UO Second Age

Damnsammit wrote:

Menkaure wrote: With the housing, the shitty community, and the nazi-like headmaster, its a dead game.
I urge mammoth and boom land to make their own uosa server with events an start over.
Let the people who love their pixels and are scared to wipe stay here. Or just let this place die, whatever. Regardless its over.

Effectively calling the administration Nazis has earned you a 1 week ban from the forums. Your rhetoric has been afforded as much respect as can possibly be expected, and we have even attempted to engage you and explain our position. Yet, you have responded in the most egregious way possible in practically all instances, culminating in this response. Enough is enough.

This cracked me up.

Menkaure: The admin are Nazis

Admin: You call us Nazis? NO FORUM FOR YOU!

I don't think they should take abuse. They do this for free, for the love of the game. There is no need to disrespect them.

Disagreeing is one thing, calling them nazi like is another.

Budner wrote:You do a lot for this shard

chuckled irl

I don't think the shard has ever been this quiet, just about every time I login I recall around to hotspots I used to visit and the only place I see people is ontop of Brit Bank, and it's the same 2-3 people just idling... It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

Maybe it's due to different timezones that the spots I used to visit are quiet now, but I miss being able to recall somewhere and start fighting right away. I remember starting fights with Malice, Guerrilla, Weedsmoke and dozens of other names just by recalling to their houses, now just about every single house is vacant sans the bi-monthly visit to refresh.

I know the shard offers more than just PvP, but honestly the PvP here is superb, no other shard I've played in the last 8 or so years has really done PvP this well, it's the thing that keeps me coming back time and time again. UOSA offers little to no "endgame" content except for what players create for themselves, but when there are no players to interact with - what's the point?

Right now trying to solo field PvP is just a contest of who has more charges/explode pots... at worst you'll get someone low and they'll call for backup/invis recall. I remember no one used to rock invis/magic reflection, it was a lot more fun considering you couldn't just hit an "oh shit" button and get away safely 99% of the time. I understand that the mechanics of these items are identical to OSI, but through Razor people are using them in a way never intended and it ruins an otherwise great system.

I would gladly sacrifice everything I have and start anew if it meant the shards activity picked up to where it was during 2009-2010. Even with the PvP changes which caused a lot of the oldschool vets to move to IPY (I still blame hemp for bringing up that stupid 0.75 -> 1s obj delay) the PvP here is the best.
No bullshit pre-T2A plate hvyxbow mages. No bullshit UOR stunpunch poison spamming special weapon skills. No bullshit AOS necromancy/paladins. This era was the best for PvP and UOSA has done a great job of replicating it, for which I will be always happy to come back - even if there's only one other person to fight.

Damnsammit wrote:

Menkaure wrote: With the housing, the shitty community, and the nazi-like headmaster, its a dead game.
I urge mammoth and boom land to make their own uosa server with events an start over.
Let the people who love their pixels and are scared to wipe stay here. Or just let this place die, whatever. Regardless its over.

Effectively calling the administration Nazis has earned you a 1 week ban from the forums. Your rhetoric has been afforded as much respect as can possibly be expected, and we have even attempted to engage you and explain our position. Yet, you have responded in the most egregious way possible in practically all instances, culminating in this response. Enough is enough.

This cracked me up.

Menkaure: The admin are Nazis

Admin: You call us Nazis? NO FORUM FOR YOU!

It's not particularly difficult to look up Menkaure's posting history. In fact, in two other threads he basically made some vague and critical post of what was going on, and when I specifically quoted his post and tried to engage on the subject in order to get better information, there was absolutely no response. This general tactic of criticizing what we do while avoiding any discussion of the subject does nothing but serve as an attack, and could have been acted upon, but wasn't.

Further, on more than one occasion, Menkaure has decided to outright state that we (more specifically I) simply hate the server, when we don't agree with his position. This is yet another form of attack that could have arguably gotten a reaction, and even then, we didn't react, because as brazen and non-productive of a statement as it is, we don't want to silence criticism, and would rather engage in a discussion.

