UO Second Age

Multiclienting, imo, was like cable back in the day: technical and monetary limitations kept its use to a minimum. We should answer the question, "should multiclienting be limited?" kinda like we do "should cable be limited?"

For all those opposed to multiple clients, I think we should simply try and advertise the shard as much as possible. The more players, the less incentive there is for us to drop 75-200k GMing the crafting skill of our choice to provide ourselves with what we need. Having left last year, and returned just a few weeks ago, it's obvious to me that far fewer people have GM'd all character types, simply because there are more crafters providing wares, resulting in less hassle to acquire them. I know for my part, I can make money far faster hunting, and would rather just pay someone to get their hands dirty grinding black pearls all day.

Imho, other issues--gate bots, heal bots, TG archery drones--are relatively uncommon and don't drastically offset the mise en scene of the shard as a whole.

Lothain wrote:Multiclienting, imo, was like cable back in the day: technical and monetary limitations kept its use to a minimum. We should answer the question, "should multiclienting be limited?" kinda like we do "should cable be limited?"

No, let's be clear here. Broadband adoption amongst gamers of any stripe had only one major limitation: speed of rollout.

Cable modems in particular cost no more -- and sometimes less -- than an unlimited dialup + extra phone line, which was quite common for heavy internet users (a population significantly overrepresented in UO). Basic DSL lines were marignally more expensive. Most people who spent any significant time online started snapping these connections up as soon as they became available in their area.

Further, anyone in a dorm room at a half-decent college had a broadband connection that would still rival most home internet connections today. Lots of college students played UO.

The fact that broadband was still uncommon in homes by 1999 is an historical accident with no connection to serious economic factors. The technology existed and could have been made economically viable for end-users by the time UO was released in 97 if the telecom industry didn't move at such a glacial pace relative to technology.

Finally, the difference between a broadband user and someone with a quality dialup connection connecting to a geographically appropriate server really wasn't all that bad. The broadband user had an edge in PvP, but a skilled player could overcome it. This is very minor in comparison to the full effects of multiclienting.