Broadsword Taking Over SWTOR from BioWare

So what's this mean for UO? I know some of the team is coming over to Broadsword but I can't tell if this is good or bad for UO. Opinions? 

Don't worry, they'll probably ignore us too. 

If you play SWTOR, it has gone from bad to worse.  If you play UO gameplay will not change at all.

Too bad SOE ended SWG.  That was a great game.

EpicLuteGaming said:

 or bad for UO. 

“As in, uo will fix less bugs? How can they fix less than zero? 

I imagine, and it's only imagination since they haven't announced any staff changes/ additions etc that things will remain as is. If they add staff for the UO team it can only get better since they seem to be operating on a bare bones strategy.

I read it as some of the team is coming over but not all of them. This sounds like either SWTOR will have less staff or they might pull from Broadsword's existing staff. Either way it is an interesting move and would be great to hear from the UO team in regards to what this means. 

EpicLuteGaming said:

would be great to hear from the UO team in regards to what this means. 

Made me giggle a little this morning. 

AmberWitch said:

If they add staff for the UO team it can only get better since they seem to be operating on a bare bones strategy.

I'm skeptical on that. They added (can't remember their name) last year who I think might have thought of the Spring event last year with the colored bunnies. Since that event last year which I would consider "new" (for the egg collecting piece & colored rabbits), what other "new" content have we seen with this new person on the team? We had nothing last summer, a single day anniversary party (but no other big event/content for 25 years), a recycled Deceit event, a recycled Krampus & Artisan fest, and for the most part another recycled spring event. It looks like we will have another single day event this summer and probably another repeat Halloween/Xmas event. So almost 2 years with just a single "new" event from this added resource.

We also have 2 artist on the team but we only get a few new pieces of art a year. You would think new clothes drops (ie not added to any crafting menu) with colors etc would come out pretty regularly since we have 2 artist. 

We haven't had a new publish released in quite some time to require QA testing so I think it would be reasonable to think the backlog of bugs should probably be addressed... yet no patches.

Honestly, I doubt Mesanna wants any additional people because that would only put more heat on her to deliver. It's better off to stay a small team and use the excuse of limited resources. If there was a team of 4 QA testers and bugs stuck around for years that would look really bad... it doesn't seem quite as bad if a single person can't test properly.

At one point in time I was buying the "skeleton crew" thing so I was buying the fact that they couldn't do a lot, but they've produced so little in the past couples years that I don't think the issue is the quantity of people on their team but rather the quality. I think it all goes back to the leader of the team. If the leader isn't organized enough to get some sort of production out of 5 people, it's not going to matter if they get another 5 (or 15) people because they aren't leading the team properly or holding anyone accountable for lack of productivity. 

Ya'll are savages, I will say that. I understand it is easy to point fingers, but do you really think our dev team is the reason UO is not getting any love? Do you think EA would allow that or do you think EA is part of that problem and using our devs as the scapegoats? 

EpicLuteGaming said:

Ya'll are savages, I will say that. I understand it is easy to point fingers, but do you really think our dev team is the reason UO is not getting any love? Do you think EA would allow that or do you think EA is part of that problem and using our devs as the scapegoats? 

EA is paying a salary for something. 

Just looked at the home page for SWTOR.  Looks pretty much identical to UO’s page with the only difference being a Star Wars theme.   Never played that game so no idea what UO is getting. But if it gets someone with the vision to turn UO into a game that can attract and retain new players while still meeting the needs of the current player base, it will be worth it.  I think UO has all the factors of production it needs to continue as a viable game.  But, it has never been able put them together in away to bring it up to date.  It’s thinking is still back in the 1990’s and it’s now 2023.

I. personally, would expect that the SWTOR team will have exactly the same impact on UO as the DAoC team does, ie none at all. 

I wonder how many people work on UO.

On the BS website:

http://www.mythicentertainment.com/about.html

there are 23 people listed.  Do these folks manage both UO and DAoC? Or, is there some sort of team UO and Team DAoC?

Rocko said:

I wonder how many people work on UO.

On the BS website:

http://www.mythicentertainment.com/about.html

there are 23 people listed.  Do these folks manage both UO and DAoC? Or, is there some sort of team UO and Team DAoC?

We have the Armstrongs, Greg H. And Steven B. Tori is a shared artist and there a content writer. Rest are Daoc.

Urge said:

EpicLuteGaming said:

Ya'll are savages, I will say that. I understand it is easy to point fingers, but do you really think our dev team is the reason UO is not getting any love? Do you think EA would allow that or do you think EA is part of that problem and using our devs as the scapegoats? 

EA is paying a salary for something. 

100%.

Anyone posting here (ie not an EJ account) has every right to want the Dev team to be held accountable to do their job. IE - Head of QA should be held accountable for the lack of bug fixes being implemented... that is literally the job. If head of QA isn't doing that, then I don't know what they are being paid for.

Rocko said:

I wonder how many people work on UO.

On the BS website:

http://www.mythicentertainment.com/about.html

there are 23 people listed.  Do these folks manage both UO and DAoC? Or, is there some sort of team UO and Team DAoC?

Jim “Onifrk” Crawley

Greg "Kyronix" Havlusch

Stephen "Bleak" Brown

Michael "Misk" Armstrong

Bonnie "Mesanna" Armstrong

Tori "Levitica" Guarino

Urge said:

EpicLuteGaming said:

Ya'll are savages, I will say that. I understand it is easy to point fingers, but do you really think our dev team is the reason UO is not getting any love? Do you think EA would allow that or do you think EA is part of that problem and using our devs as the scapegoats? 

EA is paying a salary for something. 

No EA has a contract with BS to maintain/upgrade DAoC and UO.  Out of that money BS pays its employees, none of these people work for EA anymore.

keven2002 said:

Urge said:

EpicLuteGaming said:

Ya'll are savages, I will say that. I understand it is easy to point fingers, but do you really think our dev team is the reason UO is not getting any love? Do you think EA would allow that or do you think EA is part of that problem and using our devs as the scapegoats? 

EA is paying a salary for something. 

100%.

Anyone posting here (ie not an EJ account) has every right to want the Dev team to be held accountable to do their job. IE - Head of QA should be held accountable for the lack of bug fixes being implemented... that is literally the job. If head of QA isn't doing that, then I don't know what they are being paid for.

QA is actually not responsible for “implementing” fixes. Developers implement them. Producers prioritize them. QA validates.

Whatever we see on their site doesn’t paint the whole picture. It’s not uncommon for software shops to contract out work, for example.

Anyway, this whole deal probably doesn’t mean much for UO. It just means SWTOR is effectively in hospice care.

Urge said:

EpicLuteGaming said:

would be great to hear from the UO team in regards to what this means. 

Made me giggle a little this morning. 

Made me laugh also 🙂

My opinion, if you are going to do something, do it properly, be good at it, UO Team are taking non-communication next level, they are becoming legends 🙂