Elitz

I wonder if the devs played UO before they became associated with Ea/Mythic/Origin....

I also wonder, if they did, what roles they played?

really i am mainly curious if any of them PvP'd and how that effected the changes, or if they didnt, what inspired the changes that were made to the game in this direction "fast cast, damage increase,"

also, who decided to turn UO into a rainbow? Neon Colored items everywhere? in those days purple was the most rare, and only kings and queens really had it... but Fire colored and Neons?

Elitz

I'll take that as a no?

Olahorand

For me it seems they never play that stuff, they develop, if it comes to the really tedious tasks like hand in for community collections (or even the Spring cleaning collection).
I would like to watch the developer in charge while handing in the shields for the glasses ...

Tabbitha

Some of the old devs were staunch UO playing Developers.

They acted on personal gaming expereince and thus earned a LOT of respect from the Community.

I 'bumped' into the odd developer here and there on Europa,though Im not saying that was there shard.

I do know though that one of the devs was so interested in a RP event one time [that was organised by the Community ] that they were 'there' watching the whole thing !!!

I think the only in game experience any of them have these days is mainly on test Centre or a token visit now and again at an event to hand out an item.

I think if each dev 'adopted' a shard to actually PLAY on at least ONCE a week,

a lot of the bugs wouldnt need to be repeatedly reported [ and ignored] by EA.

Or they could 'appoint' official bug reporters from the player base

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Aurelius

I've always argued that playing the game for real on a live shard one day per week should be part of the contract they work to.

Like every profession in that does things for people, it's way too easy to lose sight of what actually happens with what you do and instead get absorbed in what you think will happen with your work.

People never, ever do just what you think they will do, nothing ever works exactly how you intend it to work, and if you get over absorbed in what you think should be happening, reality takes over and you fail.

Nok

These are all assumptions.

Nearly all have played UO, most of them play weekly or daily as players. Not including what is required for game development.

They play.

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Vallend

Most that I know of did and still do play. Many of the new hire Devs are long time players of the game and have been active in many parts of the game. Matter of fact I once was told by one that they have to give up their old accounts when they become a Dev and open new accounts and are not allowed to let other players know who they are IRL. So who knows one of your in game friends just may be a Dev enjoying him or herself on their off hours.

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Whoever said "There is nothing to fear but fear itself must never of woke up a sleeping dragon"

Pitr

Their passion and endurance should be enough to answer this question.

Who else would endure UO and its community?

Must be love...

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Tabbitha

Encouraging to know,and I stand corrected

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Aurelius

Well, yes they are assumptions - and yours is just an assertion - you might well be right, but I remain unconvinced.

You see, so many things in the game have gone weirdly wrong (PvP, factions, roles for so many skills like thievery, the balances between old and newer skill combinations) that it's hard to believe people actually playing the game did not notice what was going astray and stop it before it got out of hand. We seem to have had a hell of a job in the past getting through to EA/Mythic how bad the duping/unattended scripting issues had got, yet as players we were clearly seeing something was hopelessly out of whack. Similarly, even Jeremy had to admit she was suprised when, after being challenged to start up a new character and try playing with an 'optimised' skillset just how easy parts of the game had become and how much cash could be raised with minimal effort.

I'm not disagreeing with you in your assertion, since you likely know a lot more than me what the devs do in-game. If correct, it just changes the question - if you are right and many play regularly, what is it they are doing in their game playing time if so much went by them without them seeing it....