Obligatory WUA UO post! Game free through the 12th!

[WindupAtheist]

...for existing accounts, that is. So if you had a UO account in the past, download the client and go run around. I hear good things about the enhanced client finally being ready for primetime, though I haven't used it yet. Stygian Abyss expansion has been out for a little while now, so there's player gargoyles around now. There's a mini expansion coming out on the 12th that is supposed to add smooth sailing, custom boats, and ship to ship combat with pirates and merchants and shit.

I'm probably resubbing again. FUCK YOU STOP LAUGHING. Just bear in mind that the banksitting place is Luna now, not Brit, and some of the shards are probably pretty underpopulated now. Great Lakes is okay, Atlantic has the most. Dunno about the others. Oh and the High Seas Test shard needs a beta client you get from somewhere.

[sinij]

Don't resub, you might get PKed again. In Trammel, in the middle of July.

You just never know.

[Roentgen]

Don't resub, you might get PKed again. You just never know. In Trammel, in the middle of July.

Douchebag?

[sinij]

Fethers?

[WindupAtheist]

Don't resub, you might get PKed again. In Trammel, in the middle of July.

You just never know.

Yeah I think I heard somewhere that this game had PK in it for like the first 15% of it's existence. I'll be careful, thanks. 

[sinij]

[dusematic]

Wow.  I kind of admire you for still being so hardcore into this game.  Sadly, I'm one of the few who played from release until right after Trammel.  I didn't quit BECAUSE of Trammel, but since that was the first MMO I played, my fond memories are tied up in the "wild west" epoch of the game.  Going back isn't the same. 

[Lantyssa]

We should play.  We can talk about Civ 5 all day in front of Sinij while he wishes he could PK us.

[dusematic]

We should play.  We can talk about Civ 5 all day in front of Sinij while he wishes he could PK us.

Sold!

[WindupAtheist]

Woops, I meant to post this in the MMOG forum. Anyway I'm not super hardcore into this game, I just don't have anything against playing it still. I'm coming back after a couple years away.

Sinij, go back to trolling about Steam. At least it's somewhat relevant. The only thing less relevant than posting about UO is posting about some PK shit they got rid of a full decade ago.

[Slayerik]

This thread needs more charts.

And fuck Trammel, that's all I got.

[Sky]

You know why I can't get behind Trammel hate (other than the amazingly obvious reasons)? Because Trammel begat Siege Perilous, which was the awesomest uo experience of them all.

[Mrbloodworth]

[Lakov_Sanite]

Loved UO when it came out, big time.  Tried going back 5-6 years ago for the hell of it and found it to be unbearably bad in comparison to just about any other game. Really the slogan should be...

"Do you like black and white tv's? Still use BBS and newsgroups? Is nintendo a bit too 'fast' for your atari sensibilities? Try UO with a free trial! (but you're gonna have to pay later)"

It's dated, badly.

[Kovacs]

Not that this is particularly on topic but I'm not maknig a new thread just to say the same deal is up for DAOC and Warhammer.  I'm not sure why now though because as far as I can tell nothing substantive has changed in either game for at least a year now.  Well, except for the population I guess,  and not in the good way.

[Chinchilla]

I actually wouldn't mind seeing what is new/up in UO except I can't get my old login info from before.  I'd really like to use my old account.  The only issue is that the account is like 10 years old and the email has obviously changed since then.  I'm gonna call their support line and see if they can do anything about it.

[Sky]

The ISP that hosted the mail I registered for UO with hasn't existed in nine years.

[Chinchilla]

I just called EA customer support and got someone to help me.  I'm getting my old UO account back!!! Whooo hooo!  I had to verify the date of birth on there, the address (which I got a little wrong), and the phone number (which I totally didn't know).  He verified my name and I guessed the email with hints from the rep.  Hell I was ready to verify the characters on there if he needed it as I remember those better than the other info, but I didn't need to.  Man I can't wait to see my old characters and how they were setup.  The only thing is they were on Chesapeake so that server might be fairly dead if it even exists.

