If it makes you sleep better at night; instead of calling it "Easter" then let's call it the "Spring Celebration". At the end of the day most people just want events/stuff throughout the year.
It was always incredibly silly to have an Easter event in UO, given that there was no Easter in the Ultima series because, you know, it didn't have Christianity or Christ or anything. It would have made more sense to have a celebration around Lord British's birthday or something (or assassination and rising from the dead).
Or if somebody just had to have an Easter celebration, make it about The Avatar, because The Avatar was literally the closest thing to a Christ figure - he returned to Britannia several times to confront evil, was supposed to return one last time I think (or maybe the final time was the whole Guardian storyline because the Guardian was the friend we made along the way or something).
Maybe, but it’s an even better opportunity to complain on the forums. :P
Organizing a shard-wide Easter service (He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!) just ain’t the same as an official event where bunnies poop out tokens that you can redeem for leet gear.
How would you feel if without an explanation and a really good in game reason they decided to centre events around July 1st (Canada) or maybe August 24 (Ukraine) and ignore July 4. Religious holidays are an even bigger mine field.
As another said, I don't want to turn this into something super political but enough is enough with the "I'm offended by everything" stance. I think I speak for many people when I say who cares what the holiday is; if there is some sort of event/drop/token/etc for it then I'm all in; regardless of the technical holiday.
If it makes you sleep better at night; instead of calling it "Easter" then let's call it the "Spring Celebration". At the end of the day most people just want events/stuff throughout the year.
At the end of the day in this day and age there is 0% chance to make everyone happy so if the statistics say 51% of the western Hemisphere celebrates Easter (or insert any other holiday) then what exactly is your issue with catering to the majority? Again I don't care if it was Ramadan gifts/content, if that was 51%+ of people in the timezone, that would be much better than having nothing so they don't offend anyone.
Quick sidenote - I always thought this argument was funny because some people think that we need to be all inclusive for everything instead of catering to the majority. This reminds me of a friend with type 1 diabetes who made a great point; he said just because he's diabetic he doesn't expect the vast majority of the public (restaurants) who aren't diabetic to cater to his personal needs (ie a diabetic friendly menu). That's a very realistic view of the world.... not sure why anything else is any different (in UO or not); if you are that opposed to Easter or 4th of July or whatever else then you don't have to participate....just like if I really was offended around July 1st (Canada), I would also not participate.... but I'm not so I would definitely check out what was going on.
The problem with a company catering to 51% of the population is unless they are very carful they are writing off the other 49% as potential customers.
The point I was trying to make was Broadsword made a financial business decision not one to make anyone feel nice.
Your diabetic friend may not expect a diabetic menu. But the restaurant owner know he is more likely to come back to a restaurant that caters to his needs and makes him feel that little bit special. He/She will then calculate whether the extra cost is worth the advantage over the competition.
The problem with a company catering to 51% of the population is unless they are very carful they are writing off the other 49% as potential customers.
The point I was trying to make was Broadsword made a financial business decision not one to make anyone feel nice.
Your diabetic friend may not expect a diabetic menu. But the restaurant owner know he is more likely to come back to a restaurant that caters to his needs and makes him feel that little bit special. He/She will then calculate whether the extra cost is worth the advantage over the competition.
I think you are taking my numbers too literal... 51% begins to represent the majority but would be much higher than 51% in some cases. What if we are talking a 75/25 split or 80/20?
At the end of the day businesses are catering to someone, majority or not. If you owned a business, would you run it to cater to the majority of your customers or the minority? You are going to alienate someone so why would it be the majority? If you do that, you better hope the minority can keep your business going.
I think some people just look to be offended and marginalized because they think there should be total equality for everything and that's just not how things work in reality. Very few things are completely equal because someone is going to feel left out. For the people complaining about Easter; do you also think we should not get anything for St Patrick's Day? That's technically a Christian holiday just like Easter. What about Halloween? That's another Christian holiday of All Hallow's Eve. I think the people that are looking to be offended have forgotten that most holidays have been reconditioned to be marketing pieces for companies to make money (especially western civilization) and since the Dev team & I'd guess a majority of players are western civilization; the shoe fits on why we've had these style events in the past.
