NEWS [UO.Com] Codes on the Origin Store

[Faenwen]

I have no idea why people say.... don't cheat the system buy every month. I know someone with over 30 accounts paying a few full time and a few just all 4 month. why? he has all those accounts for museums... to safe history of uo and that on a few shards. so why is he a cheater? he hardly has time to play anyway and spends a lot of money on GTCs and other stuff. maybe someone is in hospital and not able to pay... is he a cheater because he comes back after 2 month? maybe someone just doesn't have the money to pay a gtc for a few month. some have a few accounts pay a few full time and a few accounts just to hold old guildhouses or a house of a friend who died. whatever the reason is..... its not cheating! its more money for UO and not cheating!

Just an FYI, but you can still buy game time through account management. You just have to cancel the subscription when it goes through, its what I ended up doing. Either way it ended up being the same amount of money I would have spent if I was able to purchase a code.

well I have no idea how it is in the US but in europa you pay a lot more when you pay through account management:

Account Management:
€ 13,99* Ultima Online: 1 Monat Abonnement
€ 39,99* Ultima Online: 3 Monate Abonnement
€ 67,99* Ultima Online: 6 Monate Abonnement

GTC im origin store:
€ 11,50 1 Monat
€ 29,99 3 Monate
€ 45,99 6 Monate

for me thats cheating!!!!!!

just my 2 cents

(well I am still not able to buy at origin anyway, they still couldn't fix my account)

 

[OREOGL]

From the Devs
June 19, 2015 - 2:33pm
Greetings all,

As I am sure you are aware Origin does not have any codes avaliable for sale right now. We have supplied new codes and they should be up on the store within the next couple of days.

Thank you for your patience and we will let everyone know as soon as we do when we can expect the return of codes on the store front.


Bonnie "Mesanna" Armstrong
UO Producer

Continue reading...

This whole thing is kind of funny. People want to throw money at the game, and they "run out" of codes.

I planned on spending probably another $50 but not at full price for an item. Sorry Broadsword, I guess you lose out.

 

[Merus]

You know the second worse thing about foulups like this?? (First being the fact that you have customers who want to give you money and you don't take it)

Somewhere down the line some analyst says hey... Should we run a UO items promotion or should we offer some additional UO items in the UO Store... And someone else looks and says ... Na, last time we ran a sale we only sold xyz amount... Never remembering that we bought out their entire stock and missed all potential sales for the second half of the promotion period...

*shakes head*

 

[Smoot]

Sorry but i can't hear this you are cheating bs anymore.
It's not cheating if the system is that way. If they didn't want it to be like this, they could have made the start-to-decay timer "one week"...and i honestly think they make way more money with me having one permanent house + 5 non-permanent...than me just having one permanent. This game just has sooooooo many items and rares that it gets pretty easy to run out of storage space with only one house. I suspect eating sphaghetti with fork and spoon counts as cheating aswell in your opinion if you could eat it with your bare hands....

when you end up in in a house with 100 cats and piles of newspapers from the last 37 years i suppose you can thank the EA billing / house workaround. Sorry, but i always think of those shows on tv when i hear people need that much storage space in UO

 

[Dot_Warner]

This is (yet) another one of those times that a Community Manager could poke someone in authority to get this issue resolved in a timely fashion.

Too bad UO doesn't have one.

 

[Tanivar]

Sorry, but i always think of those shows on tv when i hear people need that much storage space in UO

Some people are not capable of selling or throwing away stuff they have no use for. There are families I've known that have what could be really nice workshops and enclosed back porches and such that are piled full with clutter no one uses but they just can't bear the thought of getting rid of it. I know one woman who is so sentimental I'm surprised she throws out her garbage.

 

[Ender]

This is (yet) another one of those times that a Community Manager could poke someone in authority to get this issue resolved in a timely fashion.

Too bad UO doesn't have one.

I have no idea what they do all day. It'd be interesting to see I think. Or depressing.

 

[Vor]

Sorry, but i always think of those shows on tv when i hear people need that much storage space in UO

I had a dream the other day that the EMs were auctioning off IDOC homes like they do storage lots in Storage Hunters Man. That would be awesome.

 

[SoulWeaver]

I had a dream the other day that the EMs were auctioning off IDOC homes like they do storage lots in Storage Hunters Man. That would be awesome.

