28 years and most likely will be leaving sadly....

I am writing this because recently, I lost my main account of 28 years.  The account itself still exists but everything in that account, is gone.  Here is the story and a warning to those of you that might still have old old accounts that are subscribed.   *note I am not angry at anyone or the company per say, other than contact with me about this could have been much better in many ways.  

For what is it 28 years now, I have owned and played an original Ultima Online account. I was also a BETA tester.  Along with another account that my daughters used as children, when we would play together. I retained subscriptions on those accounts for most of those years as well. Today, I am now a US Navy Service Connected Disabled Veteran, medically retired 2014 due to numerous military injuries. I mention it because last fall, I needed serious medical care again on one of those injuries that this time left me unable to do much for some months, not counting recovery after that period.

 I am writing this post because between that and this last month, I have had some periods of time I was not able to do much and because of that, literally lost the entire 28 years of my Ultima Online account. I went to log in about 1.5 months ago only to find ALL of my stuff gone. My home I had maintained, all the gear my daughters and I kept in that home, all my anniversary tokens, extremely rare things, and one off things from the original days that could not ever be found again.. everything just gone.

 Apparently in these last few months my subscription had run out and I was unaware of it, not to mention in any position to do anything right away due to medical reasons, nor did I see any notice so I could even figure out why there was a problem.

 I contacted EA/Broadsword via support and was told to talk to a GM in game. He was unable to do anything to fix it. I wrote again to EA/Broadsword about 3 weeks ago and as of today, not another reply back have I seen regarding this other than the initial info in the support email telling me to talk to a GM, support saying they were unable to restore anything.

 I don't think the people running this game have ANY clue what it means to lose an account that is so old. Oh sure, the account is still there but the essence of that account, the history of that account, the things earned and found and bought.. all gone just like that. The work, the effort and for me, the memories with my children when they were growing and we played together (I raised 3 daughters as their father while serving), all lost.

 I write this torn because Ultima Online still goes strong and is being enhanced and supported... and I really want to remain part of that .. and yet, I can't get past what has been lost. I keep going back to the fact, it is the game part that is being greatly supported, not so much the customer base apparently.

 My feeling from what response I have had from EA/Broadsword is one of shrugged shoulders. 'Oh well, your sub ran out and because of that, you lose and we don't care enough to even try to help you out'. That is how I feel about the little bit of response I have had from EA/Broadsword. I really wanted to keep subscribing to help the game stay around another 28 years... and yet right now and in these last few weeks, I cannot seem to find any reason or DESIRE to continue to support the game because of what it took from me at a real personal level. Why should I support the game any further when someone who has been an active account holder from the very first day of Ultima Online, can lose everything and the companies statement is just one of 'Oh well'?

 Knowing I should likely just move on and delete my account now, is a LOT harder decision to make than I think many understand.. clearly those at EA/Broadsword do not or they would be able to do something about situations like this that are not an everyday occurrence. I would bet rarely do they find a long term account holder of 28 years like me, where suddenly everything is lost because it is more important to get that $13 a month than to protect long time, long term accounts that are potentially in danger of being lost without there being a much more robust effort to inform such account holder there is something wrong...

 At minimum, I would have thought that long time paying accounts like this would have some protections for items that cannot be replaced, anniversary tokens, super rare OLD gear that can never again be had and so forth. Things that if an account subscription does lapse, could still be recovered for situations like I find myself in. But apparently not.

Nor does it seem to not matter. 1 year or 28 years. Pay the money or lose it all, regardless of reason. For any one of you here that have accounts of many years, be warned. I can tell you the loss is not easily put aside. Years and years of memories and effort.. gone instantly. And I can't do a damn thing to get any of it back.

 For EA/Broadsword, this message I sent via support email as well on the off chance you might actually care and want to contact me this time in reply. If I don't get a reply again, well then I guess it really will be good bye to Ultima Online for good because I honestly do not think I will be able to find that desire to start over from scratch and play another 28 years and paying to support the game this time.

