FoF : What about SA?

**Tabbitha** · 06-02-2008, 05:28 AM

Recently asked by simonovsk

At this point, and since the dev team must have kind of settled in, it would be great to hear about SA wouldn't it?

Like, is it still supposed to be released sometime? Still worked on?

Anything really would be good, not even necessarily the truth, but something to aknowledge SA and give us something to look forward.

What do you think? Anyone's got infos?

~~~~

Babble thinks

My guess is they collect developers then try to repair KR and then see if there are enough players to warrant SA.

and malice123 agreed

100% agree , do you get the sense we are getting ignored?

~~~~

Not so as Bob proved

Greetings all,

The UO Team has settled in nicely and it's great to have them on-site. There have been a number of meetings regarding our short-term and long-term goals and plans, and the most effective way to meet those. Yes, we have things coming, including much more information. No, we aren't ready to share that information yet. Granted that's not much of an answer other than to say that we have lots in store for UO and you are going to have to wait a bit longer to find out. We know the community wants more info and we are doing everything we can to speed up this process.

Bob
Community Relations Director
EA Mythic

~~~~

Ive omitted to post over the flames Bob's post received,as they didnt say anything new

.The OP did respond with

Well it's actualy nice to hear something, and I'm not very happy with the people flaming Bob.

We've got to be patient here fellas, as we're still trying to establish contact. Do you think anyone will post anything if you react violently everytime you're not satisfied? Be smart, what we need is informations, and we like them to come often.

Thanks a lot for answering Robert. Although this is a bit evasive, it's way better than nothing, and we greatly apreciate hearing from you.
I can't help but notice you didn't address our main concern in this thread tho, which was a future extension to our game. It used to be called Stygian Abyss, is it still the working title? Or has it been postponed, which we could perfectly understand, but if so, then in which direction are you looking now?

Thank you for your time anyway, take care.

~~~~
Flutter posted some thing that was responded to

Bob put yourself on this side of the coin a moment then reread your post. "We have stuff on the way but we can't tell you anything" reads like "Just keep payin your fees guys we'll throw something in eventually" it's something we'd finally gotten out of hearing only to have it tossed back out there again. Can we just admit that firing most of our team and moving the few left to the other side of the country was a bad move? Can we just say "Sorry guys the heads at EAMythic really screwed up and it's going to be a while before we get back on our feet. We have nothing for you for now on the future of the game because we just don't know." and leave it at that? No more dangling carrots.
Instead of "Ooo we have some fun things planned that we can't tell you about yet." just give us the truth "Sorry for your bad luck but we've got nothing for you till the dust settles and we train some people on what UO is."
Eh?

I completely understand your view on this. My options are two-fold right now:

1) Say nothing until we have something to say.

2) At least let you guys know that work is preceding, things are getting done, and the sky is not falling.

At least with option #2 you know something, however minor, and you also know we hear you and you aren't shouting into a void. The minute we can say more, we will.

Community Relations Director
EA Mythic

~~~~

Adam UOForums made a good point

Bob, why not post updates on the main page of UO.com, to show stuff is being done?

Like the update centre, that used to show what was being developed, what was in concept etc, but those areas were removed

Even if it's miniscule things, at least we could stuff was being done

~~~~

JCB picked up on one of Bob's points

2) At least let you guys know that work is preceding, things are getting done, and the sky is not falling.

By now saying that some information is coming soon means absolutely nothing to us as players because rarely does it materialize. For example, Jeremy said 3 weeks ago that some plans were being published soon. Then she recants the following week.

You are also giving conflicting information here by saying the development team is hard at work when Jeremy today mentions someone is not in because they are still moving.

which brought this reply from Jeremy

Mesanna's the last to move - everyone else is finishing the check-ins for next week's publish. They are certainly hard at work - although of course you won't see the fruits of their labor until the publish actually hits Test.

E. Jeremy Dalberg
UO Community Coordinator
EA Mythic
www.uo.com

Quote pallas only because Jeremy replied to her post

Right right because GOD FORBID we have any idea what may be on said publish before it hits other than vague notions of an event or runic changes. Yes, I'd hate to see what WoW might do if they grabbed hold of THAT info. /rolls eyes

~~~~

The last set of checkins are going in today - so I'm not sure what all has made it, other than some UI fixes for KR, some can't-cancel-quest fixes, stuff like that. (Well, and the event, of course.) Won't have an actual QA-checked list until mid-next-week. This is, of course, why we usually don't talk about publishes until the last minute - they can be pretty nebulous for rather a long time.

E. Jeremy Dalberg
UO Community Coordinator
EA Mythic
www.uo.com

~~~~

On a slightly ot niote Yewish News asked

Does anyone have anything positive to say about Ultima Online's development team and leadership?

even though pallas posted

I think Draconi means well.

