I've been watching this post since day 1 wondering how I really feel about it...do I vote with my passion for the game or do I vote objectively because my votes conflict with each other. My passion says they dont listen or care (which is why I can't bring myself to play/pay something my passion isn't into) and my mind tells me yes they do listen which is where the conflicts come in. Many games come out where the sole purpose is kill X to get Y or do this to get to this or whatever. There is no real interaction with player base and they eventually die out. UO has been around for an unprecedented 10 years and there is a reason for that I believe it is because they do listen and take everything into consideration. I agree with Thom when he says they ask for feedback and do nothing with the feedback, but maybe they really dont have a clue what to do with it...or just dont have the manpower whatever the reason it's disheartening. i think the Dev team has been tasked with the burden of DEVELOPING the game not fixing issues which X # of people complain about...give us more eye candy and content to keep us fat and happy (which many players have asked for). In all honesty after 9 years of playing this game on and off there are many things I still havent done and many places I still have never been ( for one thing I've been to Cove exactly 1 times in 9 years)....Do we really need more content? I would feel more content if I was to page a GM and one showed up like in the old days when this mystical being appeared out of nowhere and asked me how in the world I got stuck on the side of a hill with no way in or out then sent me on my merry way then I was when I received a piece of bacon as a holiday gift. Dont get me wrong I love eye candy and I love new deco items and new mobs and new lands but I feel customer service is more important than new stuff. In summary I think the Dev's listen to us way more than they should but the focus is on providing new things and attracting new players rather than servicing the ones they do have and get! So im gonna go with yes and no

The biggest Proof the EA has never listened the players is well.....

AOS

nuff said.

Dude, AoS that POS was just the beggining of the end for UO...

So, what I'm gathering from this thread is mostly about us not *acting* in a way that shows that we're listening to you. Is that the biggest concern?

I don't think that graph is accurate
Trammel didn't come out in 2002/2003, it came out (from memory) in late 1999?

I think the Graph is accurate, I think the Tags he added to it are not.

Well, for me, essentially yes - I keep trying to give the benefit of the doubt, but so little seems to happen in-game that I'm left wondering (hoping) there's a plan in place that we're not aware of, and we wander round talking to ourselves guessing at what exactly is going on.

The threads about cheats in Stratics (yeah I know, I'm usually there rather than here, but while it's been dead I've lowered the tone here instead..) keep turning up blatant examples of things going on in-game that really should get picked up by whoever's monitoring the game.. now if that's meant to be our job, first someone should have told us so, and of course we'll do our part in cleaning it up, but the real question is - what is EA/Mythic's job if not to keep their own game as 'clean' as possible?

There was a great job done cleaning out a lot of gold and duped items a few months back - once. I have not seen any sign that it's been policed since then, and if policing is invisible, people lose belief that it's there at all. When they see obviously scripted characters wandering the game 24/7 yet can't get them investigated, faith is completely lost. It's worse because this is not the first time we've been here... we've seen a rush of 'action' followed by nothing so many times in the past it's eroded confidence very badly indeed.

In-game GM support is just not anything like acceptable yet, the problems with getting hold of GMs are reported as bad on US shards, and apparently magnified for those in weird 'foreign' timezones.

Losing EMs was unpleasant for many people, but they were to be replaced with well-scripted and involving 'game wide' events so we thought, well maybe it's OK... then things seemed to lose direction, all the emphasis moved on to the KR work, and that intention went bad. Remember what the road to hell is paved in....

I keep asking about, and suggesting, ways to enforce the good aspects of the game using 'in character' methods, making NPCs more interactive, increasing inclusion for playstyles in events - and we seem to get more of the same that we had in the past, sometimes with a few new graphics. We don't even get 'that can't be done and this is why...' which makes it even more frustrating.

Did any players actually ASK for what was done with resource randomisation? If the aim was to get a better distribution of supposed rare resources, there were SO many other and better ways than just dropping that out of the blue on us...

Don't even ask if I lost confidence in EA/Mythic when the 'KR is gold' announcement came out...... it was a four letter word alright, and it wasn't "gold". Of course it's been worked on and improved since then - but if EA wants people to believe in them, that's a classic of how to fail at the first fence.

We just don't know what the plan for the future is - and for many of us, having invested time, interest and for many emotion in several years of this game, we want some real, hard information about what is being done, how, and why, so have confidence it will keep going into a future we like.

