on UOHall.com a player called for everyone to back the devs

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Because UO CAN now have a future. They ALL NEED our support with this - PEOPLE!

This was one response that was posted

'When they give me a reason to back them up, I will. This whole "We cant tell you but dont worry, its cool. and its coming 'soon'" crap isn't good enough. '

to which Wilki promptly replied


The alternative is to do it like the old days and say absolutely nothing at all.

More 'player moa...err 'comments


COMMENT

Actually Wilki, in this particular case that might've been preferable. That way, rather than having to deal with this whole merger and finish the "secret" while being pounded on by your pissed off playerbase, you'd be doing it without any pounding from your oblivious playerbase.

*shrug*

and
COMMENT

Wilki,

It's just that a LOT of us love the game and things like what has happened disturb us. Think back to what your thoughts would have been when you were just a player of UO like us.

Frustration and worried are the words that come to mind.

Be well!

WILKI

I definitely understand the anguish over the delay in the Inu event. If I've come across as otherwise, I apologize.

What I want everyone to understand is that this doesn't appear to be a bad thing, there aren't any plans for our team to be yanked away from UO, and when Darkscribe said this could result in even better things than what we had planned, he really meant it.

However, since the deal isn't finalized, there really isn't much hard info to go on yet. We're pretty much in the same boat as you are... we're waiting and seeing what comes out of this. If it makes any difference, I'm personally not too worried about the acquisition - keep in mind this is my livelihood. :-)


COMMENT

I understand the reasoning behind the announcement/non-announcement...etc. Things go on behind the scenes that tie your hands, or happen that you are not aware of....

However. Publish 37. PvP publish. Going on Publish 42. Diminishing Returns. Diminishing Returns scrapped. Proficiencies. Proficiencies put on hold.

Can you tell us where we are on the PvP publish, or the entire re-working of the game publish, or whatever the heck it is that ya'll are planning to do publish?

Has it become subordinated to whatever the hell is going on now (either the unannounced announcement or whatever happened to make the announcement unannounced)?

Inquiring minds want to know....renewal times are coming up.....AGAIN (I mean, really....publish 37 to now.......?)


WILKI

There are two categories of PvP changes... the smaller kind that include various tweaks to existing functionality, which include a lot of what you personally think needs to be addressed - see I DO read your posts :-), and the big changes that we want to make, which includes profeciencies (or whatever actually comes out of it in the end.)

We've been looking at doing smaller, faster publishes so that we can more effieciently get content and bug fixes out the door. As it is, sometimes we have smaller changes that wait for a month because of something larger that isn't finished, which isn't the ideal scenario. What we have on our plate now is the stuff for the 9th anniversary box, and vet rewards, along with some smaller combat changes and bug fixes. Instead of lumping that all into one publish and calling it Pub42, we may just finish something, publish it, finish something else, publish it, etc.

And then we have Punkbuster looming large over everything, and how much time that takes up really depends on how the beta test goes. The more time we have to spend fixing issues with PB, the less that will be dedicated to other things. We won't know until we get there.

And I concede your point about the PvP stuff being pushed back. I'm quite aware of it, because I want to get combat in better shape just as much as anyone (and crafting too!), but with everything in flux at the moment, I really don't know exactly how and when we'll be adjusting PvP. I'm not even going to give you a "in pubXX", because things do keep changing, and we need to stop doing that to you guys. It's not fair, and I apologize.

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Do you not remember the 'In Concept' and 'In Development' parts of the UO.com site? A few years back we were given a LOT more insight into things the team was working on, even if some of them never saw the light of day. Granted, ppl were not always happy we didnt see some of these things (wedding stuff, customized faces) but at least we knew the team was WORKING. We even got chances to see some of the stuff being worked on. We KNEW things were going on. Now... not so much.



And how many of those things made it into the game?

Is the appearance of doing something really so important that we should post lots of ideas that we have, even if they really don't have much chance of being implemented anytime soon? Getting people excited about something, and then not doing it isn't a good thing. Yes, I know that's happened in the past, and now with the Inu event, but purposefully doing that is just unfair to our players.

You were about to find out what exactly we've been doing, but unfortunately that announcement had to be delayed do to events that weren't under our control. I know players were disappointed with all the time they had spent unraveling the Inu event, but I can assure you that we who took part in making those events were just as excited as you were about the announcement.

As for the other thing we've been doing... we can't talk about it now, and you'll understand exactly why that is when you do eventually find out. I know you hate to hear that, but really, you'll understand. I promise. Yes, you can quote me on that.

Listen, you tow the company line very, very well. You are an excellent 'yes' man as a spokesman to have their backs. At the end of the day, however, you KNOW we are given NO insight into anything nowadays and for you to state otherwise is pretty much a bold faced lie.

