Cool to see I'm not the only one that thinks UO is the best thing that ever happened to MMO's.
Unlike most peoples encounters, I've had my early days of UO on free private servers. That's how I was brought into the game. It took me a whlie to figure out OSI existed. Either way my first server experience was the best. It was very mystical and immersive despite its graphics. Of course even the private server was pre-AoS. I have enjoyed AoS alot , but it pales in comparison with the way things used to be.

There are two worlds of UO. The free servers and the OSI servers. Each have their pros and cons. Free servers are personal and run by volunteers, which means they can go down anytime. With a subscription to OSI you're guaranteed your hard work will not go to waste. If you play on OSI and get fed up, take a break, try a few free servers that will suit your taste, and when you get tired give OSI another try with a fresh slate.

I don't think free servers are quite legit. However, I don't think EA has cracked down hard on them because they know that a huge population of free server players are potential returning customers. Free servers help EA keep a hold of OSI quitters and keeps the UO interest going.

As myself I will be buying every UO edition that comes out to support the cause and I am definately going to try out UO:KR on OSI and if it doesn't bring back that old feeling I used to get, I'll find a free server that will bring that feeling back. If that fails then I'll be in UO purgatory as many of us are; looking for the game that will bring back the best gaming experience ever. Will we ever get that experience again? I hope so.

Yay EA/Mythic.

Nice to see this veteran game surviving by getting a facelift. UO blazed the trail for all the graphical MMOGs that have followed, some of which still haven't learned the lessons that UO taught about what works and why.

That said, however, there are a couple of big reasons why I never played UO, and why I probably am still not going to try it now:

• PKing
• 3rd-person instead of 1st-person

I like world-y games, and the idea of not being able to explore a world because some gank squad has decided to pester me is unacceptable. And as for isometric perspective, I just never feel particularly immersed in a computer-based RPG when I'm not experiencing it from the eyes of my character.

So while I applaud the changes to UO, it's still not for me.

On the other hand... Stygian Abyss??  I'm another gamer who absolutely loved that game (Ultima Underworld I) -- if the new UO will be borrowing from it, I will definitely be keeping an eye on the new UO.

Just tell me it'll include "an upset spectre named Warren."

--Flatfingers

 My first dungeon crawl in Sosaria (followed by critique):

It began in 1998 in the town of Moonglow on the Napa Valley shard, where I was gathered outside the bank with my usual companions. At the time I was using my first character, Percy Blakeney, fighter/melee type, clad in plate mail with a helmet, shield, Viking sword. Basically what is referred to nowadays as a “tank.” I was still rather green. Actually gray, as the first thing I had done in game is accidentally attack someone. This was to last quite a while and lead to many, many deaths by both red and blue players, which actually became something of a joke among those I played with. (I finally went on a massive campaign to feed the less fortunate citizens of Britannia and finally achieved blue status once again- an occasion of much celebrating in Moonglow).

Also gathered were:

Kazeneko: Light-hearted ranger/rogue type, deadly with both his bow and his wit. Could hide in a wide open desert at high noon. Wore a goatee, a long black pony-tail, and green/gray clothing. An incredible roleplayer.

Bullwinkle: Red-bearded crossbow/archer type who always wore a bearskin hat.

Crystal: An excellent mage/scribe. Always wore a blue or pink dress and a matching mage hat.

Cullwch: Bald Canadian type character with an unpronounceable name, used a giant two-pronged fork for a weapon and usually wore a really shiny open faced helmet and wore green and yellow a lot.

Bodhisattva: The most powerful among us. He had a mystique about him. Sort of the wise old battle weary mage/fighter that no one knows much about. Appropriate name? I think so.

Kua: Another fighter/paladin type.

So there we were just conversing and having a good time, which accounted for about 80% of what we did, when Bullwinkle suddenly has the idea that we should go to a dungeon. This seemed reasonable and actually pretty exciting, better than hunting mongbats and skeletons.

So we decide to have Bodhisattva summon a Moongate to transport us there. Unfortunately, this is a rather difficult spell and it took him several tries. Each time he failed there was a fizzling sound and black smoke appeared. We were lined up single file, and going over our checklist of things we would need. All the while, we are trying to avoid the dreaded (and naked) CamelMan, a female thief character (though a male player) and the bane of our existence (we later reached a sort of truce, but that is another story). Anyway, he was finally successful in summoning the Moongate, and we proceeded single file into it.

