Thoughts on the August 29, 2012 Producer’s Letter

First, congratulations. We finally get a producer’s letter that is worthy of being called an MMO Producer’s letter. It’s legitimate and sounds like it comes from a producer who cares about UO, and more importantly, who cares about bringing more players into UO.

It’s been far too long since we got a letter from somebody who actually has a vision for UO and isn’t just trying to limp along between publishes. This was a letter written by somebody who took a look at other MMOs and realized that this kind of communication, and this level of communication, is important. Kudos to you Bonnie Armstrong.

It tells me that somebody finally realized what the community was looking for from a producer’s letter. Some of the items listed for consideration also show that somebody is finally paying attention to the community, and just as importantly, letting the community know that they are paying attention. It’s the kind of letter you can show somebody and prove that UO is not dead yet.

I’ve read over this a few times, once right after it came out, and just now, and I’m not going to analyze the upcoming Publish 79 and Publish 80. Instead I want to talk about the things that the UO producer mentioned that they are discussing and brainstorming over. These things are not set in stone, but so many of them are really good ideas, that I hope they happen. Many of them also indicate that the team is at least paying attention to what players have asked for.

High Resolution Art and Enhanced UI Improvements for the Enhanced Client
Glad to see this is still being discussed after the high resolution update was shelved. Contrary to what people who have never tried their hand at another MMO think, artwork and a resolution that takes advantage of any half-decent computer does matter. People aren’t exactly flocking to Asheron’s Call or Meridian 59. UO’s survival depends on new players, and in my experience over the past few years since the Kingdom Reborn client was pulled, new players weren’t flocking to the Ultima VII-era graphics. If you disagree and think new players aren’t important, start scouting out the free shards you want to play, because UO won’t last without new players.

Vendor Search
I don’t think it’s as important as the high resolution art, however if EA is not going to move to shut down the scripting accounts that populate the 3rd party search sites that break the TOS, then they should be offering this. There’s another aspect – many new players who have tried other MMOs are going to be looking for something like this anyways.

Two more things brought up by Tina Small and Dermott of LS on UO Stratics: Siege Perilous and Mugen players would finally have a way to search for things they need, and it would help out players who run vendor houses outside of Luna. Now some of those players are going to be really pissed off, because they can spend hundreds of dollars, even here in 2012, on a Luna house, and they might fight this, but they need to relax and realize that it’s not about them and EA is under no obligation to protect their RMT transactions, and they need to realize that many people will still browse Luna and other densely packed housing areas just because it’s fun to do so.

Chaos/Order in Place of Factions
As somebody told me, this is something that is going to help bring back former players. Factions became too complicated and too bogged down in its complexity, to the point where it could be hard to understand for a new player, and where it caused a drain on development resources or scared the devs away. I love the idea of going back to the old system. Factions just wasn’t working.

I would say more about the return of Chaos/Order, but I start to get a little giddy and light-headed.

New Art Pieces
I really have no opinion. I would like some of the missing house tiles to be finally added in, but I think in the long run this is just to please existing players rather than new players, so I’m not as keen about it.

New Paperdoll
Only if it’s in conjunction with a high resolution art update and an improved UI for the EC. If you are going to improve the interface, improve all of it.

New tasteful hues on tameables
I like the word “tasteful”.

Enhanced UI Improvements for EC client
Talk to Pinco. Do this in conjunction with a high resolution artwork update. It’s desperately needed for new players, and if you do it right, you might revive UO’s modding community.

Tying Gold to a Character/Account and/or Ditching Checks/Gold
I can swing either way on this. I understand the appeal of moving gold to a character or an account. It does away with the need for checks, and the limitations inherent in 1 million gp checks, given that some items/houses sell for hundreds of millions. It would make it easier for people to share gold between characters, but I would like the option for us to keep at least some physical gold for old time’s sake. Nostalgia is not always worth it though. Most importantly, it makes it easier for new players since many of them are used to this style already. We are talking about UO’s future, not a bunch of old fogies sitting around griping about those damned kids screwing with the orcs or something.

Revising UO Armor to Make All Types Useful Again
I don’t have much to say here since it’s something that should have been done years ago. It was ridiculous how screwed up the armor system is.

