I guess I am an Old School veteran on Chesapeake (been there since that shard was created). I'm Old School from the point of view of teamwork though, not really specifically for the PvP or game mechanics.

To me, the Old School UO had more to do with "living in the Realm" rather than "playing in the Realm". What I mean is, people needed to work together for survival and to achieve something -- it seemed more realistic than things are now.

That's sort of what Medieval life was like in the real world. Sure such times were tough (both in early UO and in Medieval life). And those tough days brought people together for common purposes. There was uncertainty around every corner.

The UO game mechanics changed a lot with Trammel and small group or solo-adventure items-based achievements, as we see now. That caused a huge change in our "world" or our "environment" in UO.

Therefore, in my opinion, as the UO world changed, so is how we "live in it".

I believe there is or can be a fair number of people willing to take on the challenge of an older playstyle-environment in UO.

Siege does appear to be the closest thing (mechanically) to the Old School UO and still offers the necessity for teamwork and community.

It is certainly quite sad that after all of this time, there is still not a single OSI sponsored shard with the old rules. I left, and came back to Trammel. Needless to say, I did not agree with the the premises for the changes, and I went along on my merry way. OSI: Seriously, you're missing out on a huge player base. Why wont you guys run an old rules shard? Is this a pride issue? I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I've been waiting for seven or eight years for something that just about anyone can set up in their basement if they know how to Google properly. The only trouble is, those shards are lacking in player base and a knowledgable server staff that will do their best to maintain the old system.

I wish you knew how, as a customer of yours for years, an addict to your game, I've lost just about any faith I ever had in a couple of gave devs swallowing some pride and putting a damned OSI sponsored Old School shard up on the map.

I'm not trying to be inflammatory, but I'd like to be clear: The way old school players are marginalized as k3w1 d00dz is complete rubbish. The folks who want to play these rules, even the 13 year olds in 1997, are now 23 years old. Your business model is missing out on a huge contingent of disenfranchised players. There is no way I would play on one of the OSI shards these days. Whoever said it above is dead on the money-- UO sold out to try and be a gear game. UO was never a gear game, it was an item hoarding game, but not in the sense that folks bought up specific armor and such-- no. UO was about (and I'm repeating again here) living in the world, and collecting items as a result of that in-game life. Regardless of your kewld00d social connections, or your roleplaying buddies-- there was appropriate room for social interaction to take place, even if it turned out to be less than satisfying for either party involved. This is the nature of real life. You cannot agree with everyone. Kewld00dz simply represented a juvenile's cultural account on what this online world ought to look like. Re-engineering the game to deny that is most uncool.

I could go on for hours. I just wish OSI would wise up and see how many folks are still sitting out in the cold praying for an Old School shard with OSI backing.

Please guys,
It's been nearly 10 years...

Devin

I'll be honest, I didn't read the whole thread. Nevertheless I'd like to state my opinion.

Ultima online always was, and still is, my favorite game out there. I played from t2a to lbr, then quit, due to various issues, for about a year. After that I joined a no-trammel, publish 16 freeshard and have been playing there now for about three years.

A few months ago, EA had a week where they offered vet players to log into their old accounts again and give it another try. Hence i did not hesitate, to see what had happened with my account, and what sosaria was like on the official shards. I was more than disappointed. Fel was basically dead (i used to play on Europa and Drachs), so those were the first two shards i looked at. Checked out a few pvp hotspots, only to find them deserted. Trammel WBB and Luna(?) were packed w/ people discussing what color their mounts were and such :/. I decided to check out siege after that. There i talked to a few players, who told me that the population was okay, not too great, but ok. They complained that there was too much land, for too few players.

This let me to believe that the playerbase has indeed changed considerably. From my one-week experience on the official shards, it seemed to me as if uo had turned more into a chat-and-sit-game where you have a character and colorful items to play with :/.

I don't know much about this new uo really, it seems more complicated, more item-based and such. The modifiers seem strange, the elemental resist seems lame, but then again i don't know how it all works, so i'm not going to bash it. I think an old-school shard would still bring those players back who miss the more basic, not so item-dependent, unconscented pvp, single-facet uo with a pre-ren ruleset. Why i believe this? Several old school freeshards out there are packed, some having online player averages of 900-1000. I doubt you see a player average that high on any osi shard today.

By the way, uo wasnt the only choice at the time, anyone remember Meridian 59?

Man long posts i couldnt be arsed to read (Sorry for those)

First: Never was something called just mage... now or then. I've been pvper since release of UO really, first Atlantic then when EU came i went over. I've been in EUs most hated and respected guild(s). It was fun.. hell it was more then fun. Nothing to beat a 1 vs 6.