The dungeon was great, monsters everywhere. We tore through them with ease. There were pentagrams on the floor, which Bodi told us would summon terrible demons, and that if anyone stepped on one he would leave us all there. We finally made it to the very bottom of the dungeon, though we had by then been scattered far and wide.

Bullwinkle and I were the farthest along and as we approached the final room, which was surrounded by fire, and actually looked pretty cool, I “heard” Crystal and Kua yelling for us to run and saw them approaching at a high rate of speed. Then, suddenly, before I had time to do much of anything, they died. What killed them? I wondered. It wasn’t long before I saw the culprits, five Pks (can’t remember the names, but they were interesting) from the dreaded S.O.B. guild (Sons of Brittania) all armed with bows and all firing in rapid succession on us. As I ran toward the last room, I saw Bullwinkle suddenly disappear from the screen as his character was teleported back to Moonglow via a recall spell. I was not so well versed in magic, but I somehow managed to get the last door open and close it behind me. Unfortunately, it was a dead end. So they caught me and killed me (after a brief struggle).

Later, after they had gone, Bodi rezzed himself, came back, and teleported our ghosts to a shrine where we were all resurrected. It was snowing at the shrine, which overlooked the sea, and had a very epic feel to it.

Of the group only Bullwinkle and Kazeneko lived. Kazeneko had hid himself when he saw them coming. Even though we lost everything, died, and used up about an hour trying to coordinate our resurrections, it was still one of the most exciting things to happen in the game. This is, in my opinion, what made UO amazing, and she still casts an immense shadow over all the class/level based games out there. 

I later joined the Europa role-playing community, specifically the town of Deepwater (as Percy Bandello), finally quitting for good in early 1999. I have gone back occasionally, very briefly, over the years and tried some of the free shards as well, but the magic simply is not there anymore, partly due to the loss of my friends and the disintegration of the Europa community, mostly due to the many changes to the game, especially the addition of Trammel and everything that came after.

Ultima has been dumbed down over the years to the point of absurdity. All the additions were merely attempts at treating a patient who was not sick in the first place, painting an enormous, toothy grin on the Mona Lisa, if you will, and all because a few people don’t like her trademark smile, what makes the painting magnificent in the first place.

Why was Ultima fun? Because it was hard, at times unforgiving, and it had a sense of freedom, adrenaline-pumping excitement and epic adventure that has yet to be matched in any MMO. When you began Ultima you were dumped into a world with a steep learning curve, there were no little yellow exclamation points or twirling rings of gold to lead you around by the nose from one uninspired item-gathering, mob-slaying quest to the next.  There were no quests, and no where to be lead to. You were not regimented into narrow roles and restricted to certain parts of the game world. It took time to learn the ropes, and you made mistakes along the way. This made the rewards much greater. Death was no mere waltz to the nearest graveyard and everything is hunky-dory again, death meant something. There weren’t neat little divisions of this or that side, there were varying shades and an infinite possibilities. No game out there gives the sense of ownership of the world Ultima provided. Everyone had his favorite town, each individual was part of the world.
 
All that said, I think the new graphics are stunning. I actually prefer the isometric style to the newer 3D games out there. I was a fan of the Ultima series, especially Ultima’s III-V, with V easily being my favorite. What I would like to see, beyond the new graphics, is a return to the old-style Ultima. Get rid of all the other-dimensional worlds, and merely expand the actual world. A return to full PvP, with all the original penalties for death, as well as those for murder. Do something (if something can be done) about botting and hacking. Fix the economy. Remove the elves and the new gargoyles. Also, personally, I would like to see more done with the virtue system, as was done in Ultima’s IV and V, have them play more of an integral role in the game, and perhaps an bigger rift between Blackthorn and British. If all they give UO is a new paint job, they are, in my opinion, making a huge mistake, especially if the have the resources to make real changes. There is too much potential in those old bones. She needs an overhaul, or, more precisely, a return to her original state along with some real improvements.  Enough patching.  Enough pandering to all sides. There are enough easy games out there without a sense of real excitement to suit even the most unimaginative gamer. There is only one UO.

I understand why mythic only bring uo to Diablo2 level graphic, because it's simple to implement and won't affect any in game functionalities and feeling, however D2 alone is also a 7 years old standard, move forward just 3 years won't exactly do any good to the game. If the player still playing the game, they are not playing for the graphic, if a player left because the graphic, I don't thinka 7 year old graphic will bring him back.

