Hello, I am one of many OLD school UO players who has been there and done that; For seven years I was a loyal subscriber and I enjoyed my experience on UO very much. But there is a certain point in my UO experience that I miss very much, and I can assure you thousands of other people miss as well. PRE-T2A. Yes... the very beginning of UO, before the new lands, before tram and fel, before factions, before the power scrolls, before the artifacts, before EVERYTHING there was an unbelievable game that I miss so so much.

7 Years ago there was just Sosaria, and at this point in time... the game was the best it ever was and remains the best that it has ever been. Some might make the assumption that more (expansions) is better. However, in this case (and many will agree) just plain old PRE-T2A was the peak of UO. And generally I am referring to the whole game, but mainly the PvP as well. When UO PvP was skill-based rather than item-based... When skill determined the resolution of a battle, not how many artifacts/power scrolls/stat enhancing items you had. When there was actualy a risk leaving town, rather than trammel or item insurance. This point in UO is what so many people miss.

The land of no restriction, the land of risk, the land of "reds", the land of vengance and deciet, the land of house decay, the land guild vs. guild PvP, the land of criminals, the land of Sosaria. The element of "realism" (with respect to the intrinsic risk involved in real life) made this game undoubtfully the best I have ever played... When that element was gradually taken away (tram/fel, item insurance, ungodly armor/weapons etc.) the game became less and less fun. (for most atleast)

My plead... PLEASE bring this back, this element that I and many others miss so much. Perhaps create a seperate shard... PRE-T2A, absolutely nothing after the T2A expansion... just plain-old Sosaria... I beg of you!!

I would re-subscribe in a heart beat, and I can gaurantee thousands would follow.

Thank you for reading,
~Aaron

And yes... I just noticed the PRE-UOR poll AFTER I posted this thread..

Shibby, I've been waiting for that game to come back since Publish 11. It's in the past, and sadly it's a reality check when I tell you this, it's not coming back. No matter how many people want it, or whine, or stomp their feet, or threaten to quit. When people whined about being pk'd and not being able to leave town, and wanted a "safehouse", they got Trammel. And that my friend, was the begining of all this madness.

Yes I banksit.
Yes I burn barbed kits.
Yes I have ungodly armor.
No I do not "PvP".

PvP died with the release of Age of Shadows.
Then again when you could have 10329182 spell damage increase.
Then again when they nerfed it all and said you can have one bite of pie.

These skills you speak of, aren't ones you can, raise, lock, and lower.

I would give back insurance, bulk order deeds, all this housing, even the increased storage (*growls*), powerscrolls, elves (I'll gladly sacrifice those and everything related.)

Just to have bounties, red stat loss (It's sad that you miss the things you thought stunk, having to regm your skills everytime you died.), just to not to have to wear armor, Item Identification to be USEFUL again! Back when it took you 6 months + just to Grandmaster blacksmithing!

When server down wasn't a time to get ready to log back in your scripters so you could go to bed, when it was time to get all your best stuff on and head to bucs for server wars, yes SERVER WARS!

There's plenty of people out there that want that game back, but in all honesty, we all know it's not coming back. All you can do is remember it and smile, and then look at this 3d crap and ask yourself what the heck happened.

*sighs*

Good comments Zynia. I miss the adrenaline rush too...when that sneaky red would show up and all I had was a few shovels...."Ok, I give up, don't kill me, take all my stuff I pro ... OooOOooO!" The good ol days.

The land of not being able to do a thing without worrying about Little Timmy and his "possie". The land of constant, ooc grief on the part of people who couldn't run Quake 2 at the time. The land of your house being camped endlessly unless you made the things above your own game.

I have no doubt that had UO not progressed to the creation of Trammel, it definitely would be dead today. When Trammel opened up, the majority of Feluccans came to it. I'm sorry, but that's how it was. The people who entered Trammel the first day of its creation and later placed houses when housing opened up weren't masses of new players, they were people who saw what the game had to offer beyond the constant PvP environment.

People always toss this figure around of X number of people quit because of Trammel. That after Trammel's creation, X amount of players left. What nobody ever has the data for though, is how many people bought the game before Trammel, tried it, and promptly quit because of the sheer chaos and headache caused by those people who just see the UO worldmap as a deathmatch grid.

There are also a ton of other aspects of "original" UO that you're leaving out: The volunteer program, the economy, the general aesthetics of the game, the fact that we hadn't yet been subjected to Turd Dawn or Anthony Castoro's whims.

Really when you think about it, there has never been a "golden age" for UO. The early days were plagued by just as many things, big & small, that drove people away as there are today. They were different things, and each group basically blames the other, but there has never been any great harmony to the game. Personally, I think that would have come had the game began with both Trammel and Felucca, or even just the Trammel ruleset by itself with provisions for PvP. It's analogous to taking a Nine Inch Nails concert, removing the band, and placing a string quartet in front of the raving mosh pit and expecting everything to go smoothly. You never had anything close to "golden" to begin with, and you still wouldn't afterward.

Do I think UO will ever achieve a golden age? I think it's possible, however you would have to ask as much from the players as from the developers. It would take acceptance, compromise, and the ability to see the forest for the trees...not stumps.

Good points Terrance. I think that there will always be groups that consider "their" favorate times in UO to be the golden ages, but in all actuality, the only time, from looking at the stat charts, where UO really prospered, was after AOS. Biggest number of subs out of the games history. I pvp, I do not pvm, unless spawning is considered pvm, then yah. I realize that we are in the minority. PVMers will always benefit from the changes, and we will have to adapt. Just a way of life, oh well. I am not one to complain about stuff in game though, because, well its a game. If I didnt like it, I would just quit. So what, this guy has better armor than I do. Ok sir, here is your 3000 gold for killing me, rinse repeat!

The real problem with the 'golden days' is deciding exactly when that was and then recalling all of the bugs that also existed in those days. Its weird to see how many folks don't recall all the problems they were having back then.

Now don't get all riled up - but...

I really really really hope that after all this current stuff is finally fixed up and stablized that they will look at a 'classic' setup. Though it might not be the exact 'classic' ruleset, at worst, more like a 50s diner representation of it - But i know it would still have appeal and draws crowds on an offset shard or two. I'm betting on that myself. The whole 'money talks' thing isn't a bad mantra to hold onto when thinking about stuff like this. They are in the business of delivering what will draw paying customers after all.
In a year or two I wouldn't be surpised if someone actually took a long hard look at it as something to implement. But yeah - for now, its not an active thing - but hey - stuff changes all the time.


Anyway - thats my 2 cents on the topic.

CatHat

Personally i'd think it'd be in ea's best interests to setup two types of "classic" shards.

Pre AOS (the publish before AOS? or publish 15)
and
Pre UOR (Or whatever that era was called, heh)

There is allways of course, the "hybrid" option, meaning a custom mix of the good bits of AOS and the good bits of Pre AOS.

I would have no problem with them making different types of shards. It could bring in some more subscribers. But I certainly would not be interested in playing them. Been there, done, that, hated that, love AOS!

I'm pretty sure a good chunk of the whole good ol' days -mentality comes from sugarcoated memories. Back then MMORPGs were a new experience as a whole, UO was something new and exciting, so naturally it all felt much more special. I really doubt that recreating that old game now would satisfy people.

Having shards with different rulesets/time periods is a totally viable idea though, whatever helps the game is cool by me. I just disagree with the adamant claims how everything was so much better back pre-XXX, it's not as much because of how the game was then, but how YOU were back then.

And yeah, I'm something of a nooblet considering I never did play pre-ren, so my opinions are just a gut feeling.