IPY vs That Other New Shard

[Derren_Darkmire]

...

[Budikah]

... the final countdown?

[Woodlife]

Just looking at some of the features offered and awaiting Az's 10 Features in 10 Weeks... I can tell this is the end times of UO. It has come to this point between these two shards to have the final say of what UO was and what UO could have been...

UO will never die. When the internet is destroyed, we will all be doing UO IRL because of infrastructure of the world will collapse, and we will be forced to live like caged monkeys of the medieval times.

[Derren_Darkmire]

...

[Jay]

After the long (but I'm sure worthwhile) wait for IPY2 when I heard about Revelation opening it's doors on 10/10/10 I thought I'd have a bash round on there to tide me over... Looking at what hints have been dropped about slower skill gain, Ryan constantly talking about how he wants to focus on a good econemy in game and the custom small map it looks like a pretty interesting server. Then I read in a Q&A section something along the lines of

Q - Will there be a donations store and what will it sell?
A- Yes, but skill balls wont be available at least not at the beginning but maybe later, and if gold was sold it would be at a really high price that no one would want to buy it.

As soon as read this my thoughts were
a) There are very few things I want to see added to a game from a donation store that wont start messing up the econemy
b) If you're saying skill balls MAY be available at a later date I can almost guarentee you're already planning a date to implement them because you love money, so one day a 7x gm char will again be a dime a dozen.
and finally
c) It doesn't matter how much you charge for mills there are always rich people IRL who are lazy and don't want to work hard for their gold in game. So no matter what the price people are going to start buying mills and ultimately mess up your econemy you tried so hard to build around.

So end result, while I got a little excited about the flashy new map and the sounds of the new pvp/guild systems, in the end my time spent on Revelation will still just be something to bash around on while I wait for the true home of UO to return.

IPY2, I'll see you in a month for beta.

[Budikah]

I don't really trust any of the other servers any more. I've played on them time and time again. They have consistently shown that they aren't trustworthy or reliable and they tend to show very little integrity.

[Az]

I thought UOSA was doing well in that regard?

[Budikah]

I thought UOSA was doing well in that regard?

Possibly. That is one that I didn't really bother with. I logged onto it awhile back and checked it out... it felt just... odd. The inclusion of horses also bugged the shit out of me because I hadn't played a server with them in ages. It may or may not be a good shard, it just didn't really recreate an experience I was looking to have.

[Diz]

Shard arguments already started eh? Ugh...

I found the line in the Ryan quote about virtual goods for cash funny.

I played this MMO on my iPhone for about a month, Pocket Legends. It was cute, a lil nostalgic and very WoW-ish in a lot of aspects. Anyways a short time after release, they started selling gold as in-game DLC. Ok, you'd think, not a big deal. So you can drop two bucks on a lil bit of in-game currency. Two days later there was some kid braggin on forums and in game bout how he was the richest player in the game. He had spent over $400 on in-game currency. In an iPhone game. Seriously, what the fuck.

My point is, selling anything virtual for real life money can, usually, and inevitably WILL rape the shit out of the meta game.

[Az]

Ah yes, which is why we're focusing on decorations and such. No gold, skills, characters, etc. I completely agree that it's a tricky thing to do, and there'll even be people that dislike selling rares or house decorations as donation items, because they believe EVERY item should be huntable in game.

They're right.

(IF everyone is paying a monthly fee. ;) )



Shard arguments already started eh? Ugh...

I found the line in the Ryan quote about virtual goods for cash funny.Actually, I'd lock the thread if it got to the point of badmouthing. The LAST thing I want is ridiculous drama between shards, shard players or shard owners.

I think what someone wants to sell on their shard or how they want to run their shard is their own business, they have their own reasons, and if you don't like it... well, find somewhere else to play.

I will absolutely not badmouth any shard or shard owner here, and I hope everyone follows my lead on that. I'd like us to be respectful of other communities on this forum.

I'm not saying anyone has done anything wrong (because if I think you did, I would take it up with you in a PM and not in public), I'm just saying this as a general rule that I hope we can all follow.

[Az]

By the way:

There's always going to be "another shard" or "another game". If this forum was up six months ago, the title of this thread would be IPY vs. That UOSA Thing. If the forum came online six months from now, it'd be IPY vs. Cataclysm Oh God Why Is Everyone Playing WoW Again.

It's not a competition, it's just a fact of life.

If IPY2 is good and its players support it, it'll have a healthy population and be plenty of fun. Period.

[Brogina]

Shard arguments already started eh? Ugh...

I found the line in the Ryan quote about virtual goods for cash funny.

I played this MMO on my iPhone for about a month, Pocket Legends. It was cute, a lil nostalgic and very WoW-ish in a lot of aspects. Anyways a short time after release, they started selling gold as in-game DLC. Ok, you'd think, not a big deal. So you can drop two bucks on a lil bit of in-game currency. Two days later there was some kid braggin on forums and in game bout how he was the richest player in the game. He had spent over $400 on in-game currency. In an iPhone game. Seriously, what the fuck.

My point is, selling anything virtual for real life money can, usually, and inevitably WILL rape the shit out of the meta game.