I had a dream one time..... What was it about though?

 

[Victim of Siege]

I had a dream one time..... What was it about though?

It was about an idoc full of mil checks and commodity deeds of 60k stacks of resources, and you had it all to yourself. that or the one about needing to pee . . .

 

[MalagAste]

It was about an idoc full of mil checks and commodity deeds of 60k stacks of resources, and you had it all to yourself. that or the one about needing to pee . . .

Yeah those are the good dreams and nightmares...

How about the dream you get this IDOC all to yourself and it's filled with million gold checks, stacks and stacks of commodity deeds full of every resource... dozens of EM drop items... and a whole bunch of tokens... you spend your time looting it so fast you can hardly breathe.... thinking OMG I just WON UO... and then the next day you go to sort through your booty and when you try to log in it tells you your account is banned... You check your email and there it is... "Your account is perma-banned. Reason: Duping. GM witnessed your house full of duped items and banned your account." Yeah that nightmare.

 

[Smoot]

Some people are not capable of selling or throwing away stuff they have no use for. There are families I've known that have what could be really nice workshops and enclosed back porches and such that are piled full with clutter no one uses but they just can't bear the thought of getting rid of it. I know one woman who is so sentimental I'm surprised she throws out her garbage.

yes its definitely a problem. ive always felt uo is a good "training ground" for real life, is it a pain to go thru my real life house as well as UO house periodically and clean house. yes. but it gets easier when i dont build up clutter in the first place. 2 max storage houses seem to meet all of my UO needs and then some. always extra room, but also dont keep stuff just for the sake of having it. my crafting area alone can get out of control if i dont only keep what realistically will end up in suits.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Not to change from IDOC conversation, but if ya wanna play DAoC, they still have stuff at the store...

 

[Uriah Heep]

Yeah those are the good dreams and nightmares...

How about the dream you get this IDOC all to yourself and it's filled with million gold checks, stacks and stacks of commodity deeds full of every resource... dozens of EM drop items... and a whole bunch of tokens... you spend your time looting it so fast you can hardly breathe.... thinking OMG I just WON UO... and then the next day you go to sort through your booty and when you try to log in it tells you your account is banned... You check your email and there it is... "Your account is perma-banned. Reason: Duping. GM witnessed your house full of duped items and banned your account." Yeah that nightmare.

Always go to the bank and cash the cchecks, then make another

 

[Jirel of Joiry]

Not to change from IDOC conversation, but if ya wanna play DAoC, they still have stuff at the store...

Okay think I used up my smiley quota.

 

[SoulWeaver]

JUST AN FYI: Game Time Codes Are Available ...

 

[Tanivar]

JUST AN FYI: Game Time Codes Are Available ...

Yay!

 

[Lord Frodo]

LMAO OOPS we took down the GTCs too, ****. YEP YEP YEP they ran out of codes, I got some swamp land for sell cheap, well not cheap.

 

[Tanivar]

Let's just not buy anything but GTC until the next sale that actually has things for sale. Like the saying goes, lets vote with our wallets.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Let's just not buy anything but GTC until the next sale that actually has things for sale. Like the saying goes, lets vote with our wallets.

I did that with the last 3 boosters because they were not worth $10 each.

 

[BeaIank]

Let's just not buy anything but GTC until the next sale that actually has things for sale. Like the saying goes, lets vote with our wallets.

I usually spend more than 100 USD per month on the store, sans gametime.
I believe I might not even buy time comes for the next month. And I am definitely not buying stuff other than GTC there for a while.

 

[Jirel of Joiry]

Did anyone notice that this fiasco COINCIDES with last week being Entertainment Software Association's E3 the mega-ginormous gaming convention???
Coincidence??? You decided.

 

[Lord Nabin]

All this conspiracy theory really is a load of crap.

Yes, game times codes are up which are never discounted.

Did any of you stop long enough from adjusting your aluminum foil hats to consider that maybe the other items are not up because they are trying to figure out how to extend the discount for you. Maybe they are trying to get all the items for sale in all countries like you asked.

Things happen.

The Dev's are buried in their next launch and working hard at trying to get it right for you. (by the way, that is there job, not running an online store) I can see that maybe EA didn't tell them there was even going to be a sale so no one knew to check the level of codes on hand.

