Skill for Sale

[Flutter]

There is a general discussion in another forum I frequent and I wanted to get the opinion of some UOers.

How would you feel if they started selling skill in various amounts in the UO store?
If I wanted to buy GM taming or poisoning... or even legendary?
What if it were just bigger scrolls of alacrity such as 4 hours of 5X skill gain?

At this point in UO would anyone care? I know it would cut into the business of selling pink scrolls (one of the few renewable resources people who play in Fel get) so I'd have a hard time with this.
Skill is fairly easy to gain on your own nowadays though. Except for a few more annoying skills would it really matter?

The folks on the forum for another game seem to be having small fits over a skill gain potion which may or may not be for sale in their in game store for a nominal rl price. (All speculation at this point)

So what do you guys think? UOers are a whole different breed of gamer I think. I'm interested. Would you pay 9.99 to EA for some taming skill?

 

[Rupert Avery]

I think people would use it... it would be just like buying SoTs int he same way you buy an Advance Character Token I guess....

 

[DJAd]

Would you pay 9.99 to EA for some taming skill?

Totally depends on how much skill for $9.99. I cannot stand training certain skills and would happily pay (real money) to get them done and dusted.

 

[Petra Fyde]

I'm sure many people would go for it, but I never would. I wouldn't vote against it, if there were a vote, but I would never personally use it, just as I have never used an advanced character token.

To me training the character is part of the game. Every time I do it I learn something new about how to play the character effectively.

Trying not to generalise here, but when advance character tokens were first introduced, when the lands were less extensive and hunting spots more crowded. Some (not all) of the 'check book' tamers were a total liability. Bought the character, bought the scrolls, bought the jewels, bought the pets. Hadn't the first idea how to work with a pet or control it effectively. Which lead to total mayhem and nearby characters dying like flies as a result of their ineptitude.

There's a certain justification to the 'been there, done that, bought the t-shirt' argument that veteran players will voice. Therefore what I would prefer to see is a 'clone token' which would allow you to copy a skill from one character to another belonging to the same account, or any account linked to it via an EA account, including characters on other shards.

If you have never had a character with a particular skill, then my feeling is you should train it, because the player needs to learn how to use the skill effectively as well as the character. There are still alacrity and transcendence scrolls to shorten the journey.

 

[Salivern_Diago]

I have to say I think Petras idea of cloning skills would be the better option and would work well! At lest then the player has to put some effort into it. I use Adv Chara tokens to create base characters on all the shards I frequent, but that is becuase I dont have the time to create effective characters on 15+ shards for the small bits I do on each. As Petra says, by cloning a skill it means you have to learn how to use it to begin with (I remember the mass of tamers everywhere... couldnt see anything for the dragons!)

 

[Warpig Inc]

Brought this up in the past. The soulstone having the option of holding the skill or just coping the skill to a character. Same account use only,so. Now with the ease for some to cross shard with items. If I have a 120 tamer on one shard and wish to build characters on another. Then moved soulstones could ease the pain. Not to mention improve shard trans token sales.

 

[Hunters' Moon]

Advanced character tokens are already available.I think that if it were to be made available,that the skill limit should be at GM and no higher.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

I've GMed or better every skill in the game at this point. I can see why people would welcome the ability to jump to the end with certain skills, taming being chief amongst those. I think I ground out a 3x120 tamer/shepherd in 3 months of excruciatingly boring repetitive actions. I was also made a 4x120 bard during that time just so I wouldn't go totally postal...

I'm torn on this idea though. While I can see the benefit, I can also see people running around with chars they don't know how to use. I'm also slightly afraid BioWare milking the pay-to-win gravy train into the ground, they already price UO codes way higher than what they are really worth.

Petra's idea of skill cloning is a good one, I could see myself using that to round out characters or get a new one playable quickly.

 

[Frarc]

I prefer to work on all my skills from scratch and work it all up and then be happy with what i accomplished. I can understand that some players would like to have something to get a boost to get started in the game without all the hard work. Its not like something i would like to see but it could be a choice given to people who wants it.

