I think if they set up a classic UO shard a lot of people would go there. I think a lot will leave after awhile when they see the new advancements UO takes but quite a few will stay. Would probably be a good sized shard. Wouldnt be much maintenance, but I dont think EA will add anything extra to it IE: No new quests, no new items, (including vet rewards) The shard would probably be sort of neglected just the usual repairs and no updates. A lot of people in my day left UO because they did everything possible the game had to offer. Then LBR came out and most of them came back. People get bored. But if you dont get bored with a classic UO that will never have anything new then by all means vote for a server. You will never see me on it because I like new things and challenges. "Can't dwell in the past forever"

many companies have intro'd retro products.. there is a desire to relive or hold on to the past by many in todays world... a simpler time... which is what I think the draw is to a "classic" shard....

And as with the comment made by a few on stractics on the idea that 2D will not get any new content and only KR will is wrong as if EA sees that either the client or such a classic shard is generating revenue.. maybe at a set amount they (EA) will invest in such shard or client... I dont think Siege is generating enough due to EA outright having stated a couple of times last year that they need more players on it before they will do anything for it... in fact EA hinted at that the shard just maybe shut down... but a new group has come in since those statements so who knows now what their view is on Siege... but regardless if there is money being generated EA will invest back in it... in some way or the other...

my feelings on it at least

I agree totally. If it makes EA money they will do it. All the money they spent trying to keep people from leaving UO they should have invested that is a classic server. Ive seen such things before when I worked on the online game Counter-Strike. Many people didnt like the newest version so they created servers for just the old. The problem was you still need to maintain those server and update them according to the advancement of computers. Some of the older UO scripts wont work for many new computer today. They would have to take the time to change this. Many companys have created emulaters or reworked scripts to play older games. Heck you can go download space invader the first version from the atari 2600 onto your computer. EA can make a classic UO shard. Its just a matter of how many people will play on it and if it will generate revenue. In my opinion I think it will make enough money to continue funtion. Not so much of having great support or latencey. Just enough to get by.

Yes, dyes were "hard" to come by, but those were for the rarest colors (purple and scarlet), other colors were not so difficult to come by and were in fact utilized in clothing/decorating. Again, my point was strictly that medieval times were NOT grey/black/white.

If they made a classic UO shard and implented the new changes (AoS etc.) according with the old system (old resist, combat etc.) and continued developing new stuff in accordance with the old system, I think the shard would be absolutely huge. I think it would take out WoW or whatever garbage is currently #1. Yes, even with those "bad" 2D graphics. UO has the potential to be the best MMORPG. A few years back UO already had that title but for some reason they changed everything.

Sure, there would be the few grippers who take the game far too seriously and would scoff at the shard but who cares.

exactly. i can't for the life of me figure out why they haven't already done that. a test shard shouldn't take much off their resources

that would be just perfect. i'm pretty sure most of the people requesting a classic shard are NOT looking for quests or new items

I played on a pre-AoS shard for 6 years, and i love OSI!

There are something that make so much more sense now, like the resists work well!
I guess i like it more because the roleplay community doesnt use all these magic items, maybe you should all come to Europa? ;)

But yeah, its a shame that UO has become SO magic item orientated like WoW, but you can still fight without them you know?

You sure can. But even though I like to RPG, I still like to play "seriously" if you know what I mean.

seriously, has anyone tried to recently contact EA and ask them about a classic shard? the last time i heard them state anything about it was 2+ years ago.

I just came across this, and don't know why I hadn't posted it before.

A lot of people are saying it would be hard for them to know what exactly the game was like before trammel. I will argue that it would be extremely simple. Uo.com has kept track of every update since the end of 1999, almost a year before the reniassance publish. All they would have to do is undo all of the changes made since that publish, as they are all detailed in the latest updates list:

Latest updates: http://update.uo.com/latest.html

Reniassance publish: http://update.uo.com/design_196.html

I've played UO when it first came out, before Trammel. *swoons* Such great times!

I was never a PK, but I loved that if you ventured out of the cities, you'd have to listen footsteps and be alert. So realistic!

What made UO so great back in those days is, bad things could happen to you. No matter where you were in the world, you were never 100% safe, much like in real life.

Even in the middle of town next to the west brit bank, three mages might try to drop FS's on you before the guards killed them.

With the addition of trammel, this was lost. No more were you forced to deal with these problems. If you wanted to risk getting PKd, you could just go to fel, and take that risk. If you didn't want that risk, you could stay in tram. This became a risk no longer. Going to fel meant you were ready to pvp, and thus all sense of risk was lost. It was merely a calculated chance which you would be prepared for.