ZERO on Friday...

[Prince Caspian]

...for the second week in a row.

 

[Cogniac]

State 1: EA has cashed in on Stygian Abyss now. Welcome to maintenance mode.

State 2: It's only a little after 6pm EST, and we have a new Community Coordinator who is most likely not on top of everything yet.

I'm at State 2 for now. However, I expect to, much like Cinderella, default to my first state after midnight if/when we still have no FoF.

 

[Mapper]

I haven't seen bug fixes this fast before, You can hardly say UO is in maintenance mode..

 

[Tazar]

I'll take 3 publishes in a week over 1 FoF any time.

 

[christy1221]

I'll take 3 publishes in a week over 1 FoF any time.

Me too

 

[Ken of Napa]

I'll take 3 publishes in a week over 1 FoF any time.

Me too

Me Three

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

I'd rather have 3 GOOD EC patches (including the addition in my sig).

 

[soze]

Me Three

Agreed and signed...

especially given the pedestrian nature on many FOF subjects....(stacking hay)

 

[kelmo]

...for the second week in a row.

Post yer five questions... I'll answer them. *smiles*

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

1. Soon

2. We'll look into that

3. It's not on our radar, but it is a good idea

4. *Copy/paste Gameplay info page about a given skill*

5. We can't give any information about that, but if you see it happening, please inform a GM.

 

[MoonglowMerchant]

...for the second week in a row.

Five on Friday was absolutely worthless. Take Kelmo's suggestion and ask him five questions. You'll get better answers for sure.

 

[kelmo]

*laughs* I was going to go with this...

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ssanty/cgi-bin/eightball.cgi

 

[Kellgory]

...

1. Soon

2. We'll look into that

3. It's not on our radar, but it is a good idea

4. *Copy/paste Gameplay info page about a given skill*

5. We can't give any information about that, but if you see it happening, please inform a GM.

Your hired!! That pretty much answered all of my questions.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

FOF was by NO MEANS worthless... sure some weeks were (much) better than others, but a lot of times it was subjective to the readers' preferred playstyles. Of course Q and A over portions of the game you don;t care about are going to seem more worthless than info you do care about.

 

[kelmo]

FoF was never meant to be a Stratics exclusive. It was for every UO player. Many of which never visit Stratics.

Mythic posted it here as a courtesy.

 

[MoonglowMerchant]

...

FOF was by NO MEANS worthless... sure some weeks were (much) better than others, but a lot of times it was subjective to the readers' preferred playstyles. Of course Q and A over portions of the game you don;t care about are going to seem more worthless than info you do care about.

No, it was worthless.

 

[MariamATL]

Me Three

Me too me too....I complained last week because we had NOTHING.....this week I'm o.k. with no five on Friday. They are moving VERY fast with patches and fixes. I couldn't be happier with the dev's performance this week!

 

[Marcus Blackwell]

I'll take 3 publishes in a week over 1 FoF any time.

Here here espeically when there fixing bugs..now time for them to start fixing bugs that have been around while.

 

[Viper09]

No, it was worthless.

Maybe to you...

 

[Miriandel]

Give them some slack, will you?

We get one more nice event, take it easy, all is well

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Cut them slack now and it shows we've lowered our standards. Allow that mentality to set in and the subscribers lose.

5 questions couldn't possibly take more then a half hour of someone's time.

 

[Lord Frodo]

I'll take 3 publishes in a week over 1 FoF any time.

FOR THE WIN

 

[five oclock]

Post yer five questions... I'll answer them. *smiles*

1 Ok Kelmo what server ya play on?

2 how ya like being a Mod?

3 how many brain cells did you have to give up to take the mods Position

4 is this turkey event really for us players? or just the turkeys?

5 besides scotch..what other drinks ya drink...

btw...Ill also take the Pubs too! 3 fixes in one week..has that EVER happened???

 

[kelmo]

Originally Posted by five oclock
1 Ok Kelmo what server ya play on?

I play Siege exclusively. My reasons are my own. I could never play another shard after what I have experienced on Siege.

2 how ya like being a Mod?

It has it's up and downs. I have lost some friends. I have also made some friends. I view it as community service. Some chicks dig mods. Some guys too... kinda like being a nerd rock star. *shrugs* It is what it is.

3 how many brain cells did you have to give up to take the mods Position

I had few when I accepted some almost 5 years ago. *shakes fist at Sarsmi* I was caught at a drunken moment. I say yes a lot when I am drunk.

