First of all, Kudos to Derrick. You've done a great job recreating the game mechanics. I started playing UO on Atlantic just after the T2A release and quit playing just after the 3d release. I've lived on the streets of Britain during the golden years and that time period is the only UO I ever knew.
Initially, UOSA seemed too good to be true. Everything I loved about UO was here. I had a blast killing orcs with my wannabe dexer. I even enjoyed the nostalgia in mining for hours on end. I just enjoyed being in this fictional society and interacting with other people. Everyone I met was an old school gamer. Obviously, that's 99% of the people here, and I felt like that was a great community. I never met any childish people, I never met many PKs, I never met a single person who was out to do anyone any harm. After a few days, a PK stumbled across me a few times, while I was ferociously battling a bear or something equally impressive, and the experience was the same. "Good day sir! Fine time to be reliving childhood, no?". It just seemed like everyone was glad to find other people to share this game with.
"Finally", I thought. I recently quit WoW and was looking for a more mature game to play. UOSA was just what I wanted. I saved up enough gold to buy a small house and was able to place it easily, in the area I wanted (That's one thing that makes this shard BETTER than OSI!). I macroed day and night. I would drive home from work to log in and macro every day after the server restart. I could not wait to recreate all the characters I had so much fun playing as a child. I had even bigger dreams than I did back then. Now that I can have 3 accounts, there was barely a limit to what I could do.
So, needless to say, it wasn't long before I had the urge to go do something. Just like when I was a kid, I packed by backpack full of bandages, a few potions, backup swords, etc, and off I went to hunt monsters in dungeons. To me, that was what the game was all about. Making your character(s) stronger and better equipped so that you can progress from killing harpies for money, to killing cyclops.
I'm sure you all know where this is going. It's probably because you have shared this experience. As soon as I got the nerve and skills to go into some dungeons, I soon realized the nature of this beast called UOSA. The PKs rule this shard. You can't go to any dungeon any time of day. You WILL be PKed. This shard is a PVP shard, and more specifically, a PK shard. I make that distinction because here no one gives a shit about Order/Chaos, and factions don't exist. All I have ever seen is reds bullying new players/blues in general. There doesn't even seem to be any anti-PKs worth mentioning, except maybe a few, but even so they are vastly outnumbered and aren't nearly as dedicated as the griefers.
The Griefers. There are highly organized teams of players on this shard who have ONE purpose and one purpose only. To kill you. As if being a damn bard wasn't hard enough, there's people who play this game with the sole intention of preventing others from playing. Unless of course, your idea of playing UO is getting slaughtered or hiding in town all day. These players cannot be reasoned with, bribed or persuaded to do anything other than kill everyone they see who isn't part of their gank squad. They aren't even looking for a fight. They are just looking to kill you. They don't want a challenge (they gank me, a a bard, in groups of 3 usually), they don't want money (they could PvE if they cared for gold, and be much more efficient), they don't want social interaction, apart from their gank squad, and they sure as hell don't want to let others co-exist on this server. They are determined to chase off any new players such as myself, and I must admit, they are quite good at what they do.
So go ahead and flame me, that is to be expected. As I've said before, no one is going to be insulted by a UO nerd's opinion in 2010. We're all huge dorks when it comes down to it, regardless of your epeen size. We would be wise to not provoke each other to bring out our flaws, but then again, we'd be even more wise to do something else with our spare time, and clearly that's not happening for either of us
.The only reason I even post this at all is for Derrick's sake. I've never seen someone so committed to something so trivial as a nostalgic UO server. Clearly this server is important to Derrick, and I believe Derrick agrees that the PK ratio is a problem here (despite me never having any interaction with him whatsoever). In my opinion, that is all that really needs to change for this server to be extremely accurate to T2A era OSI, and for the population to flourish. Okay, provoke is a little glitchy, taming tables aren't 100%, the AI is slightly drunk... this is a damn good framework Derrick has established here. I am in awe of how great this server COULD be, but disappointed in the actual atmosphere. The frame is near identical, but the portrait wasn't always this red...
I think it would be hard for even the PKs to argue with me. People like me are what you want. You want someone who will go hang out in dungeons by himself and be easy prey. You enjoy shooting fish in a barrel, I get it. But PKs are hunting us to extinction. I for one will no longer be playing the game, and my experience is not unique.
Derrick seems to advertise this shard as much as possible. It is therefore obvious that Derrick wants more players here. I found this server through a youtube video and downloaded the client soon as the video was over. Here I am, your marketing initiatives were successful. You managed to attract another UO gamer. Unfortunately, like many others, I am very disappointed to find that I will not be able to relive my UO experiences here because of the sheer number of PKs. Derrick, you must realize that 12 years or so have passed. People who were UO gamers back in OSI are 12 years older. People who were UO gamers in OSI are likely much more casual gamers, not concerned with shoving others players faces in the dirt and taking their lunch money. If you truly want more players, then you need to address this issue. In my opinion, if you can successfully make it safe at least MOST OF THE TIME in dungeons you will attract MANY more players. That is a good thing even for PKs. If you truly want to fix this problem, I have a few ideas that would fit within the T2A era accuracy you are aiming for. Just PM me and I'd be glad to discuss it with you.
In the mean time. I am logging out of UOSA for the last time. It is even harder for me to say goodbye to UO this time than it was when I was a kid. Back then, UO was ruined because of 3D and overpopulation and other things that were basically out of control. Now, it's just a few douchebags who like to ruin other people's nostalgic gaming experience so they can enjoy their own. This is much more depressing.