Then finally, we get to the above statement. Here we are with a person who decides that simply calling us out for some vaguely defined and undefended "problem" isn't enough, nor is telling us that we hate the very server that we run sufficient (it's awfully odd for us to hate something while keeping it running, no?) either. But now, the statements reach Godwin's law territory, as we're equivocated to a totalitarian regime that silenced and murdered any opposition, because we don't agree with what is being said - despite the ironic fact that we haven't reacted in any such way to direct attacks on us in the past, specifically because we don't want players to fear that criticism will earn them a ban.

However, there is a point where statements go far beyond criticism and that post reached it. There is nothing of value within the statement that we're Nazi's, and it is certainly an attack on us as the administration while belying a lack of any respect for us. And quite frankly, there is only so much tolerance that we or anyone else can have for this kind of behavior regardless of our position - and that tolerance just ran out. But even despite all of this, we have an eminently reasonable and tame reaction of simply temporarily suspending Menkaure for just a week, when a strong argument can be made for a permanent ban.

So no, my reaction to his post does not confirm his statements, especially in light of his posting history and the resulting tame response of a temporary suspension. And no, his statement cannot and does not act as a shield for itself while simultaneously attack us in the process. His posting behavior has gotten out of control, and it required a response on our part.

As a final thought, I would ask anyone who would like to comment on these types of things to dig slightly past the absolute surface before making these sorts of "told you so" responses.

Despite what most players consider harsh policies, I have to say the staff has done a fantastic job over the last 6 years.

Props to Derrick for running this thing for 6 years, I doubt you thought it would last this long when you started, but this replica of a 2-year long period has lasted longer than most AAA titles.

Attacking staff for putting in immesurable time/effort/cash over the last 6 years because you disagree with policies is beyond retarded (I still remember Lightshade's post, I hope he got a ban for that too).

I only got through reading the first 5 pages here but heres what Ive gathered.

#1. The things I spoke about 3 years ago, to staff responses of "well look at our population! nothing has been affected, everythings fine!" Has been realized by even casual players. Most vets are gone. Now you have newer players saying "fuck man, I thought this was going to be cool, why'd this have to happen?"

#2. As I stated years ago, from Kaiven himself, he doesnt care if anyone plays here, it isnt about you, your friends or the history, its about making a mechanically accurate shard, even if Vega is the only one left.

#3. I cant even read Kaiven anymore, its just wall of text robot. Like talking to a computer programmed by Disney to handle customer complaints, there's no human emotion or passion behind it and that's off putting all around.

I suggest you all stop logging in. Dont support people who dont support you.

Flea wrote:I suggest you all stop logging in. Dont support people who dont support you.

I suggest that you stop utilizing the forums as a platform to encourage others to stop playing. You're free to express that you won't play, to criticize us, and publicize your own reasons for not playing, but you will not use our own platform as a call to action for players to stop playing.

I suggest we hug it out, c'mere and give me a squeeze!

PvP has carried UO into 2014 and UOSA is by far the best server - the mechanics are amazing. The game is built around contention and risk. If you want to farm, ect there are plenty of games that offer that in much improved, more beautiful game-environments. I understand you're not catering to a play style here. I've recommended this before somewhere. Silver already exists, I know the GM's do some quests that drop statues and silver - which are fun but it's random and they don't last long (Not a complaint, but not many people make it to them.) It would be great for action/population to do a rotating silver drop. Turn the Gem Encrusted into a small silver drop and let it roll for awhile. People love silver and people need to have something to fight over. It will consolidate the population, and combines pvp and farming. Not catering to any play style. If there is any worry about the silver economy then you can balance it by not giving away trophies for the coming Holidays. People always complain that those are exploited by people using more than 3 accounts anyway.
Everybody loves UOSA! This server is fucking special. UO created pvp and this server is replicating the era before it was neutered across all godamn games! That's nuts! And, it's mechanically superior to even other T2Aish shards like An Corp - UOSA mechanics are by far smoother and greatER. It's not a museum, it's still a better game than anything I've ever tried. UOSA, UOSA, UOSA, UOSA, fuck yeah!

