UO.com has been down for two days

[Woodsman]

At least two days.

This was posted yesterday: UO.com is Down | Ultima Online Gateway

It's now the 5th and it's still down for me and this says everybody:

http://uo.com Is Down -> Check if your website is up or down?

Maybe it's finally getting a redesign and being turned into the community hub it once was. Okay, wishful thinking. Maybe it's getting a redesign at least.

 

[MalagAste]

Down for me.

 

[Mapper]

Chrome cache is making uo.com direct to the herald just fine, In IE it's down for me though.

 

[Dan123The123Man]

With IE uo.com website loads fine for me.

 

[Raptor85]

not a browser issue, the site is unreachable from here in so-cal and from my servers in dallas also.

 

[Raptor85]

Chrome cache is making uo.com direct to the herald just fine, In IE it's down for me though.

that's because it's caching the redirect, it's using the saved information that it redirects to the uoherald instead of trying to even connect to uo.com to check..that's normal when you set it up so the code given to the browser is http 301 (permanant redirect), the browser saves that information and doesn't recheck (depending on your browser settings) for quite a long time.

 

[Taylor]

I can reach uoherald.com. The domain redirect from uo.com is down.

 

[PsychoKinetic]

First EA changes the home page for Ultima Online from uo.com to uoherald.com. Maybe I missed the explanation for that move but it seems like uo.com is a MUCH more appropriate domain name for the game.

At the time of the change I remember wondering what the market value of such a short domain would be and how long it would take EA to sell out.

 

[Woodsman]

First EA changes the home page for Ultima Online from uo.com to uoherald.com. Maybe I missed the explanation for that move but it seems like uo.com is a MUCH more appropriate domain name for the game.

At the time of the change I remember wondering what the market value of such a short domain would be and how long it would take EA to sell out.

Jeff said something about going back to UO.com, and CamelotHerald.com did go back to the DarkAgeofCamelot.com.

What I've heard (this happened while I was gone), is that because Warhammer was EA's focus, some idiot in marketing who had never played UO or Camelot decided that UO and Camelot should have websites that resemble Warhammer's with its dark atmosphere, and then somebody wanted this whole "Herald" branding thing as the main focus across all three sites in some manner. My guess is the person who made those decisions about the Herald was somebody who had been Mythic from the start, because I remember some kind of Herald stuff on the old Camelot website, so they must have decided to carry it over to all three.

My own personal theory is that somebody in Mythic hated UO and so decided to destroy UO's identity/branding on the web

Update: Looking at Archive.org, my suspicions were confirmed, the Herald stuff started off with Camelot back in 2001.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

Jeff said something about going back to UO.com,
My own personal theory is that somebody in Mythic hated UO and so decided to destroy UO's identity/branding on the web

Having experience in branding, What I've seen happen... Radical changes occur with the company's best interest at heart, However, the move just wasn't very smart and only thought so by 'convinced' decision makers. Someone faster, sharper comes along years later and convinces them the change was all BS like many had been saying all along. Then, it was how to make the smoothest transition, essentially backwards. Still a bumpy trip, but it's working out in the end. and of course, the one that changed the branding is now long gone. Mistakes happen, people disappear, move on the best you can with what's left.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Some people believe that a uniform style across the whole company is the right way to go. A Corporate Identity.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

It's been a few years, but imagine my surprise while driving by the local jack-in-the-box and seeing a Purina (dog food maker) semi trailer backed up to the door unloading? yeah sometimes it doesn't work well

 

[Woodsman]

Having experience in branding, What I've seen happen... Radical changes occur with the company's best interest at heart, However, the move just wasn't very smart and only thought so by 'convinced' decision makers. Someone faster, sharper comes along years later and convinces them the change was all BS like many had been saying all along. Then, it was how to make the smoothest transition, essentially backwards. Still a bumpy trip, but it's working out in the end. and of course, the one that changed the branding is now long gone. Mistakes happen, people disappear, move on the best you can with what's left.

True, and they are realizing now that the Bioware Mythic MMORPGs all have unique identities, and it was pretty dumb to try and shoehorn Warhammer's atmosphere onto UO and Camelot. At the same time, it raises the fact that somebody though it wise to bury UO and Camelot's identity underneath Warhammer and that makes me think it was done by somebody who didn't care about either or even despised them.

You're right, those responsible are long gone, and it's ludicrous now to imagine them taking the SWTOR.com branding and applying it to BioWare's other MMORPGs.

Speaking of which, it's telling that SWTOR has already went at least one major redesign since it launched.

I will say the new Warhammer and Camelot rebranding is not bad - they are feeling unique compared to one another They still need some usability people to come in. Kai had some help on the artwork, but some of the fonts and layout could use some work.

 

[Nimuaq]

My own personal theory is that somebody in Mythic hated UO and so decided to destroy UO's identity/branding on the web

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

 

[Woodsman]

Jeff Skalski said on Twitter that they are still a few months away from the UO.com relaunch.