 

[MagicStar]

when i ran a guild i got frustrated with all the people who bought accounts that were all skilled out and suited up and had no clue what they were doing
if you trained the skill yourself i think making a copy of it for another character is ok (not 100% sure on this one)
but just buying it is rediculous for me
i mean sooner or later we will be able to buy everything?
this game was once about whos the best at playing and has quickly become about whos got more money
i say stop selling so much stuff for real money and let the game be a game

 

[Shelra]

.......While I can see the benefit, I can also see people running around with chars they don't know how to use.

I wouldn't pay for a skill; Although after a while of casting and casting to gain can be very tiring/boring/a grind, I still to this day get a thrill when I gain.
I know I'm not the only one who feels this way! (or am I? ;p)
I also see the benefit for those who absolutely detest training, although I don't agree with it. The pros far outweigh the cons of training and practicing your skill.
I totally agree with the fact you need to train and gain skill to properly get the true feel of your character, and the feeling of accomplishment is hard to beat when you GM or go
higher.

 

[Ludes]

Personally I would never use it.. I hate the Pay-to-Win aspects we already have.
I just don't see the point in playing an RPG where you just buy a 20 million dollar suit and buy some skills and poof your invincible.
You might as well play on the Test Shard.
That said... I have no opinion on whether they should or should not do implement it.. I just wouldn't use it myself.

 

[phantus]

I don't care but I would not use it.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

I think Devs have already cheapened skills, where the new GM=120. Allowing them to be bought like a house deco is simply further insulting those of us that endured the grinding. Every time an Easy Button is added, it's value decreases. Private skill sales are still popular, and I think they should remain private

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

I wanted to get the opinion of some UOers.
How would you feel if they started selling skill in various amounts in the UO store?
At this point in UO would anyone care?
So what do you guys think? UOers are a whole different breed of gamer I think. I'm interested. Would you pay 9.99 to EA for some taming skill?

(pardon my brief rendition of your post, Flutter) Those extra UO$$$$ flowing in would benifit EA ! Not a bad idea at all.

1) Vets would BUY because they've already done all the work they want to do to get where they got to, and don't want to do it all over again with every change made to the game.
2) Even though new players buying skills would lack the experience required to use those skills, wouldn't they also have a great deal of fun while learning and dying a lot in the process of gaining that much needed experience?

And what do I think personally?

Why should anyone be able to or want to buy their way out of doing the work required in order to achieve results fast?
Why bother playing the game if all you have to do is pay cash to get everything you want?

IMHO: UO is a very unique game, as all veterans know;
UO hones the brain (* MAKES YOU THINK) as you LEARN - the skills, the hundreds of tricks of the trades, the geography of earth and oceans, towns and cities and dungeons, and develope an enormous amount of patience required, plus the rush of pride and satisfaction from personal hard worked achievement. When you meet people from all walks of life and of all ages, over the years you learn a great deal about human nature, both from programs some of which delibertately tempt the human beast to role play evil or good, and you learn so much from groups of players and indiviuals and make friends and enemies and if lucky, learn how to cope with it all without going nuts! LOL

 

[Gilmour]

@Original Post

That would be an UO Suicide note.

 

[Flutter]

@Original Post

That would be an UO Suicide note.

Why do you feel that way?

 

[Sevin0oo0]

Why do you feel that way?

Woodsman can explain it; has to do with the high mortality rate of games gone free 2 PAY, buying end game, oops, i won, done, next game

 

[Doubleplay]

I am OK with it as long as the purchased skills are ephemeral.

 

[Flutter]

Woodsman can explain it; has to do with the high mortality rate of games gone free 2 PAY, buying end game, oops, i won, done, next game

Point was people shouldn't post "HECK NO THAT WOULD KILL UO" without explaining their opinion.
UO doesn't have an endgame so I don't feel like that applies. Plus as I stated above we already have pink scrolls. I know I personally have pinked up more than one skill from 0. I don't see much of a difference between that and buying it off of the official site.
Plus it's better than people giving their account information to strangers and paying them to work the skill for them (which does still exist even with how stupid it is to do something like that)
And I wouldn't suggest UO going F2P. I wont ever play another F2P game. I feel like I get a better response from a company I am paying. I feel like they work for me, the player, while F2P doesn't feel like that at all.

 

[MagicStar]

I am OK with it as long as the purchased skills are ephemeral.

Lol!