---

Originally posted by archaaz

 My first dungeon crawl in Sosaria (followed by critique):

It began in 1998 in the town of Moonglow on the Napa Valley shard, where I was gathered outside the bank with my usual companions. At the time I was using my first character, Percy Blakeney, fighter/melee type, clad in plate mail with a helmet, shield, Viking sword. Basically what is referred to nowadays as a “tank.” I was still rather green. Actually gray, as the first thing I had done in game is accidentally attack someone. This was to last quite a while and lead to many, many deaths by both red and blue players, which actually became something of a joke among those I played with. (I finally went on a massive campaign to feed the less fortunate citizens of Britannia and finally achieved blue status once again- an occasion of much celebrating in Moonglow).

Also gathered were:

Kazeneko: Light-hearted ranger/rogue type, deadly with both his bow and his wit. Could hide in a wide open desert at high noon. Wore a goatee, a long black pony-tail, and green/gray clothing. An incredible roleplayer.

Bullwinkle: Red-bearded crossbow/archer type who always wore a bearskin hat.

Crystal: An excellent mage/scribe. Always wore a blue or pink dress and a matching mage hat.

Cullwch: Bald Canadian type character with an unpronounceable name, used a giant two-pronged fork for a weapon and usually wore a really shiny open faced helmet and wore green and yellow a lot.

Bodhisattva: The most powerful among us. He had a mystique about him. Sort of the wise old battle weary mage/fighter that no one knows much about. Appropriate name? I think so.

Kua: Another fighter/paladin type.

So there we were just conversing and having a good time, which accounted for about 80% of what we did, when Bullwinkle suddenly has the idea that we should go to a dungeon. This seemed reasonable and actually pretty exciting, better than hunting mongbats and skeletons.

So we decide to have Bodhisattva summon a Moongate to transport us there. Unfortunately, this is a rather difficult spell and it took him several tries. Each time he failed there was a fizzling sound and black smoke appeared. We were lined up single file, and going over our checklist of things we would need. All the while, we are trying to avoid the dreaded (and naked) CamelMan, a female thief character (though a male player) and the bane of our existence (we later reached a sort of truce, but that is another story). Anyway, he was finally successful in summoning the Moongate, and we proceeded single file into it.

The dungeon was great, monsters everywhere. We tore through them with ease. There were pentagrams on the floor, which Bodi told us would summon terrible demons, and that if anyone stepped on one he would leave us all there. We finally made it to the very bottom of the dungeon, though we had by then been scattered far and wide.

Bullwinkle and I were the farthest along and as we approached the final room, which was surrounded by fire, and actually looked pretty cool, I “heard” Crystal and Kua yelling for us to run and saw them approaching at a high rate of speed. Then, suddenly, before I had time to do much of anything, they died. What killed them? I wondered. It wasn’t long before I saw the culprits, five Pks (can’t remember the names, but they were interesting) from the dreaded S.O.B. guild (Sons of Brittania) all armed with bows and all firing in rapid succession on us. As I ran toward the last room, I saw Bullwinkle suddenly disappear from the screen as his character was teleported back to Moonglow via a recall spell. I was not so well versed in magic, but I somehow managed to get the last door open and close it behind me. Unfortunately, it was a dead end. So they caught me and killed me (after a brief struggle).

Later, after they had gone, Bodi rezzed himself, came back, and teleported our ghosts to a shrine where we were all resurrected. It was snowing at the shrine, which overlooked the sea, and had a very epic feel to it.

Of the group only Bullwinkle and Kazeneko lived. Kazeneko had hid himself when he saw them coming. Even though we lost everything, died, and used up about an hour trying to coordinate our resurrections, it was still one of the most exciting things to happen in the game. This is, in my opinion, what made UO amazing, and she still casts an immense shadow over all the class/level based games out there. 

I later joined the Europa role-playing community, specifically the town of Deepwater (as Percy Bandello), finally quitting for good in early 1999. I have gone back occasionally, very briefly, over the years and tried some of the free shards as well, but the magic simply is not there anymore, partly due to the loss of my friends and the disintegration of the Europa community, mostly due to the many changes to the game, especially the addition of Trammel and everything that came after.

Ultima has been dumbed down over the years to the point of absurdity. All the additions were merely attempts at treating a patient who was not sick in the first place, painting an enormous, toothy grin on the Mona Lisa, if you will, and all because a few people don’t like her trademark smile, what makes the painting magnificent in the first place.

