25 Years...

EpicLuteGaming

Can you believe it, Ultima Online turns 25 years old this year and we are still playing and enjoying the hecking heck out of it. Its great to look back and be nostalgic but playing the game in the now is by far the best time I have had ever in UO. I have been meeting new people, forming some amazing friendships, and I have even been lucky enough to share my UO content with many others. 

Without the dev team, game masters, and event moderators that put time and effort into this game who knows if it would even still be around. I see a lot of bashing and bad mouthing all over the place, heck, I have done it many time myself on stream. It's not ok, not ok for me not ok for anyone else. We can be constructive in the way we share our thoughts and input with the team, I am sure they would be more inclined to listen as well...abuse has a way of shutting ones requests down fast.

I would like to invite anyone who wants to complain or be a turd burglar to come to me. I am willing to listen to you and do my best to take your complaints and put them into a format that will benefit us all. A quick Google of my username will put you in contact with me. Let me be the person who is the middle man if you are not able to say the things you want to say in a reasonable way. I have no problem hearing you out and making a post that will be well worded and constructive rather than seeing people dump on the team that has kept us in a game. It is my hopes that this will allow us a line of communication to the devs that will be taken without a brash undertone or rudeness and allow them to hopefully hear us out in a positive way. 

That's my PatrickTalk for the day, thanks for coming. 

Sarkon

Hey Patrick, @Ajanus1 here.  I agree with this 100% and if I can help in any way, you know how to reach me.  UO is good times for all and it is way beyond the time to give appreciation where it's due.  Yes, the game can be improved and things can be fixed, but there is definitely a right way and wrong way to go about it.  I believe this is a major step in the 'right way.'

McDougle

I can't even 

EpicLuteGaming

McDougle said:

I can't even 

Well you should try.

Pawain

Welcome Patrick!

Pawain

It is a bad intro, but read his past posts. He says the is the new content creator/writer.

They stuck the new guy into the furnace.

Ok after looking at the Google search I am not so sure.  Maybe he is a player frustrated with your negativity.

Pawain

Patrick is here get your communication and accountability. 

Whether he is real or pseudo. He claims to be your UO savior.

Ask away!

keven2002

Once again stay on topic; I know you have trouble doing that. I used to think you knew a lot about the game but you really don't know nearly as much as I thought. I stopped correcting you because it's worse than arguing with popps because in your head the smartest person in the world (and you are WAY off lmao). 

Once again you deflect when called out to actually take a stance and pick a side. Your tactics are laughable... which sums everything about you up nicely.

Maybe YOU should be the one taking everyone feedback... on second thought nvm - it would require you being unbiased which is something impossible for someone like you.

Jepeth

Pawain said:

It is a bad intro, but read his past posts. He says the is the new content creator/writer.

They stuck the new guy into the furnace.

Ok after looking at the Google search I am not so sure.  Maybe he is a player frustrated with your negativity.

See, I didn’t read that first post as him being on the team, but rereading I may understand Pawain’s confusion. He’s an unaffiliated UO content creator but not “the” creator of UO content. He does an excellent twitch.tv stream (https://www.twitch.tv/epiclutegaming ) on the Sonoma shard. 

What he’s saying, though, is that for the most part the players on this forum are so upside down about their own particular grievances that we miss the bigger picture. Ultima Online is still a fantastic game and well worth the monthly subscription. But the negativity on this and other boards has really begun to affect the perceptions around the game. His statement saying to go to him to air grievances is (I believe) him saying he’d use his platform to discuss these issues openly but in a more constructive way than repeating a catch phrase on every post. 

I’ve seen the questions that come up on his stream chat. They often are about why he is playing the official shards and not a well known grey shard or, alternatively, are 100% nostalgia about what the game was 20 years ago. Patrick does a great job of articulating why he still plays Sonoma and this version of the game. Because, warts and all, this is the best version of Ultima Online. 

EpicLuteGaming

You all should stop arguing with each other first of all. Its gotten you all no where this far so try to just chill the heck out. 

To clarify, I am a content creator on Twitch/YouTube, I am not associated with EA/Broadsword or anyone of the devs. I play Ultima Online 2d on Sonoma, no mods, no extra things to make it run smooth, just 2d UO and me. I am just a dude that wants to be a middle man for those who are unable to articulate the proper words for their arguments. I have an open platform where people can talk to me and tell me their concerns and I can then turn those concerns, which mean well but are drenched in love for the game, into clear and concise information to give back to our devs via my content or the forum here. 

So once again, if you have concerns but are not able to voice them in a manner that is conducive to healthy communication with our dev team, tell me, let me do it for you if nothing else. 

gay

I would love to help make UO a better game. It's a shame that the devs would rather live with their heads in the ground, ignoring all players except those few that they deem worthy. (who ironically play primarily to monetize and profit from the game. definitely no hidden agenda there with a dev hook up, right?)

Edit: Also I've seen your streams, they're nice. It's a refreshing take on the game through the perspective of your playstyle.

EpicLuteGaming

gay said:

ignoring all players except those few that they deem worthy. (who ironically play primarily to monetize and profit from the game. definitely no hidden agenda there with a dev hook up, right?)

**EDIT** Is that a thing? Also I am stuck in the quote...

Pawain

No, some feel persecuted when they do not get what they ask for.  Ask him to name those worthy players who get what they ask for.

It's best to start over when you are stuck in the quote box.