If you have a plan, tell us so we can decide if it's one we want to be part of. You don't have to 'do what we say', that's a recipe for disaster as has been proved in UO's past - but if it's all going down a pre-set railroad line, let me know the destination (and please, not another 'It's going to be a great game and we'll build on the things that matter' from anyone at EA/Mythic, it's meaningless, insulting and pointless to do that to such a well informed and articulate audience) so I can decide if I want to go there or not.

That is certainly part of it.

That and it seems like EA_Mythic caters to the baser instincts of the Human race in the game these days. E.G Greed, Self absorption, and the Lust for Ultimate power over others.

Whatever happened to promoting Virtue?

I voted NO.

The problem is one of perception.

I do not expect, nor require direct input into every system,change,tweak.

I understand that it is EAMythic's game, I just rent access. But things should be discussed more before they introduce sweeping changes.

Just look at the way the resource change was handled. Now wether you agree with it or not. Its implementation left something to be desired. It was announced one day, placed on test center the next day, and the day after it went live to all shards.

Now I think that it was coded well, it works, I am sure it was ready weeks ago, but it is my perception that EAMythic did not want a discussion on this change, nor are they willing to have one. Outside of it not being aimed at scripters and it is to make "rare" ores/woods rarer. How is this communicating with your players?

GMs, what are they good for? Very little. It does get under my skin that better customer service was the reason for the price increase.
Why would it be so hard to have gms work online from wherever? If they have to be in the U.S. so be it. But to ask people to move to Virginia? Heck, I would take a gm job, if I could log in and work from home. Sign me up today!

Then we get to your community relations coordinator. Just what exactly is her job? The way I see it is just a public relations person (just a different title). IE to act as a go between the dev team/management of UO and it's paying customers. To relay information to the community in a timely, accurate fashion.

Why then is she not on the boards more? I can hear her defenders now, "that's not fair jeremy can't post on all the boards, all the time." Yeah? Tell me another one. Too many boards to post on? Whose fault is that? EAMythic canned the "official" fansite program. How about things change, adapt to them? Like EAMythic likes to tell the players. How many boards are there? That are truly active? I read/post on 3 (Here, Stratics, Lost Lands) are there others? If not she should be on each site reading/answering for an hour on each (If there are just these 3) . That gives her 5 hours to do what she does now. In a standard 8 hour work day. Hell, she does not want to do that? Then name an "official" site, and state while the others will be read/monitored/have interviews when available. But Questions will only be answered on site X (Thinking that it should be stratics, seems the busiest, at least to me), just pick one. Is she a programmer? No. Is she artist? No. Is she in the management section? No. Is she a server tech? No. Then if she is not here to answer questions/find out answers from the dev team, just what the heck does she do? I know she does not post as much as a community person should. And then when she does post, she often posts inaccurate/false/vague information. Which then has to be corrected.

One example : She announced that several servers were going to be down for extended maintenance. THATS ALL. Why? I had to post a question on stratics, for an clarification, which she finally answered. Because EAMythic are moving these servers to a new location. I did get flamed for wanting to know by a few people. But I noticed another thread speculating that it might be to add in new content, this was getting players hopes up that maybe finally, EAMythic was listening. So I asked, because since it was not ALL shards, I did not figure it would be new content. All the conjecture in that other thread could have easily been avoided, by simply stating the reason for the extended maintenance in the first place. This is the exact thing, I believe that the community is asking for.

I believe that the community is tired of "Soon", "You're gonna love it", "The new skill are cool", well at least I am.

To all the players, who want to say quit then, if you are so unhappy with the game. I am not unhappy with the game, but the service and the people behind it. I love UO, I intend to fight for what I think is good for the game/community. I was silent for many years, no longer will I stand mute!

*strikes* a dramatic pose : Friends, Sosarians, Countrymen, lend me your eyes. Now is the time for all goodmen to come to the aid of our beloved game! Cast off those shackles that bind you to your inactivity! Stand up and be counted, we can only survive, if we lift our collected feedbacks/questions to the man behind the curtain! We must demand answers! Free citizens everywhere must be read!

Just kind of had to joke there, I almost fell of my soapbox.

I think the problem that exist is the illusion that you (by you, I mean the entire team, but you are the sacrificial lamb *cough* I mean, spokesperson-so-to-say) CAN and WILL do what (Insert Player's Screen Name Here) wants/desires.

Nothing much you (the team) can do to change this at this point.