I have an idea I would like to propose to EA for a new UO game. I would like everybodies options.

The basis is that people can make there own shards and have them ran from the official server for a monthly fee. People can play on other people's shards for free. Because there are tons of free shards out there and tons of people playing them so why not bring them in and make some money and help the players.

Both player ran shards and official shards have there pros and cons but if you put them together then you would create an even bigger fan base.

While official shards have almost no down time and faster speeds; they are sometimes hard for the "average" gamer to get into because the length of time it takes to level up skills.

The free shard are just that "free". The owners a lot of the time are friends or will become friends. The evo pets, crazy items, and weird events are sometimes enough to keep people playing for a long time. The downside is it is sometime a pain to change the UO files to run the free shards and they have downtime if the owner's computer crashes.

My idea starts with using the older graphics because they help with faster speeds and easier to change. Graphics don't really matter if the game if fun.

The stability will attract players and owners. The owners get attention by game developers if they have a great shard. Advertising, a small running staff, and no extreme development time will create a profit and make it as glorious as it was in the days of 250,000+ players.

Maybe the top rated shard doesn't have to pay the fee. They wouldn't really lose any money from there official shards because the hardcore gamers have years into there char. How many people do you know that have bought the game not knowing anything about it just to quit after the first free month?

This would also promote growth in the great free shards and weed out the crappy ones.

There is a lot more to my idea so ask questions if you have them and talk me what you think.

I sent this to Jeremy Dalberg and I'm waiting for a reply.

the idea isnt too awful however imo here are the downsides.....free shards are run by people who still like playing themselves and dont like paying as do their consumers so why would they wish to pay a monthly fee to EA when they already dont wanna pay? what your suggesting if I understand correctly is each free shard would still be maintained by the owners but hosted by EA...hundreds of new shards which EA has to host while continuing to host their own seems like tons of space required to me tho im not technically savvy. if free shards become "legal" and endorsed why would anyone continue to pay? And last but not least the gloriousness of 250k+ players was because 250k+ players were all interacting with each other not on 100+ shards but on the original 20? or so!