4 is this turkey event really for us players? or just the turkeys?

I like Wild Turkey. Does that count?

5 besides scotch..what other drinks ya drink...

Beer usually. When I get into a scotch mood, money is not an issue. I was seperated from my twin daughters on thier 18th birthday. It was a work thing. I celebrated their birthday with an 18 year old scotch. Almost a hundred dollar bottle booze.

yeah. beer mostly.

btw...Ill also take the Pubs too! 3 fixes in one week..has that EVER happened???

Good times...

 

[Demonous]

they can at least say that Chrissay was laid off and there won't be any FOF for a while

 

[kelmo]

Give the crew some time to settle.

 

[MoonglowMerchant]

No, it was worthless.

Maybe to you...

There's no maybe about it.

Now, this new thing with Kelmo has potential.

 

[five oclock]

LoL..yeah it does.....

I can see it now..There should be a sticky thread for Kelmo. Every week he picks 5 random questions that people send him, or heck what ever he thinks of and he answers them on Friday..Could be about UO could be about anything....

I think ya on to something here

 

[kelmo]

I am game. Grill me for awhile.

 

[Petra Fyde]

State 2: It's only a little after 6pm EST, and we have a new Community Coordinator who is most likely not on top of everything yet.

We have a shared community coordinator who has responsibility for 3 games and is required to post the internal boards for the other two as well as various fan sites for UO.

they can at least say that Chrissay was laid off and there won't be any FOF for a while

As I understand it, no they can't say that. Something to do with 'terms of severance'. We'll have to wait a while longer for confirmation of who's gone and who's still with us and the goodbye posts of those who left.

ZERO on Fridayfor the second week in a row.

I know a little about the fate of 'five on friday'. I expect the format to evolve a little but not disappear entirely. I should know more by next week.

Here endeth Petra's 3 on a Saturday morning

 

[RaDian FlGith]

I know a little about the fate of 'five on friday'. I expect the format to evolve a little but not disappear entirely. I should know more by next week.

Gotta be honest with you... this post right here disturbs me. There's absolutely no reason -- not even that you run the "unofficially official" UO site -- that you should know more than the rest of us in regard to this. Not something you control, but it doesn't speak well to public communication.

 

[hen]

Originally Posted by five oclock
1 Ok Kelmo what server ya play on?

I play Siege exclusively. My reasons are my own. I could never play another shard after what I have experienced on Siege.

2 how ya like being a Mod?

It has it's up and downs. I have lost some friends. I have also made some friends. I view it as community service. Some chicks dig mods. Some guys too... kinda like being a nerd rock star. *shrugs* It is what it is.

3 how many brain cells did you have to give up to take the mods Position

I had few when I accepted some almost 5 years ago. *shakes fist at Sarsmi* I was caught at a drunken moment. I say yes a lot when I am drunk.

4 is this turkey event really for us players? or just the turkeys?

I like Wild Turkey. Does that count?

5 besides scotch..what other drinks ya drink...

Beer usually. When I get into a scotch mood, money is not an issue. I was seperated from my twin daughters on thier 18th birthday. It was a work thing. I celebrated their birthday with an 18 year old scotch. Almost a hundred dollar bottle booze.

yeah. beer mostly.

btw...Ill also take the Pubs too! 3 fixes in one week..has that EVER happened???

Good times...

What kind?!?

 

[Blesh]

I haven't seen bug fixes this fast before, You can hardly say UO is in maintenance mode..

bug fixes are happening faster now because that's the only thing they're going to work on. that's pretty much the definition of maintenance mode. Keep it playable but don't add content.

 

[Stupid Miner]

Cut them slack now and it shows we've lowered our standards. Allow that mentality to set in and the subscribers lose.

5 questions couldn't possibly take more then a half hour of someone's time.

Good plan!
"No mercy to the Devs!!!"
*cracks whip*

*rolls eyes*

 

[LordDrago]

Gotta be honest with you... this post right here disturbs me. There's absolutely no reason -- not even that you run the "unofficially official" UO site -- that you should know more than the rest of us in regard to this. Not something you control, but it doesn't speak well to public communication.

I could guarantee that if Petra made any statement, and if any small part of it changed between now and implementation, that she would be beat up over it on these boards. All she is asking for is a little time so the new FoF or whatever it is going to be can be worked out and decisions made. Give her and them a break and lets see what comes about next week.

I will bet that Petra will keep us informed as best she can.

