[Zureese]

Hello,
So, I've been one to not complain about this, and even defend gms about people complaining about it, but I haven't seen much happening in the last few weeks. Now, I know that D3 is out now, but I'm concerned as that should not affect a game like UO as UO is older and those loyal to it, will stay loyal. The reason I'm wondering is, when I started about a month ago, we had about 160 ppl on at a time, and now i'm seeing less then 40 almost all day long.... it's quite scary, coming from someone looking for a shard to relax on and enjoy it while able to log in. Most people playing uo, are those vet players who have played many servers before and are trying to find some place that is active and available when they are able to log in. Admit it.... most people that are really into gaming are just going to play the games that are popular and happening at the time, whether it's WOW or Diablo3. Either way, most people probably get where I'm coming from and are wondering what is happening. With rarely any updates on the main site, it makes you wonder if even the gms are playing. Without gm activity, it will show players that the server is not important. I'm not even a vet on this server, but I've seen this many times and starting to wonder if IN is the place for me to settle down when it comes to UO servers.

Either way, I hope i'm wrong as I like how this place is set up and I love how the skills / stats are laid out. It shows that at the start, the creators took time to give us what we want... I just hope that they are ready for the future.

Zur

[kyleus3]

I agree with you. We were strong at one point. i am hoping we can do that again. I think if we all stick in there we can do it... just people need to stick in and not give up.. this is the pooint of the game where you can get ahead of everything and take advantage of pkers is down... so you can hunt more and gian more money.. (gold)... and you can gain skills for more money and have better armor for pvp and lots of it.... if you think about it, it does make sense lol

[Falstaff]

im not sure threads like this help. You want more players yet any new player that sees this will probably move on.

There's kind of a bandwagon effect going on. When the trend was showing that we were adding players more players joined. When the trend showed the player base dropping more players left. I haven't been that active lately myself but will be soon. I'm not exactly sure why so many players left and if it was something the GM's could have prevented. Like i said, once the trend starts heading one way it's difficult to turn it around.

So we peaked at 200 and now we've dropped and leveled off at 40. Whose to say we can't change the trend and start rising again? I think this could happen though i think some change to the server would have to precede it. Perhaps an implementation of a political system would do it.

[Lerrbear]

tbh with you unless you can go back in time and blow up blizzard HQ to prevent the launch of D3 playerbase is probly screwed for a while.

i cant speak for anyone else but to me it seems like the drop in playerbase was pretty inevitable. the pb flew up out of nostalgia from a bunch of old IN players who for a couple of weeks were joining in droves eagre to reignite some old memories. and as often happens with nostalgia, it soon wears off as you realise why you quit in the first place. For me the reason is pvp, I never liked the rigid and frankly broken sphere system, and even Loki's changes which have eased it, cant change the fact that the system is just completely inflexible and lacks diversity. Having played IN2 and enjoyed the balance (which wasnt perfect, just a damn site better) the diversity and all the other new stuff that came with it such as More intelligent monster AI which work together (rather than regular ai with a special hue and stupidly high hp/str which you have to beat by summoning EV over and over again rather than just bashing its ****ing face in with a big shiny axe) and then theres the new maps, mounts, monsters. i donno...

Its like you used to own a ferrari and your feeling all low, so your partner/mother/best friend gets you all excited saying they got together to buy you a present to cheer you up. so you instantly start thinking woo ferrari...

... and its that ford fiesta you had when you were 16 dragged from the river you drove it into because the insurance payout was more valuable than the car itself -_-

I'm guessing that's what a fair few of us are feeling...others just have actual lives now and dont want to spend 12 months macroing.

[BenSa]

I agree with you. We were strong at one point. i am hoping we can do that again. I think if we all stick in there we can do it... just people need to stick in and not give up.. this is the pooint of the game where you can get ahead of everything and take advantage of pkers is down... so you can hunt more and gian more money.. (gold)... and you can gain skills for more money and have better armor for pvp and lots of it.... if you think about it, it does make sense lol

I agree , just be patcient , keep hunting like the before xD

[Loki]

Hello,
So, I've been one to not complain about this, and even defend gms about people complaining about it, but I haven't seen much happening in the last few weeks. Now, I know that D3 is out now, but I'm concerned as that should not affect a game like UO as UO is older and those loyal to it, will stay loyal.

I hate to say it but this is not correct logic, UO is old and people play because they are nostalgic and crave various things about the game. However, if something new comes along it is inevitably more exciting and players will leave, temporarily we hope, to play the new game. You can't expect everyone to play a game made in 1999 over all the new games constantly coming out. The fact is though that a lot of players will return to UO when they're done with the new game (which has a finite length).

The reason I'm wondering is, when I started about a month ago, we had about 160 ppl on at a time, and now i'm seeing less then 40 almost all day long.... it's quite scary, coming from someone looking for a shard to relax on and enjoy it while able to log in. Most people playing uo, are those vet players who have played many servers before and are trying to find some place that is active and available when they are able to log in. Admit it.... most people that are really into gaming are just going to play the games that are popular and happening at the time, whether it's WOW or Diablo3. Either way, most people probably get where I'm coming from and are wondering what is happening. With rarely any updates on the main site, it makes you wonder if even the gms are playing. Without gm activity, it will show players that the server is not important. I'm not even a vet on this server, but I've seen this many times and starting to wonder if IN is the place for me to settle down when it comes to UO servers.