Dont know enough about that server, but if what you say is true i agree 100%. In fact oblivious to most is that the original team was so worried about inflation (increase in the amount of in game gold decreasing its value) that they tried to implement a closed economic system. Hackers inevitably came and sucked them dry. It didnt work. But it goes to show how important an issue the economy is in an mmo. After all , this is a roleplaying game , no? And isnt the whole intent of UO , one of its largest selling points (and the very thing that made me interested in it to begin with all those years ago) is that everything in games comes from something in game. Weps and Armor can come from monsters or ingots. House decor is made with natural resources. Everything in game can be created from a natural resource.... and thats one very important facet of what uo is supposed to be about..... now i understand beggars cannot be choosers. We are playing on a freeshard. But this will be the first server i have seen which doesnt sell skillballs/gold/99 billion other things which royally fuck the economy with rabid inflation. So , ill settle for house decor. It appears to be the least of all evils.

[Az]

I didn't even know decorations were evil at all. ;)

We take our economy very seriously. You'll see. Plenty of work done there. In fact, it'll be one of the FIRST things you see.

[Diz]

Yes I agree. I think the ambiguity is where someone is potentially talking about comparisons between servers or actions or policies implemented and how those differences match up. Some people take that stuff personally or twist it around.

Also when people act like it's a competition between servers or whatever... That shit is really really annoying, immature, futile, and reflects bad.

I think theres also a grey area there, between supporting something and pressing it on people or getting upset when they choose something else. I really hope that shit doesn't happen.

[Tick]

I played the other server in its present state a while back and liked it. I have also played UOSA and like it as well. I did look at the Revalation site as well and like some of the things they are doing with it; i.e., completely new smaller landmass. I think nothing but good can come from more servers that challenge the "Classic UO" static world template. I love old school UO as much as the next guy, but I like what is being done on IPY2 even more.

[Alagner]

There are alot more Shards out there that would be considered as competeing for players in a sense but none of them are as well advertised or well known as IPY and the people driving Rev. UOSA I haven't checked in on what they have been doing lately but I imagine they've pretty much carved out their chunk of playerbase the only problem being that the playerbase for all the freeshards will eventually keep shrinking.

[Jay]

I thought UOSA was doing well in that regard?

Wasn't a fan of the pvp here. It may have changed recently? I think they were doing a pvp change after I left. But if someone attacked you it tabbed you into war mode automatically. So you had to run around spamming tab to make sure you didnt waste your hally swing. So duels turned into an attack last target/tab spam fest trying to blow each others swing timers :( Oh and everyone insta recalled when they were attacked so it was very rare to find field pvp that started and finished everyone recalled the second they felt they would lose :(

Was sad cos I really liked Derrick (the owner) had a few good chats with him on IRC and in game and he was a top bloke, just didn't like the ruleset.


As for the other point (too lazy to go back and quote again) I'll give Revelation a chance, I'll be playing it from launch, I just know where I'll end up that's all, I'm sure 100s of people will chose revelation over IPY/UOSA, and I know heaps of people who love spending $$$ to get in game $$$ and their skills set up for them... I'm just not really one of them and I'd rather play on a field of people who worked hard in game to get where they are, people who understand the value of what they have and the time spent to get it.

[Derren_Darkmire]

...

[Epsilon]

I was actually waiting on Revelations. Not anymore. For one thing, there was preferential treatment from the start. There were beta testers allowed to roam and play the map(understandable). The server was delayed while beta testes got access on top of already having played the map. Then, some members are allowed to register from irc slowly while the rest will have to wait. While this does seem petty to some, it doesn't at all seem a set standard. I played Divinity and UOSA and noticed special items that I could not possibly find on any mob loot that I am aware of. Again, my being upset about this can seem petty but it is the precedence of special items being available that upsets me.

It is my belief that everyone must have a level playing field no matter how good of friends you are with the staff. Staff should not be allowed any special access. No on should be privileged with early access to place houses. The way you can truly trust the operators of any server is to witness no corruption or special treatment. If I can find a truly trustworthy staff then I am willing to invest time and energy into that server.

[Budikah]

Heh... was anyone here during that Divinity Orc debacle? Holy shit. Everything went to hell. Half the server rolled half-assed RP Orcs that just rolled around the shard unmercifully slaughtering, house camping, and griefing to high hell. So... what do they get? A fucking custom made fort and some other bullshit. Most of them couldn't even RP (or bother to even talk) it was just a 10-20 man melee ganksquad from hell that would portal in and end your day.

*shudders*

[Brogina]

@ Epsilon amen brother. Thats a huge problem on hybrid too.

[Jay]

I was actually waiting on Revelations. Not anymore. For one thing, there was preferential treatment from the start. There were beta testers allowed to roam and play the map(understandable). The server was delayed while beta testes got access on top of already having played the map. Then, some members are allowed to register from irc slowly while the rest will have to wait. While this does seem petty to some, it doesn't at all seem a set standard. I played Divinity and UOSA and noticed special items that I could not possibly find on any mob loot that I am aware of. Again, my being upset about this can seem petty but it is the precedence of special items being available that upsets me.

It is my belief that everyone must have a level playing field no matter how good of friends you are with the staff. Staff should not be allowed any special access. No on should be privileged with early access to place houses. The way you can truly trust the operators of any server is to witness no corruption or special treatment. If I can find a truly trustworthy staff then I am willing to invest time and energy into that server.

I agree with what you've said here but one thing I do like that Ryan has mentioned is that every command made by staff will be openly viewable by the public to make sure corruption isn't present, and no one is being given special items/gold/whatever. I don't fully know the system and how accurate this will be (and if it truely shows every command) but it does sound like a good/fair idea.