The Real Problem with Uo

[Angriff]

They never advertise this game. Only people that know about it are the people that have been playin since the nineties. I cant believe that people are this loyal and the "uo gods" dont realize what a gem they hold in their backpockets collecting dust.

 

[Guest]

*smiles* It is difficult to market this old beauty. It does not have the "flash" of the newer games. Content only appeals so far.

 

[Angriff]

The success of these types of games relies on an influx of new players. I dont ever recall ever seeing one advertisement for this game.

 

[imported_Magnolia]

<blockquote><hr>

The success of these types of games relies on an influx of new players. I dont ever recall ever seeing one advertisement for this game.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are right. Now the question is "Why do you think they don't?".

 

[King_Ky]

if they impliment a new pvp system and target the people who play Free servers than can pretty much triple their profits..

 

[imported_mo'gluk]

get rid of RoT!!!!!!!

I am now the official I hate RoT person, and I believe that single item is causing the shard to be empty of people so my goal is abolish RoT and do what angrifff said we should do...!!!!

 

[imported_Magnolia]

<blockquote><hr>

if they impliment a new pvp system and target the people who play Free servers than can pretty much triple their profits..

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree.. I had no idea how populated some of those free shards are until lately and they are there for one reason only... to play uo like it use to be and should still be...

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I don't think thats the major problem.

 

[Guest]

Man I hope they dont get RID of rot. Just change it.

I love the fact that I can just read a book and not have to worry about how long it will take to get the gain once my time is ready.

 

[Sergul'zan_SP]

<blockquote><hr>

if they impliment a new pvp system and target the people who play Free servers than can pretty much triple their profits..

[/ QUOTE ]

It'll never happen. Visit U. Hall to see why.

This PvP system could be great if they'd maintain it. If you poorly maintain anything, it's not going to be successful.

 

[pikon198]

speed up rot so NEW members can be in high 90s in all skills once they graduate so they can jump into a guild and start having fun pvping and etc etc.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

get rid of RoT!!!!!!!


[/ QUOTE ]
That's what's wrong with Siege, but not UO.

I fully agree, and I've said it before in the past... this game needs advertising!

 

[Masumatek]

They need to fix it. Then advertise.

As far as Siege, a ROT fix alone, with proper advertisement of the change to the UO community, will greatly increase our population. Though Siege needs good advertising in general...many people don't know what it is at all or have very wrong ideas about it.

 

[Guest]

Why advertise a game you can't even find in a game store?

 

[imported_Krystal]

<blockquote><hr>

They never advertise this game. Only people that know about it are the people that have been playin since the nineties. I cant believe that people are this loyal and the "uo gods" dont realize what a gem they hold in their backpockets collecting dust.

[/ QUOTE ]

omg so weird u bring this up, i noticed other day i was in the gaming section, not one copy of uo, but 100 WOW and other online games where stocked. i told my BF no wonder no one plays it, u never see it advertised, never see it in stock. the other thing too, was a lot of people said they would play this game, but dont have a CC. other games offer game time codes in stores, but for uo. so they have no choice but not to play. i mean u dont even see it in the banners like other game.
they really need to advertize, i dont get why they are so damned lazy now adays:/

 

[Guest]

Damn good point about the game time codes.

 

[Alex the Gray]

population population- like a broken record you are. (I learned how to talk like that from Yoda).
I came from the not-so- great lakes.
Please trust me on this, if you Never trust me on anything else.
There is such a thing as TO many people. The lack of actual LINES and crowds was why I stayed, after I came out curiosity.
A crowded shard may sound good in theory, but sucks in reality. At least, from my personal view-point. Other opinions may vary

 

[Guest]

The difference in an overpopulated "Great Lakes" and an overpopulated "Siege" is you can kill the one in your way.

We wouldn't be having to wait for people to get done with certain parts of dungeons or any of the pvm crap, just kill them or try to and bring some excitement in pvm/pvp.