 

[Flutter]

I want to go on record as saying I am not asking for this or even suggesting it.
I wouldn't care either way. I used to care, a long time ago, but only because I had worked all my characters up by hand. Put in the time to get the rewards. But that was a long time ago, before advanced characters, long before pink scrolls, even before you could hit a golem with a green sword. Times have changed. Today I feel like "to each his own". I think you miss out on a lot of game by not doing things yourself, but if that makes you happy... oh well.
I just felt like the people on the other forum were over reacting and wanted to discuss it with some level headed UOians.
So I posted on UHall. Wait...

 

[Dan123The123Man]

I think it would help drag the game further into the ground... It's almost like saying "Hey y'all, instead of scripting we're going to make your lives easier and just give you the skill so you don't even have to play anymore and can gain skill without that risk of being banned". bad idea.

 

[hen]

It has probably been mooted already around the suits and might come into play if subscription numbers tumble far enough.

 

[Sauteed Onion]

Well, I'm against this, and also against sots, but because they put sots in the game I used them anyhow.. so I feel I'd be hypocritical to say I'm against this.

And if they did put taming up for a reasonable price, I'd probably make another tamer on some random server I don't have any characters on yet, just cause. Anyhow, I'm against the idea (feelin hypocritical even now! lol), because I think it'd allow people like petra was talking about to completely ruin a lot of people's day with their "awesomeness". Sometimes, I feel bad makin a rocking suit for a new player (which I haven't done in quiet some time but that's beside the point), because I feel like it cheapens their experience with some of the initial things I loved and hated about UO when I started playing. I think if they seriously consider implementing this idea, it should be for people with at least a year of UO under their belts.

 

[old gypsy]

I have reservations about the idea of purchasing high level skills. I think knowledge of how to use those skills is best acquired through the experience of actually working them up the hard way. On the other hand, I can see why the option would be attractive to many. As the UO player base has aged, most players who once had a significant amount of free time for games no longer have that luxury. Between full time jobs and family responsibilities, game time is often quite limited. For that reason alone, I wouldn't vote against it.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

I wouldn't suggest UO going F2P. I wont ever play another F2P game. I feel like I get a better response from a company I am paying. I feel like they work for me, the player, while F2P doesn't feel like that at all.

that's why I spelled it as i did, f2pay, it's a concept idea spun off from what people traditionally think when they hear f2p. UO started down that path, remember the 'regularly scheduled' Purchasable expansions? Just as you say you wouldn't play another "f2p", tells me you understand how paying all the time will kill the game.
As a monthly payer, I'm feel I'm Entitled to all the widgets, or at least Earn them, in-game. Expansions... as a long term subscriber, i feel I'm Entitled to upgrades too, for free. If my loyalty means nothing, maybe I'll just join the ones that only pay every few months, course the next step would be to play something else.

Pinks and Blues? Whatever they are. Have never used one, ever. The single reason I even do power scrolls is to keep a GM equivalency. If skill training wasn't such a grind, especially above GM, we might not be having this discussion. I don't believe you should just "set skill=", we should be Playing the game With the skill, not For the skill. Early Tamers know what I'm talking about... skill Rate Gain is a different subject, but it could be done differently so maybe people wouldn't think of it as a Job.

 

[Gilmour]

Point was people shouldn't post "HECK NO THAT WOULD KILL UO" without explaining their opinion.
UO doesn't have an endgame so I don't feel like that applies. Plus as I stated above we already have pink scrolls. I know I personally have pinked up more than one skill from 0. I don't see much of a difference between that and buying it off of the official site.
Plus it's better than people giving their account information to strangers and paying them to work the skill for them (which does still exist even with how stupid it is to do something like that)
And I wouldn't suggest UO going F2P. I wont ever play another F2P game. I feel like I get a better response from a company I am paying. I feel like they work for me, the player, while F2P doesn't feel like that at all.

UO has always been a classic subscription game, where you cant buy anything that improves your gear or skills unfairly (advanced char tokens apart). Doing what you suggest would kill that ideology and push towards a pay to win business model.

 

[CovenantX]

I'm sure people would use such a service. although I only see it necessary for few skills [most barding, taming, poisoning, and most thieving skills] everything else is relatively easy/quick to train.

on the other hand. . .