BTW, In game on Great Lakes, I was known as Ladinor or Malakie.  My daughters were known as Artistic Soul and Mystic Soul.

Let this be a warning to everyone that has a long time account.  The loss is real.

I don't know what to tell you, man. If you don't pay your account for three months your house goes IDOC, it's been this way for a very long time. Were you in a coma? Did your other bills get paid? I'm not sure what you would expect anyone to do.

Thanks for sharing your story. It is true that after 3 months of no payment your house does go poof, along with the items inside. Unfortunately most of the time you don't get any sort of email or notification(s) which is really stupid and would prevent at least some of these problems. Could even text the phone number on the CC/EA master account or send a letter in the mail to the CC/EA master account address (joking but it could be done). 

On the flip side, we've also told them time, after time, after time, after time, the IDOC system in general is antiquated and is costing them subs.

Losing the plot? Sure, land is limited. 
Losing items? I dunno... if only there was the technology to box up the items in a moving crate and charge a fee for each month the account was inactive. Or something else that doesn't involve dropping the items on the ground for multiboxed rats to pick up.
Pandering to an 'idoc community' and not doing something about this is costing them but they're too dense to figure it out right @Kyronix

Anyways, don't want to turn this thread in to an IDOC rant but it needs to be said. Sorry for your loss. I wouldn't return to this game if this happened to me.

Sorry to hear about your situation.

The business model of incentivizing subscriptions via housing goes back a long way when few would think we’d be here over twenty years later. Moreover, the loss of items is basically a core feature via IDOCs. Your loss is someone else’s gain.

Perhaps it would be better if they just let your house decay so as to free up real estate space but returned the items to the owner. Cynically speaking, this would cut into the game’s bottom line, but I don’t begrudge Broadsword for sticking to matters of policy.

It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. We don’t “own” anything in the game. The game can go poof at any moment, and it was all destined to go away eventually. None of it takes away the experiences you had and what it meant to you at the time.

My characters are older than my children don't know what I'd do if they vanished but things can be replaced..

It's quite troubling that I haven't received any account expiration emails in years. I have several accounts paid with game time, and when the time runs out, I only discover it the next time I log in. While I do get an email when I reactivate, there's no notification when my accounts are about to expire. 

@Ladinor I’m sorry for the hard luck you’re having.

While I know it’s hard to replace items attached to so many memories, I hope you stick around to create new ones.

Let me know if I can help at all. 

@Ladinor I understand what you feel, as they commented, the ideal would be a modification of the system to warn the player in advance that his subscription expired and that entails the loss of the house and its objects.

Comparing with similar situations, I remember around the time of 2010-14 that several colleagues and friends were cheated (to get your account password) and had all their objects stolen, we are talking about, not only the objects that you could lose in a house, but, bank objects, equipment they were wearing, etc... a similar loss to yours, but extending the bank and personal equipment.

Can I have your stuff? Oh wait... nevermind. 

Just in time for NL to begin, you can start new with the rest of us.

I'm sure a certain poster will say I am trolling because I did not disparage UO, but gave a positive alternative to this story.

Pawain said:

Just in time for NL to begin, you can start new with the rest of us.

I'm sure a certain poster will say I am trolling because I did not disparage UO, but gave a positive alternative to this story.

So you use a personal attack while bringing nothing to the post again typical Allen behavior 

My comment was both constructive and factual.  

I invited him to play on NL and begin again with all of us.

I predicted someone would call it a troll.

OK I understand that his house and all that was in it is gone but how is every thing else is gone?  What happened to all of his chars and every thing that was in his bank boxes also gone?  Something just does not sound right.

When I lost everything in ~2011-12.. I had 2 accounts and 2 house full of stuff.. except my red murderer who had his swap in the bank box.. all my character bank box only had bandaid,regs or hundred of firehorn.. Most my character were sharing the same best items.. once I was done playing i would drop them in the house..