I went out for 1 and a half hours this even, trying to find a blue to kill (one that wasn't being attacked already). I never found one more then a few steps from GZ, so I basically gave up on that hunt and decided to train RoT skills... dumb

An overpopulated "Siege" would bring more fun then playing on any over populated prodo shard. Plain, simple, and to the point.

 

[Guest]

Aye. I am assailed by at least three adverts for Warcraft every evening on the idiot box. I mean... William Shatner and Mr T?!?! Help! Aye, I REALLY want to be like them! (No offence to TNT's Mr T)

But, UO? Nothing. It is NOT hard to advertise. If EA feel KR's graphics are not 'catchy' enough, then why do/did they employ the art team? Sign off on the project? If they don't feel there are enough features, then why are their project managers still employed?

Perhaps they should a) watch television once in a while, b) employ a marketing team who know the meaning of the word, and c) give that team a budget greater than 5gp.

 

[Nerf-Herder]

 

[Masumatek]

If Kirk wants to be a WoWie fine....but if Picard ever does WoW crap I'm gonna be pissed!

 

[Exzordor_TnT]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

get rid of RoT!!!!!!!


[/ QUOTE ]
That's what's wrong with Siege, but not UO.



[/ QUOTE ]

to many Siege IS UO, my 3 accounts were for Siege only.

 

[Greer]

Would be nice to see more come to siege and stay. Maybe a ROT fix would take care of that. Maybe not. It does seem odd that they do not advertise UO or stock the soft ware in stores.

 

[Guest]

They actually went over why they dont advertise on a FoF., cant remember what the actual reason was but it was some BS like they would much rather put "our" dollars into "development" than advertise. it was pretty weak but it has been addressed.

Basically they expect all of us to do the advertising for them.

 

[imported_Castor]

ya i read that also.

Realistically, when they stopped putting the game on the shelves and went "advanced" with dl, they took the game out of the mainstream and turned it into a niche game only. And niche games are nice, but in the general funding for development and such, they get the least amount of funding period.

 

[Rykus]

Maybe they're realists?

No amount of advertising will bring in a substantial number of new players because most people judge books by their covers and let's face it, UOs cover outright sucks when compared to all the other shiny new 3D MMO's out there. How does someone advertise the depth and freedom UO has?

Besides, why would they want to advertise UO at this point? It is beyond broken and I can't imagine that even a year of fully dedicated work towards just fixing bugs and balancing systems would produce anything that would appeal to the new player.

This is a ridiculously long and multi-faceted discussion. Bottom line though, advertising is far, far from the 'real (singular) problem with UO'.

 

[imported_Krystal]

sometimes i wonder, when newbs play this game/shard do they think the game is broke?... or is it just us old school players wanting the old uo back that we hope its broke and will get fixed to way it was yrs ago...
ya there are issues they need to deal with, but isn't their issues in every game?
people come and go from all games, but the other games advertise and have a study stream of people, 1 person quits 1-2 join...

 

[Guest]

Och, lass, ye ne'er miss wit ye didna have. Fer instance, take me sanity.
Hoots, tae late - some miserable sasanach took that yonks ago!

If ye've ne'er seen th' good ol days o Siege, ye'll ne'er miss em, unless some numpty sits aboot goin orn aboot them at length.

Now, me, orn th' other hand, ah remember when we had ta PvP wit bits o string!
An we had ta fight oor way troo twenty miles o silver steeds afore we could bash any other blokes! An then th' devs would whip us all wit IBM's OS2 an send us all ta Compuserve! Och, them wuz th' days!

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

sometimes i wonder, when newbs play this game/shard do they think the game is broke?

