The amount of players who left Ultima because of itemization in the early 2000's and Trammel is staggering. What's even more staggering, is the amount of players who left the game without realizing a shard like Siege Perilous exists for them to play on, where itemization has less of an impact and Trammel does not exist. On top of this, there are players who willingly pay hundreds of dollars a month to play on ripped off versions of the game, but will not justify the sub-fee related to playing on official shards because they have been told, and shown through statistics that Atlantic is the only active Shard.

My question here is directly to the developers of the game. Outside of making changes to satiate the current player base of the game and keep them subbed every month, what is being done to bring players back to official Ultima Online shards? @Kyronix @Mesanna and anyone else I may have forgotten.

My Opinion: Endless Journey is a great start, but it is not enough, and is far too restrictive to compete with other options that currently exist. Ultima Online is, and was always designed, as a social game at its core. The current meta encourages players to Solo every single piece of content with zero risk, and maximum reward. Without more players in the sandbox, the sandbox itself loses it's flavor after the individual player has reached a point in which they can complete all of the content themselves, even on Siege Perilous this takes less than 12 months. 

Moving past this however, and looking at the game from the outside, we see other classic MMOs doing a lot more than Ultima Online to refresh and revitalize their player base. Proper new media strategies go a long way, and from what I've seen Broadsword has no intentions on utilizing new media in a fashion that makes sense to benefit the player-base. This is just my perspective as someone who works as a new media professional. It becomes difficult for official shards to compete, when every search for Ultima Online outside of a singular other message board and here points players directly towards less than desirable locations. 

Feel free to add your own opinions in here as well. Try to keep it constructive, as I have done my best to do so as well. I'm sure players will come in here screaming that nothing needs to change and the game needs to stay a solo RPG experience, and they are welcome to that opinion. These are just my random thoughts that came from streaming Ultima Online to a larger audience. 

Yes.

My initial post would have got this thread locked by my friend Rorschach, and would have caused chaos, so Yes, just Yes.

🙂

ps. And I want some of that lovely artwork I saw in the other threads, still not got over how well done they are, and how they fit UO so perfectly. Credit to that artist.

It needs to be advertised more. The problem is who is responsible for that? EA owns the game, but the developers are Broadsword. which is why you don't see it advertised like other newer games.

As a player, I can post on social media to get more players to return to the game. And maybe one friend can share a post, and get more people to share.... snowball effect... word of mouth travels fast...

=============================

I have seen people return to the game after being away for years. They returned cause a player told them they needed to come check out the changes... And they have stayed and subscribed. And updated their accounts so they can do all the guild events. 

We need to share our stories... our experiences, so others can come and enjoy the newer content.

Good post, on point, won't get any official response.

Garth_Grey said:

Good post, on point, won't get any official response.

Better to keep one player with 60 accounts happy than to do something that gains 30 players with 2 accounts I suppose.

Ive always said that if they put it out on the shelves again it would bring a whole new generation in and be bursting again, also if they put it on steam platform the game would totally be overflowing the game is far from dead, they can do so much to bring it back to full life again but dont seem to want to bother, is a shame cos it could be great again like the old days in its full glory
ive tried many games over the years but none can match UO

LillyMae_1 said:

Ive always said that if they put it out on the shelves again it would bring a whole new generation in and be bursting again, also if they put it on steam platform the game would totally be overflowing the game is far from dead, they can do so much to bring it back to full life again but dont seem to want to bother, is a shame cos it could be great again like the old days in its full glory
ive tried many games over the years but none can match UO

Putting it on shelves requires the cooperation of the shops. The last one on shelves here was Samurai Empire. Only one shop in the town stocked it and my son and I bought their entire stock.  Did we buy them by the dozen?  No, the most the shop had been willing to take was THREE. They want games they can sell more than once by offering 'games exchange'. 

Only Atlantic has a population?  Only in the minds of the people who want everyone to move there. I don't, and won't, play there.  If you look at the profiles of posters here you'll find a part that says 'primary shard'.  Not everyone has submitted it, but look at a few and you'll find there's a really wide spread of shards, Europa and Siege at least as well represented as Atlantic in the few I looked at before posting this.

The daily meet on Europa has helped many returning and even new players, including some from those infamous 'free' shards. It's hard to know how many choose to stay once they get on their feet, but a lot who we know started EJ we also know have subbed and built houses.  I don't know what the true population in game is, but I'm reasonably sure it's more than the doomsayers believe it to be.  I've recently been training a low-end pet for one of my crafters, taking it to 'newbie' locations.  In all of them I saw training newer characters, only in ones and twos I admit, but they were there.

I think something was said about Steam. I remember us getting it approved there, but that's as far as it went. I'm not sure what Broadsword might be able to do to advertise, but I'm pretty sure anything they tried would have to be approved and passed by EA. I strongly suspect their hands are tied. 

When you say many, you’re most likely talking in the dozens. Out of those dozens, maybe 1 or 2 per dozen last past 6 months in game, because there isn’t enough to do once you have built the characters you need to solo a majority of content. Once you can solo a majority of the content, you quickly realize that all you’re doing is stock-piling and hoarding a bunch of fairly useless items that you can’t sell unless you transfer to Atlantic, because there are no players to support an economy at all on most shards. 

Again, the problem here lies in the fact that anywhere outside of this official forum, and the one other location where people talk about UO, is that Atlantic as touted as the place to come back to official Ultima Online by those individuals who frequent Gray shards and have no idea that Atlantic is nothing more than an LLTS shard with a mall. I was a returning player who returned to Atlantic once. After three months, I ended up quitting the game again because there was literally nothing going on except toxic PvP egos, and people selling their free-farmer items they transferred from dead or dying shards. 

Word of mouth can only take a game so far. Trust me as someone who has been doing my part to use my voice to bring in as many players as humanely possible. Broadsword and EA as companies need to do something to incentivize players to not only return, but stick around. An MMO is not an MMO if a majority of the players are playing it as a single player game. 

As usual Petra hits it on the head.  Oh, and btw Petra Yes we got steams approval but EA being the rotten egg in the room said NO... Why?  easy thy planned to start their own version of Steam and have to a point...   They are now advertising the batch of old games they have amassed.

EJ is just fine as it is and I do wish the majority of players would get it in their heads that UO is not set up to go full F2P and cant.  When you look at the total picture UO is 21 years old and was fully based in pay to play.  We old codgers who have more then we like in accounts (yes I have over 54 of them)  have a history in the game.  But I can guarantee you this there is no way EA or the BS staff give a fig for the amount of accounts any player owns. Your one person you get 1 vote but that too is moot.  
 EJ is a bigger boost to trial account people and the returning. They get to play till they feel ok with the fit and then we hope they sub in.   I have seen the number in Atlantic Luna bank dwindle in players. I read the chat channels rants and secrets. EJ has hurt the game... I hope those who try come and sub.