Simple post...
Should UO be ran by people that love UO?
Yes : No and why?
Should UO be ran by people that love UO?
Yes : No and why?
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UO Development
- Thread starter Deep Ellum Dan
- Start date
- Watchers 8
No. As we have seen in the past and are seeing now the *Love* often caters to one play style rather than looking at the broad picture. It also leads to a total lack of continuity as witnessed by all the dead end content. The Dev flavor of the day really *Loves* UO and taking direction X, until the get fired or bored. Next Dev Flavor really Loves UO but doesn't like what the previous 15 past flavors did and wants to take the game in Y Direction so all content on A-X is Dead until they quit or get fired and Dev Flavor Z showws up relegating A-Y to the bin of neglect. And what we end up with is a big mess. Run it like a business, Pump the Brand, Cater to the broad base and keep the niches covered. Someone who loves UO ain't going to do that given the diversity of player and game styles because pretty much everyone is vested in their specific play style. I would much rather the game be ran by someone who understands UO and the dynamics that make it tick and fully exploit the product, the only love the managment should feel for UO is in the revenue it is or rather could be generating. Because revenue equates to a healthy game and happy players.
Is there a point to the post? Are you coordinating a takeover?
Ideally, UO should be run by people who love the game. Just my opinion.
I do agree with something Tyrath mentioned... "the *Love* often caters to one play style rather than looking at the broad picture". So many skills, once actually useful or even important, have fallen by the wayside over the years. Does that reflect a lack of "Love"? I don't know. I doubt that anyone knows.
I do agree with something Tyrath mentioned... "the *Love* often caters to one play style rather than looking at the broad picture". So many skills, once actually useful or even important, have fallen by the wayside over the years. Does that reflect a lack of "Love"? I don't know. I doubt that anyone knows.
UO should definitely be run by people who
1) Love the game in all its various bits, PvE and PvP
2) PLAY THE GAME so they can see how some of the more convoluted ideas fall apart or become overly tedious in application
3) Understand Ultima and its history
1) Love the game in all its various bits, PvE and PvP
2) PLAY THE GAME so they can see how some of the more convoluted ideas fall apart or become overly tedious in application
3) Understand Ultima and its history
It should be run by someone who plays a couple of hours a day on a nonscrolled out char with various skills and templates. I made a friend some fuses and matches and such the other day, and the convoluted gotta have every skill log in log out switch hunt for ingreds required to make them reinforced my decision from shortly after HS was released that it was crap. Something someone dreamed up just for busy work for cooks and alchys...and looking at the ingreds on some of the new pots that have been introduced this last pub makes me think they will be the same way.
A game should be played, enjoyed, and not 'worked' at like a job...
And I will keep screaming this until I get banned or lose my voice.
A game should be played, enjoyed, and not 'worked' at like a job...
And I will keep screaming this until I get banned or lose my voice.
I doubt that. She gets paid to pretend to love it and is responsible for keeping players.I know Bonnie loves the game
I doubt she plays aside from what she had to and she certainly doesn't post here anymore. That doesn't scream love to me.
YES for me, I would love if this game would be ran by people that play and are as passionate about UO as we are (would have to unbiased though). I hope when the time comes for EA to pull the plug that they decide to sell game first and it's to someone that plays UO or back to its creator Richard Garriot (If he still wants us that is lol). The game needs fresh ideas to keep surviving, biggest upset for me was getting rid of UO:KR... I really wish they would bring this back and make it complete. At least it was a step in the right direction... was our best option for marketing and fresh blood so far
So we'd kiss pvp goodbye if you were in charge? k then.
This. Look at how much is IN the game already - Tram/Fel Dungeons, Ilshenar, Doom, Tokuno, ML Dungeons, and Ter mur/Eodon. Pretty much all of it is ignored because it's NOT WORTH DOING. Add some new mobs, bump up the loot quality, revamp the Doom artifacts (only 5-6 are worth anything now, out of ~30), etc
Captn Norrington
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I can't believe I have to post this lol, but since three people have asked me since this thread was created....
Q: Is Stratics trying to buy Ultima Online?