EpicLuteGaming

I would like to think our devs are not in cahoots with 3rd party sellers but then again proof would go further than speculation in cases like this. I have seen nothing that makes me think that however. 

gay

Yeah ask me to do something an overzealous mod is gonna action me for.

Jepeth

Yes, cause hurling accusations of favoritism is exactly the toxic communication this player base needs.

If I was favored anything believe me I’d find something way more interesting to get changed than a dog costume. 

(Edit: Sorry Pawain, I edited the post right as you replied.)

Pawain

  

BardrisCaller1

I love this game. I kinda like the people in it and I'm still engaged in its content after 23 years playing. The biggest issue I have is the slow pace of communication from Broadsword. Other than that I still enjoy the content they put out, though occasionally it's rough but that's not unexpected. Nonetheless, lack of  communication is what causes the bad optics. I wish they would push out a few extra updates or stories or something in between to keep it engaging and not give complainers a reason to detract from the good content.

McDougle

No really labeling people who ask about bugs etc and expect acknowledgement and accountability and 
Want communication complainers is what causes the negative toxicity you think we reached this as pawain says whiny stage over night ??? Years of being ignored..... 

EpicLuteGaming

McDougle said:

No really labeling people who ask about bugs etc and expect acknowledgement and accountability and 
Want communication complainers is what causes the negative toxicity you think we reached this as pawain says whiny stage over night ??? Years of being ignored..... 

So why not work together to be heard?

CovenantX

Make UO a better game?  Yes, do something (anything) about third-party programs....  That is all.

Skett

This ^

Feigr

I've called this dude out before.  I really enjoy listening to his stream while playing.  Highly recommend.

Definitely think the Broadsword team could utilize streamers more too and promote them.  UO is the perfect game to play while also listening to a streamer in the background.

EpicLuteGaming

Feigr said:

I've called this dude out before.  I really enjoy listening to his stream while playing.  Highly recommend.

Definitely think the Broadsword team could utilize streamers more too and promote them.  UO is the perfect game to play while also listening to a streamer in the background.

They have a few of us to choose from as well. Does not have to be me, just would be cool to see some use be made of what we do for fun anyways.

Urge

It could be what we need to really get things smooth. 

I would much rather play official servers but time and time again I see less buggy better artwork freebie versions being pushed out by a couple guys in their spare time. It's frustrating and disheartening to those of us that started gaming with official UO and stayed.

Feigr

EpicLuteGaming said:

Feigr said:

I've called this dude out before.  I really enjoy listening to his stream while playing.  Highly recommend.

Definitely think the Broadsword team could utilize streamers more too and promote them.  UO is the perfect game to play while also listening to a streamer in the background.

They have a few of us to choose from as well. Does not have to be me, just would be cool to see some use be made of what we do for fun anyways.

I was thinking of more like a feature in the newsletters or on the main page.  Just something to tell players it's out there and there are OSI creators.

Rorschach

Some few posts have been removed to preserve the intent of this thread.

Petra_Fyde

@EpicLuteGaming ; I have been trying to persuade people to voice their concerns with constructive criticism and without personal attacks and insults since 2006. I have yet to succeed.  I wish you all the luck in the world.

keven2002

Petra_Fyde said:

@ EpicLuteGaming  I have been trying to persuade people to voice their concerns with constructive criticism and without personal attacks and insults since 2006. I have yet to succeed.  I wish you all the luck in the world.

@Petra_Fyde - I write this to you as constructive and do not intend anything to be an insult but we know that 99% of the time whenever some opinion is expressed that someone (or people) do not like they immediately take it as an attack and it's immediately not true or should be ignored; unfortunately you could be included in that group with your post above. There have been many people who do not bash the Devs but do say they need to improve in areas and that's met with a starch defense of the Dev team without basis and you are guilty of that yourself (based on the fact that elude to nobody being able to give constructive criticism since 2006).

I say that because there have been several people say in a constructive way (myself included) that the Dev team really should be communicating better than they do. It's not how any successful project team operates in any facet nor should they. Perfect example is the lack of a newsletter in months to see a roadmap and unfortunately this isn't the first time. What I just wrote inevitably is taken as an attack by the same handful of people and those people respond with something dismissive like "well what do you expect when all people like you do is complain about what they say?". Suddenly the simple constructive criticism for the Dev team turns into an argument between posters about the Dev team. 

Hopefully I'm proven wrong on this but my feeling is that the same old fan bois/gurls will jump on here trying to counter with their own troll post which will eventually result in another locked thread.

So here goes:

@EpicLuteGaming - My feedback would be:

1. The Dev team should be more communicate to the player base more about what is going on and the plans for upcoming content/work. The format of their usual newsletter is fine; I'd just expect that it come on a monthly basis and be somewhat consistent (ie around the 15th or X date of the month... not the 1st of this month and the 31st of the following month). 
2. The team should also be more transparent on bug fixes. There should be some sort of defect list they are keeping and be able to give a status on submitted defects (ie pending replication / tested / TC1 / in Pub X / etc). There is a very bad perception that people submit a defect (and can give steps to replicate) and they go into a black hole; which then discourages people from bothering to submit defects again. 

dvvid

Yes it is true I don’t report bugs anymore because I could type up a whole post explaining everything even provide screenshots, gifs, and or video but with absolutely no acknowledgement from anyone on the team it seems completely pointless. 

McDougle

The overly heavy handed moderating is in fact one of the issues as posters are fearful of expressing anything that might be perceived as criticism. Where if not here are customers to go ?