source taken from UO U.HAll

Okay Jeremy, this is what people want and need clarification on. I looked on the KR website, under the press section. In more than one article that UO sites it states the following:

"EA's commitment to the game seems to go far beyond a mere makeover. A few months after Kingdom Reborn, UO gets its next official expansion pack -- one that will only be accessible to players with the new client. Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss offers players the titular Abyss (the largest dungeon in UO to date) along with the world of the Gargoyles."

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/ultima-onli.../760749p2.html


Now please be honest with the player base. Is KR REQUIRED for players in order to gain access to the new content or not? Why can't someone just come right out and say yes or no????? This is frustrating to say the least. If all of the links that UO is putting in their press releases are saying that, based on interviews with Aaron and the like, then why can't we have a definitive statement on this?

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I'm about 99.9% sure the answer is Yes.

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With EA you just never can tell.

For starters they arent renowned for telling the truth. Secondly they have been known to change their mind after the event on more than one occasion.

I would say its YES for now, you need KR but wouldnt be at all surprised if this changed.

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See the red bold part? Seems really clear to me. What part of this is confusing?

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I think where we need some clarification is regarding the new location versus the skills/race/items.

We can pretty well be sure you will need KR to go to the new gargoyle city/lands. What is not clear is whether you will be able to be a gargoyle, use the new items and/or use any new skills unless you are using KR.

I think EA would be shooting themselves in the foot to not allow 2D players to use SA items/skills/etc, even if the art was a bit rubbish. By the time of SA they might be lucky to get a 50% take-up of KR, in which case they will instantly half the number of people buying SA, and UO has been living off it's annual content patch for some years.

As to why there has been no announcement or clarification...EA don't like to give out bad news and telling a large part of the current player-base that they can't use the next expansion will definately not go over well. It will only lead to yet more quittings and when the subs are already dropping by ~50% a year that's bad.

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The reason we haven't clarified any further is that we haven't announced very many details about what the content will be. In order to access the Stygian Abyss/new lands, you will need to be running the KR client, yes. That doesn't necessarily mean that there will be no reason to buy SA if you don't want to use KR, but those are details we'll cover when we're closer to SA's launch.

E. Jeremy Dalberg
UO Community Coordinator
EA Mythic

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