The reason I choose this topic for doing interview was because I know of a lot of people who like the idea of the Proficiency system, others that hate it, some that don't really understand it and a few that are partly leaving UO because of it.

So I wanted to find out what people were thinking about it.
I asked a wide variety of people, who have a variety of different things they enjoy about UO, the same Five questions.

And if you wish you can also respond to the same five questions in this post.
The questions are as follows:

1. What are you feelings about the up coming proficiency system?

2. Is there anything about the system that you think is something well needed? If so why or why not?

3. Is there anything about the new system that you are really dreading to see happen? Why or why not?

4. Overall do you think its a good change or a change for the worst for UO?

5. Any other thoughts or input you would like to give.

The first person who I interviewed was Tigerlily of SHE (Shadow Hunters Empire)

From : Tigerlily (SHE)
Its hard to say yes or no.. I can see how it will benefit the balance of pvp, perhaps to a more skill, experienced based level again. The arties really hurt us in that if you weren't decked out with all the arties you didn’t have a chance in hell.

It really took the thrill of the fight out of it for those that loved the challenge. However I think pvm will be affected to the point will anyone be able to solo a dragon again? Now i know that seems like a high level monster to some that shouldn't be solo able, but when you compare it to the
Tokuno and peerless it has dropped on the totem pole.

It seems to me they are pushing more for team hunting, which is nice but some peeps are loners....always have been and always will be and this really limits what they can do. I guess that over all change is inevitable in everything life and UO and we all adapt and move on. But I think it will take some time to see just whether or not this turns out to be a good thing or a bad thing however

I wish they would stop messing with our skills... lol you put a lot of time into 115 magic resist my suit should reflect that.. and on a side note.. I want my PH back!

The one thing that has changed that I really dislike is GGS. You don’t always get your gain daily. But PH you knew you had an hour a day that you could work and focus on that char and feel some sort of accomplishment when it was over.. where I hunt all day get .1 and its like big deal.. lol

as a final note.. I love UO, changes in all. Not so much the game itself but all the people that
have come into my life through this game. I have made friends that I value emensely and I know
that I never would have had the chance to be blessed with thier friendship if not for UO. What can
I say, Im just a softie


Second Interview was Rashad from uoforums!

Rashad
1.) I've got mixed feelings on the system, it 'Could' be really nice.. But I'm afraid that the dev team will end up coming up short.

2.) I don’t think any of it is really 'needed', as it is now in
UO, you have the haves and the have-nots.. as far as items go.. in an item based game, there'll always be something that you don’t have and want.. UO has become an item based game and it’s gotten out of control, things are no different now than they were when I first started playing.. you had the naked guy riding a horse with a blessed vanq hally.. now things are the same, just scaled up some to a guy riding an ethy with an arti suit on.. if you stop to think, its no different now than it was then..

3.) What I dread the most is change, change and overkill.. as I stated earlier...
it does have potential.. If it just gets applied right.. as it were first introduced/proposed, I
felt the number of Prof. slots were low.. a 7x100 or 6x120 char in 'other game' rules would be a high level character.. but giving that char 7 slots is basically busting that char back to 3rd -5th lvl?.. again, it comes down to change.. and change is what i dread the most.. 7 slots for Profs. would be overkill (over-nerf).. Just my opinion.

4.) Again, overall, it does have potential.. but I fear what we'll get as the end product.

5.)... I expressed some opinions in the previous 4 questions.. I've got many more opinions and thoughts on the matter

Only thing I’d like to add is.. from what I’ve read on the u.hall forums and whatnot, it seems the majority of the posters, outside of the countless trolls and post whores.. they seem to be pvpers.. and if the dev team bases all their ideas and info off of pvpers, they'll never make anybody happy.. pvp composes less that 5% of total shard population (that’s an estimate and an opinion).. why makes changes to a system that 95% of your player base doesn’t want?..

Third Interview Issac from L&L (Lord’s and Lady’s of Camelot)

Issac
1. I feel it is a system that could work. It would definitely bring back balance, but it all matters on the mindset of the players. Once they have decided to dislike it, there is really no stopping them. So in essence, it doesn’t really matter what I think of it, but it matters if the players are actually willing to change.

2. There are many aspects I feel are needed, such as the caps on many of the properties. It would be easier to just say what I dislike.

3. I honestly don’t like the changes to Armor. It did take a good amount of time to find the armor I like, and I feel the problem is with the armor, it is just the certain abilities and mods on weapons/armor.

4. This is a question that can’t be answered at this moment. The whole system has yet to be tweaked, and hasn’t even hit Test yet. But I feel that if they tweak it a bit, and put
a lot of testing time into it, it will be a great change.

5. The only thing I have to say is that it doesn’t matter if you dislike it or love it, it is still important that you try it on test. To see what it really is, compared to just reading about it are very different.

The Fourth Interview came from Xotche which you might know has the one who organized the spring festival on Chessy. Who also gratefully forwarded some questions on to a few other people as well.

Xotche

My thoughts were about building characters and suits I sorta oppose a lot of other character thoughts in that I always believed we should never have gone to an entire 6x system, I truly believed we needed other skills to honestly make a good warrior
so a scrolled character would soon be doomed if the dev team ever went back to basics, which I am sorta happy they are doing this to prevent UBER , multimillion dollar characters and give the ole guy from the old school style a chance again


Fifth Came from Zorack the GM of RG

Zorack

1. I am concerned about some of the changes

2. Well I think that everything in the system is fine except for a few things. Some things that are well needed are the wand fixes and some necro nerfs.

3. Well I think the archery nerfs are pretty upsetting. I think the game is well balances except for a few issues one being the wands and power and longevity of the necro spells. Also for a archer I think before pub 40 they are well balanced and I think if this publish goes through it will upset a lot of players including myself. People work so hard to get skills up and spend a lot of UO gold to buy items to find that when the pub 40 comes out that has all gone to waste not to mention this has happened before. Gets people to the point of quitting game all together.

4. Like I said some of the changes are good but the ones I described are very thoughtless and unplanned.

5. Well my input is this if you are going to make changes to game you should play the game for yourself and see where the changes are needed. I don’t think it’s really a good idea to let people spend a lot of time building up chars and buying expensive suits to just make them have to start a new char and have to start all over again. It would be like building a model getting it all finished and having someone come in and break it and knowing you spent all that time and effort into building it and putting all that detail into it and then have to build it all over again makes a person really frustrated.

***More Interviews may be added at a later date as some people still want to respond.

I would just like to thank all of the interviewees for taking a few mins of their time and answering my questions.