Greetings all,

Just wanted to pick your brains here, as I know a number of you are quite familiar with the UO community. I've in the game for a couple of years, but have not spent much time in forums and communities.

By now, the game has many individual/business brokers for UO gold and items, as well as a number of auction listings on any given day at eBay. People like their gold, and their items, and their characters.

Who can blame them? Some people enjoy playing the game at its maxed out level, and isn't that what games are for in the end, enjoying? If one enjoys working hard from the ground level up to achieve his place in UO, then that's great. If another enjoys being able to start a notch or three up, that's a good thing as well.

Now, my question is: Has UO ever had an incentive or rewards program? There are such programs in every nook and cranny online for Internet surfers to earn gift cards, phone cards, and other small items. With all the interest in all things UO, wouldn't it make sense that some people would love earning "free gold" in return for just a few minutes of time to fill out a survey, or submit an online form.

It would be great to hear any thoughts you might have.

Best to each of you in your day.

Regards,
Josh

As far as I know, the only programs going on right now are the vet rewards and the buddy rewards (you know, get someone to play and pay for UO for 90 days and you get an in game prize item for it).

Not sure what sort of programs would work for UO but it does sound nice that we could get a little something for putting in time or participating with stuff. Like test centers for instance, trying out new features and submitting bugs with them is something worth rewarding. On occasion in the past they've given out some prizes to randomly selected people during stress tests and such.

I think its a good idea. Surveys for a few gold. Why not. Get some specific feedback, instead of the normal complaining on a forum. Or up the buddy code rewards and give the referrer gold instead of a 7th anni gift.

Thank you both for the responses and insights. They are definitely appreciated.

First off, I should clarify what I was referring to. Specifically, I was thinking of an outside "middle-man" providing the opportunities for UO players to earn gold.

Yes, it would be great to have it direct from EA, but I don't see them ever setting up such a program, despite the facts that it would cost them nothing (other than in the development) and that it would be wildly popular, IMO.

One downfall to a direct reward from EA would be that even more gold/items would be introduced to the game. In that sense, simply having an outside person redistribute current gold/items would do no harm to the already unstable economy.

Although this site should and would be completely unique, I'll give an example of a site in the same "model" as what I'm thinking of, but in the realm of gift cards rather than UO gold/items. Take MyPoints.com for example. When you fill out surveys, internet forms, offers, etc. they reward you with "points" which are redeemable for gift cards. I think around 600 points is worth a $5.00 gift card but I haven't used the site as a member in a long, long time, so that rate could have changed. This site has been around longer than UO has, and it was bought out by United Airlines a few years back, so naturally it's a more advanced model, but still I hope my point is able to be seen.

Switch over to a UO-themed site and this is what I see: a survey that's half a dozen pages long (or so) might net the user 100-200k gold. Forms that are one or two pages would be reasonable for earning around 50-100k gold. There are other types of offers available but that's a start, and gives you an idea of what I'm thinking.

There would be delays in it as there always are in Internet incentive marketing like this. Sites such as MyPoints.com typically send out the rewards (gift cards) 60+ days after the surveys/forms/offers have been submitted by the member to reach the points required for the desired level of gift card. A smaller company can easily do it within 30-45 days on average though. The delay is due to awaiting verification by the "sponsor" that it's been acceptably completed, which does take that time due to the complexity of the networks that these programs use for operation.

Once credited, the member would be able to select a reward of gold, items, or if his "balance" were high enough then some of both. The minimum to "withdraw" gold should be around 1m, I would imagine, which converted to US$ is much easier to reach than most "gift card" programs. Items would need to be given a specific value in gold at which the owner would be willing to allow for their redemption rather than checks for gold. Items may have different costs in terms of the member's "balance" based upon which shard he wishes to redeem in, whereas the gold "balance" redeemed directly for gold would be equal at all (obviously Siege and Mugen not included here).

I know this is long and complicated, and I hope I haven't scared anyone away, or bored anyone to tears. I apologize for the drawn out post. Hopefully my thoughts make more sense to you now. Please let me know what you think.

Have a good afternoon.

Regards,
Josh

I've run into these surveys in other settings and I detest them. I get called at home to take surveys. It's just another word for telemarketing. Not for me thanks. Please take me off your list!

Hi Branwilde,

Thank you for the feedback. I think I understand what you're referring to, although it's a different sort of survey. Most options on a site like that don't even ask for your phone number, so there's no way that they could call you at home even if they wanted to do so.

At any rate, I don't have a list so you don't need to worry - you're not on one. Just taking in some thoughts on what people think. I thank you for yours, as well.

Have a good day.

Regards,
Josh

I think it's a good idea, but it'd be hard to keep out people who'd exploit the system to get freebies, especially if you're giving away free gold.

I assume by your name and post that you're going to set something like this up?

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts, Adam.

You're absolutely correct. There are people who attempt to exploit such programs (in terms of other kinds of rewards), and certainly someone would give circumventing the system for free gold a crack, as well.

On the other hand, a good aspect is that it's a relatively secure process. Other companies (advertisers) inform the site owner with stats regarding completions of surveys, other offers, purchases, etc. The owner then updates the account of the person completing said offer.

One difference between a site such as that and one providing gift cards is the insecurity of meeting in game, and being uncertain that the person to whom you give gold is the account holder. Bearing that in mind, an 'Account Verification' system has been set up. While I can't give specifics on that at the time, suffice it to say that it would be impossible for anyone to impersonate the account holder in order to get past the verification.

To answer your question, yes, a site is in the works and nearing completion...

Have a pleasant week ahead.

Regards,
Josh