Gwen Irima

I read it all, i just don't see the point of all the extra discussion and would rather see Kaelyn's questions answered

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Thorien

I wonder why new players aren't attracted to come and play uo, when you see such stimulating debates on here?
Perhaps it was busier in the older pre forum days because the soul searching Q & As used to happen on the private forums not in public, or over private chat.

Declan O'Connor

Because if you're only going to ask Questions to select individuals, then you're only going to get a select type of answer.
Debates like these release alot of ideas, however they don't work if people take to heart comments that are made.

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Boom! - Headshot!

Hedlyn

I answered. Someone cried. I offered a reply.

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Alderon

1. What are you missing in UO and could it be improved by us players?

Althought i left some time ago, the reasons for why i left seem to remain. I
Mudslining, eliteism & a shortage of players. Those have all been mentioned in this thread already, so i wont go into details.

2. Do you think we don’t do enough story lines for interactive roleplaying and character development?

I dont think that you "need" to have a lot of storylines going on, as long as everyone feels involved. The problem would be getting everyone involved in those that are going on thought.

3. Any suggestions what could or should be done overall to improve roleplay and get more people having fun at it?

A more "newbie" friendly enviroment. When i atempted to roleplay as a blue, most people ignored me. If that had been my first experiance with the RP community, i would never have joined it. Mayhap it would be a good idea to have some more events that dont require you to be guilded (like markets (and cow tipping contests ) ).

4. For those that left, do you consider returning and what would ea have to do?

I did consider returning, up intill the point when A^K folded. EA would have to do a lot to make me return to the game. The game itself was getting old, i had seen almost everything, killed several champions/bosses, and collected several rare sashes. EA would need to renew the game (agin).

Stewan Seagull

1. What are you missing in UO and could it be improved by us players?

The one thing we can all agree on, is that there are to little of us. And sadly little we can do about it, but advertising. I think the DoT Healing Station in Magincia, the Grd festival week and markets and recruiting drives done by others (LB and -V-, are two that i know of) are just the thing to catch a few more RPers.
The other thing i miss is involvement. If you got something running or plan to do so, go out and tell, spread rumours, let the RP-world know. Rbl/Hedlyn is a very good example of that, with it´s almost daily reports. A revolt may not be my type of event, but at least i know it´s happening. If there were freedom fighters to hide or feed, or weapons/armor to be smuggled i´d be right in, and surely some others too that have more experience with such.

2. Do you think we don’t do enough story lines for interactive roleplaying and character development?

There are enough storylines. Some are rather exclusive and not likely to get much attention, others could be open to all.
Lord Fargo of Tremere ghosts around in Trinsic trying to get his bones recovered, Gargoyles looking for help with a book theft, the Chesapeake/SCT hunt for the Books of Sin, just to name a few. And, looking from the outside, Esca is very active trying to get Vesper some action.

3. Any suggestions what could or should be done overall to improve roleplay and get more people having fun at it?

Just one: be there! Whereever, whenever "there" happens to be.
I don´t have to tell any of you how to run events, but consider that sharing knowledge means sharing work and responsibility. The more know where something is headed, the more can steer it and spread knowledge/hints for others to get involved.

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Pancakes are not cooking, they´re housework!

Vierna

Nonce???!!!!....I'll treat that remark with the contempt it deserves.

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Paladis

Left UO awhile back now and before that was logging in less and less so cant comment on any of the stuff going on at present ingame.

In the year (roughly) leading up to me and many of the A^K members starting to leave RP on the shard between guilds got more and more frustrating. Everything we came across seemed to have some sort of running script and any attempt to interfere was met with offers of 'Handbags at dawn!' type attitude.

Within A^K itself i always tried to encourage spontaneous RP,at times i'd even plant the seed of an idea (usualy with an off the cuff comment) and watch it grow without any more involvement....people enjoyed it,more and more got involved and all was good. Biggest problem i've seen with most scenario's even in early discussions is they're far far too scripted which often leads to people getting to a point they wont get involved as they dont know the script. Add to that people spitting thier dummies out if its not going the way they intend and its not very encourageing for your general RPer at all.

On a personal level i got to a point i'd refuse to get involved with any script. I agree afew ground rules and a start point are good....but a start,middle and end all sorted out on a forum 2-3 weeks before a scenario starts? no thanks.

Think the last enjoyable Multiguild scenario ,for me, that was worked out day to day was the Moongates scenario (conjured up by Corpus Deus i seem to remember) which every single person who got involved enjoyed.NO whines or Complaints just good fun. IF those sort of scenario's were allowed to happen more often i'm pretty sure people would return (maybe not even have left in the first place).

Hmm..waffled on as usual.Basically afew things killed UORP for me:

1) People believeing the world must revolve around them and bugger everyone else
2) Far far too much planning of any event leaving minimal scope for spontaneous RP.
3) some believeing GM stood for God Mode and not Guild Master.
4) People unwilling to accept its only natural to loose from time to time, be it a fight or some land.

pretty sure there's more but kinda lost track.