[Sky]

That would be a funny trip to log into a ten year old account and see what is left there. Wouldn't be the same for me on Chessie without my giant villa on one of the northern peninsulas. Or the daily pk raids and exploiters breaking into it.

[Dren]

I was thinking this through my head and I'm the same as Sky.  Without my house/s that I had and all the furniture and other items, it wouldn't be the same.  I'd probably go find a few mongbats to ebolt and then get bored and log out.

That's what happened to me the last time I tried to resub about 2 years ago too.

It is still fun to see them still updating and running the servers.  Quite amazing really.

[HaemishM]

It is still fun to see them still updating and running the servers.  Quite amazing really.

Kind of makes me think "Just how fucking idiotic do you have to be to NOT make money on an MMOG? You practically can't kill them no matter how outdated or byzantine they become."

And then I see the crater that is APB and go "OH, THAT'S how idiotic  you have to be."

[Rasix]

Thanks for the heads up.  I'll download it tonight and take a jaunt through some of the old cities to see how they've held up.

Then I'll log out and probably stay gone.    I'm afraid the barrier to entry is probably a bit too high to do much else.

[dusematic]

It is still fun to see them still updating and running the servers.  Quite amazing really.

Kind of makes me think "Just how fucking idiotic do you have to be to NOT make money on an MMOG? You practically can't kill them no matter how outdated or byzantine they become."

And then I see the crater that is APB and go "OH, THAT'S how idiotic  you have to be."

lolol

[Chinchilla]

Yeah, that is one thing I do miss is my 2 story (I never bothered with a keep/tower) that was so cleverly placed out in the middle of no where and there were NO other spots even possible way out where I was.  My neighbors were the mongbats, ettins, ogres that roamed around there.  I barely even saw a soul out there.

Oh and my other house that I had near Vesper that I had a lumberjack gathering script that would auto hide me and he would gather lumber and if attack he would run back to the house and drop the logs and lock them down before he dies.  It work great :)!  I still want to see out of curiousity how everything is coming along as I have a weird passion/love for that game.  Even looking at the new graphics and all just makes me a little more giddy to see it.  Maybe not subscribe as Darkfall is my newst interest, but definitely see it.

[sinij]

Kind of makes me think "Just how fucking idiotic do you have to be to NOT make money on an MMOG? You practically can't kill them no matter how outdated or byzantine they become."

Actually interesting thought. What provided UO longevity while couple much newer titles are already in the grave? My theory is that key to UO "success" is socialization meta-game, in a way UO is closer to Facebook/Tweeter than any other title.

Amazingly enough a tower in good location, off-color mare and blessed black sandals will keep person logging in and subscribing a lot longer than entire dungeon set WoW has. The same thing was true from the very beginning - I still remember how big of a deal were duels and who PKed who on miner and how it could determine your standing in a PvP social ladder. It wasn't so much for PvP aspect of it, but for socialization involved in it and status of "best dueler in X" that came with it.

Newer titles following a lot more "guided ride" approach and as a result I don't expect nearly as much longevity out of them. For example WoW will die moment they stop pushing expansions. I think designs that came after UO missed key points with push of instancing and compartmentalization and complete lack of "attachments" like house and social symbols.

[Soulflame]

I'm tempted to download and log in, but I'm not 100% positive I would want to.  The game felt dated when I mainly stopped playing back in 2003 (or so), and I imagine on logging in I'd regret the loss of my tower and all the crap I'd locked down inside of it.

I'd even done a reasonable job of decorating all the floors of it, including a "lab" filled with hard-to-get items.

[Soulflame]

Holy fucking hell, I'm downloading 1889 MB of data?  I guess I'll play tomorrow then.

 

I can't recall my password, and have no idea what email address the account is registered to.  Meh.

Hah.  More accurately, I couldn't recall the account name, but I had switched the account to an email address I still use.

I have everything except 2 GB of data!  I'm almost excited.

Not really.

[UnSub]

UO's longevity is certainly helped by having paid off all its development costs long ago and what is probably a healthy number of low-activity / zombie accounts. Plus as it ages it may actually get cheaper to run, depending on how EA is financing its servers.