Uhm...

There's Draconi, and, uhm...

He worked hard on a LOT of the events (whether you loved them or not)...

... and uhm...

... did I mention Draconi? I think he has a lot of heart about what UO should be. Yeah.

and Uriah Heep

*raises hand and glances around,*
Yes, I do.

I'm positive the silence has been deafening.
I'm positive that most all of the people I talk to, are disgruntled, and barely hanging on.
I'm positive, that there is no way in H#$% we are gonna see an increase in players, unless they change...
I am positive that the majority of my friends have left, and more are on the way out.
I am positive, taht a lot of long time well known vets have left, quite a few of em in disgust.
I am positive that the game i am currently logged into while I type this, seriously brings to mind the phrase "zombiefied".

I am positive that I really really don't care what the layout of the website looks like, as that has entirely no effect on my gaming experience,and that time could be better spent elsewhere.
Having said that, I am positive most of us would like to see more updated info, no matter what design it was.

Jeremy managed to prove them wrong

And Leurocian, and Mesanna, and Supreem, and Serado, and Grimm, and Yvette, whose handle I can NEVER remember, and Chrissay, who's new to the dev side but kicking ass and taking names, and a number of other people that I have to go remind to write intro posts for themselves.

This is a team full of die-hard UO loyalists - say what you like about management, marketing, or me, but never doubt that the folks on the ground are busting various body parts, every day.

and as we all now know,two posts from Dev's have indeed fired up some positive enthusiasm.

Skipping several pages of 'normal ' Stratics posts,Ill end this report with a post from Evinyatar

I truly fail to see why people fuss against Robert for his post. I found it very clear and explanatory:

- The UO Dev team has lost able people.
- The Team is settling into a new location. It quite obviously has been disillusionned and can't be the most motivated team out there given the state of UO and funding into UO operations.
- Quite frankly the quality of developpers has been below standard for a few years now. Who can blame them? If you were a hotshot developper, would you apply for a job working on UO or would you rather pick one of the new young 'stars'?
- UO has entered 'Maintain-mode' for over 6-7 years now. I do not believe things like KR were really an attempt to regain a substantial playerbase. The object was to maintain the playerbase a little while longer with minimal effort. The necessary desire to invest the money it would take to put UO up to par simply isn't there.
- The overall management (or funding as you'll read later) of UO is pittiful. 'Keeping secrets' or because nothing is 'set in stone yet' are no reasons to keep people in the dark about new features, expansions, web-site revisions and upcoming marketing campaigns. It's either due to louzy project management or lack of funding to complete said projects. As an outsider, ever since Designer Dragon left I personally have seen the UO dev team as a collection of individuals all working on their own pet projects in their own special way. No overall goal of what the focus was going to be nor how it was going to be achieved.

Given all that, what do you want a member of said team to say? All of the above? That wouldn't help the situation either. Unless if the goal was to drive even more players away and close up shop (and jobs) sooner. No, they put up a facade that things are coming and everything is not so gloomy because....quite frankly what else can they do?

The best thing EA can do is go back to basics. What market are we trying to capture with our MMORPG? What does it take to be succesful within that market? What's the cost/benefit ratio of attacking that marketshare? What's the best tool to achieve it?

Don't think they're as thick as they come. I'm willing to wager they've posed those questions a long time ago. I'm also willing to wager that the current UO shell wasn't the answer they came up with. Wether or not the new Warhammer Online is going to be an answer is another matter altogether. UO is around for one reason and one reason only: It still makes money. But in order to continue doing so you very occasionaly need to throw the players a bone (KR, half arsed expansions etc etc) but above all reduce costs (less devs or less qualified devs, less resources, etc etc).

Personally I find the current state of UO quite logical given the choices EA made. Don't shoot Robert, he's actually saying the only thing he can say given the state of affairs. Nomatter how pittiful it is. Many are contemplating on wether or not to hang around. Would the playerbase be larger or smaller if they actually came out and said UO is in 'Maintain-mode' and they're going to bet on another horse?

