Why not? Whats your motivation?

[Hooli Gan]

Was just browsing a local gamestop here is wisconsin and I got shot down again when I mentioned uo to a worker.Never heard of it they say.Fourth time this has happened to me lately.
#1 In reno neveda gamestop 6 months ago when i came back to uo.
#2 La Calif gamestop=notta But did find a used aos copy at a swap meet in long beach 2 $ hehe
#3 Various gamestores in Chicago last week
#4 Green Bay wisc gamestop today.

Nobody has ever heard of this game?
I have been in and out of uo for almost as long as Uo itself has been alive.To me its the greatest MMORPG ever still to this date.Sure others have way better graphics and other in game features that are cool.But i still think the most bang for your buck comes with uo.
So to get to the point im wondering out loud Why no advertising? EA has all its other content well represented in these stores>Why no UO? I thought for sure I would at least come across a KR box or 2.

Just kinda wondring whats the motivation here?
New players = new cash
Or are we just happy watching our population dwindle down?
Im kinda ok with either answer.New players would be cool but I also kinda like the small community we have now on napa.

Side note were the heck has Todd Mcfarlane gone? what happened to that alliance? Marketing genious that move was.1 time deal though I rekon.

 

[Connor_Graham]

Every Gamestop I've been to in the Dallas area, which is around 6 or 7 I think, has heard of, and had, UO on the shelf. The most recent version at that.

Dunno, maybe it's more popular here. *shrug*

 

[Guest]

Simple Answer. They don't care.

 

[imported_badskidmarks]

I was able to buy 4 copies of the 9th anniversary from the local EB games....that was when it first came out...nowhere to be found now though...

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

So to get to the point im wondering out loud Why no advertising?

[/ QUOTE ]
Probably because it is not financially viable.

Companies spend money on advertising to reap the rewards with increased sales. EA probably figure that advertising a game as antiquated as UO (both clients are included in this) is not financially viable as they wouldnt attract enough new players to make the advertising pay for itself.

Plus UO is blatently running on a shoestring budget with skeleton staff on a minimal operating costs basis, which obviously doesnt include an allocation of funds to advertising.

Bottom line ... EA dont think UO is worth it.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Dunno, maybe it's more popular here. *shrug*

[/ QUOTE ]
Or less popular and thats why they cant shift the few copies they have.

 

[Guest]

Every game stop E/B or other game dealer here in northeastern PA I have gone to knew what it was the current state of the game and has carried new and used copies in small numbers. When expansions are released all the game stores and wal marts here have it in small quantities.

Also about the whole todd mcfarlane deal? That to me was a disaster. A disaster that left a lasting bad mark in the history of UO for me. This is ultima online not a spawn comic and guess what? I feel the same way about samurais and ninjas in UO. It had no place and never should have been part of the game. I do love ninjas and samurai and the content in and of it's self is cool but it's still something that does not belong in the game. Kinda like machine guns and cars wouldn't fit.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

clerks in gamestores ... hardly a wellspring of "seasoned" advice.

Not that that would have any bearing in your case ...

"I thought for sure I would at least come across a KR box or 2"

.... would you have bought them ?

. . . . . . . .

and been SURE you got what you were after ?

 

[Connor_Graham]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

Dunno, maybe it's more popular here. *shrug*

[/ QUOTE ]
Or less popular and thats why they cant shift the few copies they have.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or more popular, as I said, or they wouldn't maintain a stock level to begin with.

 

[Hooli Gan]

nope wouldnt have bought them.left the aos copy at the swap meet decided my 2 bucks would be better spent on a bigmac deal.

I feel bad for the DEV's. I think for the most part they care about the game,but on the other hand there probably tired of beating there head against a wall,with EA being the wall.

As for the advertising yeah Uo is ancient but im in real estate and i just sold a house built in 1920 that is quite the fixer upper for just under what a comparable new house would go for in the same area.Advertising is the key to any buisness and to se it fall so low on EA's priority list is sad.Think people are just gonna magically show up with credit cards in hand? nope gotta get the word out.The system I use in Real estate is pretty much standard and its a numbers game.the more you reach the more you get.100 contacts to 1 sale ratio at times.But if that one sale is made happy and goes through then you get a nice check month after month,plus the word of mouth.

On the other hand not that I would switch over but arent those MR T commercials cool? Even if you choose not to make a choice youve still chosen something. Put up a fight at least UO cmon

 

[Hooli Gan]

Think I should of named the thread *Gets ready to open a can of worms*


Seriously EA put a damn fight up,your getting slaughtered.Defend your title

 

[Guest]

Simple answer?
Because Mark Jacobs doesn't give a damn about Ultima Online.

 

[the 4th man]

The game stores, as mentioned already, have mostly kids working for them. Kids are into graphics. Also note, these type of stores only have a trillion or so games sitting around. History of a game means jack to them, unless it's Halo or the latest fad.

EA on the other hand....what can you say, they're like network television shows, they are clueless. They only know what's going to sell in vast sums, like some lame football crap. (I like football, but not that much)

We're talking executives, they don't see what we see, they don't know what we know. (I'm sure they don't feel 3.85 a gallon either)

Unless you sit down one on one with these guys in VA, or wherever they hide out.....advertising isn't going to happen.

Or......and this may be a stretch, maybe it's the aged graphics. Face it 2D's a joke and KR's not much better. By far and large though, the content of UO can't be beat. Which is why I stick around.

