I know it's been a long time since I've been on... having three kids pretty much back to back to back will do that to you. Most of you will likely learn that some day... My children are my life.
That said since the moment I publicly showed my face I've been bombarded with emails, IM's, DM's, PM's and pages with how to 'fix' the shard.
Can I just ask you something... what's really wrong with a shard that's been online for nearly eleven years and still can crack about 500 people online? Since when is that so bad? I mean sure if you compare it to when everyone was online and we were cracking 1500 without blinking you're right... it's not that great but the reality is that our player base is aging. They're actually going outside and doing things, having families and spending time on things other than UO.... but they always come back.
Just. Like. Me.
Guys UOGamers is the pantheon of Ultima Online Freeshards... it's existed for ages and we are still getting new players. That says something.
I know some things are broken, we all do... but the truth is that fixing broken things typically leads to pain for users and/or staff. We have to deal with the bitching when someone doesn't like a change etc...
Not everything is an obvious fix... it's not always black and white and quite frankly most changes on UOGamers come down to literal GAME DESIGN. Stuff that requires serious time, thought and skill to pull off. You can't make a massive change to the shard or the way that it has run for a decade on a whim. On the back side of running this shard we have immense amounts of data that we use to try to figure out impacts of changes. When we think about them we code in analytic gathering to help us better understand potential impact to you, the players, but also to the staff who volunteer their time.
I know you all want to arm chair how to fix the shard and mostly I welcome the ideas but I want you to realize it's not as simple as it seems. You get frustrated and pissed off and throw tantrums in game or on the forums because you think something is 'so easy' to fix. The reality is that no change is a simple change at this point. You're dealing with players who've literally been on this shard for more than 10 years:
Think about that for a second and how much commitment that shows. There are people who've been dedicated since day one.
I am not in any way, shape or form minimizing the newer players... all I am asking is that as you suggest things or get frustrated, please put it into perspective that everything impacts everyone somehow.
We *will* be making changes, I've been over time for the last almost year working on stuff for Revelation but I am putting that entire project on the back burner and will be working with Suzy to make small, measured changes over time to help you have more things to do. My first project I'm going to take on is a new PVE element for the shard. What that might be we will see... perhaps a new dungeon etc...
But please, stop asking us for these huge change lists. They're not going to do anyone good and all that's going to happen is a massive flame war that's going to cause more turmoil. Let's talk about short term, obtainable objectives which have low risk and big, positive impact to the shard.
I hope this is something we can all agree on.
-Ryan
That said since the moment I publicly showed my face I've been bombarded with emails, IM's, DM's, PM's and pages with how to 'fix' the shard.
Can I just ask you something... what's really wrong with a shard that's been online for nearly eleven years and still can crack about 500 people online? Since when is that so bad? I mean sure if you compare it to when everyone was online and we were cracking 1500 without blinking you're right... it's not that great but the reality is that our player base is aging. They're actually going outside and doing things, having families and spending time on things other than UO.... but they always come back.
Just. Like. Me.
Guys UOGamers is the pantheon of Ultima Online Freeshards... it's existed for ages and we are still getting new players. That says something.
I know some things are broken, we all do... but the truth is that fixing broken things typically leads to pain for users and/or staff. We have to deal with the bitching when someone doesn't like a change etc...
Not everything is an obvious fix... it's not always black and white and quite frankly most changes on UOGamers come down to literal GAME DESIGN. Stuff that requires serious time, thought and skill to pull off. You can't make a massive change to the shard or the way that it has run for a decade on a whim. On the back side of running this shard we have immense amounts of data that we use to try to figure out impacts of changes. When we think about them we code in analytic gathering to help us better understand potential impact to you, the players, but also to the staff who volunteer their time.
I know you all want to arm chair how to fix the shard and mostly I welcome the ideas but I want you to realize it's not as simple as it seems. You get frustrated and pissed off and throw tantrums in game or on the forums because you think something is 'so easy' to fix. The reality is that no change is a simple change at this point. You're dealing with players who've literally been on this shard for more than 10 years:
Think about that for a second and how much commitment that shows. There are people who've been dedicated since day one.
I am not in any way, shape or form minimizing the newer players... all I am asking is that as you suggest things or get frustrated, please put it into perspective that everything impacts everyone somehow.
We *will* be making changes, I've been over time for the last almost year working on stuff for Revelation but I am putting that entire project on the back burner and will be working with Suzy to make small, measured changes over time to help you have more things to do. My first project I'm going to take on is a new PVE element for the shard. What that might be we will see... perhaps a new dungeon etc...
But please, stop asking us for these huge change lists. They're not going to do anyone good and all that's going to happen is a massive flame war that's going to cause more turmoil. Let's talk about short term, obtainable objectives which have low risk and big, positive impact to the shard.
I hope this is something we can all agree on.
-Ryan
cool beans to doing new stuff on hybrid. gms are 10x better too.
