ULTIMA ONLINE - the good days are coming back...

[spookynote]

Hi Everyone,

I'm writing this post because there's a message that thousands of old Ultima players have been waiting to hear...

The good days are coming back.

There are thousand and thousands of people in the world who want the old Ultima Online back, however, there's yet to be a single unifying force to bring them all together... but that's going to change. T2A has all the qualities it needs to bring back the old UO... but we need to create a movement! We need to convince the thousands of dormant players that the time has come to awaken from their sleep and re-enter the worlds of Britannia!

All we need is a good viral campaign to get it started, and then the passion of thousands of UO players will lift it up and take it to the next level. We must appeal to the sentimentality in the thousands of people who've played throughout the years. We can't portray T2A as "the best free ultima shard". That's too modest... and it’s focusing on the wrong things. We need to put the focus back on UO, and away from “a bunch of guys who started up their own ultima shard.” We need to inspire confidence that the benevolent spirit of UO has been resurrected. This movement is bigger than T2A... it's about UO itself, and our advertising needs to reflect that.

Look at all the people who view youtube clips of old ultima videos from 1999.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHRhq8bc-58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXzDE5Hhv9k

These videos are generating over 100,000 views. People REALLY want it back. And we can offer it to them, we just need to convince them that it’s really here, that UO is really back.

So what do we need to get started?

1. Awesome youtube video

This video has got to give you goose-bumps. It's going to be targeted at all the old UO players, with the intent digging up all those old sentimental feelings toward their all-time favorite game. The video has to start with the opening theme song, and could have some text or something saying "remember this?" Then we could get some awesome PVP shots, blacksmiths, all that stuff... and then end with "after 10 years... the good days are finally coming back." Then the last shot would be a splash screen of a T2A logo.

UPDATE: start uploading any cool T2A videos you have to this thread, that way we have footage to use for our promo video. The more the better!

2. New facebook page

We need a new facebook fan page, that is less about T2A, and more about the movement itself. The title of the fanpage could be "ULTIMA ONLINE - the good days are coming back". Ultimately the page would be a way for people to spread the news onto their friends... that UO has come back in its true form.

3. Creating the buzz

After we've got our basic viral pages set up comes the attack. Posting to all the forums you guys frequent with a link to the youtube video and facebook page, inviting your friends to join the facebook page. We should also consider writing a press release and sending it to any game blogs/websites that would be interested in the story. We need to turn this into an event, into a movement that people can get excited about and then jump on board.

Obviously T2A still has it’s flaws, but the more people we get on board, the easier it will be to tackle the remaining flaws and truly bring the spirit of UO back to life. Ultimately, this is a group effort, and together we will make it happen.

Now, let's open this up for discussion...

Signed,
Just another UO player

[benny-]

This is a great idea and is something that could really take UOSA to the next level.

This server could really take off if we were to attract and draw in new players, rather than trying to appeal to those who are simply looking for the next Pre-Renn server. The existing players circulating in the pool of UO freeshards are a limited group, consisting of players looking for the best counts, new mechanics, or hopping aboard the newest server, only to abandon ship in the months to follow.

But think of the thousands of people out there that loved the T2A era...those who had been addicted to the game from across the globe....think of the widespread disappointment that came with each expansion as EA continually changed the game away from what had made it so great.

Even other potential players, perhaps those that came into UO during later eras or had played other games during 98-99, but had always heard with a level of notoriety and an air of excitement what UO had been like back in the heyday and had always regretted not being a part of T2A.

Just in my personal experiences, talking with friends and acquaintances who had played UO or checked it out at some point, there is always a bittersweet tone; remembering the game fondly before it was utterly screwed up with massive changes. If it was well known that there was a server out there completely recreating the era to every last detail....not merely another server out there boasting the "Pre-Renn" title; full of customs, giveaways, SE graphics, and the like....but a server who's only goal was to completely recreate the T2A era.....I could only guess as to the numbers of people it would draw in.

Anyway, enough excited rambling. Again this could be a great project. I'll be glad to see the submissions coming in for it and ideas for how to spread this campaign. Hopefully spookynote will continue to show his initiative with kicking off this project.

[son]

I would focus more on communities like reddit or 4chan. The nerd is strong there.

