We need change, for the sake of the server.

[xynosis]

Treysta's post is a great example... a PERFECT example of why GM's have little to no motivation to bring back events OR have much of a presence in game, in forums, and IRC. In this case, if you are Anarcho, aka the only "active GM"... you get the most criticism and guff from the people who simply play the shard without any sort of responsibility.

The harder you work to help, the more crap you get.

Would you like to volunteer to do work and have people talk shit about it online? You might get a few "atta boy's!" or "good job's!" out of it, but it seems you mostly get people saying things like: "Well that isn't era accurate." or "That was a gay event." or "I didn't get anything out of that patch, so it was stupid." or "The GMS are secretly in cahoots with certain players and give out information to them before patches."
...or whatever else.

If you become more active and do things to 'help' the shard... people are going to criticize you no matter what. Someone always does. Aside from the occasional brown noser, it seems that it is a thankless job.

If I was a GM here, I wouldn't be very motivated to bring back events to the people/adult-children/era geeks/albino basement dwellers who will ultimately critique every little thing I do and secretly think they could do a better job.

We are lucky to have this FREE shard. It is FREE. You cannot really complain about something that is free unless you are spoiled. Especially if you spend ten plus hours a week playing the game, posting in forums, and chatting in IRC about it, you are obviously enjoying it enough to keep playing and thinking about it. If you act like you do not enjoy this shard and are one of those people who do spend more than 10 hours a week playing, then perhaps you should rethink your life strategy. Maybe ask a girl (or guy) out on a date. Perhaps go ride a bike... cardio is AWESOME. Fucking eat a salad and go for a walk. Chill out.

In my opinion, the shard will not die entirely unless Derrick pulls the plug or some crazy hardware failure happens. We might have moments where only a few active players (who are not macroing) are online, but the shard's population will ebb and flow for sure.

Bringing back (more) events would be cool, I agree.

I love this shard and hope the GMs take more chances to keep things lively... although I understand why they wouldn't. We (collectively) don't deserve it. We didn't pay a dime for it and we bitch about it all.

Here is my 'novel' and my two cents. Peace.

Are the devs going to comment on any of this?

They have. Over and over. They are unwilling to bring events back. They have confirmed this ad nauseam.

I officially started playing seriously in January 2014, and here are my experiences with GMs on UOSA:

Derrick

Haven't seen him post, say a single word in IRC, in game, or anything of that nature. He's invisible. He's probably busy, apathetic to the shard at this point, or whatever. No problem, other GMs exist to delegate duties to to alleviate pressure off of Derrick, right?

Kaivan

Kaivan is essentially nonexistent to me as a player. He'll occasionally post on the forums, but I've never seen him say anything in IRC or in game. That being said, I've talked to him a couple times and I would be lying if I said he wasn't professional. Inactive, but professional.

Boomland

I haven't seen him post anything since becoming a GM, and besides the occasional hello in IRC to a friend of his, he has no presence whatsoever on UOSA. He has responded to a support ticket of mine, which was handled quickly and courteously, but I don't consider that to be active.

Mammoth

A fairly active GM in the sense that he organized the Champions of Britannia events (I believe it was him at least) and has held a few impromptu 1v1 tournaments. That kind of initiative is what the shard needs, but Mammoth can't be expected to be the only person doing this on a semi-regular basis. And worse, recent events have made him unable to participate in UOSA GMing duties, leaving us with no official PvP options whatsoever.

Anarcho

Finally an active GM! He has an IRC presence, deploys patches, and posts on forums a bit, usually to moderate them. In fact, Anarcho is in my eyes the only active GM on the shard. That being said, I do have criticism.

One example is when I directly quoted something Anarcho publicly posted on this very forum that I viewed as hypocritical and/or hilarious. He PM'd me immediately on IRC and informed me that he removed my signature and if I return the quote to my sig, I'll be forum banned because (not verbatim) "we're GM's and we don't have to put up with your shit" . I personally believe that criticism is the backbone to constructive change and that if I say something publicly, it's fair game to be quoted. At the end of the day, I am cognizant of the fact that this is a game and GM's are allowed to flex their authority as they see fit. I readily admit I may have pestered Anarcho too frequently and that his frustration with me could very well be justified.

Another issue I had with Anarcho is when he released a housing placement patch that allowed the players to obtain top tier houses that were previously unattainable. Seems cool, right?

Facts:

• Players received no previous notice of this housing patch, which means that...
• Only those who were on right after downtime had any shot at placing these houses because...
• The patch was rolled back on live a few hours after being implemented.
• The housing patch is still not live while the newly grandfathered houses still remain.
• The patch was originally implemented May 14th 2014.