Please stop insulting the customer base. The majority of them are not morons. Thanks.

WILKI

Well, I guess you can call me a liar then, because I don't remember a community person for UO being as straightforward as I am about things. An example of that would be my reply last month about revamping the stealing skill. When is the last time you've heard an official rep tell you, "Yes, that's broken, but we don't have plans to fix it anytime soon." Looking at reps for other games, it seems that someone in this role should have more "spin", but that's just not something I'm capable of.

There is an unannounced project where the announcement has been delayed, so I can't tell you more about that. I've been answering questions about Punkbuster to the best of my knowledge, and taking your questions where I don't know the answer and forwarding them to PB (see last week's FoF). Those are the two main things we have going on right now, EA Japan just shipped a new box that we developed some items for, and we've got proficiencies and other PvP tweaks that need to be done as soon as we can get to them. Today was the first day back for most of us after the holiday, so nothing has changed since last Friday. I'm really not sure what exactly what else it is that you think I should be talking about.

If you've got questions other than about the project and/or Mythic, the former of which I can't say anything about, the latter I don't know anything else about, then I'll do my best to answer them.



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So please dont be fooled to think everything is ok because you hide behind Stratics moderation that censors all criticism immediatly, even if you refuse to acknowledge it a very large portion of the fanbase is extremely angry and upset right now and everything you say to them short of revealing the plans will just be perceived as an attack or an insult, more so with half-truth statements and word games that are incredibly condescending.

WILKI


Can someone find MrTact's infamous "crack pipe" post, cause I think it might be useful here. :-)

Kidding!

Seriously though, do you *really* think this board is full of adulation for EA and the UO dev team? Is there a version of Uhall with the training wheels still on that I'm unaware of? Because this forum is full of criticism, as your still very much uncensored post is proof of. Do you think I like people calling what I say "half-truth" and accusing me of playing word games? Of course not. Yet, amazingly, your post is still here almost three hours later!

There is a reason why we use Uhall, despite it's rowdy nature at times, and that is precisely because this is where players go to tell us how it is from their perspective.

I read other UO forums where personal insults are the norm and if you defend anything that the UO team does, you're automatically attacked by a horde of foul mouthed peope. I suppose if you compare that atmosphere to UHall, then sure, it is censored. I think most of the people who come here would agree that's a good thing.

Tabbitha's COMMENT



Some support thread this turned out to be !! Im just glad you werent all asked to have a moan.
Give the Dev's a break guys as already stated,they are only doing there jobs,and trying to keep us as updated as possible.

Fortunately we don't get plauged by the doofuses here on the UO Forums -

It's nice.

:grin: :grin: :grin:

CatHat

Lol..:grin:

Remember to tell the other devs that

You know what, we should be thankful that the developers and UO reps actually talk to their playerbase. They could just put out the game and thats it. Accept it or shut up. Soooooooooooooo unappreciative they are. How many games let their playerbase talk to their team the way UO does. Probably none. Dang nobody is EVER happy no matter what they do. Give em a break!!!!

Reminds me of the story long ago about ~

If you try to please everyone...

An old man, a boy & a donkey were going to town. The boy rode on the donkey & the old man walked. As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking & the boy was riding. The man & boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.

Later, they passed some people that remarked, "What a shame, he makes that little boy walk." They then decided they both would walk! Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the donkey.

Now they passed some people that shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey. The boy & man said they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey. As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal & he fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story? If you try to please everyone, you might as well...

Kiss your a$$ good-bye.


* Personally I think the open communication between the player base and the UO team over the last few years is
a good one. They try to tell us what they can, when they can, and they do listen to constructive feedback from players. (both criticism and complimentary)

I've always been a fan of the communications between the devs and the playerbase. They might not be able to dish out all of the information, but I've yet to be completely blindsided by a major game-altering change, which is a good thing.

I really avoid UHall - that place drains the very essense of intelligent lifeform.

I will be glad when PunkBuster comes out with an anti whine/troll/flame program for the forums. So our Devs can get back to developing instead of dealing with nonsense posts.

You can control cheating but you shouldn't control opinions. Let them whine, troll and flame. Who cares. Go past that.

I think Mythic will help UO out. I don't know what they have planned, but all the changes UO has gone through and each one was going to be the one that drove everyone away...and yet, there are still plenty of folks playing the game. Who knows how it will turn out...hopefully, new 3D...like the stuff in DAoC or better.

Nothing good every comes from whinning, trolling, or flaming. Realize that and you can move on. Any type of collaberation between Mythic and UO will be a blessing to all. Who knows they may even develop a new 3D engine.