Golly gosh gee whiz.

Get over yourselves. It's a game, not your job, not your life, and certainly not the end of the world.

Have some respect. You have a small group of people with somewhat limited resources working their butts off to keep an 18 year old dinosaur alive and kicking because we love the game and so do they.

*Gathers his things and stands up looking at the crowd in the Tavern. Flourishes his hand in an odd sort of gesture*

"Dispiro Malas"

* and slams the door on his way out*

 

[BeaIank]

Sorry, but it is way too much even for my suspense of disbelief to believe that they ran out of woodworker's bench codes. And then ran out of all other codes at the same time.
Add to this that it has been 4 years since I was promised that they would look about the lack of stygian abyss codes in the Brazil store. Then you also add on top of this that if unless you live in North America, you can't buy King's Collection. And Australia couldn't buy High Seas for about the same 4 years...

That is a freaking ton of water I let go under the bridge. If they were more forward, more communicative and actually told us that they screwed up instead of just effing lying about running out of codes, I would be more willing to let this be more water under the bridge.
But that was clearly not the case.

 

[swampjumper]

Well codes are back on but no items . I had wanted items but at sale prices sorry Sods did this delibrately so nothing was sold at sale prices what part of deliberate do they think they can slide bye. If it smell like a duck quack likes a duch you can be damn sure its a duck.

 

[Lord Nabin]

Well codes are back on but no items . I had wanted items but at sale prices sorry Sods did this delibrately so nothing was sold at sale prices what part of deliberate do they think they can slide bye. If it smell like a duck quack likes a duch you can be damn sure its a duck.

Honestly that's just dumb and there is no reason for them to do it on purpose Period

First hit the boards at 4:45pm on Wednesday

A UO Designer (not an online store manager) acknowledged the issue at 1 am his time on Thursday. (Did I point out it was 1 am?)

An official notice from the UO Producer (again someone who is not responsible for an Online Store) that they had forwarded more codes at 12:45 pm Friday. Note it was going to take a few days and they would let us know once everything was up and running.

Please "visitor" step back into the real world

People camp out and stand in line for days at Best Buys during the Christmas season just for a chance at a good deal on a TV or some other item knowing full well that they might sell out before they can get one. Because it happens.

Clearly this wasn't some kind of conspiracy or done on purpose.

 

[BrianFreud]

@Lord Nabin, I have to disagree with you on one point. Their job *is* running an online store as well as running and continuing to develop the game. Whether it be a decision by Broadsword or EA, it was decided that the Origin store would be one of only two places UO and codes for in-game UO products will be sold/distributed (along with Amazon's Japanese store) - and for the western world, it is the only place for such purchases. Broadsword may not have much or any control over that store, sure. However, this then creates a problem situation - when something breaks in the store, Broadsword and EA essentially both disclaim responsibility.

I really don't care whose fault it is; I do care, however, that neither seems to ever be in any hurry to fix things when they break. It does look very bad when the store runs a sale, and within hours, UO and related codes doesn't show up even as product. On nearly any other e-commerce site, if something were out of stock, it would still be listed, just with "out of stock". This is what happens with Amazon.jp when it runs out of codes. It honestly worries me that any of the following is true; at least one must be:

• That presumably there are so few sales, UO codes are lightly stocked.
• That the game's own store relies on being given codes, rather than being able to generate them as needed. (Amazon.jp makes sense for this; Origin simply doesn't.)
• That it takes 5 days (and counting) for codes to be replenished, rather than being top-priority for the devs. (This being their only non-direct billing credit cards way of making any revenues.)
• That a single post on Thursday morning, without any followup today (it was a workday...), when nothing has yet been resolved) is considered "good customer relations".

I have 22 accounts at the moment, most of them being kept active.
I am debating, more seriously than in the past, whether it makes sense to continue to have even half that number in any state, active or playing the 3/1 game.

 

[Larisa]

FYI everything is back not just codes

 

[Tanivar]

Honestly that's just dumb and there is no reason for them to do it on purpose Period ....

... Clearly this wasn't some kind of conspiracy or done on purpose.

Got a serious bridge collection old chap?