Brett if you havnt pvped in AoS yet.. dont bother either. I stopped pvping by AoS. Also quit uo for a good while. Its really all items and best scripts to be in top lvl. Template of char is a biggie too really. Then its really just the basic knowledge how to beat the different templates. As before. No really tactic really.. spam spells as fast as you can, no spell over lvl 5 really and special moves. Each second spell a dmg spell of one sort the other a stat spell. Can mostly win anything. Boring. Thats 1 vs 1. Group pvp.. Have a disarmer char.. one lethal poisoner and 2 just casting FS .. throw a mortal in there as well and its cake. Not many orginaized guilds left. Soo its just run around pick them out.

How in the world can you say this? I'll go ahead and point out some differences for you.

UO lacks LEVELS. The fact we raise by a skill gain system of skills that you have to USE makes so much more sense than "I got level 5 today ^_^".

We don't use auction houses, but instead have shopping malls throughout. And to me, it feels a whole lot more realistic when I'm going from merchant house to merchant house trying to find what I want. And when I find it, it feels pretty good.

Here's a biggy: UO's dungeons aren't INSTANCED. That means we can go in and see whoever we want whenever we want.

No allies: Go to Fellucca and see if they care what race you are.

Tames: White wyrms in WoW? Nope. Mounts that I can jump off of and have rape everything in sight in WoW? Nope.

Bards? Nope.


UO is amazing not only for the skill system, but for the fact that we can really do anything we want. It's a giant, endless world that we can explore for hours upon hours and still not see all of it. It's not about grabbing a party and doing a quest. UO, to me, is still about adventuring, or becoming a player killer, or becoming really anything for that matter. WoW makes it simple for the stupid. UO is the school of hard knocks.

Be proud.

Best,
Tryken.

Instances--- Seem to me like someone who died too often in a fel dungeon (probably before there was a tram) so they thought... "Ha! I'll fix that! Now no one can raid, PK, mob, or get "MY" loot!"


I don't play WoW... my kids do though. Funny thing is they are always telling me how much IT is like UO ... not the other way around. In fact, there are many many games that show the UO influence.

Just my two gold...

What happened was simple. Everquest. DAoC. AC. AO. Lineage. And multiple others. I left UO just after AoS, but not because of AoS. I left because, at that time, EA felt that the Sims Online should be their flagship MMO, and UO was to be nothing more than the step child that wouldn't move out of the basement. Didn't work out that way, it seems.

Ended up moving over to EQ, and was there for 4 years. After getting more and more and more expansions rammed down our throats, and the continual grind to try to remain at the top of the food chain, it was finally just too much.

I came back to UO for a couple reasons. The primary one was because, if I wanted to do something that took a short duration, I could. If I wanted to do a long, involved quest, I could. The fact that this is still the only MMO that has housing like we do is a big plus. And, like a vast majority of people playing, PvP was not a consideration.

The other night, at a player run auction, someone remembered my player from years ago, and asked if I still had my Fel house, and if I still crafted armor, did repairs for reds, etc. My response was that I do not even enter Fel anymore.

Unlike days gone by, there is no honor there anymore. People used to respect the residents that lived there, especially those that were an active part of the community. Now, everyone is just a target for a gank squad, or a victim of some supposed RP miner/LJ killer.

Thanks, but no. The biggest change to PvP wasn't the game. The biggest change to PvP was the community. It wouldn't matter if they made a shard that was day 1 introduced. The PvP community isn't the same as it was, regardless of how many people want to claim to be 9-10 year veterans. Which, at a guess, might actually be 1/10th of the people claiming it.

I played UO back in 2000 and 2001. I miss this game so much. Everything from fighting bone knights to gm melee skills, to using the boat trick to gm a mage, to camping a house that is about to fall, to pvping at the yew moongate. This game was amazing. I have tried to play other games like WoW, and EQ but they just cant compare. I think UO is trying to become too much like other games. It was most likely becuase of stupid ass EA, becuase after they bought it out it started going downhill. This game has changed so much. I reactivated my account a few months ago to go see how things were (and all my chars were deleted,wtf?) so I created a new char to go around to some of the old pvp spots...they were dead silent, not a single person. This game will never be what it once was, and its too bad.

The game will never be what it once was, but it has only gotten better.

I used to play on Pacific, I dont know if I remember you though, its been a long while. Anyways I might give the game another chance if all my characters didnt get deleted, does anyone know why this happened?