Why was Ultima fun? Because it was hard, at times unforgiving, and it had a sense of freedom, adrenaline-pumping excitement and epic adventure that has yet to be matched in any MMO. When you began Ultima you were dumped into a world with a steep learning curve, there were no little yellow exclamation points or twirling rings of gold to lead you around by the nose from one uninspired item-gathering, mob-slaying quest to the next.  There were no quests, and no where to be lead to. You were not regimented into narrow roles and restricted to certain parts of the game world. It took time to learn the ropes, and you made mistakes along the way. This made the rewards much greater. Death was no mere waltz to the nearest graveyard and everything is hunky-dory again, death meant something. There weren’t neat little divisions of this or that side, there were varying shades and an infinite possibilities. No game out there gives the sense of ownership of the world Ultima provided. Everyone had his favorite town, each individual was part of the world.
 
All that said, I think the new graphics are stunning. I actually prefer the isometric style to the newer 3D games out there. I was a fan of the Ultima series, especially Ultima’s III-V, with V easily being my favorite. What I would like to see, beyond the new graphics, is a return to the old-style Ultima. Get rid of all the other-dimensional worlds, and merely expand the actual world. A return to full PvP, with all the original penalties for death, as well as those for murder. Do something (if something can be done) about botting and hacking. Fix the economy. Remove the elves and the new gargoyles. Also, personally, I would like to see more done with the virtue system, as was done in Ultima’s IV and V, have them play more of an integral role in the game, and perhaps an bigger rift between Blackthorn and British. If all they give UO is a new paint job, they are, in my opinion, making a huge mistake, especially if the have the resources to make real changes. There is too much potential in those old bones. She needs an overhaul, or, more precisely, a return to her original state along with some real improvements.  Enough patching.  Enough pandering to all sides. There are enough easy games out there without a sense of real excitement to suit even the most unimaginative gamer. There is only one UO.

---

Agreed... magnificent post! /applauds

Bring it all back, untrivialise the game back at least to the pre 2000 changes (I don't go by patch numbers just dates in time)

At launch the game did need fixing, exploits and bugs, house rules...

Beyond that it was perfect and very real.

"THOU WILT REGRET THINE ACTIONS, SWINE!" *SMASH*
oooOooOOOoo OOooo OO ooooOOOooo "Shit."

I couldn't stop reading all these posts. Reading everyone else's posts of 'Good ole Days' has caused a rush of memories to mind.

Vender Buy my Bank Guard some hoes!

I'll never forget the first days after release, before you could sent messages to other players, I used to stay in touch with an in-game friend via the message boards in the N Brit Inn.. I forget the name. I remember starting out as a miner/swordsman and 'tossing ore from the West Pass all the way to the N smithy in Brit. I miss hunting deer for hides in Wind and liches near Yew for gold.  I miss the crowds of people around WB/EBB. I miss the nights of logging on and going reagent shopping with my mage/scribe in-game gf. We'd hit up every mage shop for all the BP, MD, NS, SS, etc and then stock up her vendor and she'd crank out some scrolls to sell. I miss jumping in my ship and going fishing and hunting water eles and sea serps that I crossed. I miss the gaming marathons my roomate and I used to pull, where he'd play for 8hrs then sleep, while I played for 8hrs then go to work, then he'd get up and play 8hrs till I got home from work, then he'd go to work etc... crazy times! I miss being the guildmaster of over 120 members of Night Wolves of Justice - NWJ, which later became Dire Wolves of Justice - DWJ, then a brother guild Shadow Wolf Guard - SWG on PAC. I miss the Good vs Evil wars between the Pacific Guild Coalition and the PK guilds. So many memories I could recount for hours.

I have told people many times over the years that, I could have written novels about my character's experiences in that game. I can't say that for any other game [except maybe origional SWG].

Keys to Success:

• Limited game content: just supply basic lore and iconic figure/characters
• Maximize total character development freedom: no levels, no classes, no consider system, no templates, NO FKING LEVELS
• Limited Weapon / Armor type choices, yet vary their appearance. Hvy/Med/Lt armor, NO EPIC BS. [unless reward from GM quest]
• Maximize non-combat beneficial clothing and dye option: tons of options to create a trademark outfit for your character

Just bring back the original UO rule set and geographical world within a 'simple' 3D system and you will bring back 80% of all the people who played and left UO over the past 9 years. I can't even begin to word the level of disgust Felucia/Trammel envokes in me. I was grieved upon my return from short absence after a move. The 'old world' MY WORLD was empty! Everything was dead. Everywhere looked like a graveyard.  Then I stepped thru a moongate and it was like stepping in to Willy Wonka factory. F'kin ghey.