The only possible alternative is incompetence, and I doubt it was that.

 

[DreadLord Lestat]

Lord Nabin, I have to disagree with you on this one. While it is not a conspiracy, it does seem to have been done on purpose. They pulled ALL items shortly after the sale started, claimed they ran out of codes (really?? A generator makes codes and they can be quickly made), and following the end of the sale the items start appearing again. If this was what they said it was, they would have had the items back up on Friday. It does not take much for Origin to add or remove items and most likely they were there but hidden the whole time. If Broadsword wanted them sold, they would have been fixed by Friday at the latest, most likely it would have been done by Thursday. They were removed intentionally, whether it was to keep 3rd party sellers from buying them cheap, or other reasons unknown, it was most definitely no accident or code issue.

EDITED TO STATE THAT THIS IS MY OPINION THOUGH I FEEL THAT IT IS VALID

 

[OREOGL]

All this conspiracy theory really is a load of crap.

Yes, game times codes are up which are never discounted.

Did any of you stop long enough from adjusting your aluminum foil hats to consider that maybe the other items are not up because they are trying to figure out how to extend the discount for you. Maybe they are trying to get all the items for sale in all countries like you asked.

Things happen.

The Dev's are buried in their next launch and working hard at trying to get it right for you. (by the way, that is there job, not running an online store) I can see that maybe EA didn't tell them there was even going to be a sale so no one knew to check the level of codes on hand.

Golly gosh gee whiz.

Get over yourselves. It's a game, not your job, not your life, and certainly not the end of the world.

Have some respect. You have a small group of people with somewhat limited resources working their butts off to keep an 18 year old dinosaur alive and kicking because we love the game and so do they.

*Gathers his things and stands up looking at the crowd in the Tavern. Flourishes his hand in an odd sort of gesture*

"Dispiro Malas"

* and slams the door on his way out*

Just thought I'd point out that the team may be a little bigger if they didn't so haphazardly turn people's money away, frequently I might add.

If they don't want it, that's cool I guess. I have plenty of other places to spend it.

 

[Riyana]

It appears that most or all of the codes are now available again at the Origin store.

 

[MalagAste]

Lord Nabin, I have to disagree with you on this one. While it is not a conspiracy, it does seem to have been done on purpose. They pulled ALL items shortly after the sale started, claimed they ran out of codes (really?? A generator makes codes and they can be quickly made), and following the end of the sale the items start appearing again. If this was what they said it was, they would have had the items back up on Friday. It does not take much for Origin to add or remove items and most likely they were there but hidden the whole time. If Broadsword wanted them sold, they would have been fixed by Friday at the latest, most likely it would have been done by Thursday. They were removed intentionally, whether it was to keep 3rd party sellers from buying them cheap, or other reasons unknown, it was most definitely no accident or code issue.

What "proof" do you have they were pulled rather than stock simply ran out? We know the codes ran out... So please don't go spreading rumor and accusations unless you have PROOF.

@brianfreud2 I too have considered reducing the number of accounts I have open... trouble is I have too much crap to do that. So I'm well... not sure how. As for the playing the 3/1 game... I've known WAY TOO many friends who've gotten burned doing that losing houses left and right and honestly I'm not willing to do that just yet. Not sure about you. But something to consider.

 

[Warrick]

Yes, the codes are back. Conveniently timed. There must be more to this story than we know (and I don't mean in a positive way). Disappointing.

 

[DreadLord Lestat]

What "proof" do you have they were pulled rather than stock simply ran out? We know the codes ran out... So please don't go spreading rumor and accusations unless you have PROOF.

Codes are generated in seconds, it's not like it is something physical that needs to be crafted and takes time to do. Tell me how everything is pulled shortly after the sale started and comes back shortly after the sale ends without it being intentional.

EDIT: I have no proof, this is my PERSONAL opinion and would love for someone to prove me wrong.

 

[DreadLord Lestat]

Here is a free code generator I just googled, see how quickly you can make 100 codes. http://www.randomcodegenerator.com/

 

[HoneythornGump]

 

[Lord Frodo]

What "proof" do you have they were pulled rather than stock simply ran out? We know the codes ran out... So please don't go spreading rumor and accusations unless you have PROOF.