Let me emphasize the notion that I believe Anarcho's intentions in releasing this patch were indeed innocent. Was this patch some clever conspiracy to allow Vega to place an Ocllo bank house or Eo to grab the Trinsic gate house? Of course not, and anybody who thinks that's the case is very clearly mistaken. It was, however, a very unfair and thoughtlessly implemented patch, and the way the mistake was handled is a direct indication of why I believe we need more active GMs to help handle these types of situations and ensure they don't influence the integrity of UOSA's gameplay.

-----

So, let's take a tally of my anecdotes. 1 invisible boss, 2 inactive GMs, and 2 active GMs with one being out of commission. Is it any wonder why the status quo is so shitty right now? There's no staff!

In conclusion:

If automated events are off the table forever, pick members of the community that can be trusted and give them authority and tools they need to run sanctioned PvP events on a regular basis. That's the only way out of this hole. The administration needs help, and I'm more than willing to bet that some community members here, myself included, would gladly offer a helping hand if we were given the opportunity.

[Kaivan]

I guess calling us out is one way to garner a response.

Kaivan

Kaivan is essentially nonexistent to me as a player. He'll occasionally post on the forums, but I've never seen him say anything in IRC or in game. That being said, I've talked to him a couple times and I would be lying if I said he wasn't professional. Inactive, but professional.

While I do agree that I rarely participate in IRC chats, that is due to the fact that my concerns are focused on the mechanics and overall policy. I have never cared to participate in IRC discussions, but I do try to respond to private PMs when I am there, or a player leaves enough information for me to actually try and respond to a problem.

As for my participation with in-game communication, you'll find that most GMs handle in-game PMs when they are around to do so, and I am also included in that statement. I simply don't make it known that I'm the one answering the pages when it happens.

Finally, regarding my forum participation, this is the statement that is most divorced from reality. The forums are my main line of communication with other players, and I regularly administrate the boards, and post when needed. In the last two to three weeks, forum activity has been generally low, so there has been no need to say anything.

[WarmApplepie]

In the last two to three weeks, forum activity has been generally low, so there has been no need to say anything.

Great you've noticed! Now when are we going to get a sense of urgency to spark excitement again.

[Kaivan]

Whatever we feel can appropriately be done will be done when it can be done. This does not include drumming up population by adding in automated events.

[Demetrius]

Does the staff have any ideas to increase population?

[Kaivan]

I can't speak for any of the others, but my opinion is that we should get back to releasing patches on a much more regular basis. While I can't quantify, nor even necessarily guarantee that a population increase will occur along side the patches, releasing patches will at least show a commitment to our core goal, which is fundamentally important to the server overall.

[JessieKJepsen]

This thread went exactly how I thought it was going to go, and that makes me so sad.

On a side note: I was not aware this server was a "museum".
That statement makes me even more sad, as UO is dynamic and an ever changing mmorpg with the inherent fact that players are what make the server hum. This isn't a one person game like the boring FPS's my husband seems to enjoy on his PlayStation.

I don't feel the GM's need to explain anything to us, but I think more open dialog with players would help us understand what's going on behind the scenes and ease the "feeling" of possibly being forgotten.

I do not feel you are a "brown nose'r" as said above, If you take two minutes out of your day to pm the online gm's in IRC to just say hello, wish them a happy day or weekend, and thank them for all they do for us.

Especially Derrick, whom I am sure spends his own hard earned money to support this servers equipment, data center costs, website costs, plus his time.

I think this thread has gone way off course into the direction I thought it would, but hoped it wouldn't. But I do understand the nature of how it happened, and knew it would be inevitable from past post experiences.

Sincerely disheartened,

~Jess

[Jay]

Does the staff have any ideas to increase population?

I can't speak for any of the others, but my opinion is that we should get back to releasing patches on a much more regular basis.

I actually think more cow bell might be a better solution. If you can "quantify" that one.

[NOTORIOUSv2]

you can permaban me but you CANT stop the movement. BRING EM BACK BITCHES

[TI_Smithy]

On a side note: I was not aware this server was a "museum".
That statement makes me even more sad

[Capitalist]

you can permaban me but you CANT stop the movement. BRING EM BACK BITCHES

afaik you were banned for cheating.

[xynosis]

I would like to say that I meant no disrespect to Treysta for my post. It reminded me of a very common perspective shared by a number of people on this shard. I rarely post and just wanted to offer my perspective on the issue.