Then later BoardSword decided to delete faction items on top of it.. You could tell I still had my account and character.. but even there.. i've lost 30+ soulstone full of skills.. All i could do when i reinstall in june was mining, lumber, fish or play on my tamer mage full luck (lost his spellweaving,tactics & bard swap lost all his pvp gear & weapong + his instruments)

Since june I grinded enough stuff to re-equip the alt paladin (the miner/lumber) with a shit 4/6 suit (very low mana regen and LMC)


If he's a collector he's fucked.. personally all i need are wall torches, a flag and potted trees and i'm happy deco wise.
Some piece are irreplacable.. this is the rarest piece i still got (a rare $$ i would hate and kept it in the bank box of my main mule character to sell at brit bank)



The game should use IDOC as a MONEY SINK (if someone never comeback his belonging are LOST).. free the spot and save most items in a vault.. charge a fee for the "renting" when his owner come back (pretty sure a majority of those returning player would cover every monthly sub fee to get back what they had)
Personally i'D paid 10 USD per month to rent that vault.. but i wouldn't have cover 100% of the sub fee for the time I was gone; to get back my house content..

But who care... clearly not BS!

Hell, I start over with nothing on a different shard each year. Starting out with nothing is the most fun I have in this game. But to your point, i did notice one of my accounts had gone inactive from the GTC running out. it got an email the last time that happened (6 months ago), so something has changed. if you want anything to help start over let me know, but starting from scratch is fun. I actually had to do it for real back in 2009 or 10, cannot remember. I quit playing and forgot to check my accounts and the card on file expired and i lost everything except about 100k gold one character had. today i have more than i'll ever need. so rather than let it be a total negative, turn it into a challenge and see what you can accomplish.

Victim_Of_Siege said:

Hell, I start over with nothing on a different shard each year. Starting out with nothing is the most fun I have in this game. But to your point, i did notice one of my accounts had gone inactive from the GTC running out. it got an email the last time that happened (6 months ago), so something has changed. if you want anything to help start over let me know, but starting from scratch is fun. I actually had to do it for real back in 2009 or 10, cannot remember. I quit playing and forgot to check my accounts and the card on file expired and i lost everything except about 100k gold one character had. today i have more than i'll ever need. so rather than let it be a total negative, turn it into a challenge and see what you can accomplish.

On a side note, I did get the email this morning when i reactivated the account . . .

Probably not related, but we were notified some time ago that emails to and from hotmail address could not sent or received.

Mariah said:

Probably not related, but we were notified some time ago that emails to and from hotmail address could not sent or received.

No hotmail address on any of mine. something definitely changed. possibly a check box was unchecked by the system or something similar. i looked at the account and mine is opted in for all emails and communications. this one got an email the last time it ran out, not this time. No big deal for me as I could care less about my "Stuff" going poof, as i'll just re-earn it. but some people don't get over something like that as easily as me.

Ladinor said:
I am writing this because recently, I lost my main account of 28 years....

....Let this be a warning to everyone that has a long time account.  The loss is real.

 Let's wipe all the servers so that no one gets upset...
  I lost my house three times because I thought that I wouldn't play UO anymore - I don't feel any regrets/sorrows - it's even fun to start from scratch.
  Just let's move on, UO has definitely stagnated with all these people who, for some reason, fell in love with pixels to the point that they can't let them go - it's just a game, and it's sad to lose, but maybe we'll just keep playing and find new fun?
  Try NL server or find a new hobby.

Garret said:

Ladinor said:
I am writing this because recently, I lost my main account of 28 years....

....Let this be a warning to everyone that has a long time account.  The loss is real.

 Let's wipe all the servers so that no one gets upset...
  I lost my house three times because I thought that I wouldn't play UO anymore - I don't feel any regrets/sorrows.
  Just let's move on, UO has definitely stagnated with all these people who, for some reason, fell in love with pixels to the point that they can't let them go - it's just a game, and it's sad to lose, but maybe we'll just keep playing and find new fun?
  Try NL server or find a new hobby.