[/ QUOTE ]

Can't speak for anyone else, but I did, and that was over 3 and a 1/2 years ago. I can't tell you how many times Castor or someone else who had been playing a long time would answer my questions with "oh yeah, that used to be neat but it doesn't work now" or "that is just left over from an event, you can't do anything with it now" and "well you used to be able to do this/that with that skill but no one uses it now". The game world is littered with relics of past systems that haven't been cleaned up, and just pose questions for new players, and frustration when they attempt to explore the "mysteries". The game is poorly documented as it is, these things compound the learning curve. It sounds silly but eventually I kind of got to thinking everything "neat" I saw in the game was broken, and not to bother with it, and I just ran around getting resources and killing stuff. I never tried the puzzles, the mazes, the dungeons, etc., etc., etc.

-Skylark

 

[Guest]

To you it may be siege, and to many... UO may be siege. Our shard however does not have a population compared to many of the prodo shards, and for that (even though we may have many accounts) we must be forced not to generalize siege as UO in general... but only as part of UO.

Siege needs RoT lessened/fixed/removed and considerably less land (I'm good with any or all)

UO needs advertising to go with all of the crappy land it's added.

 

[imported_Death of Hemp]

<blockquote><hr>

get rid of RoT!!!!!!!

I am now the official I hate RoT person, and I believe that single item is causing the shard to be empty of people so my goal is abolish RoT and do what angrifff said we should do...!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's what I don't understand though. ROT makes it much much easier to train taming, for example. It is ten times harder to get taming gains at high numbers on a prodo shard without ROT. Hence, for certain templates, ROT should be attracting players to siege, especially those who want to run tamers and it seems there is no shortage of those on Siege.

 

[imported_Death of Hemp]

<blockquote><hr>

Why advertise a game you can't even find in a game store?

[/ QUOTE ]

I purchased everyone of my UO game boxes, including ML, at game stores. In fact, I bought SE and ML at Best Buy. Have they stopped carrying it?

 

[imported_Death of Hemp]

<blockquote><hr>

*smiles* It is difficult to market this old beauty. It does not have the "flash" of the newer games. Content only appeals so far.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed, the first thing everyone talks about when a new game comes out is how "good" it looks. I do wonder, if perhaps a smaller form of target marketing could be affective. Acknowledge the faults of the game and twist them into a positive. Point out that UO is the original format that all these "posers" such as WOW try to imitate. None of which have been able to match let alone improve on the gameplay...only the graphics.

Here is the real answer; Re-do the game. I don't mean a half arsed attempt to improve the existing game, like they tried with KR. I mean, start from scratch. Make something that looks as good as Star Wars Force Unleashed, or Conan. Sure, we would lose some items....but I'd be willing to lose few items for a game that looks like WOW, but plays like UO. And I bet they would take a huge percentage of business back from competitors if they did this. EA claims this can not be done because everyone would have to lose all thier stuff and start over. Not true; they could transfer our houses and items in bank fairly easily.

 

[imported_Death of Hemp]

<blockquote><hr>

Aye. I am assailed by at least three adverts for Warcraft every evening on the idiot box. I mean... William Shatner and Mr T?!?! Help! Aye, I REALLY want to be like them! (No offence to TNT's Mr T)

But, UO? Nothing. It is NOT hard to advertise. If EA feel KR's graphics are not 'catchy' enough, then why do/did they employ the art team? Sign off on the project? If they don't feel there are enough features, then why are their project managers still employed?

Perhaps they should a) watch television once in a while, b) employ a marketing team who know the meaning of the word, and c) give that team a budget greater than 5gp.

[/ QUOTE ]

OMG...TY, TY, TY. You hit the nail right on the head. IMHO, the answer is that this reflects a syle of management common amongst those who think their degree in business actually taught them how to run one. The trend I notice is constant cutbacks on expenses. If you are not confident enough in your product/service/or company to spend money on improvements, then you should either go work somewhere you have that confidence, or close shop.

 

[Apollyon]

<blockquote><hr>

Agree.. I had no idea how populated some of those free shards are until lately and they are there for one reason only... to play uo like it use to be and should still be...

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen. I'm a living testament to that phenomenon. See you on the other side....

