but doesn't anyone think of the simpsons episode where Homer goes to space?
He frees the ant colony in there, and hilarity ensues.
"Save the Queen! Who's the Queen?"
"I am!"
"You're not the Queen!"
I quote: "Clearly, although Gore's phrasing was clumsy (and self-serving), he was not claiming that he "invented" the Internet (in the sense of having designed or implemented it), but that he was responsible for helping to create the environment (in an economic and legislative sense) that fostered the development of the Internet"
not that I disagree, because, for the most part, I don't. However, do you honestly believe that it's your place to say? I doubt that most of the people who spend their lives indulging in these fantasy worlds care about the psychological motives behind doing so. I don't. I think that though fantasy worlds offer someone to unplug from the real world for the time being, isn't that something that all very popular activities have in common (video games, books, TV, movies for a start)? It's not just restricted to fantasy. When you open up the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, are you thinking about your wife who says that she's unhappy, or your kid who's doing poorly in school? Did your reading that one of the possible reasons the Roman Empire collapsed was widespread homosexuality somehow make you remember about the taxes that you weren't be able to pay? Whether it's fake or real, you can escape reality through almost any medium.
personally, I seriously doubt my playing the game should have any impact of your opinion of my post. It simply is what it is. I have a personal opinion on what OSI is doing to this game because when I played it, it was truly a good game. It was comparable to any of the better rpg's that have ever existed, and since then the only direction it's gone is down, and this dissapoints me.
The motives that OSI has for doing this is to bring in new and timid gamers. People who're afraid to play the game because of the time commitment and because they'll probably suck at it. Now, with this system, they hope to bring in the thousands of people who didn't buy the game in the first place. For the game, it's fifty dollars, along with a 30 dollar extra fee and then the 10 dollar monthly fee. Simply put, they're making UO even more of a cash cow than it was before. With upwards of two hundred and fifty thousand subscribers, I wonder why exactly they think making the game less and less special to play for it's current subscribers will help them in the long run. Seems like an abstract form of Raeganomics.
As for your third point, yes. I agree with this one very much. After a certain time, you become aquainted with the game. You gain guildmembers, go on guild hunts and eventually these people become friends to you. After enough time, you might live with them through very hard and very fun points in their life. Though the middleman in said relatiohships is a video game, it's still a meaningful and powerful relationship with another person. However, when the world that you share with this group of friends is invaded by people who's primary motive for buying the game is because they can start the game as a good character and not have to do the months of work, this relationship is interrupted. The place that was once special to your friends is now a gathering place for people who don't care for the traditional Ultima Online. So then, because of the managers of this game have become more interested in income than quality, then the game is ruined.
I used to play Ultima Online, however, I stopped a while ago. These prepaid characters are clearly an outrage. The hours it would take to build a magery with the skills mentioned on the page are many, and selling these characters GREATLY undermines the efforts people like myself have made in the past to build characters.
Personally, I think OSI is trying to make the game much more newbie-friendly than it once was. They're making certain stats lockable that haven't been before, and certain skills easier to gain in and others less effective. They've also made many 'rare' or unique items in the game worth far less than they used to be due to their horribly thought out rewards system. Instead of introducing new items, they change the hue of a once VERY rare and VERY old item that no longer spawns and then the value for said items plummet to zero. In the process of making Ultima Online more new player friendly, they're just going to make the Ultima Online environment less friendly and less desirable to new and veteran rpg'ers alike.
especially since the 650% increase in spam in e-mail, this may only heighten the frustration. Sure, this may have some useful purposes. however, it would probably become more of a burden, should it actually catch on
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but doesn't anyone think of the simpsons episode where Homer goes to space? He frees the ant colony in there, and hilarity ensues. "Save the Queen! Who's the Queen?" "I am!" "You're not the Queen!"
more news here.
I quote:
"Clearly, although Gore's phrasing was clumsy (and self-serving), he was not claiming that he "invented" the Internet (in the sense of having designed or implemented it), but that he was responsible for helping to create the environment (in an economic and legislative sense) that fostered the development of the Internet"
not that I disagree, because, for the most part, I don't. However, do you honestly believe that it's your place to say? I doubt that most of the people who spend their lives indulging in these fantasy worlds care about the psychological motives behind doing so. I don't. I think that though fantasy worlds offer someone to unplug from the real world for the time being, isn't that something that all very popular activities have in common (video games, books, TV, movies for a start)? It's not just restricted to fantasy. When you open up the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, are you thinking about your wife who says that she's unhappy, or your kid who's doing poorly in school? Did your reading that one of the possible reasons the Roman Empire collapsed was widespread homosexuality somehow make you remember about the taxes that you weren't be able to pay? Whether it's fake or real, you can escape reality through almost any medium.
personally, I seriously doubt my playing the game should have any impact of your opinion of my post. It simply is what it is. I have a personal opinion on what OSI is doing to this game because when I played it, it was truly a good game. It was comparable to any of the better rpg's that have ever existed, and since then the only direction it's gone is down, and this dissapoints me.
The motives that OSI has for doing this is to bring in new and timid gamers. People who're afraid to play the game because of the time commitment and because they'll probably suck at it. Now, with this system, they hope to bring in the thousands of people who didn't buy the game in the first place. For the game, it's fifty dollars, along with a 30 dollar extra fee and then the 10 dollar monthly fee. Simply put, they're making UO even more of a cash cow than it was before. With upwards of two hundred and fifty thousand subscribers, I wonder why exactly they think making the game less and less special to play for it's current subscribers will help them in the long run. Seems like an abstract form of Raeganomics.
As for your third point, yes. I agree with this one very much. After a certain time, you become aquainted with the game. You gain guildmembers, go on guild hunts and eventually these people become friends to you. After enough time, you might live with them through very hard and very fun points in their life. Though the middleman in said relatiohships is a video game, it's still a meaningful and powerful relationship with another person. However, when the world that you share with this group of friends is invaded by people who's primary motive for buying the game is because they can start the game as a good character and not have to do the months of work, this relationship is interrupted. The place that was once special to your friends is now a gathering place for people who don't care for the traditional Ultima Online. So then, because of the managers of this game have become more interested in income than quality, then the game is ruined.
I used to play Ultima Online, however, I stopped a while ago. These prepaid characters are clearly an outrage. The hours it would take to build a magery with the skills mentioned on the page are many, and selling these characters GREATLY undermines the efforts people like myself have made in the past to build characters. Personally, I think OSI is trying to make the game much more newbie-friendly than it once was. They're making certain stats lockable that haven't been before, and certain skills easier to gain in and others less effective. They've also made many 'rare' or unique items in the game worth far less than they used to be due to their horribly thought out rewards system. Instead of introducing new items, they change the hue of a once VERY rare and VERY old item that no longer spawns and then the value for said items plummet to zero. In the process of making Ultima Online more new player friendly, they're just going to make the Ultima Online environment less friendly and less desirable to new and veteran rpg'ers alike.
nontheless, it would take time to develop this, and get it distributed among the phone service providers, and not to mention promotion...
especially since the 650% increase in spam in e-mail, this may only heighten the frustration. Sure, this may have some useful purposes. however, it would probably become more of a burden, should it actually catch on