Roleplay should be allowed to grow naturaly and the only rule being Consideration for others...no scripts,but thats only a personal view.

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Roy

Kealyn’s questions & my 2 cents worth.
#1
For general player base I have to give thumbs up even if thin on the ground. I have spent time recently has a Blue and was fairly widely interacted with. Having spent years on this shard doing the Blue RP thing before finally joining a guild I would have to say it was a rather good result. Not just one guild here or there but players from every major guild ( including Skara) were more then willing deal with my typo‘s.

#2
I would like to see stories like Fargo’s bones, the books of Sins etc in a more unified position out side of game so people that play in different time zones or only get a 3 or 4 days a week to really RP can seamlessly join in. Once the general ground rules are set a real story should have a life of its own ( as Paladis stated) so any character can effect it. Even in a small way.

A unified plot board would also help to direct interested ( ie recruits) to a board so they can get small over view then link to more details as they wish. It is also something we can do as a general player base with out the Gm’s having to hammer out all the details. If we can agree to it and spread the word. Down side is posters might have to keep things short & sweet and thus make two posts of an event.

#3
I would have to say see answer for #2. I know some people like say all the RP moves to the boards but things are not to that state ( in my opine)and having a definite go to place to track ( in a thumb nail fashion) what going developing is what would replace IC “over hearing a rumor”.

I like the theory of concentrating the player base. Weather it around a few cities close together or close to the Moongates would not matter to me as much. I realize Theory is a whole lot more different then practice.

#4
I am not sure I have ever left. I have been dormant for several weeks at a time , as real life demands, but never closed my master account. I have found most of those that leave return when life permits but then I am also probably in the older edge of the age demographic that plays.

Snubson

1. What are you missing in UO and could it be improved by us players?

Missing....hrm, not that much really, dont miss the whines on icq, dont miss the whines in the guildchat, dont miss parts where people always seemed to go out from their way to annoy others...for..no reason *shrugs* other than they fancied they could do so anyway. Miss maybe the points when things used to be lighthearted and not scripted to such high levels...and miss the times when fights used to errupt randomly...and not after 15 minutes of babble while 25 of the mans mates turned up randomly as the fights used to occur. Can the players fix this? doubt it as much as the question should be "should the players fix this?" its been the norm, or was anyway, for 2-3 years prior to myself leaving.

2. Do you think we don’t do enough story lines for interactive roleplaying and character development?

Stories used to be random...used to be nonescripted...Kain twothumb getting killed by LB took...5 minutes to come up with and that was that, the end of the planning. The rest was random. The curse scenario took a tiny bit more planning (in the most sparse sense of the word planning ever) "ok, we goto skara, we fight between the guilds, whoever still stands after can take it whichever way from then". Then...came the 5-9 week preplanning for....a moot, for a small battle, for a small war etc. It got too much, people who thought it wasnt, took the limelight...an stuff started to only involve 2-3 people mainly...with the stagehands carrying out the fight. Instead of randomness prevailing.

3. Any suggestions what could or should be done overall to improve roleplay and get more people having fun at it?

As numpty welshboy said..less talk, more playing. But, looking here and elsewhere the boards (unless private boards are busy) are dead or quiet in anycase. Also maybe not being an arse ingame because you think someones an arse out of the game too. Play the game as that...as entertainment, not a competition to the levels of the olympics, or the european qualifiers and yer not england.

4. For those that left, do you consider returning and what would ea have to do?

Make it a subscription free game, even then...would be doubtful. Maybe stop trying to copy bits off every other mmorpg lately too >.>

Paladis

ffs...it was supposed to be Olaf Twothumb i sent ye to kill!!...bugger..

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Hedlyn

Prove me wrong. I actually WANT you to prove me wrong.

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Boner

Well, reasons why I left was because of all the constant incessant whining whenever a guild lost a fight. That contributed to less pvp, which I think is actually the main reason why -V- became inactive. Let's face it, we were the pvp addicts that some former poster mentioned. At our peak we had atleast one fight every night and that's what kept out numbers extremely high every night for a few months, where we could easily field 15+ troopers. For me UO was about pvp and RPing like a dick in general, and with less pvp, people that I enjoyed RPing with left, and the rest is history really.

I completely understand that it's a valid point that some people don't like pvp, more power to you. But then don't get involved in a "war" if you won't accept losing. The war between Vesper and Trinsic for instance, it fielded massive activity on both sides at the time, so it was beneficial for both. -RM- would build those damn cool camouflaged bunkers by the gates, they'd check blue players for arms etc etc etc. But when they peaced Vesper then there were a lot of people left with nothing to do anymore except sit around and talk. Also the reason -RM- folded I believe. They were a Trinsic guard force, with nobody to defend against.