 

[Guest]

Right. Let's assume that EA's marketing team is one of the following:
a) dead.
b) drunk.
c) budget-less.
d) unmotivated.
e) stupid.
f) forbidden to advertise by management who are all of the above.

So, hypothetically, if YOU were to do a TV advert for UO, what would it look like?

Here is my stab at it:

Black screen.
The sounds heard in Bedlam and during a year ago's Halloween event slowly fade in. (screaming, wailing, howling, etc)
Red eyes - many pairs - fade in from the darkness.
A large horde of UO monsters gradually appear as the owners of the eyes.
(Use KR graphics if you want. As laggy as KR is on my hardware, the newer graphics will probably attract more new players than the 2D ones. Use SOMETHING that will attract new players, even if it's a supermodel in a lich suit.)

Switch scene to a slightly battered warrior, (pick one of today's 'bad boy' hunk actors) standing victorious over a pile of groaning, dying monsters. He is counting his loot.


Then:

Scenario A: have a mage/necro/whatever pop up behind him, blow him to smithereens, and wander off, counting his loot.
"Ultima Online. More fun than your dead friends should be allowed to have."

Scenario B: Show the warrior arriving at his castle, brimming with gold and other luxury deco items.
"Ultima Online. Because you're better than the guy next door."

Scenario C: Show the warrior lying on a couch, explaining to his psychiatrist why he keeps going back to the dungeons.
"Ultima Online. Worlds within worlds. Live the addiction."


Fade to black.

Show UO website link.

Show something like "Available in all truly worthy stores NOW".

Wait for all non-worthy stores to start stocking it. Ha.




Or something. I'm not in marketing. You folks have a stab at it!

 

[imported_Luka Melehan]

<blockquote><hr>



omg so weird u bring this up, i noticed other day i was in the gaming section, not one copy of uo, but 100 WOW and other online games where stocked. i told my BF no wonder no one plays it, u never see it advertised, never see it in stock. the other thing too, was a lot of people said they would play this game, but dont have a CC. other games offer game time codes in stores, but for uo. so they have no choice but not to play. i mean u dont even see it in the banners like other game.
they really need to advertize, i dont get why they are so damned lazy now adays:/

[/ QUOTE ]

Even when the anniversary box came out, no one had it. I had to special order it. NO one knows anything about it and if they see a screenshop they are appalled by the graphics and never find out what makes it fun.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Right. Let's assume that EA's marketing team is one of the following:
a) dead.
b) drunk.
c) budget-less.
d) unmotivated.
e) stupid.
f) forbidden to advertise by management who are all of the above.

[/ QUOTE ]

EA is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate.

EA markets a great many of their products, ad nauseum.

I don't watch TV much, but when I do, it is almost guaranteed that at some point I will see the EA logo flashing in a commercial advertising a console game.

When I am in stores, I see the EA logo everywhere in the toy &amp; electronics/PC game sections. Sometimes there will be a big cardboard in-store display with eye catching graphics, featuring their latest console game (and there will be shelves PILED with the product around the display). I have seen HUGE banners in the games department of stores, advertising EA sports games. Even in Sam's Club, a big warehouse essentially, in the middle of the store, they had their high definition TVs clustered in a big display, and on all the floor models, they had EA Sports games playing, with piles of the games in adjacent displays, and a banner overhead. Obviously much of the in-store marketing is at the discretion of the store, but it is apparent that EA provides many such marketing tools for them to utilize.

In ad inserts in the newspaper, and ads in magazines...I see the EA logo, advertising their games.

So, they have a massive multi-media marketing force. It would seem they just don't bother to market UO.

-Skylark

 

[Guest]

RTL:

A lot of people here need to learn the (quite large) difference between advertising and marketing

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

RTL:

A lot of people here need to learn the (quite large) difference between advertising and marketing

[/ QUOTE ]

My point was, UO is not marketed, so why should it be advertised? Maybe when they get KR working they will get it in the market and get some ads up.

Unfortunately, if they see it as a failure, they will just let it slowly die.