I to am also wandering from MMO to MMO looking, hoping, praying for one that lights the old UO experience. But I think that I am going to have to be the one to do it. I'm in art college for Game Art and Design, so maybe in a few years along with some class mates we'll get permission from Lord B himself to create UO:Classic. No quests [those are for players and GM's to run], no classes so you make and play your own, no epic weapons - because you have your trusty Long Sword crafted by your friend smith, full on PVP outside of guarded cities etc. . . .

But most of all, people made UO. The community, people like all of us posting in this thread who long for those days again.

/salute

Dark Wolf - Pacific Shard
Chade - Pacific
Smokin'Joe - Pacific
Rogee Fellblade - Siege Perilous
Macros the Black - Napa Valley

NWJ, DWJ, SWG and KGB alumni

the dork lord helios now works for uo. enjoy your game while you can.

who knows..maybe theres a future for this agem again..

LOL, yeah (dreaming)

Why build and design a new MMOrpg, just take the core elements of UO back in time to what the game was in 1999.

No item insurance, no pocket ponies, thieves guild, stealth, no skill's locks or arrows (but remove passive learning of skills used by other players (like camping) or make it optional). Keep upgraded pathing in for the AI and some other improvments that did't trivialise gameplay, but made it more realistic.

Yeah just use what worked and what we all loved in UO. The fanbase already exists, and a few servers would easily be filled. More could come later.

EA could make some cash on that, with very little in development costs.

(no brainer)

Originally posted by rogee14

Keys to Success:

• Limited game content: just supply basic lore and iconic figure/characters
• Maximize total character development freedom: no levels, no classes, no consider system, no templates, NO FKING LEVELS
• Limited Weapon / Armor type choices, yet vary their appearance. Hvy/Med/Lt armor, NO EPIC BS. [unless reward from GM quest]
• Maximize non-combat beneficial clothing and dye option: tons of options to create a trademark outfit for your character

No quests [those are for players and GM's to run], no classes so you make and play your own, no epic weapons - because you have your trusty Long Sword crafted by your friend smith, full on PVP outside of guarded cities etc. . . .

Preach on! I find it staggering that companies cannot grasp how far superior a skill/point-based system is to a level/class based system. A fantastic list (especially the first two), I would add to it only strict penalties for dying.

---

Originally posted by archaaz Preach on! I find it staggering that companies cannot grasp how far superior a skill/point-based system is to a level/class based system. A fantastic list (especially the first two), I would add to it only strict penalties for dying.

---

UO did have stricter death penalty, you'd lose skill randomly.  Only later did that change where only muderers lost skill on death, part of the consequence for being a PK. It only served to seperate the men from the boys, perma reds were very good fighters.
But death in UO also left you open to looting. It was full loot, even the critters would loot ya. So you could add FFA pvp with consequences to the list.
Being a normal blue player, your death was difficult, but nothing you could'nt recover from within a day or two. If you were a perma red (murderer), and died. It may take a while longer to regain the skills. Just a consequence of behavior, like a curse.
 
I've posted in this thread several times, not spamming... just can't help it. I loved the old UO.

Originally posted by Zitch

 

UO did have stricter death penalty, you'd lose skill randomly.  Only later did that change where only muderers lost skill on death, part of the consequence for being a PK. It only served to seperate the men from the boys, perma reds were very good fighters.
But death in UO also left you open to looting. It was full loot, even the critters would loot ya. So you could add FFA pvp with consequences to the list.
Being a normal blue player, your death was difficult, but nothing you could'nt recover from within a day or two. If you were a perma red (murderer), and died. It may take a while longer to regain the skills. Just a consequence of behavior, like a curse.
 
I've posted in this thread several times, not spamming... just can't help it. I loved the old UO.

 

Actually I agree. I was referring to what other games should do, and I think UO's original system was perfect.

I re-upped my account last night (its that time of year again).