 

[Prince Caspian]

If you go above and beyond on duty A and completely fail to do duty B, one could argue that you are still derelict on your duties.

Yes, the latest content has been awesome. In fact this is the first Thanksgiving event ever, and it was pretty darn good. Plus the Halloween was another home run. But EA-Mythic pretty much guaranteed us the Five on Friday, and they need to live up to that too.

Seriously, as someone posted, HOW flippin long does it take to answer 5 questions? And I KNOW they have a backlog a mile long of questions. We're talking something that can be finished in 30 minutes, tops. We're talking a quick task that can be done to cap off a Friday.

I happen to like the Five on Friday. Sure, 9 times out of 10 they cherrypick easy and inconsequential questions (and not the ones we clamor for like "when will you fix duping" [tho I guess the answer to that is obvious by now: "we won't."]), but you know what? The questions answered are from the horses mouth and of indisputable veracity. They show a regular forum between us and the developers.

FoF has very often not appeared at all without any reason given. It's annoying and there is really no excuse for the spotty delivery. Yes, Chrissay may be gone, but Jeremy was let go and the FoF continued the next week.

 

[Aurelius]

Gotta be honest with you... this post right here disturbs me. There's absolutely no reason -- not even that you run the "unofficially official" UO site -- that you should know more than the rest of us in regard to this. Not something you control, but it doesn't speak well to public communication.

Actually, there may well be good reasons - like they want to change the way the RSS feed works, or some significant layout change, or incorporating voting on parts of the FoF that appear on forums rather than on an entire post - why they may want to talk to the fansite owners before they talk to the rest of us.

Now I've no idea if that is the case in this instance - but I'm not going to get 'disturbed' just yet.

 

[altarego]

But EA-Mythic pretty much guaranteed us the Five on Friday, and they need to live up to that too.

Seriously, as someone posted, HOW flippin long does it take to answer 5 questions? And I KNOW they have a backlog a mile long of questions. We're talking something that can be finished in 30 minutes, tops. We're talking a quick task that can be done to cap off a Friday.

I happen to like the Five on Friday. Sure, 9 times out of 10 they cherrypick easy and inconsequential questions (and not the ones we clamor for like "when will you fix duping" [tho I guess the answer to that is obvious by now: "we won't."]), but you know what? The questions answered are from the horses mouth and of indisputable veracity. They show a regular forum between us and the developers.

FoF has very often not appeared at all without any reason given. It's annoying and there is really no excuse for the spotty delivery. Yes, Chrissay may be gone, but Jeremy was let go and the FoF continued the next week.

They guaranteed it, or you've just come to expect it?

If you've paid attention at all to the last year's worth of FoF, you'd have noticed that Chrissay was rarely answering the questions herself:

1. She had to pick the questions
2. Consult with her superiors to make sure they were answerable within the context of the FoF
3. Track down the dev responsible for the code, the marketing team, the designer, or whoever it was who had the time to best answer the question
4. Wait for responses from 5 potential different sources
5. Summarize those responses and write them up in the FoF format

I dunno about you, but maybe #1 and #5 would take 30 minutes. But the rest of those steps require the time and efforts of others on your team. I imagine it took at least the better part of a day, if not two to put the whole thing together.

In the past, sometimes the FoF wasn't presented. But almost never without reason. Either folks were out of town, at a Town Hall meeting, etc, but almost never without reason. And yes, we did have word from Cal that we wouldn't be seeing a FoF last week...but it was implied until further notice. If you can make so many assumptions about how you perceive the FoF works, why can't you read between the lines of a simple dev post?

Give the dev team a break, they've given us two excellent content treats within the past month and made timely patches to fix issues that needed to be addressed. All of this while dealing with a lot of emotional and logistical upheaval in the workplace. They are hardly reneging on their duties.

 

[the 4th man]

Cut them slack now and it shows we've lowered our standards. Allow that mentality to set in and the subscribers lose.

5 questions couldn't possibly take more then a half hour of someone's time.

Wait, whose "we"? What standards?? This is an online game, we have a terms of service, that clearly has no mention of satisfying someones game addiction with 5 questions to be answered every friday.

5 questions, mind you, that seem to be rushed to publish, just to shut some people up.

The mentality of needing this five on friday can make a playerbase look pretty pathetic. It borders being a game info junkie.

I can live without the fof bs, and be content with in game content, which, as of late, has been pretty good.

I'm going outside, the sun's shining and it's fairly warm.....

later

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

content with ingame content...