Apologies if there is a rule against fuck.

Flea wrote:I only got through reading the first 5 pages here but heres what Ive gathered.

#1. The things I spoke about 3 years ago, to staff responses of "well look at our population! nothing has been affected, everythings fine!" Has been realized by even casual players. Most vets are gone. Now you have newer players saying "fuck man, I thought this was going to be cool, why'd this have to happen?"

#2. As I stated years ago, from Kaiven himself, he doesnt care if anyone plays here, it isnt about you, your friends or the history, its about making a mechanically accurate shard, even if Vega is the only one left.

#3. I cant even read Kaiven anymore, its just wall of text robot. Like talking to a computer programmed by Disney to handle customer complaints, there's no human emotion or passion behind it and that's off putting all around.

I suggest you all stop logging in. Dont support people who dont support you.

This is such an awesome and true post.

Keivan please don't try to play the victim, we don't need a #gamergate situation because one guy said something he shouldn't. We are not attacking you, we are attacking your command decision not to adjust the server. This has nothing to do with you as a person, you have the capability to change your mind here.

Please don't censor any more people coming to voice concern, I get that people are not allowed to personal attack like that and I hope that as more come to voice their displeasure that no one else uses that kind of wording.

In your post you mention that you couldn't possibly hate the server that you are running. I very much disagree to that, and feel you are trying to wind the server down so that you can end it, and when anyone asks you can put your hands in the air and claim "well I tried" and feel good about yourself. You have the power to fix things, please do the right thing. If you don't want to run the server can't someone else take over?

tekai wrote: In your post you mention that you couldn't possibly hate the server that you are running. I very much disagree to that, and feel you are trying to wind the server down so that you can end it, and when anyone asks you can put your hands in the air and claim "well I tried" and feel good about yourself. You have the power to fix things, please do the right thing. If you don't want to run the server can't someone else take over?

Hi there. What makes you think Kaivan runs the server? There are 4 active Staffers here, Mammoth being temporarily away (more or less) due to an earthquake in California. If we were winding the server down, I certainly wouldn't have announced and begun working on several shard events. Threads like this derail the community as a whole because people end up focusing on what's not happening vs what's actually happening on the server.

UOSA has had a strong policy for over 5 years on what you can and should expect. If you came here thinking you'd stir the ship in another direction, you've thought wrong. Mammoth, myself, and Anarcho came on as Staff, knowing the boundaries and limits we'd have to face. This isn't a "Kaivan issue" here.

Player feedback is definitely welcomed. Player's constructive criticism is welcomed. Players ranting about the same issues day in and day out that have been spoken on is not welcome. Player suggestions that keep us within the realm of what the shard's core statement has been for years are the best.

Looks like players vs. staffmembers, lets just kick them.

Just lock it so these dumb punks STFU.

My two cents before this is locked -

I feel that the staff is being blamed for several factors that are out of their control. Namely, this game is aging and the players are aging along with it. While Ultima Online is still a great game by today's standards, the time isn't there for most of us to play this like we did when we were kids without responsibilities.

1vs1 wrote:My two cents before this is locked -

I feel that the staff is being blamed for several factors that are out of their control. Namely, this game is aging and the players are aging along with it. While Ultima Online is still a great game by today's standards, the time isn't there for most of us to play this like we did when we were kids without responsibilities.

Get this person a cookie. Obviously not everyone is going to remember or have read previous threads that follow the exact same flow as this one, so here's a reminder before the lock.
This graph shows UO related searches, specifically to T2A (but also general UO) on Google. The graph represents monthly search volume. As you can tell, it's on a sharp decline in some situations.