they are empty ... they are dead. One of the reasons why they died is, that Felucca now has a limited amount of victims for PKs, thus making the towns, which of course are static and can not move, extremely prone to attacks and that combined with the split and thus the weakening of the communities most towns simply got PK'd. Beside that a new "playstyle" had developed ... griefing. I think griefing is the result of extremely bored people, not knowing what to do in the game anymore, trying to let out their frustration (caused by the game itself or RL) on other people ... and where is that easier to accomplish than in player run towns. Not PKs, I think, but griefers are the main problem we face today. A true PK is a lot easier to handle than a griefer. Most PKs are red and thus player justice can work with those, but the typical griefer is too much of a coward to go red, and thus killing them simply doesn't solve the problem as they will be back within minutes, laughing at those who got murder counts and continue their "work". There are just too many loopholes in the game mechanics which allow such players to harm such a vulnerable construct as a player run town. Right now 80% of UO's population lives in Trammel. The remaining 20% are PvPers and those RPers who stayed behind after the land split and a very small amount of griefers. For those reasons mentioned above the remaining towns find it very hard to deal with their day to day business. Because there are so few, those remaining towns have a huge number of visitors which are easy targets for the rest of the shard.
The recent changes to the ToC and RoC are a step in the right direction I think, but I think too, that the GM staff simply will not be able to enforce those rules. It already has and surely will lead to extremely dangerous situations for the GMs. Also I fear, that the resolving of a given situation will depend on the GM far more than on the rules itself, thus the old cursed term of "favouritism" springs to my mind again. I think these issues will have to be adressed by the game mechanics or it will get just too much work enforcing them.
The new found towns on Trammel on the other hand, are but a shadow of those early UO towns, lacking the people and the feeling of a comunity. In a way those new towns find it much harder to get people interested in them, because there is no common threat forging them together anymore. Trammel simply has completely different priorities nowadays. What fused together the old towns was the fact, that they lived in an hostile environment and sticking together was the only way to survive.
The Future
The future ... good question. Either a way is found to penalize griefers and make them accountable for their actions within the game mechanics, or those remaining towns need to be protected accordingly. One way could be the implementation of guard zones, which surely would bring back life to most ancient UO towns as well. The guard zone could work almost like the city town protection, with the exceptions, that only criminal actions within the town limits can trigger the guards, thus reds would be allowed to come and go as long as they abide to the laws and do not perform any criminal action.
Basically I think it's up to OSI to judge the value of those towns. We can only offer our service for the good of the whole comunity, but I think it is worth the effort.
Regards
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.custodesfati.net>Custodes Fati</a>
<a target="_blank" href=http://europa.spiritwood.com>Spiritwood</a>
In the beginning, long before the lands were torn apart and Trammel emerged you could find player run towns on every shard. Back then those little towns were the center of RP on each and every shard, a place to meet, to roleplay and to find thrilling quests and events for newbies and veterans alike, for hard-core roleplayers and those trying to roleplay and even for PvPers. Some of those towns got so famous, that they were blessed by OSI over and over again. OSI was so proud of them, they advertised, promoted and showed them off everywhere. If you wanted to take part in a quest, these were the places to go. Of course back then, those towns too had problems with PKs, but since the comunities were that strong, that never was a serious problem. Also the lands were full of adventurers to rob and murder, so the PKs had lots of victims everywhere. Griefers were rare in those days as people had enough to do and since I think griefing is a side-effect of people being extremely bored it never really applied in those days or was met with determination to get rid of the offenders quickly.
Then Trammel came ....
The Present
When Trammel was implemented a lot of towns tried to move to Trammel, although almost all of them didn't survive that move. The landrush and the new housing rules simply made it impossible for a successful transition of a player run town, especially the large ones didn't manage. So the comunities were torn apart. Some stayed behind and some moved on to build new towns. Those staying behind soon realized, that with all their clientel moving to Trammel their towns were robbed of the most important ingredient ... people. Still some of those towns managed to survive to this day, but those are very very few.
Right now, when you take a tour through those famous towns of the past you'll still find marvelous places with ponds, hedges, fountains and statues, but what you won't find there is people ... they are empty ... they are dead. One of the reasons why they died is, that Felucca now has a limited amount of victims for PKs, thus making the towns, which of course are static and can not move, extremely prone to attacks and that combined with the split and thus the weakening of the communities most towns simply got PK'd. Beside that a new "playstyle" had developed ... griefing. I think griefing is the result of extremely bored people, not knowing what to do in the game anymore, trying to let out their frustration (caused by the game itself or RL) on other people ... and where is that easier to accomplish than in player run towns. Not PKs, I think, but griefers are the main problem we face today. A true PK is a lot easier to handle than a griefer. Most PKs are red and thus player justice can work with those, but the typical griefer is too much of a coward to go red, and thus killing them simply doesn't solve the problem as they will be back within minutes, laughing at those who got murder counts and continue their "work". There are just too many loopholes in the game mechanics which allow such players to harm such a vulnerable construct as a player run town. Right now 80% of UO's population lives in Trammel. The remaining 20% are PvPers and those RPers who stayed behind after the land split and a very small amount of griefers. For those reasons mentioned above the remaining towns find it very hard to deal with their day to day business. Because there are so few, those remaining towns have a huge number of visitors which are easy targets for the rest of the shard.
The recent changes to the ToC and RoC are a step in the right direction I think, but I think too, that the GM staff simply will not be able to enforce those rules. It already has and surely will lead to extremely dangerous situations for the GMs. Also I fear, that the resolving of a given situation will depend on the GM far more than on the rules itself, thus the old cursed term of "favouritism" springs to my mind again. I think these issues will have to be adressed by the game mechanics or it will get just too much work enforcing them.
The new found towns on Trammel on the other hand, are but a shadow of those early UO towns, lacking the people and the feeling of a comunity. In a way those new towns find it much harder to get people interested in them, because there is no common threat forging them together anymore. Trammel simply has completely different priorities nowadays. What fused together the old towns was the fact, that they lived in an hostile environment and sticking together was the only way to survive.
The Future
The future ... good question. Either a way is found to penalize griefers and make them accountable for their actions within the game mechanics, or those remaining towns need to be protected accordingly. One way could be the implementation of guard zones, which surely would bring back life to most ancient UO towns as well. The guard zone could work almost like the city town protection, with the exceptions, that only criminal actions within the town limits can trigger the guards, thus reds would be allowed to come and go as long as they abide to the laws and do not perform any criminal action.
Basically I think it's up to OSI to judge the value of those towns. We can only offer our service for the good of the whole comunity, but I think it is worth the effort.
Regards
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.custodesfati.net>Custodes Fati</a>
<a target="_blank" href=http://europa.spiritwood.com>Spiritwood</a>
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