Revising Pet Slots and a Pet Revamp
I’m not big on taming, so it’s not that important to me, but I know a lot of tamers who have been asking for changes. I have a feeling some of this has to do with Reptalons as well.

Reworking Champ Spawns
I’m cool with this, it should follow the Dungeon revamps.

Adding New Fishing Items and Fishing Quest Rewards, Plus New Sea Creatures and Encounters
High Seas has never quite felt “finished” to me, so I’m all for this. I love the water. I even want water-based housing (not houseboats, there is a difference), but UO has a lot of water, and there are a lot of things that could be done with it.

New Wearables for Male and Female
I would rather the effort be put into the high resolution artwork, or they come about as a result of the high resolution artwork. Ever new wearable added represents resources that could have been added to the high resolution artwork.

Addressing Player Questions

Working closer with Stratics to streamline the search to help filter out duplicate questions so the team can address some of the player questions weekly

What you really need is an official forum, because Stratics and every other fansite has always only had a minority of UO players. New players would be shocked to learn that EA/BioWare/Mythic doesn’t consider UO important enough to have its own forums. I know people have said they don’t want to compete with the fan sites, but that’s b.s., because outside of UO and Dark Age of Camelot, no other game from a major publisher relies on a fansite for its forums. There were Warhammer Online fansites before WAR launched, there were Star Wars: The Old Republic fansites before SWTOR launched, and EA/BioWare/Mythic had no problem “competing” with those fansites. A lot of players are not going to post on fansites, that’s called reality. The fansites have always had a small percentage of players visiting and interacting.

Meer and Juka Loyalty Quests
There’s a lot that could be done, including tying this into making Meer/Juka playable races (only after Orcs). I’m pretty neutral on it. I’d rather see a lot of work done on the general quest system.

Battleground Shard
Is this the fabled “Classic Shard” only it’s not a classic shard, it’s just a PvP shard? Either way, I think it needs to be way down the list for a few reasons:

• PvP on the regular shards needs to be improved first and foremost.
• Adding another shard simply divides a dwindling population among even more shards.
• More players are needed (see #2).

What wasn’t in the letter?
I’m not trying to rain on the parade, but there were a few glaring omissions.

Better In-Game Communication/Messaging
I was disappointed not to see this on the list, because the architecture is there for it. It’s something that new players from other MMOs are going to demand. Dropping into ICQ is not an option for these people, assuming they even know what ICQ is. Guilds, crafters, vendors, have all been asking for this for years, and while many have given up, some haven’t (I’m one of them).

Better Communication Between the UO Team and the Players
This letter could be the start of a wonderful new beginning to decent and relevant communication with players. Again, this is something that players want, and this is something that new players expect. Future communication needs to be timely and it can’t be vague. Vagueness does nothing but lead to speculation, and speculation is not helpful for MMOs.

For the Teacher’s Pet/Cheerleaders/In Your Face/Eat Some Crow Crowd
You know who you are, you’re the type of person who, upon seeing this letter, rushes out to tell other people to eat crow or that you are somehow vindicated and Jeff’s letter wasn’t bad and BLAH BLAH BLAH. You’re the type of person who, upon hearing that UO is being canceled, would rush out and start telling people that it’s a good thing and that EA cares about our health enough to want to get us up off our butts and go do something other than play UO, and you’d have a list of half a dozen reasons why players shouldn’t be complaining.

Nobody likes a teacher’s pet, especially not the teacher. There is a difference between supporting UO and trying to stifle serious discussion because it might be critical of UO. This producer’s letter is not the result of any cheerleading or ass kissing you did, so get over yourself.

This letter is the result of many UO players making themselves heard, and making it clear that they are concerned about UO’s current and future direction and that they are tired of the same old platitudes that have been thrown around time and time again.

It’s very unfortunate that it took a lot of people making themselves heard to finally get a letter like this, but hopefully that won’t have to happen again and we will finally see some real communication on a timely basis, something that was promised to us a year ago.

Final Thoughts
Work has already been done on some of the things I discussed above. A lot of work in the case of the high resolution artwork. I think quite a few of them will happen. Why am I optimistic? Because they don’t have a choice. Contrary to the views of some, EA is not a charity and Ultima Online is not some pet project of an EA executive. UO either starts bringing in more players to offset those leaving and to help UO remain profitable or it ends up being canceled. It’s not complicated.