I think the Single Charge Soul Stone Fragments [from crafting] should be transferable between players and used. so people could sell/trade trained/capped skills to others.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

a pay to win business model.

thank you, that was the correct terminology I was searching for

 

[MalagAste]

I'm torn. I too have worked up GM or better in every skill in the game... Yes even camping and detect hidden. Taming and begging being the WORST skills to GM. But on the same token I'll say this.... I've met so many players who "cheated" with Taming using the advanced Character token... and many of them are 100% clueless about how to be an effective tamer..... infact a large group wouldn't even know HOW to tame anything. They just buy their pets.

And as for it going straight to "End Game" that's true in games where getting to the highest level is pretty much it.... by then they have done all the quests in the game related to their character... however UO is a Sandbox... there is no "end game".

 

[Driven Insane]

A couple problems I see:

- There's really only a small handful of skills that people would actually consider buying. Taming and Crafting skills come to mind. No one's going to buy Meditation or even Magery as it's way to easy to just gain normally or by beating on a Golem.

- As someone else mentioned, buying end game skills/items just makes people quit sooner out of boredom. So in the short term maybe EA makes some money, but in the long run it will be another nail in UO's coffin.

- Much like scripting or cheating in general. What is the point of even playing the game if you're not really playing it. If you want everything handed to you with no investment of time or effort, just go play on test center or go play a console game and put in an invincibility code and leave the MMORPG games to people who actually want to play the game as intended.

*** I also do agree with the skill cloning idea ***

 

[Sevin0oo0]

There's really only a small handful of skills that people would actually consider buying. No one's going to buy Meditation or even Magery ...

Or Focus??? and if Flutter doesn't mind, I'll go ahead and ask, "Should Any skill be harder to learn than Focus?"
I could give a lot of examples, but what do you tell people that want to play crafters? When you say look on Stratics, you'll see how much you can make selling crafted items by the chart full, do you also tell them it'll likely cost 500k-1mil to GM, so they'll be in the hole for awhile? Do you also tell them they'll probably be so sick of making plate helms they won't give a damn anymore? there's similar for most skills, it just shouldn't take weeks on end for boring training. Devs already know this, why they put in the quick 50 advances in haven. Maybe they want it Life Like, but IRL college Summer Classes are faster than learning in the UO University. What's "Power Gaming" - is that short for Skip the Grind?

 

[Lord Nabin]

I do see and chat with very often old vets returning to the game and could see how this route might make it easier and more attractive for them to return.

I could also see the folks that want a character on every shard to do the various EM events also interested in this.

I personally like to work my skills up as I play. I find that aspect much more enjoyable. After all these years I still have skills to develop and learn. It keeps things interesting.

 

[Lady CaT]

People have all different kinds of play styles within the UO world. Maybe paying for skills would lead to more people trying different skills and getting more enjoyment from the world and perhaps attract more casual players not looking for a big time investment. Or perhaps others would reach the endgame quicker and become bored. I guess it really would be a personal choice depending on the play habits of the subscriber. I don't think a generalization can be made on what would definitely happen to the game at large based on implementing skills for pay.

 

[Eärendil]

Personally I would never use it.. I hate the Pay-to-Win aspects we already have.
I just don't see the point in playing an RPG where you just buy a 20 million dollar suit and buy some skills and poof your invincible.
You might as well play on the Test Shard.

Absolutely my opinion, mate!

UO has always been a classic subscription game, where you cant buy anything that improves your gear or skills unfairly (advanced char tokens apart). Doing what you suggest would kill that ideology and push towards a pay to win business model.

That´s it!

 

[kaio]

I vote, Yes to let people buy whatever they need off the official website.
Because we all know, that those people with enuf $$$ will buy whatever they wan't / need...they just use those sites we can't mention here.
So let EA get that extra cash, and lets all hope they will spend them on usefull things like bugfixing, etc etc.

 

[Gilmour]

I vote, Yes to let people buy whatever they need off the official website.
Because we all know, that those people with enuf $$$ will buy whatever they wan't / need...they just use those sites we can't mention here.
So let EA get that extra cash, and lets all hope they will spend them on usefull things like bugfixing, etc etc.

People that do this are actively supporting scripting and botting.

 

[Zosimus]

I see no issue with it. You can either buy the skill at the code store OR get it by pinks in the game if the person feels like doing it that way. So it works either way for any type of player.