Uo isnt dead - it just passed the train of a new game engine in 2002 and most of the people left to other Online-Worlds for the better graphics and easier mechanics, and the easier hack & slash factor - when i left for WoW with the whole guild i always dreamed (and 100% of the guild too) we could have UO on a WoW based engine with all the nice graphics...and of course HOUSING...i never understood why this never happend - i dont need instances like WoW and it would have been easy to implement a likely system to UO - to try this NOW its to late - so we are playing a game in 2D and live with the changes Mythic is able to implement not to mess with to much...
And to be honest - i rather play alone most of my gametime and jump in for 5-6 hours a week to play with the guild than suffer from lag, log in problems and hundrets of greedy players killing off my targets....if you want to be part of a community in game and have/make friends, it never was easier than in the old days...i came back November 2011 after almost 7 years and am addicted to UO again - noone is left from my old guild but i made new friends and beeing part of a new guild since 3 months now - and its better than before - i just had to start conversations and show interrest - its the VETS that play this game now and if it realy happens a new soul entering the world its a blast for him/her - you get EVERYTHING you need from the scratch to play this game - because the vets got so much of all and if not greedy can spare the millions and regs and armor and pets to push a char's skills in no time to a level the rookie can participate in high end guild hunts - THATS what i think is the game spirit now and keeps the game up - 20 man guilds with constant players log in every day and have fun together - if this keeps up, Uo will never die - well at least until they turn the servers plugs...
Better 20k subsribers and fun than 20 Million subsribers and lag...
An opinion of an old man...who played this game back in 1999...and came back and have more fun now than ever..
P.S. Not to forget what i "owe" UO - english is not my native - its german - i never had courses to learn it, just school english 30 years ago - since i play UO on Pacific even i am in Central Europe, i had to learn the language quite well to be able to communicate and understand everything - because of UO i learned that up to a level i wouldnt have reached outside of the game (i am still to lazy to attend english school, especially at my age now) and it helped me ALOT irl or i wouldnt have my real good job at the IT-Industry since 15 years - were english is mandatory not only to communicate but also to understand most of the hardware and features and to host presentations at big meetings with CEO's and CFO's from hughe companies...so i always say, if someone asks, hey how did you learn that hell of a good english gramar and speaking abilities you almost sound like a native speaker, well, its because i play(ed) computer games for a long time and ALWAYS choose to play on servers that have english communication and text. They cant believe it, some shake heads, but 95% of the people applaude to me. So i realy can say here, UO and other Online Games changed my life and i learned for life...