To Pawain's point;wouldn't we also offend people in a different hemisphere by calling things Spring/Winter events? At the end of the day, I'm not sure why people look to be offended in a video game and would ask to actively NOT have new events/gifts even if it's for something like St. Patrick's Day / Easter / 4th of July / Cinco de Mayo / etc. People say the holidays should be based on Ultima lore but the Ultima calendar is very different from the real world calendar where X Ultima holiday would happen at different points on our real life calendars compared to actual holidays where we all know Y time of year is Y celebration. Honestly even if we did only have UO holidays in the game and we had something like "Lord British Day"... that would probably mean about as much to many people as any other holiday in UO like Easter/4th of July/Halloween/etc... as long as they are doing stuff who really cares? If we really wanted to go on about it, what if people dislike British and are team Mondain? Should cancel that too? Where does it stop? lol
BTW- @Tim - Nothing directed specifically at you, all my statements were just broad. Hope you don't take offense!
I think you are taking my numbers too literal... 51% begins to represent the majority but would be much higher than 51% in some cases. What if we are talking a 75/25 split or 80/20?
At the end of the day businesses are catering to someone, majority or not. If you owned a business, would you run it to cater to the majority of your customers or the minority? You are going to alienate someone so why would it be the majority? If you do that, you better hope the minority can keep your business going.
Given dev/producer statements in the past, and shard numbers and population, and now a second NL shard, half (or more) of the UO players are probably Japanese. They were 25% according to EA in the early 2000s and nearly 50% with Stygian Abyss which was a big jump in less than a decade (or they weren’t bailing for other MMOs like others were and instead stuck around). Looking around their shards, they seem to buy a lot from the store.
It makes the most sense to find or create holidays or events that cater to everybody playing inside of a fantasy game.
I think you are taking my numbers too literal... 51% begins to represent the majority but would be much higher than 51% in some cases. What if we are talking a 75/25 split or 80/20?
At the end of the day businesses are catering to someone, majority or not. If you owned a business, would you run it to cater to the majority of your customers or the minority? You are going to alienate someone so why would it be the majority? If you do that, you better hope the minority can keep your business going.
Given dev/producer statements in the past, and shard numbers and population, and now a second NL shard, half (or more) of the UO players are probably Japanese. They were 25% according to EA in the early 2000s and nearly 50% with Stygian Abyss which was a big jump in less than a decade (or they weren’t bailing for other MMOs like others were and instead stuck around). Looking around their shards, they seem to buy a lot from the store.
It makes the most sense to find or create holidays or events that cater to everybody playing inside of a fantasy game.
80% of players have a fisher therefore 80% of the content should be fishing related
if 80% were fisherman in real life you might be on to something.
Ah but that's even better!
We'd all benefit from fishing a lot more in real life!
But I'll just say that the Japanese players would not be getting an NL server if they were a small portion of the player base.
I'd be curious to know what the production schedule would look like if all holidays, minus the UO anniversary and EM events, were put aside for the time being, and work focused on the next major publish(es), and that may even be what's happening (I hope it is).
If we got publishes a month or two faster because design, art, and coding were focused on said publishes instead of events/holidays, that would mean more hopefully actual content in a year.
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Or if somebody just had to have an Easter celebration, make it about The Avatar, because The Avatar was literally the closest thing to a Christ figure - he returned to Britannia several times to confront evil, was supposed to return one last time I think (or maybe the final time was the whole Guardian storyline because the Guardian was the friend we made along the way or something).
Or celebrate the Armageddon spell somehow.
Organizing a shard-wide Easter service (He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!) just ain’t the same as an official event where bunnies poop out tokens that you can redeem for leet gear.
The point I was trying to make was Broadsword made a financial business decision not one to make anyone feel nice.
Your diabetic friend may not expect a diabetic menu. But the restaurant owner know he is more likely to come back to a restaurant that caters to his needs and makes him feel that little bit special. He/She will then calculate whether the extra cost is worth the advantage over the competition.
Wasn't there going to be a "tool" players could use to make an event?
Wouldn't calling it a Spring event make the players south of the equator confused about the name?
if 80% were fisherman in real life you might be on to something.
But I'll just say that the Japanese players would not be getting an NL server if they were a small portion of the player base.
I'd be curious to know what the production schedule would look like if all holidays, minus the UO anniversary and EM events, were put aside for the time being, and work focused on the next major publish(es), and that may even be what's happening (I hope it is).
If we got publishes a month or two faster because design, art, and coding were focused on said publishes instead of events/holidays, that would mean more hopefully actual content in a year.