LMAO and your PROOF is that UO said so, now that is proof. How else would you put it that all of a sudden out of the clear blue sky they ran out of codes and it took this long to get them back. Do you really think EA/Origin who run the store (not UO) is that incompetent. UO said they gave Origin more codes, why does UO have to give codes to a store owned and run by EA, not UO. Those codes were given (yea right) on Fri and it took them this long to apply them. EA is a multi million/billion $ corp and do you really think that EA is that incompetent that they could not apply those codes right then. I was a drug and alcohol counselor in the military for 15 years and I have heard some good ones but this we ran out of codes stinks to high heaven. Please tell me you honestly believe a company like EA, forget UO, is that incompetent.

 

[azmodanb]

What "proof" do you have they were pulled rather than stock simply ran out? We know the codes ran out... So please don't go spreading rumor and accusations unless you have PROOF.

@brianfreud2 I too have considered reducing the number of accounts I have open... trouble is I have too much crap to do that. So I'm well... not sure how. As for the playing the 3/1 game... I've known WAY TOO many friends who've gotten burned doing that losing houses left and right and honestly I'm not willing to do that just yet. Not sure about you. But something to consider.

Really they all ran out at the same time... That is the proof.

 

[Zuckuss]

Perhaps the codes were not supposed to be on sale in the first place.

Do not turn this into a bash fest folks. We currently have limited information.

 

[railshot]

Do not turn this into a bash fest folks. We currently have limited information.

The reason this is a bash fest is not because the codes were missing. Nor it is because some users feel like starting a witch hunt. It is precisely because we have no information, or to be exact it is because nobody at BS deigned it necessary to take time to inform the users about what is going on. This is an example of how 2 minutes that it would have taken someone at BS to write a post cost the company incredible amounts of good will, and god knows how many dollars and users.

 

[HoneythornGump]

The reason this is a bash fest is not because the codes were missing. Nor it is because some users feel like starting a witch hunt. It is precisely because we have no information, or to be exact it is because nobody at BS deigned it necessary to take time to inform the users about what is going on.

I'd wager their ambivalence has to do with deciding upon which bold face lie they want to tell the UO community.

 

[Yadd of Legends]

Perhaps the codes were not supposed to be on sale in the first place..

The most likely explanation. And what they should have simply said in the first place. But didn't.

 

[BrianFreud]

Perhaps the codes were not supposed to be on sale in the first place.

Do not turn this into a bash fest folks. We currently have limited information.

If the codes weren't intended to be on sale, there was a simple fix - stop selling them at the sale price. Not stop selling them.

 

[MalagAste]

Really they all ran out at the same time... That is the proof.

As I said the codes work this way..... the DEV's Generate say 5000 codes. They give those codes to Origin store. Origin store then assigns the code an item when someone purchases a UO item... Then when you go in game and put that in that's what you get. These are assigned into the system as "valid" codes when they become purchased... then they are turned "on" in the system.... all that has to be coded..... as in someone has to actually tell the system those codes are going to be available.

Now... when the 5000 codes runs out... they can't sell ANY more UO items. This includes EVERYTHING. The codes aren't just random numbers they generate and tada! They work.... no they have to put each one into the system and tell the system that each one will be a "valid" code when entered. Otherwise if it was just a case of plopping in a bunch of numbers you could just throw in any old string of number/letter/space combinations and get something... so it's not as "easy" as any of you think these things take time to generate, update and code.


Edit: So when you purchase something that code that UO DEV's created that is in the system for being valid is assigned to your purchase and to the item that you bought.. then Origin tells UO's code system what item that code is valid for ..... They do NOT give Origin 40 codes for this and 30 codes for that and blah blah blah.... no they just give them X number of codes to distribute out to what we buy.
So there is/was no conspiracy... and you lack PROOF.

They said not that they "REMOVED" the codes because they didn't take them off on purpose... they said they ran out. As in we purchased all the available UO codes.

