Server Tired

[Capitalist]

I'm always logged in, IDOCing, fighting, griefing, helping newbies. You name it. I agree though that the main problem is that people don't realize that they're part of the involvement and thus it's a chain effect of inactivity.

[Abyz]

Many of us can't be logged in all the time, though... Due to family, work, exercise, whatever. I log in, when I can, and do the uo things I enjoy. It just so happens that what I enjoy most is combat. Sadly, I spend most of my available gaming time not doing what I enjoy.

It sure would be nice if there was a way to not burden staff, yet provide a significant daily boost to shard fun at predetermined times. Seems like I've heard legends about such things deep in uosa's history. When I hear these tales, the voices ring with longing for the f u n that once used to haunt the lands. Who knows... Such a thing just might have a trickle down effect into all other areas of uosa.

[Capitalist]

Events are not why the population is down on this server, or rather the lack of. Prima donna's like yourself have had an impact with your incessant whining though.

[Menkaure]

Many of us can't be logged in all the time, though... Due to family, work, exercise, whatever. I log in, when I can, and do the uo things I enjoy. It just so happens that what I enjoy most is combat. Sadly, I spend most of my available gaming time not doing what I enjoy.

It sure would be nice if there was a way to not burden staff, yet provide a significant daily boost to shard fun at predetermined times. Seems like I've heard legends about such things deep in uosa's history. When I hear these tales, the voices ring with longing for the f u n that once used to haunt the lands. Who knows... Such a thing just might have a trickle down effect into all other areas of uosa.

I admire your spirit bro.
But after Kaivan showing me the shovel that he buried events with in the thread titled "bring em back" I gave up the fight. Unfortunately they ain't comin back, so its pointless to even get your hopes up a smidgen. I've moved on from uosa. I lurk the forums refresh houses and if shadowbane server is ever down for Maintenence I may even log in to fight, but I no longer believe in the dream me and you and so many others share. So, don't let your hopes get dashed.

[Abyz]

No whining here, just facing the fact that all of MY second age friends that experienced those times of robust activity all say the same thing: UOSA was healthier and more fun during those times than it is now. Sorry if it's not your bag, big boy... But I am as entitled to my opinion as you are. I say, from my personal experience with other players, that no events has had a very negative effect on the player base of the server.

[Abyz]

Many of us can't be logged in all the time, though... Due to family, work, exercise, whatever. I log in, when I can, and do the uo things I enjoy. It just so happens that what I enjoy most is combat. Sadly, I spend most of my available gaming time not doing what I enjoy.

It sure would be nice if there was a way to not burden staff, yet provide a significant daily boost to shard fun at predetermined times. Seems like I've heard legends about such things deep in uosa's history. When I hear these tales, the voices ring with longing for the f u n that once used to haunt the lands. Who knows... Such a thing just might have a trickle down effect into all other areas of uosa.

I admire your spirit bro.
But after Kaivan showing me the shovel that he buried events with in the thread titled "bring em back" I gave up the fight. Unfortunately they ain't comin back, so its pointless to even get your hopes up a smidgen. I've moved on from uosa. I lurk the forums refresh houses and if shadowbane server is ever down for Maintenence I may even log in to fight, but I no longer believe in the dream me and you and so many others share. So, don't let your hopes get dashed.

It's not pointless to restate the glaringly obvious. I'll be playing UOSA and kicking this dead horse til it revives, the server blows up, or I'm banned for illegal horse kicking.

[Myrnae]

This server very much feels as though it's dead. Even the pkers are gone. Did everyone go to AnCorp or has UO itself finally die? Thoughts? I'm curious how many people are playing ancorp?

It's not dead, plenty of IDOC'ers taking out the garbage. My shard would have the shit delete when the house fell. I think everyone knows my views on full time idocing

[Myrnae]

Many of us can't be logged in all the time, though... Due to family, work, exercise, whatever. I log in, when I can, and do the uo things I enjoy. It just so happens that what I enjoy most is combat. Sadly, I spend most of my available gaming time not doing what I enjoy.

It sure would be nice if there was a way to not burden staff, yet provide a significant daily boost to shard fun at predetermined times. Seems like I've heard legends about such things deep in uosa's history. When I hear these tales, the voices ring with longing for the f u n that once used to haunt the lands. Who knows... Such a thing just might have a trickle down effect into all other areas of uosa.

I admire your spirit bro.
But after Kaivan showing me the shovel that he buried events with in the thread titled "bring em back" I gave up the fight. Unfortunately they ain't comin back, so its pointless to even get your hopes up a smidgen. I've moved on from uosa. I lurk the forums refresh houses and if shadowbane server is ever down for Maintenence I may even log in to fight, but I no longer believe in the dream me and you and so many others share. So, don't let your hopes get dashed.

Hopefully I'll be with you soon on SB. Soon as them asses send out CB invites again now that they expanded it.