Now, if another game comes along, that offers what UO has, almost toe to toe, I'd bid this puppy adios.

"remember, vote for none of the above come nov."

 

[Guest]

*RTLFC*

EA cannot make a retailer carry a product the retailer doesn't want to carry.
<blockquote><hr>

The Wal-Mart’s, Best Buy’s, EB’s, GameStop’s, etc. of the world would be more likely to carry a product that is heavily advertised and pre-promoted… but they don’t have to if they don’t want to. Even EA (the 800 pound gorilla of the gaming industry) cannot make a distributor or a retailer carry UO if they don’t want to. In the channel it’s all about numbers. How many units can be sold of that SKU from that shelf space. No amount of ads is going to get a retailer to allot shelf space to UO that would be taking up room for more copies of Halo 3.

[/ QUOTE ]Large scale advertising would not be a good idea right now... later when there is something to advertise.
<blockquote><hr>

Ad placement is expensive. And the key to ad placement is to reach your target audience in the hopes of getting a fair return on your investment. UO players –and- target players is a relatively small, but very diverse market… what type of advertising is going to work for a small, but diverse target market? The outlay of marketing funds has to be justified against the “return on investment”.

With a 10 year old community, 2 clients (one old and the other needing further development), a delayed expansion (SA is pending further dev on KR), and having a player community with stagnant growth (despite the Chicken Little’s announcing the sky is falling, the numbers haven’t changed that much) and that community heavily divided between those that still enjoy playing and those that criticize everything your team does or does not do… would you walk in to John Riccitiello’s (the current EA CEO) office with a proposal to spend millions on an ad campaign? I wouldn’t. I couldn’t justify it. UO isn’t exactly Madden NFL 08.

What would I do? What UO should be doing between every expansion… building on UO’s singular strength/weakness. The UO community.

Build a new, modern (aka Web 2.0) website. Establish web-based community tools so community contributors, guilds, players, and publishers can return the favor both in-game and from their websites. Reestablish the UO Team as a proactive leader of the community. More town halls and promotional events. Build an advisory group of contributors and publishers. Find a way to change the mindset of the disenfranchised players… without “greasing the squeaky wheel”.

Working on the clients, gearing for the next expansion, -and- rebuilding the community… would be UO’s best advertisement for now. Then when things are ready –and- everyone’s (relatively) fat &amp; happy… do a larger targeted ad campaign.

[/ QUOTE ]

 

[Hooli Gan]

Lets just combine shards and get it over with then.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Simple answer?
Because Mark Jacobs doesn't give a damn about Ultima Online.

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen.

In EA's scheme of things we are the tub of expired sour cream festering in the back of the fridge. That's why they ***** out the game for little tweaks we used to get for free (game codes, etc) -- trying to wring each cent out of a dying product they have no interest in trying to save.

/edit
Yes, I know I just mixed three metaphors. The Metaphor Police are gonna give me the chair...

 

[RaDian FlGith]

<blockquote><hr>

Every Gamestop I've been to in the Dallas area, which is around 6 or 7 I think, has heard of, and had, UO on the shelf. The most recent version at that.

Dunno, maybe it's more popular here. *shrug*

[/ QUOTE ]Isn't the "most recent version" the 9th Anniversary Edition? Neither Mondain's Legacy nor Kingdom Reborn have a box, much less shelf presence. And 9AE's hardly going to make UO jump off the shelf these days.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

<blockquote><hr>

Or more popular, as I said, or they wouldn't maintain a stock level to begin with.

[/ QUOTE ]Except, of course, you don't really know that they are maintaining a stock level. If they have 4 boxes that no one ever buys, they're certainly "maintaining" a stock level, but not exactly by choice.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

<blockquote><hr>

Because Mark Jacobs doesn't give a damn about Ultima Online.

[/ QUOTE ]You are 100% correct in your assertion there. He's got his world stuffed up with Warhammer Online... a license that if they screw up, Games Workshop can yank in a minute. So... yeah... the fact that they've combined UO and DAoC resources -- because, you know, they're such similar games -- is VERY telling for both IPs.

 

[Magnus]

Wal*Mart here has UOSE in jewel case all around the place, I've found copies of 7th Age and SE(full boxed) in EBGames. I picked up the 7th Age and I'm going to go for the SE so I can get the full box here at some point. I need to get a copy of Third Dawn for the map. :|

 

[Guest]

Hi Hooli Gan,

<blockquote><hr>

Lets just combine shards and get it over with then.

[/ QUOTE ]To what end? That would not really solve anything, and would create as many problems as it solves. Let's put a sports analogy on this.

A great, championship team doesn't win that championship every year. Teams have personnel changes, injuries, fan loyalties change, things happen... and a team suffers. Then a team has to retool, make trades, bring in new blood, rebuild, become cohesive again. Eventually they'll get some wins under their belt, and the future will be brighter again.

The UO Team is in that transition period. All we can do is see how the future plays out.

By the way... GO LAKERS!!! (Sorry, had to get that in where I could.)

 

[Hooli Gan]

Lakers.....ohh man now i understand.

JK know better than to get a sports debate going on.


pssst go BUCKS

 

[Guest]

Soooo. The really important thing to ponder here is, if the UO Team were the Lakers... would Draconi be Kobe?!