**Adam** · 06-02-2008, 05:39 AM

Wonder where the intro posts will be posted.
Heh

06-02-2008, 05:28 AM	#1 (permalink)
Tabbitha Administrator Join Date: Mar 2006 Shard: Europa Posts: 5,450 Thanks: 9 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	FoF : What about SA? Recently asked by simonovsk At this point, and since the dev team must have kind of settled in, it would be great to hear about SA wouldn't it? Like, is it still supposed to be released sometime? Still worked on? Anything really would be good, not even necessarily the truth, but something to aknowledge SA and give us something to look forward. What do you think? Anyone's got infos? ~~~~ Babble thinks My guess is they collect developers then try to repair KR and then see if there are enough players to warrant SA. and malice123 agreed 100% agree , do you get the sense we are getting ignored? ~~~~ Not so as Bob proved Greetings all, The UO Team has settled in nicely and it's great to have them on-site. There have been a number of meetings regarding our short-term and long-term goals and plans, and the most effective way to meet those. Yes, we have things coming, including much more information. No, we aren't ready to share that information yet. Granted that's not much of an answer other than to say that we have lots in store for UO and you are going to have to wait a bit longer to find out. We know the community wants more info and we are doing everything we can to speed up this process. Bob Community Relations Director EA Mythic ~~~~ Ive omitted to post over the flames Bob's post received,as they didnt say anything new .The OP did respond with Well it's actualy nice to hear something, and I'm not very happy with the people flaming Bob. We've got to be patient here fellas, as we're still trying to establish contact. Do you think anyone will post anything if you react violently everytime you're not satisfied? Be smart, what we need is informations, and we like them to come often. Thanks a lot for answering Robert. Although this is a bit evasive, it's way better than nothing, and we greatly apreciate hearing from you. I can't help but notice you didn't address our main concern in this thread tho, which was a future extension to our game. It used to be called Stygian Abyss, is it still the working title? Or has it been postponed, which we could perfectly understand, but if so, then in which direction are you looking now? Thank you for your time anyway, take care. ~~~~ Flutter posted some thing that was responded to Bob put yourself on this side of the coin a moment then reread your post. "We have stuff on the way but we can't tell you anything" reads like "Just keep payin your fees guys we'll throw something in eventually" it's something we'd finally gotten out of hearing only to have it tossed back out there again. Can we just admit that firing most of our team and moving the few left to the other side of the country was a bad move? Can we just say "Sorry guys the heads at EAMythic really screwed up and it's going to be a while before we get back on our feet. We have nothing for you for now on the future of the game because we just don't know." and leave it at that? No more dangling carrots. Instead of "Ooo we have some fun things planned that we can't tell you about yet." just give us the truth "Sorry for your bad luck but we've got nothing for you till the dust settles and we train some people on what UO is." Eh? I completely understand your view on this. My options are two-fold right now: 1) Say nothing until we have something to say. 2) At least let you guys know that work is preceding, things are getting done, and the sky is not falling. At least with option #2 you know something, however minor, and you also know we hear you and you aren't shouting into a void. The minute we can say more, we will. Community Relations Director EA Mythic ~~~~ Adam UOForums made a good point Bob, why not post updates on the main page of UO.com, to show stuff is being done? Like the update centre, that used to show what was being developed, what was in concept etc, but those areas were removed Even if it's miniscule things, at least we could stuff was being done ~~~~ JCB picked up on one of Bob's points 2) At least let you guys know that work is preceding, things are getting done, and the sky is not falling. By now saying that some information is coming soon means absolutely nothing to us as players because rarely does it materialize. For example, Jeremy said 3 weeks ago that some plans were being published soon. Then she recants the following week. You are also giving conflicting information here by saying the development team is hard at work when Jeremy today mentions someone is not in because they are still moving. which brought this reply from Jeremy Mesanna's the last to move - everyone else is finishing the check-ins for next week's publish. They are certainly hard at work - although of course you won't see the fruits of their labor until the publish actually hits Test. E. Jeremy Dalberg UO Community Coordinator EA Mythic www.uo.com Quote pallas only because Jeremy replied to her post Right right because GOD FORBID we have any idea what may be on said publish before it hits other than vague notions of an event or runic changes. Yes, I'd hate to see what WoW might do if they grabbed hold of THAT info. /rolls eyes ~~~~ The last set of checkins are going in today - so I'm not sure what all has made it, other than some UI fixes for KR, some can't-cancel-quest fixes, stuff like that. (Well, and the event, of course.) Won't have an actual QA-checked list until mid-next-week. This is, of course, why we usually don't talk about publishes until the last minute - they can