Its fundamentally the same, such that I did what ever I wanted to. But... its just not the same without people everywhere. In 5hrs I think I only saw 5 people. You have to have people there to enjoy the game, that's the key. You have to have the PK's to present a threat to Blues, so Blues bond together for protection. You have to have the roleplaying so there's content to the world. You have to have the crafters to support the adventurers with gear and adventurers to support the crafters with work.

They key to UO's success was complete unpredictability. What will I do today? Who will I meet? Which friends will I hunt with? Which dungeon will we go to? Will we be challenged by PKs? Will we hunt PKs or PK ourself? Will we come across the spoils of a house that decayed? Will the town criers alert us to a GM run event outside of a city?

The reason UO is not the old UO, is because there is no one there. There is no voice for it either. If everyone was still playing it and constantly e-mailing the company to create a Classic-UO server, maybe they would do it. But as it is now, the ones who spoke up years ago, the whiners, got their way. Because everyone else who enjoyed the game was too busy playing than reading a dumb forum. Now we're the whiners. But I fear its a pipe dream, a lost cause. We'll never see UO like it used to be.

Its going to take a new game, a new developer, a new metropolis of players to create and populate the world we all seek.

The new life of Ultima Online. rip. R

---

Originally posted by rogee14
I re-upped my account last night (its that time of year again).

Its fundamentally the same, such that I did what ever I wanted to. But... its just not the same without people everywhere. In 5hrs I think I only saw 5 people. You have to have people there to enjoy the game, that's the key. You have to have the PK's to present a threat to Blues, so Blues bond together for protection. You have to have the roleplaying so there's content to the world. You have to have the crafters to support the adventurers with gear and adventurers to support the crafters with work.

---

Unfortunately, Trammel happened, and many trivialisations pre-Trammel that changed the game.

---

Originally posted by rogee14

They key to UO's success was complete unpredictability. What will I do today? Who will I meet? Which friends will I hunt with? Which dungeon will we go to? Will we be challenged by PKs? Will we hunt PKs or PK ourself? Will we come across the spoils of a house that decayed? Will the town criers alert us to a GM run event outside of a city?

The reason UO is not the old UO, is because there is no one there. There is no voice for it either. If everyone was still playing it and constantly e-mailing the company to create a Classic-UO server, maybe they would do it. But as it is now, the ones who spoke up years ago, the whiners, got their way. Because everyone else who enjoyed the game was too busy playing than reading a dumb forum. Now we're the whiners. But I fear its a pipe dream, a lost cause. We'll never see UO like it used to be.

---

You are quite right, they complained and the developers listened.
They fixed things that were not broken, or they overly fixed things that only needed slight adjustment. Now no one plays, but some hold onto accounts because they have cash invested, or just can't let go.

I really have no idea why anyone plays UO anymore.

---

Originally posted by rogee14

Its going to take a new game, a new developer, a new metropolis of players to create and populate the world we all seek.

---

Check out Darkfalls forums. It may take a while, but your support there will advertise a demand for a meaningful MMO again.

Currently the selection of MMO's we see today are trivial copies of either UO or EQ. The latest "Vanguard" uses features from "both", but favors WoW/EQ style mechanics. Still it's trivial compared to what either UO or EQ was.

I still play UO... only because I can't find any other games that look like they can offer a good gaming experience. I've played trials of all the newest MMOs out there, none of them really did it for me at all. None of them had the appeal that UO had when it first came out. The only one that looks remotely good and what I'm looking for is Darkfall, yet I worry that it will be a game filled with griefers rather than players looking for the greatest MMO experience they can get... this is if the game even comes out anytime soon.

UO has done nothing but incline downhill steadily for the past nearly 7 years. Granted, we see a lot of new people when expansions come out, but they never stay. UO has a lot of issues, the main being that EA doesn't care about its customers, the second being that they don't like to fix things. Over the years, things have broken, people have cheated, exploited, and duped, the world has become unbalanced. And their answer every time was to give people new shiny graphics rather than fix what was broken.

Granted, the past year, they did do some banning. They tracked known scripters and banned them while deleting their items in game. They tracked dupers and deleted accounts and items in their houses. Then they continued to boast about it like it was some huge victory, posting the numbers of objects and accounts ban. The sad thing was that, while it seemed like a lot, any idiot who had a brain and could do math would see that it was only the icing on the cake. I myself know several people whom should have been banned and weren't and to this day, continue to play as if nothing happened. Plus, the community is still flooded with duped items, since there is no way to tell whether or not an item is indeed duped. And to readd the icing, most of the dupers are back once again doing the same things, and while EA tracks these people, they are out making money and screwing the UO economy in the meantime while EA takes their time to do another mass ban.