A: No, Stratics is not trying to buy Ultima Online.
Q: Is Stratics trying to buy Ultima Online?
A: No, Stratics is not trying to buy Ultima Online.
What a weird assumption to make.
Well you can't deny that it would be in the hands of the community if it was... just like StraticsI can't believe I have to post this lol, but since three people have asked me since this thread was created....
Q: Is Stratics trying to buy Ultima Online?
A: No, Stratics is not trying to buy Ultima Online.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha good oneWell you can't deny that it would be in the hands of the community if it was... just like Stratics
So we are led to believe, and yet is doing a terrible job bordering on negligence if not outright incompetency at times. So in reply to the OP's thread .... NO.I know Bonnie loves the game
UO simply needs to be run by people who know what is required to make it sucessful.
Some great replies here
Enziet
Journeyman
Yes of course it should be run by people who actually love the game. That gives them more passion towards development and survival of this great game. But like any IT Manager / PC nerd knows... Not one nerd knows everything. It is always better to have more than one nerd that understands teamwork wins. (If you catch what I'm saying)
There is no doubt Bonnie loves the game... come now folk she's worked for UO longer than most of us have played UO. She does know and understand a lot more than folk think.
However... I think some of the things she has wanted to do or done has been too little too late. Many of it would have been better when there were still massive guilds and a much larger playerbase... but now we don't have that so much... many shards are ghost towns. Also she seems to favor itemization and acquisition... cater to the rares community as well. I recall when the EM program was first introduced we were told there would be NO drops. That was never true. I think she has a lot of wonderful ideas but they seem to not be practical or are more complicated than they need to be. Remember we are talking about someone who really enjoys killing players...
So then we have the fact that UO is still under the thumb of EA whether we like it or not... now Broadsword may have been given some slack in that chain but it is still chained to EA... Also Broadsword you know is really not devoted to UO... UO is it's red headed step child yet. Most of the issues with many things in UO comes down to EA and the Origin Store still. The account mismanagment page and the yoke of having to get things from the Origin store one by one.
Lets also remember than we pretty much have one coder. One artist. One tester. One worker... and Bonnie. Not really much of a "team" for her to really effectively "do" anything. So the fact that we get a few items a year most are just re-hued, renamed, and repurposed stuff shouldn't come as a shock. The fact that much of what we do get is just slight variations on things that we already have. Again no surprise. Anything that does get changed or any attempt they do make to change anything is met with such scrutiny I am sure they want to throw their hands in the air and just say "why bother". They attempt to update or improve anything and are screamed at to change it back.
And we wonder what's wrong??? At this point I don't think they could do anything to satisfy anyone... everyone right now has their own vision of what UO should be that they can't possibly make any change at all that won't upset or irritate the majority of players.
If they try to do invasions someone screams about having had their character logged out in that town and how they lost stuff (sometimes I think people do this on purpose just to have something to cry and complain about)... If they try to put in systems and changes that foster community and RP and such they are accused of "favoritism"... If they give gifts they are told that it's too much crap and everyone cries about wanting it to be on the points lists for spring clean the instant it's given.... they give us a vendor search folk have asked for for years and people complain about it constantly... They put in a new expansion and someone will say something like "I play a tinkerer and you didn't put anything in for me!"... Yet when you have to utilize all the trade skills then we complain again. People complained about Factions being corrupt but any time they tried to fix it more complaints... they call for a panel of PvPers to find a new system and again people complain... Reminds me of a bunch of kids you take them to McDonalds and ask them what they want get it for them and then one kid complains because the other got 2 more fries than they did..... or that their burger is bigger... or they got more pickles or whatever.... bunch of squabbling kids. Just saying.
However... I think some of the things she has wanted to do or done has been too little too late. Many of it would have been better when there were still massive guilds and a much larger playerbase... but now we don't have that so much... many shards are ghost towns. Also she seems to favor itemization and acquisition... cater to the rares community as well. I recall when the EM program was first introduced we were told there would be NO drops. That was never true. I think she has a lot of wonderful ideas but they seem to not be practical or are more complicated than they need to be. Remember we are talking about someone who really enjoys killing players...
