by Azaroth | May 12th, 2010
Given that recently there has been some more talk about official EA classic servers, I thought I’d engage the community here and poll you guys on what you think.
I think there’s a few things we’d like to settle here – voted on specifically by people in the “free shard community”.
I’m going to list some of them here quickly. Feel free to comment if you feel a question should be added. Or, I’ll just make another post later when things cross my mind.
Polls are fun. Click here to be blasted with like 15 of them.
First, just to make sure…
1.
Loading ...2.
Loading ...I think that’s self explanatory. Take nothing else into consideration. Would you be interested, yes or no? Do your ears perk up if you hear about an EA classic shard being launched?
3.
Loading ...Pretty simple again. At what point would you simply not pay to play the server or servers. What’s your cutoff point. Don’t vote for what you WANT to pay – vote for what the highest amount you’d consider paying is. Obviously, we all WANT to pay $0. Or, you can choose to vote that you’d continue playing free servers.
4.
Loading ...Okay, so if you’ve got your choices of any classic ruleset – which would you want the EA classic server to adhere to?
5.
Loading ...6.
Loading ...Taking the above poll a bit further – would you be interested in seeing an EVOLUTION of a classic ruleset, given the inherent flaws that classic rulesets come with? Do you think that should come after… or not at all?
7.
Loading ...Okay, so that’s a lot of polls. I’m not going to write much else, since this post is already ten feet long. I’m sure it’ll spark a lot of discussion in the comments section.
My answers are – No, no, I wouldn’t pay, t2a, no, yes, yes. Last question sort of confusing by the way, just in aesthetic sense. I had to make sure I was reading it correctly, the way it’s formatted. Maybe I’m just retarded.
With regards to EA classic servers – No thanks, not paying them money for UO anymore. Ever. I’ll buy their games, just not paying them for UO. EA killed UO, I have more respect for OSI than to hand their ruiners cash all this time after their annihilation. I guess it’s about dap, and dap is not due to EA at all imo.
Maybe I’ll reword that last one.
I just want an honest discussion, too. I won’t be hurt in any way if you’d want to play an EA shard instead of IPY.. or whatever else. ;)
Let’s just discuss EA classic servers without worrying about making Az cry.
voted on all.
i would play the real shard over any free shard if they were able to pull a consistent player base, and i would pay a max of 20 USD per month.
but like i said consistent player base, I would easily choose a free shard with a nice population (300+) or over with a t2a ruleset over any EA shard
I won’t spent the time scrolling through the 5000 messages containing the same bullshit conversation over and over in bricks of text to see if a dev has even commented yet.
Have the dev’s even said anything to conclude that they actually want the community to decide or is this all just bullshit?
This whole “EA Classic server” hype machine like the same bullshit that came around several years ago – with the dev’s eventually telling us there will never be a classic UO shard.
Didn’t EA contact you Az about classic shards?
EA is an awful beast who only cares about money. Buy a small gaming company, destroy their games by making it so everyone can play, and milk it for all its worth.
Hell, the only reason I imagine EA even has UO servers running is just to boast that they have the longest running MMO in history. They are not about to admit by making a classic server that we were right all along and they fucked up, and they certainly wont do it with the prospect of only gaining 3-4 thousand subscriptions.
I hardly have time for any online gaming, let alone ultima online (could possibly make time) – but yes I would pay 14.99 to play a classic shard – I want to play ultima, but then again I had another run at secondage and lost my drive to play again… I don’t even feel motivated to log in and refresh my house.
I would play a OSI shard because there is a small chance of GM corruption and favoritism. Also knowing that all of the morons and cheaters would be banned after the first 5 months would be refreshing instead of them hiding and denying for years on end in the forums about it.
UOSA is a pretty damn near accurate T2A freeshard and for that reason I had to vote NO on a 100% era accurate shard. There are things that would need to be changed to make it any bit ideal in my eyes.
I would pay up to $5 to EA for an ’98-99 “evolved” server, no more though. There’s no way anyone should pay modern day MMO prices for a game from the 90′s (maintenance/development costs should be relatively low).
But yeah, what’s the point of all this EA discussion? I am really excited at the IPY2 mechanics/ideas discussed in the last year; EA isn’t really necessary at this point.
I agree with Mazer.
I doubt EA would “evolve” the game into anything worth playing, and an absolutely exact replica just doesn’t make sense – UOSA is already an option, if that’s what you’re looking for.
I voted that I would pay up to 9.99, but I’d rather just play IPY2.
