With all this hub-bub about EA, I've been pondering the future of UO. The idea that it's going to "die" or go away is absurd, but I tend to think it'll be minimized. This is what's going to happen....*consults the crystal ball*....

1. Shards are going to continue to leak players until more and more shards look as dead as Napa Valley (Napa's my example because that's my shard).

2. Some dev along the line who is so far removed from the basic ideals of UO that he has no idea what he's talking about will suggest the "brilliant" idea of merging shards.

3. Now, how they do it is hard to say. I'm not sure if they'll just move all the players to high pop shards and delete the dead ones, or move all players into new shards with completely different names. But the fact of the matter is, these small shards with their "unique people, history, and destiny" (that's a reference to the intro video for anyone not paying attention) will be gone. Pure, and simple.

4. On the flip side, the small percentage of shards that do exist will have outstanding populations, and may actually be somewhat fun again. However, UO will limp on forevermore that will be based on, barring any unforseen and unlikely revolutionary changes, "new content" and dopey advances in the increasingly static virtual world.


And here is the reason UO will never reach it's true potential:
UO will never be great again because much of its "open sandbox" approach has been compromised by increased item dependence and linear progression. Changing that requires massive overhauls; overhauls which are not only impossible to implement at this point of time or in the near future, but highly unlikely given the recent changes they've made to UO (i.e., ML and KR).

*note: my forecasts are 100% correct and if they do not occur, it's likely you've slipped into an alternate, parallel dimension. If that's the case, please seek immediate help from your local time distributor.

Shard merging would indeed be difficult. They'd have to figure out what to do with the people that have all their char slots used. Will they just delete some? What about housing?

Now.. you could go to the moongate and suddenly see options for

Trammel - Napa Valley
Trammel - Lake Superior
Felluca - Napa Valley
Felluca - Lake Superior

and just merge them that way. It would drive the RPers crazy.

That would be kind of cool if they did that... then no one would have to worry about loosing history to thier shard and houses... that and people can cross over to hunt with others from another shard

Then all of UO:F who plays UO could all hunt togeather, RP, or whatever... wonder how hard that would be to do... hard to say... I doubt EA would allow it though for it being to hard or... just because they don't want too...

The economy might be a little funky for awhile though... suddenly just getting and over abundance of some many items.. and each shard has diffrent prices values... etc...

Cool thought!

-RMS Carpathia-

Interesting way to look at it, but it defeats the purpose of a merge because there will still be the same total landmass relative to the number of players; in other words, players will still be spread out and so forth.

How to reconcile the issue of character slots and housing is a worthy question, and one which is asked by many when this subject emerges. Well I can tell you this: awhile back they did server merges on Vanguard. I ended up losing my house spot to a large guild from another server that was attempting to take over all the spots in the area during the big land rush. The point is, don't think that such issues can forever block a determined dev team from accomplishing that goal. This may mean sacrifices on the players' part.

The real question is, are you (the player on a dead shard) willing to sacrifice possibly some characters, your house that you've worked hard on, and the history and unique nature of your shard to play on a higher population server and fulfill that original purpose of playing an MMO in the first place? I ask myself that, and quite frankly, I'm not sure how to answer.

UO reached its Full Potentiial pre- UO:R

My friend you underestimate Ultima Online. Now I'm not saying preUOR wasn't a great time in UO history, I'm only saying it could be even better.

In my opinion, UO reached it's full potential after LBR
It went on a downhill slope right after AOS was released, now that was either due to AOS being a piece of...you know what, or because other games came out around the same time, like WOW for instance.

Pre AOS, for me at least, were the good days, because you had a much larger element of danger, there was no insurance and blessings were rare (Unless you had those nifty faction weapons, heh)

But, you couldn't kill a white wyrm or dragon with a few swings of your sword, or peace a balron/ancient wyrm while your pet slays it in 20-30 seconds.

It's no wonder the game is dying off, there's only so many times you can slay the same high end monster before the game gets boring.

AOS itself was a good idea, but it removed a lot of the danger people were used to, so guilds began to split, solo play seemed to take over, as you didn't need to be in a group unless you did champs or the doom gauntlet, and even that, was solo'able for quite sometime, with the right outfit.

Just my humble opinion

Too darn right *shakes fist *

Totally agree with most what you say.The game has become a very 'solo' thing unless you belong to a Pvp/Pvm guild.

Those of us who enjoy the roleplay aspect over the above,have suffered greatly,at the vast numbers that left to get their pixel crack fix of new graphics/moves etc.

A lot are returning ,its true,because after they level , its rinse and repeat on a new character,and while the levelling may fetch new experiences,it soon becomes a grind.

Many will never return,because they just dont want the 'community' aspect ,and they are entitled to have that too.

I have 4 accounts,but will be closing 3 of them when the time comes.

Where I once needed buildings for guild members and resources ,that isnt the case anymore.The playerbase for RP guilds just isnt there anymore.

Ive tried different ideas etc,but my idea just doesnt fit in UO anymore.

I am not bitter or anything,just sad to see a game I LOVE changing so much ,that I feel lost in it now.

Todays trend is all about hyped up battles,and thats what UO has had to become to stay afloat in todays market.

UO would be even smaller community if all had one account =/ You would probably seriously see just how little it is... on Atlanic (sense that is the only shard I played) I bet if everyone had one account... one house of course... it would be not as populated as it may seem =(

Myself only had one account and that was enough for me... along with one charater

Edit: actually same size community but you would actually see "just how many people" are playing due to houses

-RMS Carpathia-