[Notorious]

lol i swore i was going to stay i mean i love fighting the same 2 people and all but what a shame uosa is nice :< *events*

[Notorious]

Armed with the best era and rule set (IMHO) I truly believe that UOSA could grow once again. But, as Lambo said... It would require effort from ownership, who seem to be letting UOSA run this natural course towards the end that others have previously talked about. *shrugs* a healthy server needs love from its owner.

I'd like to step in and state that we are not letting the shard die. Derrick has no intentions on pulling the plug ... ever. With the increased Staff (3 new staffers since August 2013, one of which is a quality RunUO Developer), you can expect 2014 to be a much better year for UOSA than 2013 in terms of content, patches, etc...

In fact, anyone who's been keeping an eye out on things for a minimum of the last 12 months should know the following;

1. Population has declined - there are many factors here, more than most people realize. 2013 launched a few big shards, giving players more options on where to play.

2. Staff has been more active in the last 3-6 months than in the 12 months prior.

idk if staff participation within the shard increases population just because 2 years ago or whatever there was barely any gm interactions the shard was at a all time high, and the shard dropping in ips cause you guys took out a unique part of uosa and well you guys havent really filled the hole with anything honestly so this shards basically been stabbed, its slowly bleeding and if you dont bandage the wound its gunna bleed out and die *cough* listen to 99.9% of the shards community *cough* lol it would be that easy but nawwww no fun for the community hahaha RIP

[WarmApplepie]

Would kinda be nice to make vendors business spark up, and worth the time to GM skills with new influx of players looking to buy items.

and the shard dropping in ips cause you guys took out a unique part of uosa and well you guys havent really filled the hole with anything honestly so this shards basically been stabbed

and what is this referring to. As i am new, and have no idea

[Vega/Delo]

Hes talking about Auto Events.
But don't feed the animals pie. Notorious, Myrnae, furiocity, and pak all fall into the same group of animals.

[Whitley]

2. Staff has been more active in the last 3-6 months than in the 12 months prior.

QFT, Boomland.

I think the new staff in particular has done a remarkable job, and I'm sure put in countless hours, to create fun events for the playerbase in the last few months. You're all doing a fabulous job, and I hope none of you interprets this thread as any sort of referendum on what you've accomplished.

That said, the shard is clearly dying in spite of your efforts. I think it's incumbent on us all to ask why that is. There innumerable suggestions on this forum, but I prefer to take a step back and get the 30,000 foot overview of the problem before issuing potential solutions, as I feel most of the suggestions so far only focus on one of the overriding two issues.

In my mind there are basically two kinds of people we need to focus on, and in different ways, to return the shard to the land of the living.

1. New players

The nature of this game is that, with the exception of a select few, there will be turn over, and retention is going to be difficult irrespective of the efforts make to stem the outflow of players. This means that the shard will always need a steady stream of new players to fill that void.

Over the past few months some effort has been made to market the shard on the various UO voting sites, and I think that's a good first step. Additional steps would include an active social media campaign, SEO of the current site, link trading on other high profile gaming sites, etc.

Twitter in particular I feel can be especially effective if some encouragement is made among the current members to retweet events and interesting news from the shard. For example, we got WAY too little play out of Richard Garriott coming to visit than we otherwise could have with an active twitter following.

These are just a few suggestions out of a potentially limitless pool. In short, we need to market the shard, and we need to do it both well and often.

2. Retention

So we must recognize that there will always be outflows of players no matter what. But let's ask in what ways can we boost the shard's player retention rate. Let's start by asking, why do people leave?

In general I think people leave for three reasons:

a) They reach their "end game"
b) They become bored with the existing game play
c) They get frustrated because they cannot get established

You'll never retain people that leave due to "end game", so we must focus our attention on the other two groups. How can we stop (or slow down) that process? Lots of good suggestions exist on this already but to reiterate a few:

- Events (I know, dead horse, but it's a good suggestion nonetheless in this context)
- An official, shard-sponsored PVP tournament system
- Housing issues (too many to list, we'll leave it at that for now)
- Ideas centering around not driving off new players trying to establish themselves (eg rewards for dungeon protection teams, adopt a newbie programs, etc)

There's no point in continuing that list as every suggestion has been made in the past on these forums already.

Unless significant effort is spent on solving not just one, but both, of the above problems, the shard will continue the obvious decline in which we find ourselves now. I for one am hopeful (and optimistic) they can be solved. I love this place like everyone else on this thread or I wouldn't waste my time writing all this.

But we're going to need both forward thinking from the current staff and cooperation of the members to accomplish it. Without one or the other, I fear the chances of success approach zero.

Thanks,

Whitley

[Abyz]

Right on.

And yes... People training for and participating in AE's would be of great value to the crafting community.

[WarmApplepie]

Absolutely agree with the last 2 posts!

And the buddy system for noobs actually sounds pretty cool. If it wasnt for Delo/Az/Vega i wouldnt be even close to were i am for only playing for 3 weeks.