[Treysta]

Treysta's post is a great example... a PERFECT example of why GM's have little to no motivation to bring back events OR have much of a presence in game, in forums, and IRC. In this case, if you are Anarcho, aka the only "active GM"... you get the most criticism and guff from the people who simply play the shard without any sort of responsibility.

The harder you work to help, the more crap you get.

Anarcho's level or lack of activity has nothing to do with my criticism. My criticism is rooted in his actions. If other GMs were more active AND both implemented unfair stealth-patches and micromanaged what I could have in my signature, I would criticize them as well. Just as I would if they were inactive and implemented unfair stealth-patches with in-game repercussions. Did you miss the part of my post where I simultaneously called Mammoth active and didn't criticize him?

Would you like to volunteer to do work and have people talk shit about it online? You might get a few "atta boy's!" or "good job's!" out of it, but it seems you mostly get people saying things like: "Well that isn't era accurate." or "That was a gay event." or "I didn't get anything out of that patch, so it was stupid." or "The GMS are secretly in cahoots with certain players and give out information to them before patches."
...or whatever else.

I would gladly volunteer to help the shard. My method of helping the shard would be as follows: I would evaluate what beneficial changes would could be made with era accuracy in mind, gather a list of the results, communicate with the shard as to what they'd like to see, implement the changes with plenty of warning, evaluate the results, and finally modify the changes as necessary to satisfy both player's and shard's needs.

Here's an example of something I wouldn't say because it makes UOSA members feel like we aren't worthy of a genuine, transparent answer:

Whatever we feel can appropriately be done will be done when it can be done. This does not include drumming up population by adding in automated events.

Even Kaivan's followup reply is the opposite of transparent:

I can't speak for any of the others, but my opinion is that we should get back to releasing patches on a much more regular basis. While I can't quantify, nor even necessarily guarantee that a population increase will occur along side the patches, releasing patches will at least show a commitment to our core goal, which is fundamentally important to the server overall.

What patches? What changes? I realize GMs are petrified of creating expectations and then failing to deliver. That's highly understandable. But what's stopping GMs from having open discussions with the shard on what type of ideas they've had and the direction the future patches are headed? The people here want a shred of hope, and nobody is prepared to deliver one at the expense of vets and new players dropping left and right.

We are lucky to have this FREE shard. It is FREE. You cannot really complain about something that is free unless you are spoiled.

Xynosis' post is a great example... a PERFECT example of why change is so difficult. Something that's free is still a product. It still has a market, it still has people working on it, and it still has people who look forward to logging on in the evening. Saying that we can't criticize or offer suggestion (as I believe you meant when you used the word "complain") just because something is free is asinine.

Google is free. Should we not complain if Google services start sucking? League of Legends is free. Should gamers not complain when the servers are down or unstable for weeks on end? If anything, free products fundamentally rely on criticism, especially if they're not being optimally monetized, like UOSA.

This article is not directly related to this situation, but I feel as though you might be able to gain some wisdom from it regardless:

...But now, there appears to be a tribe of people bearing arms, bludgeoning anyone who dares to speak out about lousy service quality, bad uptime, bad customer support etc all under the blanket “Its free, what you got to complain about”.

What happens if Google stops showing search results for companies and products they don’t like. It is a free service, no one can complain, but you bet that those companies are going to die pretty soon.

Or what happens if Gmail loses all your incoming emails and you learn about it a couple of months later. No big deal if you are Grandma. Pretty big deal if you run a small business using Google Domains. (Which is free btw)

Or what happens if Google Docs swallows many of your documents ?

Maybe you will say, “Its a free service. Stop complaining”

or maybe not.

If the knee-jerk reaction to criticism and complaints is to shush them under blanket nonsensical rhetoric, then it is not much different from strong arming tactics like this.

The only recourse a ordinary customer is to complain loud and clear..

When enough people complain, companies do sit up and listen. Without those checks and balances, things break down. Products and companies never improve, because they never get complaints..Everything is rosy.

perhaps you should rethink your life strategy. Maybe ask a girl (or guy) out on a date. Perhaps go ride a bike... cardio is AWESOME. Fucking eat a salad and go for a walk. Chill out.

I've traveled the world, have a vibrant social life, and exercise on a regular basis. Salad rules, especially caesar. Thank you for the psuedo-personal attacks. You won't see those coming from me.

[Treysta]

On a side note: I was not aware this server was a "museum".
That statement makes me even more sad

[xynosis]

Good for you dood.

It is still my opinion though. Nice response.

GG... you win.