We do try to be active but unfortunately UO is no longer a game of teenagers with loads of free time, I'm 28, I have a job, a girlfriend, I like to do sports and go to the gym and during the summer I (like many people) like to go outside, go on holiday etc. etc. I'm sorry but I will do what I can for the server but my life is my life and I won't destroy it for UO, I wouldn't expect any different from any other member of staff or Taran either.

Either way, I hope i'm wrong as I like how this place is set up and I love how the skills / stats are laid out. It shows that at the start, the creators took time to give us what we want... I just hope that they are ready for the future.

Zur

We are definitely experiencing a lull right now, all I can say is that I hope people try to enjoy the server in whatever way they can and that over time players will return. There are a lot of reasons why people aren't playing right now, people try to pinpoint one specific reason but that just isn't right - D3 plays a part, but it isn't the only thing, the fact is the server has been here for over a year, the nostalgia many people feel for UO which makes them show up and play fades away with time. I find personally my craving for UO goes in cycles, I suspect the same for many others. Then let's consider the fact that this is the time of year that many students have exams and/or finish exams and have holidays, and the weather is getting nice and the girl's dresses are getting shorter, need I say more?

My point is there are many reasons and I think 90% of them are not in our control and we just have to wait for D3 to get boring, the weather to get cold and the girls to get frigid again There is no magical fix, and as the staff there isn't as much we can do as people are expecting... also we are people too, and I'd rather like to play D3 (haven't had time yet), enjoy the summer, and actually spend time with my friends, family and gf...

[Mael]

man if monster AI was better it would be nice

[Eru]

We're here and we do stuff. I've been GMing around here for a long ass time and the playerbase is very unpredictable. For a while, we were down to 30 and everyone thought the place was dead, then it shot up to 60+, then down to 30 again, then up to 200+, then stayed there for a few months and now we're down to 40. I have no way of predicting when it's going to happen, though a huge influence is the other games that are out at the time. I still think that SW:ToR's flop helped with the huge boost we had.

Also, there's a myth about how a relation between how much time GMs spend online and the number of players. If we each spent 12 hours a day working on the shard, there's no guarantee that the playerbase would go up. In fact, we were *much* more active during the time when we spiked to 200 and then it started going down, so maybe staff doing things makes the playerbase go down. *shrug*

[Avatar_]

Your ingame activity may not help on the playerbase... but a good study/idea could boost the playerbase with a good server-client communication like newsletters or something else... And everyone has time to think, feels like you lost the passion for the concept you've created...

[Galehaut]

Your ingame activity may not help on the playerbase... but a good study/idea could boost the playerbase with a good server-client communication like newsletters or something else... And everyone has time to think, feels like you lost the passion for the concept you've created...

This. When 2 gms take the time to write about how they are bored about uo but can barely pass 20 minute per day to handle the tickets ,you really wonder why they are still GMs in the first place. Yes we all have lives and hobbies , if uo is not one of your hobbies anymore , just leave your place to someone more interested. You could stay in the team and hire new gms to handle the in-game part , in any case , there's clearly a problem with the staff here.

Im not saying that you guys are bad people , im also pretty sure that you all been a great addition to IN through the ages , but like avatar said , some people here clearly lost '' the flame '' for uo , and it's really not helping anything when those people are in charge.

[Loki]

Maybe we only had time for a quick post, maybe I spent all weekend looking after a seriously ill friend and didn't have time to log in and answer your pages, I'm so so sorry.

Even if a staff member sits on their ass and does nothing at all it doesn't affect the server in a negative way, there is no limit to the number of staff, we don't neglect to hire new staff because we currently have X number of staff, we hire when staff are needed/there is a good candidate.

I didn't lose my passion for UO, nor my interest in improving the server, but sometimes there is just other stuff going on in life. Do you think if I just resigned instead that would be beneficial somehow? You assume way too much about how the staff works and our power to make players start/stop playing. I actually find it strange, on the old servers (IN1 and IN2) there were fewer staff, fewer events, fewer script updates and much less of a culture of taking suggestions or interacting with players and somehow players managed to find their own fun, hunt, fight and adventure among themselves. When I was a player myself I used to find plenty of things to do myself, events were an added bonus, and I certainly understood that at certain times of year or when certain events (e.g. new almost world-record-breakingly-popular game in similar genre) would negatively impact the playerbase, I didn't expect that the staff - a bunch of volunteers - could do anything about it.

[kyleus3]

As far as I know.. the gm's did do a GREAT job throughout the time when we did have a bigger player base. Yes I give them credit for all they done, just a little dry spell right now? I do agree maybe have one more gm on board that will create events for people and such what, but I can't complain on what they did gave us... I was looking through a few things and rememberd all the events.... hope to have a few soon !