Posted on UO Stratics:

Player: when you have players seriously contemplating the future of a game beyond pretty pixels, it just seems odd to me that the devs are so silent.

CatHat: Yeah - iI've noticed that too - its likely due to an array of reasons - most pretty obvious i suppose.

- I think some of it is a personality thing with some of the people. Perhaps some of the devs just prefer to wait to have stuff done in hand, and never want to be wrong about any annoucements. Some also might not want to come forward about sticky issues if they have no instant resolution and worry about a rock nailing em between the eyes when it comes to unpopular topics.

Me - I tend to have very little fear - and don't worry about either being wrong and look like an ass or worry about taking a well deserved beating about an idea - lol.

The new Dev folk have inherited a lot of work - often they're told 'you' have have left this broken for years - when in fact they might have been recruited less than a year. Perhaps thats some of it too.

There is of course things we fix and work on that are always 'hush hush' until its felt prudent to even start talking about it. So many things in game devlopment get started, shelved, and either never see the light of day, or come out WAAY LATER than expected. When you have people loudly counting the days something was said past due - gets stressful for both Dev and community involved.

Lastly of course - many of the Devs hired in this new regime simply aren't yet into the habit of communicating directly with their customer base and player community. This is something relatively new with MMOGs and with UO being one of the oldest we have a very active community. Probably take some of them time to get used to it all.

Happily though - quiet or not - the other Dev's really have got their stuff together. Probably part of the reason i don't mind speaking up about things i'm working on with them. *well that and my formentioned lack of sense of self perservation

Player: a *historical* LACK of consistancy in UO's storyline assets.

CatHat: Oh i totally know what your saying here - I totally feel it too. When it came to some of the ex-producers following the old school ULTIMA history they really drove off the road with the introduction of the elves. Elves being such a small, nearly non-existant UO race or at least in the UO storyline. Gargoyles, Orcs and a handful of other creatures and races played a much larger part in UO history. People also roleplayed other UO races more as well.
I suppose this is more of a case of someone adding to UO - much like MacFarlane did with his cyber/steam blackthorn beasties. Whether or not i totally agree with everthing they did i'm living with it. Actually dispite some of my differences in opinion in the execution of many details - i play elves almost exclusively these days. So i guess they showed me huh? LOL I dunno. I agree they coulda stuck better to the UO history - but still. they were right that many people would enjoy playing elves reguarless of the UO history.

Dang them. :grin: :grin: :grin

:

I like Cat's attitude. However, I disagree with the elve's theory. Entire guilds across all the shards didn't quit UO because Elve's weren't introduced to the game.

The Orcs did though.

Cat likes being the first in line to get pelted with a rock.. but hey at least he speaks up and doesn't fear us...lol

I can live with it, too, but I hope this is a sign that even though the lore of UO has gotten way off-track, the current developers will strive to return Sosaria to what it was supposed to be. The game just doesn't feel as Ultima-ish as it used to feel.

Actually, I can 'live' with a great many things, as long as it remains the same general type of fantasy and doesn't wander off into 'futuristic' styles. While playing console games I found I lost interest very quickly when the 'sequel' to a great game came up in some dark futuristic realm. That would be one of the fastest and surest ways to get me to stop playing!

I'm something of an Ultima lore purist and generally dislike nearly everything that doesn't fit in with the world of the original Ultima games... which I'll admit is silly since the Sosaria of UO has little to do with the Sosaria of Ultimas II-IX. But I can't help liking that particular lore.

Hated the idea of elves, have learned to live with it as best as I can - since folks in the RP circles have played elves for ages already it didn't change all that much, just bummed me out that the game now officially has them. It was somehow different when folks playing UO just chose to RP them.

Kinda like I don't agree with drow in Sosaria either, but can live with people RPing them... but it would bug the hell out of me if EA decided to introduce an actual Underdark to UO and make drow "official".

Enough with the rambling, the bottom line is elves stink, gargoyles pwn and CatHat pwns as well :grin:

I've never played any of the previous Ultima games, nor did I read up on any of the fiction, but I enjoyed the game when it was basically old style, then came LBR and they introduced those weird mechanical things, which to me, just seemed wrong.
But, people adapted, some quit, some stayed
I don't know, it just seemed to lose track after that
Power scrolls, neon items, AOS etc.

I blame those (players not devs) who came to UO from other games. They enjoy the amount of content available.. but wanted the pixel crack and lack of risk/challenge that they enjoyed in the other games. They screamed for it loud enough.. and got what they asked for until we are where we are today. Bathing in a game which has lost its historical roots and offers zero risk for those who wish to play Sims Online: Ultima Online.

Agreed, although I am one of those that came from another game, I left it because UO was so much better, and didn't want to see what I saw in the game I left to show up in UO. Unfortunately I'm still roughly new to UO, and don't know much of anything before SE, played a few months before it came out and didn't realize how SE basically farted in UO Lore's face. I was thinking of looking into UO's past, but then I'd probly be disappointed so I'll join the ingorant and enjoy the bliss.

Other games should be looked at for ideas, not copy/pasted as I've noticed some things have been.

You should grab a copy of the Ultima Collection.. copies are available on Amazon and Ebay for as little as $5.. has I-X and Underworld I&II... by the time you play V in completion you'll be sobbing your eyes out when you see how much UO got bastardized over the years. *cries a little*

Edit: in hindsight though.. I think it was II or III that had a spaceship in it.. gawd.. on the other hand I'm glad UO history wasn't taken verbatim.. *snickers*