Kind of makes me think "Just how fucking idiotic do you have to be to NOT make money on an MMOG? You practically can't kill them no matter how outdated or byzantine they become."

For example WoW will die moment they stop pushing expansions. I think designs that came after UO missed key points with push of instancing and compartmentalization and complete lack of "attachments" like house and social symbols.

If by 'die' you mean 'fade from its current glory', then sure, but WoW is a game that could lose 90% of its current players and still be in a pretty good shape.

Post-UO MMOs offer plenty of attachments and also learned a whole number of things about problems with open world titles.

[WindupAtheist]

UO is pretty much a living fossil. I don't just mean that in the vague sense that it's old as hell but still kicking around with expansions and live events, I mean it's pretty much the definition of the term.

Living fossil is an informal term for any living species (or clade) of organism which appears to be the same as a species otherwise only known from fossils and which has no close living relatives. These species have all survived major extinction events, and generally retain low taxonomic diversities. A species which successfully radiates (forming many new species after a possible genetic bottleneck) has become too successful to be considered a "living fossil". However, the term is frequently misinterpreted.

EQ successfully radiated like a motherfucker and passed on it's genes all over the place, much to the chagrin of some people. UO just keeps swimming around the ocean floor like a coelacanth, a relic from a bygone epoch that the other fish have nevertheless never quite managed to compete out of existence.

But what the hell, I've played it off and on for long enough that the clunk just doesn't bother me anymore, and nobody else is trying to make a game like this. Nobody has tried since Raph with SWG except for a couple of indie titles attempting to replicate the essentially completely different game that UO was in it's first couple years

I know I always say this, but someone needs to set out to create a modern version of latter-era UO with the intention of grabbing maybe a few hundred thousand subscribers and then keeping them for 15 years. SWG could have been that game, but they decided a few hundred thousand and a slow but not unprofitable decline wasn't good enough and we all know how that went.

I mean think about all the complaints you can level against a game as old and with as many different prior dev teams as UO, and then remember that despite all of that EA is nonetheless still paying for new development and live events. There are people who will pay for shit like this, and once you've got them it's hard to get rid of them, even if your game looks like Super Nintendo.

Anyway, speaking of that whole EA returning players promotion for all 3 games, how hilarious is it that Warhammer Online is sitting in dinosaur jail with a couple of relics like UO and DAOC? Jesus. STATION PASS YOU FOOLS. STATION PASS.

[Soulflame]

I'd be down for that.  I loved DAoC, and UO.  Plus there's some small enjoyment to be had with WAR.  Just nowhere near enough for a monthly subscription.

[Pringles]

  UO Test PVP  

Is there even a test server still, and do people still pvp like mad on it?

I don't have my account anymore as I sold my main one to someone for a check in the mail.

[WindupAtheist]

There's a test server, right now it's dubbed High Seas Test and is being used to beta the ship to ship combat and stuff, but my character I rolled there years ago to test something else was still there. No idea what people do or don't do on it.

Man even in the oldschool client there's nifty new menus for managing available titles and insuring your items. And there appears to be a faction rep panel. WTF. I need to read up, I have no idea what's going on.

[sinij]

I know I always say this, but someone needs to set out to create a modern version of latter-era UO with the intention of grabbing maybe a few hundred thousand subscribers and then keeping them for 15 years.

I very much agree, and not because I want to go back to azzraping noobs, but because I am honestly sick and tired of DIKU clones showing "teh ride" down my throat. Now, we will violently disagree on what shape this sandbox going to be and what kind of rules, if any, need to be enforced, but it is nice to see 'the enemy' too getting tired of EQ clones.

[Jimbo]

You know why I can't get behind Trammel hate (other than the amazingly obvious reasons)? Because Trammel begat Siege Perilous, which was the awesomest uo experience of them all.

NOOOOO!
They took down the Abyss Shard and made that crap Siege.

[sinij]

Siege was fun, but ROT insured it was a stillborn idea.