I’m definitely in favor of an EA classic shard. The sad truth is that most of the playerbase would consist of current UO players who have never even played a classic ruleset. I think the lack of corruption and the possibility for an even larger playerbase would be enough to maintain my interest in the shard.
The true value of UO probably is closer to $5/mo, but I’d be willing to pay much more than that. For me, UO provides much more entertainment than WoW, so I’d definitely feel like I was getting a good value at $15+/mo.
I’d have to agree with Mazer about UOSA. Authentic or not, UOSA is fucking terrible. I don’t think a classic EA server needs a lot of evolution, but some balance would be ideal.
“most of the playerbase would consist of current UO players who have never even played a classic ruleset.”
This Is A Good Thing.
“For me, UO provides much more entertainment than WoW, so I’d definitely feel like I was getting a good value at $15+/mo.”
I also feel this is a point that needs to be considered.
At $5/mo, EA could never really make a classic shard… really, totally worthwhile. Some manipulative massaging aside, it’d be much more attractive to charge you $15. Not only because it’s MORE MONEY, but because I think the worth of a classic shard to a person like you – or the, you know, target audience – is certainly more than $5. Even if you didn’t WANNA pay $15, but the shard was IPY2 and absolutely hardcore bustling with life and *the* place to play UO… you’d fork it over. The question is mainly about how many new-to-UO potential players you’d drive off with that price range. Not about whether guys like you or I would pay it… because we would.
I’d pay $9.99
Secondly I wouldn’t want a totally 100% accurate T2A shard (UOSA already does this)
I would want some tweaks that make the pvp pertain to all weapons classes (Archery especially).
No bullshit crazy colored homo reds/blues/greens etc.
Just old school graphics and rares.
For me, I’d pay anything reasonable just to try it. As much as I look forward to IPY2, accounts you have to pay for are just so much less likely to be held by cheaters and scripters and paid GMs are just much less likely to be corrupt.
Obviously you won’t stand for those types of people on your shard, Az, but it would be a hell of a lot easier for you if you stood to make money on the server, as EA does.
Ruleset for me would be 99 era. Pre or post t2a – PvP was almost identical then. The smaller world would be better though.
I never know what to vote on those evolution polls as “evolution” is so subjective. For instance I would hate it if you incorporated full blown CC spells and stuns/mezzes into UO – I never understood why that was fun in PvP when I first experienced it in DaoC/WoW.
But if evolution means getting rid of the ridiculous
An Mani
Hally
An Mani
Hally
while the other guy is sitting there going
In Mani
In Mani
In Mani
Then yes, I am all for evolution.
I don’t think harm was ever used on IPY.
There was a lot of miniheal spam, though. ;)
So the big hint here is also that when I talk about evolution… I don’t really mean mucking with the PvP. In fact, I go so far out of my way to avoid it that it’d scare you.
I know the audience, and I know that any PvP alterations would need to be fine tuned by a team of mathematicians and playtested for a year, then probably reworked ten times before the whole group was happy. It’s not worth screwing with on any serious level.
Lets face the facts, if we’re still dropping by to tune in, we’re the type of players who wouldn’t last very long on an EA shard.
1. IPY allows adults to have fun while playing UO.
2. IPY is the only brand name worthy of bringing back the best and brightest PvPers to UO.
3. IPY fighting-style/gameplay is unmatched by any other attempt.
“we’re the type of players who wouldn’t last very long on an EA shard.” <—- I’m curious why you’d place yourself in this category, exactly.
easy answer: Language – In the past, you had always seem to remain unconcerned by players’ speech regarding matters pertaining to the game, so long as it did not directly piss you off.
example: fuck blues – I don’t want to have to change my guild to Fudge Blueberries
I’ve got it.
Let’s create the first Adults Only UO shard.
We’ll Need More Tits.
I’d rather not shell any more money out to EA… I’m still waiting on my Classic style DAoC server which is supposed to be coming from the same people.
I voted no, but on second thought I would definitely pay to play UO:Classic on an official server for a GREATLY reduced price.
And even then, I’d rather just play here.
I would pay to play a UO Classic Server from EA. The reason I would ise because I’d imagine it would have a greater playerbase and seeing people in game makes it that much more fun regardless of what they are doing.
From a game design view I’d much rather play ipy 2.0 and if they evolved the old game into something along the lines of that Az is doing I would be super happy with it.
Anotherthing 12-15 bucks a month doesn’t really bother me at all, I mean really, it’s not a lot of money for something I’ve always wanted to check out.
I should have included a “EA or IPY” poll. Something tells me I may have been disappointed with the result, though. ;)
http://www.petitiononline.com/bbuo/petition.html
a petition for it.