Don't think it "will" backfire on them. I think it "has" backfired on them. It's tough for the Pro EA group to keep saying this team is different. When it's ............ not . Edit: Maybe we need to stop blaming the dev team and lay it at the feet of upper management. If every dev team has the same problem. It may not be the team. /Edit

Kinda sad, patched last night and logged in. You can't see the artwork for a mare when walking. Your character "looks" like it is sitting really bow legged. If you run the animation is there. Then to see snow leopards looking like imps. Thankfully it was past my bedtime so I logged. Not trying to imply I will not use KR. Just sad it went out, even before I (a pretty easy to please type of guy) thought it was ready

Vepl

I hope they kept the "bug report" feature in the UI...

I'm particularly surprised for them to announce the client out of beta when they're still actively making changes and soliciting feedback (under the "What can you look forward in the weeks to come?" part of Cohen's post). I mean... doesn't that still mean... beta?

Though we've never experienced any sort of in-place, non-fee-based upgrade like this in UO before. The notion of ongoing improvements of this magnitude is foreign. (I mean, there are still some BIG things that need to be fixed, particularly with animations - the mares, like Vepl mentioned, for example).

I don't understand the motivation, unless they just want MORE people to log in to KR and give feedback, and figure that if they say it's open to everyone then those who generally avoid beta software will jump in too.

Side note - it's just about impossible to ship even release quality software with no bugs. Windows, for example (just the OS, not applications that run within Windows like Internet Explorer) - Vista shipped with 27 known "high severity" bugs (12 of which have been fixed in its first 6 months of release). XP shipped with 39 known "high severity" bugs (36 of which were fixed within its first 6 months of release). This doesn't include the thousands of less critical bugs. Sources - http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?si...39247&from=rss and http://security.itworld.com/4347/070...ng/page_1.html

This isn't an unusual move that EA has made.

It sucks that I no longer have my beta excuse anymore, though.

I haven't loaded the latest patch yet, though was impressed with the 6/22 patch. Not bad - 2 patches in less than a week, with each patch fixing more and more bugs.

I'm going to resist judgment of this move until I get in game on this latest patch that came with the un-beta announcement. The game is already 99% playable for me (assuming I only die 1% of the time, since that's when I crash).

I gave up after waiting 2 hours to patch last night. Went to bed, and this morning it was complete, so don't know exactly how long that took me. And I'm on cable.

And thought I read that they're keeping the bug report tool in the game.

Patching now.....

I like the new patch screen, anyway.

Some Of You Are Right The Orders Came From The Top Release Kr And We Fix As We Go..i Am Lead Trobeleive They R Releasing Kr Sooner Then They Want Because S.a Is Ahead Of Schedule And Makes Them No Money If It's On Hold..as I Type This I Reek Of B.s For Protecting Them

Only problem I encountered last night was with directX download to newest version SDX or SX whatever it is. I attempted several times to dl from microsoft to no avail finally had to settle for dl of individual file. After this logged in no problems, did encounter mare graphics bugged and reported (yes bug report is still avail), played for a couple hours without any problems, no lag at all, and then pointer disappeared. Only thing I found unsettling was not being able to go into window mode unless I played at a really low setting 800x600 i think.

Well this is not a OS, Kitiara, its a game. I mean my computer can still function without a game, but it needs a OS. It just a tad more important.

Can I live with all the systems not being finished, ok not problem. I understand it new code blah blah blah.

But it should not have been released without all the art work in place. To let it go with tiles/creatures missing/held with other creatures is just wrong.

How is this going to help UO grow? How is this going to get decent reviews from the press? How is this going to draw new players in and retain them?
How is it going to bring back vets, who have already have negative opinions about the game (not all vets but some)?

I am glad they are leaving the bug report button in. We will see if it actually will be used to make corrections. Or is it just left in to placate the players, IE it makes us feel good to have the ability to send in reports in game. Speaking of this feature I thought that there was to be some acknowledgement that your report had been received after sending? Maybe I missed it. I will still try using this feature.

And as for the many players who enjoy this game on dail up? Well I think they are completely screwed.

I have a broadbank connection, not the fastest but still way better than I was on dail up. Hell I am just a half a block from the hub sub server(or whatever its technically called). Anyway I got the download yesterday directly from EA, not fileplanet (hate them) it still took 4 hours(roughly) to complete it. Then I had to install, then I had to patch (took 45 minutes) for that.

The last patch was 375mb by itself. Not really dail up friendly. It should be broken into smaller chunks if it just artwork which did not make it in. Thought they were all about helping the lower end users?

Well I will play with it more today, Does it look better than 2D, I am not sure. Does it feel like UO, not sure there either. I just have to get used too it. One thing I can tell you, it feels like I am playing on dail up again with the lag I am getting.

Personally I am not going to make a final decision on the client until christmas, if by then the lag has not improved and all the artwork/tiles are still not in. I will have to consider going to another game. Not saying for sure that I will quit, but I will have to take a hard look and see if I still want to give my enterainment dollars to EAMythic.

My point exactly. If even something as important as an OS ships with high counts of severe bugs, something as trivial as a game will comparably ship with bugs - probably even more bugs than something as important as an OS.

I'm sticking with 2D for now, I am... disappointed for the moment at the EA management on this one. KR still has a lot of potential, but at the moment it is just not for me. I wonder if they run in-house test shards for extended periods of time over at EA, I really do. They take the *first* MMORPG and treat this old and what should be respected game as if they want to commit euthanasia to it. It's like going to your grandpa and saying, "Love ya, but ya gotta die!"

I have ideas up the arse about how UO *should* be, as I'm sure do tons of the non-casual players of the game, and I just never see most of it implemented. I would just say give the game to the players almost as abandonware sometimes, and let us do as we please, but that would just kill things; or open up the legality of making and testing *coughs* shards *coughs* (please don't delete this, I am talking about a concept, but if you do I understand ) as a feature of the game (i.e.: the official "Ultima Online Shard Builder"), and then taking the skills of us addicts and implementing them into the official UO.

Warsong, what kind of computer are you using? My patch, using Roadrunner Cable from Timew WArner, took about 10-15 min to download, maybe 20 at most, and maybe 5 to install. Granted, I am using a 4-month old alienware, but still, I find it hard to beleive it took you THAT long...and someoen else said it took 4 hours? That is ridiculous, maybe a problem with the servers or something related to your route to them.