So then we have the fact that UO is still under the thumb of EA whether we like it or not... now Broadsword may have been given some slack in that chain but it is still chained to EA... Also Broadsword you know is really not devoted to UO... UO is it's red headed step child yet. Most of the issues with many things in UO comes down to EA and the Origin Store still. The account mismanagment page and the yoke of having to get things from the Origin store one by one.
Lets also remember than we pretty much have one coder. One artist. One tester. One worker... and Bonnie. Not really much of a "team" for her to really effectively "do" anything. So the fact that we get a few items a year most are just re-hued, renamed, and repurposed stuff shouldn't come as a shock. The fact that much of what we do get is just slight variations on things that we already have. Again no surprise. Anything that does get changed or any attempt they do make to change anything is met with such scrutiny I am sure they want to throw their hands in the air and just say "why bother". They attempt to update or improve anything and are screamed at to change it back.
And we wonder what's wrong??? At this point I don't think they could do anything to satisfy anyone... everyone right now has their own vision of what UO should be that they can't possibly make any change at all that won't upset or irritate the majority of players.
If they try to do invasions someone screams about having had their character logged out in that town and how they lost stuff (sometimes I think people do this on purpose just to have something to cry and complain about)... If they try to put in systems and changes that foster community and RP and such they are accused of "favoritism"... If they give gifts they are told that it's too much crap and everyone cries about wanting it to be on the points lists for spring clean the instant it's given.... they give us a vendor search folk have asked for for years and people complain about it constantly... They put in a new expansion and someone will say something like "I play a tinkerer and you didn't put anything in for me!"... Yet when you have to utilize all the trade skills then we complain again. People complained about Factions being corrupt but any time they tried to fix it more complaints... they call for a panel of PvPers to find a new system and again people complain... Reminds me of a bunch of kids you take them to McDonalds and ask them what they want get it for them and then one kid complains because the other got 2 more fries than they did..... or that their burger is bigger... or they got more pickles or whatever.... bunch of squabbling kids. Just saying.
1) If they lose stuff due to an invasion that's been announced in advance, it's their fault for not being prepared.
2) Vendor search goes down quite a bit and until recently didn't update if items had already been sold. It could use other refinements too: If I'm searching for "Bless deed" or "Ingots", I don't want a bunch of commodity deeds/unrelated commodity deeds to pop up.
3) Requiring stuff that uses trade skills is fine. Making it difficult to get the recipes or ingredients, however?
4) The panel of pvp'ers for vvv was actually ignored. Being able to res your own pets was suggested before it went live and ignored for months - how much vvv fighting is there now? On LS, at least, the only players that do the towns regularly are a bunch of stealthers. Don't even get me started on the other things that are imbalanced/broken in pvp - archery/mortal spam/stacking, thunderstorm not needing line of sight to hit someone (which EVERY OTHER AOE SPELL IN THE GAME needs), being unable to alter/powder Shadowguard artifacts (or actually obtain Gargoyle versions of them), etc.
The shelf life for new content is ridiculously low. Farm new stuff for a week and you're done with it, then what? If you're going to do older content for your farming, there are only a few things worth doing, since 99% of the monsters in the game have garbage loot.
Well this is the thing about the game now... It's all about items. Before it wasn't so much about items it was about the game play... it was killing, hunting and community. It was the action and activity... sure there was the excitement of getting the Silver Vanq Katana and all but for the most part it was more about what you were fighting and who you were with than what you were getting. The more we drive to getting stuff and having stuff and gold and worth the less we care about the other players and the community.
People don't want to risk stuff because it's worth too much... because everything is now about worth and such rather than the gameplay itself... which IMO is killing the game. No longer do folk want to join in just to have fun they think that every event needs to have the chance at a 300+ Gold whatever its just really annoying.
Exactly! UO was never designed to be an item focused game. Age of Items ruined a lot of what UO was meant to be.
So not the current dev team.
*hides the rum and ale*
Captn Norrington
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*hides the rum and ale*
Exactly. I fail to see the point of this thread.