 

[Yadd of Legends]

So if @MalagAste's explanation is valid, then there were a certain number of codes in the store already when the sale started, and the developers didn't generate any new codes to satisfy the demand, so the codes ran out.
So why didn't the developers generate new codes?
Possible theories:
1. Origin didn't tell Broadsword there was going to be a sale that included Ultima Online. That's one possibility.
2. Origin told Broadsword there was going to be a sale but the developers didn't take the time to generate new codes.
If 2 is correct, why didn't the developers take the time to generate new codes?
Two possibilities:
1. The developers thought working on the upcoming publish and expansion was a bigger priority than taking the time to generate new codes, assuming the task takes a significant amount of time to accomplish.
2. The developers were concerned about the effect on the economy of flooding the market with half-price mythic tokens and transfer tokens and such and didn't want to keep the sale going. It's possible Origin put everything on sale for half price with no real thought how it might affect UO, so Broadsword let the codes run out and left it at that.
Who knows, without more communication, all we have are theories - which are actually questions we hope somebody answers eventually.

 

[DreadLord Lestat]

@MalagAste I posted the generator just to show how quick the numbers can be generated, I never said that they used that one. You must know that they do not sit there and enter in 5000 codes, their system has a built in generator that legitimizes them as it generates them. The last time this happened, it only happened to the 30 day game time codes so that kind of debunks the whole codes work for everything not to mention that they were fixed the next day.

As Dot so graciously pointed out in another thread, here is their response to ONLY the 30 day game time codes running out. If the codes are generic and apply to ALL of their items, then why did it ONLY affect the 30 day game time codes?

So how are you trying to pass of ALL codes missing and it taking them 5 days to fix it? I think that your logic is flawed on this one, and I don't want to believe that it was done on purpose but they leave me little else to believe. At the beginning I thought it was a fluke, especially after Kyronix said that it would be fixed and they made a post on uo.com but what happened to that? Mesanna may not work weekends but others do as well as those that run the origin website. I rarely disagree with you but I think that you are way off on this one.

EDIT: I don't know why the word conspiracy keeps coming up, as no one said it was a conspiracy. Others, like myself, have the OPINION that it was done intentionally, not secretly with someone out on the grassy knoll.

 

[King Greg]

As I said the codes work this way..... the DEV's Generate say 5000 codes. They give those codes to Origin store. Origin store then assigns the code an item when someone purchases a UO item... Then when you go in game and put that in that's what you get. These are assigned into the system as "valid" codes when they become purchased... then they are turned "on" in the system.... all that has to be coded..... as in someone has to actually tell the system those codes are going to be available.

Now... when the 5000 codes runs out... they can't sell ANY more UO items. This includes EVERYTHING. The codes aren't just random numbers they generate and tada! They work.... no they have to put each one into the system and tell the system that each one will be a "valid" code when entered. Otherwise if it was just a case of plopping in a bunch of numbers you could just throw in any old string of number/letter/space combinations and get something... so it's not as "easy" as any of you think these things take time to generate, update and code.


Edit: So when you purchase something that code that UO DEV's created that is in the system for being valid is assigned to your purchase and to the item that you bought.. then Origin tells UO's code system what item that code is valid for ..... They do NOT give Origin 40 codes for this and 30 codes for that and blah blah blah.... no they just give them X number of codes to distribute out to what we buy.
So there is/was no conspiracy... and you lack PROOF.

They said not that they "REMOVED" the codes because they didn't take them off on purpose... they said they ran out. As in we purchased all the available UO codes.

Considering at one point they ran out of ONLY 1 month codes, considering the issue they were having with the Japanese Store, considering instead of turning on EVERY item for the store we only have 3 items, what would make you think that that is how their code system works? its a poke Puke System, you purchase something, it reaches into the database for that specific item and pulls out a code. Chances are there isn't even a confirmation sent to the UO Servers and they just rely on the Randomness of the Codes to Prevent people from redeeming codes that haven't been purchased (From the issues with the japan store)

 

[Kirthag]

As items are back in the store, I am closing this thread.

We all understand people have issues and disagree as to the how's and why's of what happened. As an ecommerce specialist, I will state that in my professional experience, there is more than one way to populate inventory (digital or tangible) and sometimes it takes more than hitting a few buttons to get things back to rights. Stop with the conjecture as it does nothing but cause ill feelings for all parties.

It happened. The world didn't end. Sosaria didn't end. Codes are back.

If you have a customer service complaint, feel free to send your comments via the UO Comment Page.
There is no need to fuel disinformation as it serves no other purpose.

Threads on this subject are locked.