Need I say more ?

Regular updates keep you up to date... and you're so in it that you would kill someone that questions the very purpose of this, relating to the way politics are driven.

Oh and yes, they used to be lunatics, but now they're right ! Don't you love it that the FIRST thread on Uhall is about EA destroying game studios... and that its not only locked, but it's censored ? I wanted to read that thread...

 

[Viper09]

Wow, amazing how some people have become so selfish and greedy over this whole FoF thing. We were never guaranteed any FoF, it was simply a nice gift they would give us, 5 questions answered. Give them time, cut them some slack, let them fully re-coup after the whole mess of lay-offs.

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

I would overstep my contract and open myself to being sued by EA.

I would use my old password and hack the website to apologise.

I would so not cut anyone slack, especially the rich and greedy.

Oh and who started that first thread ? Shakarra...

A surprise ? I'd kick EA in the nuts and invite people to the hearing so they can boo their representative. I'd turn myself into a martyr if I had any occasion. Anything but this... docile, behavior.

 

[Prince Caspian]

They guaranteed it, or you've just come to expect it?

If you've paid attention at all to the last year's worth of FoF, you'd have noticed that Chrissay was rarely answering the questions herself:

1. She had to pick the questions
2. Consult with her superiors to make sure they were answerable within the context of the FoF
3. Track down the dev responsible for the code, the marketing team, the designer, or whoever it was who had the time to best answer the question
4. Wait for responses from 5 potential different sources
5. Summarize those responses and write them up in the FoF format

I dunno about you, but maybe #1 and #5 would take 30 minutes. But the rest of those steps require the time and efforts of others on your team. I imagine it took at least the better part of a day, if not two to put the whole thing together.

In the past, sometimes the FoF wasn't presented. But almost never without reason. Either folks were out of town, at a Town Hall meeting, etc, but almost never without reason. And yes, we did have word from Cal that we wouldn't be seeing a FoF last week...but it was implied until further notice. If you can make so many assumptions about how you perceive the FoF works, why can't you read between the lines of a simple dev post?

Give the dev team a break, they've given us two excellent content treats within the past month and made timely patches to fix issues that needed to be addressed. All of this while dealing with a lot of emotional and logistical upheaval in the workplace. They are hardly reneging on their duties.

Wow, didn't know you worked at EA-Mythic and thus had such insight to exactly how the FoF worked.

Be consistent or take it down. Fact is, the FIVE on FRIDAY has always been touted as a weekly thing, and there have been so many misses without explanation.

And as for [someone elsewhere] saying expecting info from the developers is pathetic, consider -- if it doesnt come from developers, its CONJECTURE. Period.

People around here seem to think that developers work on this crusade on their own time and just for the saintly selfishness of entertaining everyone out of charity. Bullspit. They are PAID to do so. So let's stop with all the canonization, please.

AKA get off the developers d**ks, if you please.

 

[Brucie Kibbutz]

Wow, didn't know you worked at EA-Mythic and thus had such insight to exactly how the FoF worked.

Be consistent or take it down. Fact is, the FIVE on FRIDAY has always been touted as a weekly thing, and there have been so many misses without explanation.

And as for [someone elsewhere] saying expecting info from the developers is pathetic, consider -- if it doesnt come from developers, its CONJECTURE. Period.

People around here seem to think that developers work on this crusade on their own time and just for the saintly selfishness of entertaining everyone out of charity. Bullspit. They are PAID to do so. So let's stop with all the canonization, please.

AKA get off the developers d**ks, if you please.

You need to chill, the FoF was a waste of dev time, and added little to nothing every week. I don't give a crap that it's gone and I don't think the majority of the UO population (ie the ones that don't surf these boards hourly) care.

 

[LordDrago]

Wow, didn't know you worked at EA-Mythic and thus had such insight to exactly how the FoF worked.

Be consistent or take it down. Fact is, the FIVE on FRIDAY has always been touted as a weekly thing, and there have been so many misses without explanation.

And as for [someone elsewhere] saying expecting info from the developers is pathetic, consider -- if it doesnt come from developers, its CONJECTURE. Period.

People around here seem to think that developers work on this crusade on their own time and just for the saintly selfishness of entertaining everyone out of charity. Bullspit. They are PAID to do so. So let's stop with all the canonization, please.

AKA get off the developers d**ks, if you please.

Dude, take it easy.

You are starting to sound like your next posting will be along the lines of:

"If i don't get my FoF I am closing all my accounts!!!!!"

