Wilki, frustrated with the negativity on the Stratics U.Hall forum, speaks about the Blue Soulstone extension...

~~~~~~~~~

Player: So they either made alot of money from this promotion and want to milk it or they didnt make enough and have to extend it to break even....

Wilki: Of course we made money, as that's the point of running a business and having promotions. Without money making ventures, there wouldn't be a UO (or any other MMO for that matter).

The deadline was pushed back to give overseas players a chance to receive the copies of the 8th Age that they ordered at the same time as everyone else. These conspiracy theories are a bit perplexing, as extending the deadline doesn't create any additional demand for the product - i.e. those who wanted a Blue Soulstone have already bought the box. The handful of extra copies that will sell during the extended Soulstone period beyond the number that would've sold without a Soulstone isn't worth changing the date... making sure that players who actually bought the box early get what they paid for is very much a reason to extend the deadline.

It'd be nice to see a bit less negative conspiracy theorizing and a bit more taking things at face value.

Player: yet another broken promise by EA * shakes head in shame *

Wilki:Broken promise?

You mean this promise that was bolded at the top of uo.com over a month ago?

Note: If there are difficulties with distribution in Europe or Australia, the Blue Soulstone deadline will be extended to make sure all early buyers get their Blue Soulstone.

I'm glad we stuck to our word here, despite the revisionist history being put forth here.

Player: But that doesn't lessen the fact that EA doesn't have a clue how to run a promotion without screwing over those who take advantage of the early deadlines.

Wilki: How are you "screwed" because a deadline was extended? Either you would've bought the 8th Age box for a Soulstone or you wouldn't. If you bought it early, and got one, then what possible impact could extending the deadline to ensure that everyone who bought it early receives theirs as well have on you or your gameplay?

Again, we clearly said the deadline would be extended if we ran into distribution problems, which is exactly what happened. How on earth is anyone being "screwed"? The way I see it, we're preventing a lot of people from being "screwed" out of their Soulstones due to distribution problems. This is a good thing.

This forum really never ceases to amaze me.

Do I sound a bit frustrated? Good, because I am. It is becoming harder and harder to read this forum for any length of time, as the comments here have gone beyond normal criticism into the realm of finding the smallest flaw and nitpicking it until it's made out to be a huge crisis.

The mods can only do so much; it's really up to each of us in the community to shape the atmosphere of this forum so that it is a positive experience for everyone. These sorts of comments don't help accomplish that goal.

Exactly why I don't read 'that' forum anymore!!

indeed

Go Wilki! Lord I'm glad I don't have his job. He's a LOT nicer than I think I could be to those butt dots. *sigh* You know the problem of course? The ones complaining now can't make millions gold off the soul stones selling them to players who didn't get one.

In this case, EA did the right thing for their players and I, for one, am happy to see it. It's ethical and it's fair.

its actually pretty amazing, EA has been making a lot of good choices on how to handle things and the reps and devs still get BS from those asshats... simply amazing

They should give those guys a break. Some people are just never satisfied. No matter what the devs do, someone's gonna find something negative to complain about.

The UO community is truly getting overrun with sentiments like this. Its too bad...it used to be such a great place.

I think that they should go the route of illegalizing the sale of game items for cash. They should be able to word it as such that the sale of accounts, gametime codes, etc., would still be legal while removing the sale of resources and specialty items like soulstones and such...

Couldn't have said that better myself...

muhum.. maybe i hould head overtell that player to shut the hell up as i ordered my 8th age box back before the preorder stuff stopped and i still havent recieved my boxes as the plase is 'awaiting stock' ok there will be more soulstones around after this but he could just sit on his tokens untill they get back up to like about 6 mil to sell then sell them *sigh*

I think his gripe is that the longer the deadline is extened the more people will buy the 8th age and get a soul stone.. so they would be as rare and he wouldn't be able to sell them blah blah blah... thats just so terrible.. i can't believe the amount of suffering that poor !!!!!!! has to indure... lets just screw over thousands of people so the few people hording soul stones can make a few extra million.

Wilki's not a bad guy at all, if you know him personally, which I kinda do, he does work hard and is a real community person, imo.

Well, he claims he's busy, but I bet he's really pk'ing people with 1000% damage increase stuff
hehe j/k

i could actually see wilki being a pker you know would be comedy!