Moving along, the game isn't what it use to be. It use to be a world of danger and excitement. You never knew where danger would lurk around what corner. You couldn't bank sit because a thief might steal that brand new silver sword. Now there is no danger, there is no worry. They have their safe world where you can run around and not have a care in the world because nothing bad will happen.

There are a lot of other reasons for the downfall of UO, but the fact of all of it is that EA has ruined one of the best games in the world for whatever reasons they can come up with, and I don't see it getting any better. Not with the new, spiffy looking client, not with the new expansion. Because it's not the game that needs to change, it's the dev team, the GMs, and EA itself. They need to once again start to care about UO.

In the past month, I've logged into the game no more than 6 times. I will check out the new client, but then I will probably be closing my account.

Originally posted by rogee14
I re-upped my account last night (its that time of year again).

Its fundamentally the same, such that I did what ever I wanted to. But... its just not the same without people everywhere. In 5hrs I think I only saw 5 people. You have to have people there to enjoy the game, that's the key. You have to have the PK's to present a threat to Blues, so Blues bond together for protection. You have to have the roleplaying so there's content to the world. You have to have the crafters to support the adventurers with gear and adventurers to support the crafters with work.

They key to UO's success was complete unpredictability. What will I do today? Who will I meet? Which friends will I hunt with? Which dungeon will we go to? Will we be challenged by PKs? Will we hunt PKs or PK ourself? Will we come across the spoils of a house that decayed? Will the town criers alert us to a GM run event outside of a city?

The reason UO is not the old UO, is because there is no one there. There is no voice for it either. If everyone was still playing it and constantly e-mailing the company to create a Classic-UO server, maybe they would do it. But as it is now, the ones who spoke up years ago, the whiners, got their way. Because everyone else who enjoyed the game was too busy playing than reading a dumb forum. Now we're the whiners. But I fear its a pipe dream, a lost cause. We'll never see UO like it used to be.

Its going to take a new game, a new developer, a new metropolis of players to create and populate the world we all seek.

Yep. 

Newer players complained that it was too hard to get a house, but rather than telling them to earn one or make friends and share one, instead the devs thought it would be a good idea to try to give everyone a house by opening land expansion after land expansion.  At least it's probably a good way to sell expansions.  But, what it resulted in is houses becoming almost worthless compared to more limited items in the game.  And it spread the population so thinly that there was much less interaction and the towns became deserted; all except the most convenient to visit.

UO has been developed with many poor designs from many different developers over the years.  Now it's a wreck.

I'm sure it would be entirely different today and we would still be playing a quality virutal world if somehow Richard Garriott had managed to buy the rights to it and remain the producer.

Originally posted by Zitch

 

---

Originally posted by rogee14

Its going to take a new game, a new developer, a new metropolis of players to create and populate the world we all seek.

---

Check out Darkfalls forums. It may take a while, but your support there will advertise a demand for a meaningful MMO again.

Currently the selection of MMO's we see today are trivial copies of either UO or EQ. The latest "Vanguard" uses features from "both", but favors WoW/EQ style mechanics. Still it's trivial compared to what either UO or EQ was.

 

I just watched this [link]http://files.darkfallonline.com/darkfall_battle.wmv video[/link] and am reading around in the MMORPG forums on it... I think I'm sold already. Doing more research before I get my hopes up... again.

---

Originally posted by rogee14
I just watched this http://files.darkfallonline.com/darkfall_battle.wmv video and am reading around in the MMORPG forums on it... I think I'm sold already. Doing more research before I get my hopes up... again.

---

Yeah this one's a turtle in the developement cycle, likely to be a while....

Small group of developers working from a small studio in Greece.

It seems to have new life as of late, and may announce a beta soon (just a guess). Still it's the only concept worth looking at IMO. Everything else out there is pretty much generic crap. Level progression, quests, and item centric games. Nothing very different between them... even Vanguard which I had hoped would be inovative, was not.

(Diplomacy is the only thing new from Vanguard, and remains to be seen how inovative that sytem will be).

Anyways keep an eye on it... (Darkfall)

UO died for me when they made item-based combat.  Too bad, I'd play it again in a heart beat if it weren't so.