I successfully played this game for several years without a FoF. It can be done.
Oh yeah, if you do quit, can I have your stuff?

 

[canary]

I successfully played this game for several years without a FoF. It can be done.
Oh yeah, if you do quit, can I have your stuff?

Well to be fair years ago we had 'In Development' and 'In Concept', which was MUCH better (imo.).

Personally, FoF was a courtesy for paying customers. A little customer service goes a long way, even though it was always pretty obvious the FoF was done half-you know what by Jeremy and later Chrissay (again, imo).

It is interesting to see however how many people enjoy just taking whatever scraps they can and are happy with it while others have the expectation of quality service.

 

[HD2300]

You need to chill, the FoF was a waste of dev time, and added little to nothing every week. I don't give a crap that it's gone and I don't think the majority of the UO population (ie the ones that don't surf these boards hourly) care.

It is never a waste of dev time for them to spend some time to understand their product better.

Caspian is right, there has been way too much butt kissing. You expect nothing, you get nothing. Everything depends on who is making the decisions. On the dev side, I think and hope that we are now finally in very capable hands. So a massive thumbs up there. On the design side, substandard graphics in 2 failed clients, pretty much says it all. 4 years of fail. If you want to fix a problem, determine what the problem is and...

 

[Green Mouser]

Gotta be honest with you... this post right here disturbs me. There's absolutely no reason -- not even that you run the "unofficially official" UO site -- that you should know more than the rest of us in regard to this. Not something you control, but it doesn't speak well to public communication.

I could guarantee that if Petra made any statement, and if any small part of it changed between now and implementation, that she would be beat up over it on these boards. All she is asking for is a little time so the new FoF or whatever it is going to be can be worked out and decisions made. Give her and them a break and lets see what comes about next week.

I will bet that Petra will keep us informed as best she can.

More Likely the thread would be locked. A little reality please

 

[Nok]

Originally Posted by five oclock
1 Ok Kelmo what server ya play on?

I play Siege exclusively. My reasons are my own. I could never play another shard after what I have experienced on Siege.

2 how ya like being a Mod?

It has it's up and downs. I have lost some friends. I have also made some friends. I view it as community service. Some chicks dig mods. Some guys too... kinda like being a nerd rock star. *shrugs* It is what it is.

3 how many brain cells did you have to give up to take the mods Position

I had few when I accepted some almost 5 years ago. *shakes fist at Sarsmi* I was caught at a drunken moment. I say yes a lot when I am drunk.

4 is this turkey event really for us players? or just the turkeys?

I like Wild Turkey. Does that count?

5 besides scotch..what other drinks ya drink...

Beer usually. When I get into a scotch mood, money is not an issue. I was seperated from my twin daughters on thier 18th birthday. It was a work thing. I celebrated their birthday with an 18 year old scotch. Almost a hundred dollar bottle booze.

yeah. beer mostly.

btw...Ill also take the Pubs too! 3 fixes in one week..has that EVER happened???

Good times...

Wow Kelmo! I'm impressed, that has to be the best FoF in... I don't know... maybe... ever... in a week! (Seriously, good sense of humor.)

Ya know, for years now more often than not... UHall overall (yes, there has been some exceptions) has been pancakes, griping, and moaning about about the FoF, what is in it, it's quality, what & how it was answered, and whether it's even needed. Every week the FoF would be reviewed and regularly bashed as if it was the weekly gladiator match with most UHall'ers giving it a thumb's down.

Now that there hasn't been one in two weeks (whether that is because that is the changing of the guard or Mythic has decided it is not needed, who knows... none of us do yet)... people are coming unglued. Some of the same people are going to gripe either way, just to have something to gripe about... it is their sport of choice.

 

[Green Mouser]

You need to chill, the FoF was a waste of dev time, and added little to nothing every week. I don't give a crap that it's gone and I don't think the majority of the UO population (ie the ones that don't surf these boards hourly) care.

It is never a waste of dev time for them to spend some time to understand their product better.

Caspian is right, there has been way too much butt kissing. You expect nothing, you get nothing. Everything depends on who is making the decisions. On the dev side, I think and hope that we are now finally in very capable hands. So a massive thumbs up there. On the design side, substandard graphics in 2 failed clients, pretty much says it all. 4 years of fail. If you want to fix a problem, determine what the problem is and...

Butt if you don't kisssssssss, wont that deminish the odds of being a beta tester? Life is so confusing