be pretty nebulous for rather a long time. E. Jeremy Dalberg UO Community Coordinator EA Mythic www.uo.com ~~~~ On a slightly ot niote Yewish News asked Does anyone have anything positive to say about Ultima Online's development team and leadership? even though pallas posted I think Draconi means well. Uhm... There's Draconi, and, uhm... He worked hard on a LOT of the events (whether you loved them or not)... ... and uhm... ... did I mention Draconi? I think he has a lot of heart about what UO should be. Yeah. and Uriah Heep raises hand and glances around, Yes, I do. I'm positive the silence has been deafening. I'm positive that most all of the people I talk to, are disgruntled, and barely hanging on. I'm positive, that there is no way in H#$% we are gonna see an increase in players, unless they change... I am positive that the majority of my friends have left, and more are on the way out. I am positive, taht a lot of long time well known vets have left, quite a few of em in disgust. I am positive that the game i am currently logged into while I type this, seriously brings to mind the phrase "zombiefied". I am positive that I really really don't care what the layout of the website looks like, as that has entirely no effect on my gaming experience,and that time could be better spent elsewhere. Having said that, I am positive most of us would like to see more updated info, no matter what design it was. Jeremy managed to prove them wrong And Leurocian, and Mesanna, and Supreem, and Serado, and Grimm, and Yvette, whose handle I can NEVER remember, and Chrissay, who's new to the dev side but kicking ass and taking names, and a number of other people that I have to go remind to write intro posts for themselves. This is a team full of die-hard UO loyalists - say what you like about management, marketing, or me, but never doubt that the folks on the ground are busting various body parts, every day. and as we all now know,two posts from Dev's have indeed fired up some positive enthusiasm. Skipping several pages of 'normal ' Stratics posts,Ill end this report with a post from Evinyatar I truly fail to see why people fuss against Robert for his post. I found it very clear and explanatory: - The UO Dev team has lost able people. - The Team is settling into a new location. It quite obviously has been disillusionned and can't be the most motivated team out there given the state of UO and funding into UO operations. - Quite frankly the quality of developpers has been below standard for a few years now. Who can blame them? If you were a hotshot developper, would you apply for a job working on UO or would you rather pick one of the new young 'stars'? - UO has entered 'Maintain-mode' for over 6-7 years now. I do not believe things like KR were really an attempt to regain a substantial playerbase. The object was to maintain the playerbase a little while longer with minimal effort. The necessary desire to invest the money it would take to put UO up to par simply isn't there. - The overall management (or funding as you'll read later) of UO is pittiful. 'Keeping secrets' or because nothing is 'set in stone yet' are no reasons to keep people in the dark about new features, expansions, web-site revisions and upcoming marketing campaigns. It's either due to louzy project management or lack of funding to complete said projects. As an outsider, ever since Designer Dragon left I personally have seen the UO dev team as a collection of individuals all working on their own pet projects in their own special way. No overall goal of what the focus was going to be nor how it was going to be achieved. Given all that, what do you want a member of said team to say? All of the above? That wouldn't help the situation either. Unless if the goal was to drive even more players away and close up shop (and jobs) sooner. No, they put up a facade that things are coming and everything is not so gloomy because....quite frankly what else can they do? The best thing EA can do is go back to basics. What market are we trying to capture with our MMORPG? What does it take to be succesful within that market? What's the cost/benefit ratio of attacking that marketshare? What's the best tool to achieve it? Don't think they're as thick as they come. I'm willing to wager they've posed those questions a long time ago. I'm also willing to wager that the current UO shell wasn't the answer they came up with. Wether or not the new Warhammer Online is going to be an answer is another matter altogether. UO is around for one reason and one reason only: It still makes money. But in order to continue doing so you very occasionaly need to throw the players a bone (KR, half arsed expansions etc etc) but above all reduce costs (less devs or less qualified devs, less resources, etc etc). Personally I find the current state of UO quite logical given the choices EA made. Don't shoot Robert, he's actually saying the only thing he can say given the state of affairs. Nomatter how pittiful it is. Many are contemplating on wether or not to hang around. Would the playerbase be larger or smaller if they actually came out and said UO is in 'Maintain-mode' and they're going to bet on another horse? __________________ Ultima Online: Tabbitha LOTR :Tabbitha Greywolfe Snowbourn The Shire

06-02-2008, 05:39 AM	#2 (permalink)
Adam Owner Join Date: Oct 1990 Posts: 5,642 Thanks: 12 Thanked 107 Times in 37 Posts My Mood:	Re: FoF : What about SA? Wonder where the intro posts will be posted. Heh __________________ Question: If you can't say anything nice should you really say nothing at all? Answer: If you weren't asked for your opinion then keep a lid on it. But if asked, be tactful as possible but be honest.