We don’t need to be dismissive of their disappointment just because it’s something you’re fine with.

Oreogl said:

Garret said:

Ladinor said:
I am writing this because recently, I lost my main account of 28 years....

....Let this be a warning to everyone that has a long time account.  The loss is real.

 Let's wipe all the servers so that no one gets upset...
  I lost my house three times because I thought that I wouldn't play UO anymore - I don't feel any regrets/sorrows.
  Just let's move on, UO has definitely stagnated with all these people who, for some reason, fell in love with pixels to the point that they can't let them go - it's just a game, and it's sad to lose, but maybe we'll just keep playing and find new fun?
  Try NL server or find a new hobby.

We don’t need to be dismissive of their disappointment just because it’s something you’re fine with.

I’d imagine you wouldn’t keep coming back if you didn’t feel some sort of connection to the game.

Garret said:

Oreogl said:

Garret said:

Ladinor said:
I am writing this because recently, I lost my main account of 28 years....

....Let this be a warning to everyone that has a long time account.  The loss is real.

 Let's wipe all the servers so that no one gets upset...
  I lost my house three times because I thought that I wouldn't play UO anymore - I don't feel any regrets/sorrows.
  Just let's move on, UO has definitely stagnated with all these people who, for some reason, fell in love with pixels to the point that they can't let them go - it's just a game, and it's sad to lose, but maybe we'll just keep playing and find new fun?
  Try NL server or find a new hobby.

We don’t need to be dismissive of their disappointment just because it’s something you’re fine with.

I’d imagine you wouldn’t keep coming back if you didn’t feel some sort of connection to the game.

  Your strange tolerance for everything is amazing, in life there are only lies and truth, to feel attachment and emotions to pixels from the world of false perception of reality, escapism in this case is a disorder that needs to be worked with.
   My hobby is games, but I have no emotional connection with them, it just so happens that modern gaming devs cannot release anything more complex than a “shovel” and in terms of content only POE or Teraria (then UO) are deeper, well there is still nostalgia - perhaps this is something on an emotional level, but at least I don't suffer from lost pixels.

 P.S. no attempt to offend, I just like to speak directly, if my directness offends anyone, I’m sorry.
P.P.S. And here’s why NL server is the right decision in terms of global wipe!

It takes very little to be empathetic and we should recognize not everything revolves around our own opinions. 

Garret said:

  Your strange tolerance for everything is amazing

Read the room son, he wouldn't have said shit if he had a strange tolerance for everything.. your comment clearly bug him out enough.. for him to speak.

Loyalty, honor and passion.. mix these 3 and think how you would feel in the shoes of the poster if u had the same mix.

Let's play a game; if someone went into your virtual belonging (example u add a co-owner to your house by mistake (instead of friend) and all your chest are set on co-owner cuz of your alts and that individual did a mess in your belonging, when u went to bed and stole most of your stuff.. u wouldn't feel even a bit violated, betrayed? mad?.. even if those are only pixel?

Ladinor, I feel your pain. 

Everything aside,

Just remember what is more important than those pixels are the memories of adventuring UO with your daughters. And even more important than that, the memories your daughters carry of adventuring with you. This unfortunate circumstance will not remove that, only make it more endearing.

Sorry for your lost. 

I had similar situation due to health issues 2 months ago and lost my house at tokuno gate.

More sad thing is that house is now owned by the one of the oldest player and guildmaster of one of the biggest guilds, he is not interested or helpful for any kind of recovery when I contacted with him.

This was not the Ultima online we know and I am not act like this players for the sake of the game. Otherwise we lost this game forever because of this kind of people.

Please let us know if you have any idea of the owner of your old house etc so we may contact with them and hope better attidue than my story.