There's nothing wrong with that really, but even those people have to admit that things were more exciting and fun back then with all that activity. In the end it boils down to player preference. There wasn't a very big demand for pvp anymore, and so a lot of pvpers left, along with them went some damn fine RPers. And yes, I include myself in that list for vanity reasons! :P

So basically, my whole issue was that fact that nobody wanted to lose. I can guarantee you that if someone invaded Vesper and beat us everytime in battles, Twoey and Hanse wouldn't have whined, none of us would. We would have loved the challenge of repelling the invaders, sadly, the same cannot be said for some other cities.

Oh! And unrealistic RP! I despised that! I mean come on, if you saw a walking talking undead person, wouldn't you freeze in horror and piss your pants? There were far too many "heroes" in UO that weren't afraid of anything. I RPed a gutless coward when I didn't have atleast 4 "boys" behind me...and I was a Liberator in -V-, still had massive flaws.Wasn't the "champion" I was supposed to be known as. Also the people that refused to get mugged even though there are 4 brigands about you with bows, and you STILL choose to fight instead of swallowing your cyber pride and just pay the damn muggers.
My little rant.
Oh, and Thaur Macil is the greatest RPer ever.........*sigh*

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Jessica Nubtus

1. What are you missing in UO and could it be improved by us players?
What I missed in UO was guilds to interact with, and guilds to interact against. For me, my fondest memory of UO will always be A^K and KTD vs. BoC, -V-, Grd. That whole arc, the defence and attacks, and the military roleplay I had before and after has a fond place in my heart.


2. Do you think we don’t do enough story lines for interactive roleplaying and character development?
Wouldn't know.

3. Any suggestions what could or should be done overall to improve roleplay and get more people having fun at it?
Again, wouldn't know.

4. For those that left, do you consider returning and what would ea have to do?
Not really. I have lots of roleplay to do these days and since, as this thread proves, the propensity of the Europa RP population to squabble and bicker has in no way lessened, I'm afraid there'll be no Jess in town.

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Ta'Samsca'Rial

1. What are you missing in UO and could it be improved by us players?

Frankly it is players that is the key missing feature. You can do whatever you like, but if you cannot count on much player in game support spinning scenario's is pointless. Its all very well going for some random "lets have some fun today" but if just two people turn up your rather limited. Even if you have some scenario planned your in trouble there. The other problem is that as the number of RPers decline, there is increasingly a sence that activity for one guild is a net loss for another guild. If your guild is doing well and others are doing badly, its not suprising that people want to cross ship. This isn't bad, but it does mean once a guild can no longer command a reasonable turn out a night, they struggle to get back on form.

I also think I did miss the randomness. To use the usual cliche of "back in the day", Samsca could wander across just about all Sosaria looking for something to do. It usually involved getting locked up or being harrassed, but it was entertaining enough. It reached a point however where I felt I couldn't much leave Vesper without some cast-iron IC reason and when I did due to a lack of knowledge about the other cities and places I could rarely find much happening anyway.

I think at a time a few years ago I could know IC (or ooc through dozens of posts on the forums) about lots of scenarios, plots or storylines. Turn up at a certain place and you could get involved. These days I don't have a clue IC and even OOC as the forums are not only less used but more scattered, requiring the checking of multiple different forums. Meanwhile I think the decline of the poste (no insult on any who once wrote for it) was at once both a symptom and a cause.

So something to let people better know where they can be/whats going on and perhaps a greater understanding of non-native (Vesperians in Trinsic, Trinsicians in Vesper etc) RPers would be good. If people won't consolidate, atleast be more permissable about where people can go.

2. Do you think we don’t do enough story lines for interactive roleplaying and character development?

Love them or hate them, there are increasingly few people exist to generate the storylines. I never had a problem with elitism, probably because I became an "elite", but I tend to think due to being willing to get involved in anything that was going on. When your going on and on about how your the greatest, your not saying everyone else isn't, your just offering a hook. Maybe its just that not enough people know how to latch onto this hook. Story lines appeal to a certain number of players, usually the ones more opposed to PvP and the pillars of activity involved in most "PvP" guilds.

Story lines, scenarios and events are not bad. The problem is some of them become little more than evenings entertainment for the higher ups while the rest of the minions were bored stupid. An example would be any meeting where Twothumb and some foreign dignitary would talk, if I wasn't on the council table and instead stuck outside I quickly became bored to tears. Few people I think like spending two hours mute and inactive listening to people drone on and on. (Say no to 12~ hour court cases!!)

3. Any suggestions what could or should be done overall to improve roleplay and get more people having fun at it?

A system which permits greater involvement might be good. Regardless of how long the moot took to plan it was a pretty enjoyable cross-Europa event. Its all very well to say *hey guys, fancy getting involved* but it can be difficult to see how that is actually possible.

Greater flexibility but coupled with greater information as to what was going on.

A clean slate on RP (at least on the remnants of CORE side) might also be an idea. On the otherhand the idea of ending so much history strikes many (including myself) cold. Regardless of this there seems little point for so many self-appointed (except in Vesper, Hurrah!) elites to continue ruling over ever shrinking feifdoms devoid of activity.

But would I be willing to go to Trinsic/Yew and play a peasant? Hmmm.. probably not.

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