/v/ got a thread made about t2a and now: http://my.uosecondage.com/Status/Guild/1402

[rouss]

I would focus more on communities like reddit or 4chan. The nerd is strong there.

/v/ got a thread made about t2a and now: http://my.uosecondage.com/Status/Guild/1402

holy shit

158 chars

[SighelmofWyrmgard]

Hmmm, what say, Watson; should we send for Mr. Holmes?
Tut, LeStrade: let's try this one ourselves!

OP's join date is today, 4AM, approximately 1:45 before the time of the post (and it very well might take someone 1:45 to assemble and submit all that gibberish).

"Just another UO Player" loves us here at "T2A" SOOO MUCH, that he just had to make sure we get on Facebook ASAP ...

Just another Facepalm Employee maybe needs another hobby: Facepalm is quickly becoming as intrusive and annoying as Scientology.

SS

[benny-]

Possibly...though seems pretty far fetched to believe the guy is merely an employee for both Facebook and Youtube who has a fair amount of knowledge of UO.....

I just assumed it was either a new player who joined the forums just to get others in on his idea or an existing forum user using a different name.

At any rate....I still think it's a solid idea to make an entire campaign out of promoting the shard. Something utilizing different sites, videos...anything to let the public know that the old T2A is still out there and can be played for free. I'd back anyone who wanted to take the initiative to do a large scale advertisement such as this.

Another idea to toss in there, it'd be great to have an area here on the forums dedicated to following our advertisement....a place to brainstorm ideas, suggest sites, submit pics/videos and track where and how we're promoting the server....a way for the community here to follow the progress and see exactly how the shard is being promoted.

Anyway, if the OP or any others would like to start such a project, I'd love to contribute however I could.

[marmalade]

I would focus more on communities like reddit or 4chan. The nerd is strong there.

/v/ got a thread made about t2a and now: http://my.uosecondage.com/Status/Guild/1402

i found this pretty impressive. within a 2 week period, a couple of active 'recruiters' were able to get at least 100 individual players by posting on the /v/ board on 4chan.

even if only 20% of these players decide to stay and play actively, 4chan (and websites like it) provide a near infinite recruitment pool for new players. in theory, with constant exposure, second age could have a consistent flow of new players from these sources.

[spookynote]

Even other potential players, perhaps those that came into UO during later eras or had played other games during 98-99, but had always heard with a level of notoriety and an air of excitement what UO had been like back in the heyday and had always regretted not being a part of T2A.

Just in my personal experiences, talking with friends and acquaintances who had played UO or checked it out at some point, there is always a bittersweet tone; remembering the game fondly before it was utterly screwed up with massive changes. If it was well known that there was a server out there completely recreating the era to every last detail....not merely another server out there boasting the "Pre-Renn" title; full of customs, giveaways, SE graphics, and the like....but a server who's only goal was to completely recreate the T2A era.....I could only guess as to the numbers of people it would draw in.

precisely. that's exactly what i am. i played in 98, left when things got crappy. then i kept coming back to private shards and kept being disappointed by various problems. eventually i gave up. then i randomly found T2A. i was showing my friend old UO youtube videos, telling him how cool the game used to be... and i somehow managed to see a link in the comments referring back to T2A. i checked it out... and it was everything i had always wanted! eventually i started thinking... there's got to be thousands of other people out there just like me. people who don't know... that it's already back!

I would focus more on communities like reddit or 4chan. The nerd is strong there.

/v/ got a thread made about t2a and now: http://my.uosecondage.com/Status/Guild/1402

i don't know much about reddit and 4chan, but it looks like it worked! a multi-pronged effort is always a good idea.

all we need now is some more organization. a forum is a pretty crappy place to plan things, so i've made a google doc (i wasn't sure how to create a new wiki page):

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?i ... y=COjk77kL

let's hash out the entire plan on this document. we'll document the several stages and different aspects of this recruitment campaign, and we'll create instructions for people who want to get active in helping recruit. i've added stuff about the youtube video and facebook page, if one of you wants to fill in the details for our plan in terms of attacking nerd forums, that'd be awesome.

okay, next step for the youtube video: create a thread for people post awesome videos of their best experiences on T2A. i'll do that now.

[spookynote]

alright, thread created.
lets start posting some T2A youtube videos to this thread!