Time to clean house: archive dead shards

Ivenor

Meggie said:

Margrette said:

InLor said:

Larisa said:

We want to revitalize the ~dead~ shards....why close off character creation to them? We want MORE people there...how is disallowing people to create characters on these so-called dead shards helping in any way? I have seen more people come to Origin in the last few weeks.....people from Europa, Siege....THIS is what we need! Don't cripple them.

I think a few are a lost cause and it's better to archive them and incentivize transferring out. Solutions for housing/amount of chars can be thought of. 

A "lost cause"?? Wow. Such arrogance.

     I believe he is ready to apply for being next UO Procucer  Mesanna will appreciate 

What is a Procucer? A mixture of Procustes & a Producer? Hmm.. yes, this seems right to me...

Bilbo

InLor said:

Dukarlo said:

I think for the most part players have taken it upon themselves to consolidate the shards. That's why Atlantic has fairly healthy population. If you want to play uo as it was intended with many other players Atlantic is your best option. I moved there a couple years ago along a few friends from gl and run into quite a few people from gl as well. Atlantic certainly has its problems but is by far the best option to play with other players.  I was to sentimental for the longest time about gl but after moving I never regretted it.

Yep. This.

What people also don't get that it really hurts retention when someone spends a week on a dead shard and eventually gets frustrated because there is virtually no community. Magincia bazar is empty, places are empty, no competition, no guilds, no guilds, etc. This is not what the game is designed around.

Some of these servers have like 12 people max playing and 30 from Atlantic for an EM event... but day to day active players are unacceptably few. 

Overall UO has too many loose ends and spread too thin. Too many empty shards, two clients, etc. This is really unfortunate.

I would start by doing something simple: no new char creation on these shards from now on and free transfers out. Second phase could be rollout of house copy for those who have houses there they care about.

You do understand that the people you describe are free to make chars on another shard

Bilbo

Meggie said:

Margrette said:

InLor said:

Larisa said:

We want to revitalize the ~dead~ shards....why close off character creation to them? We want MORE people there...how is disallowing people to create characters on these so-called dead shards helping in any way? I have seen more people come to Origin in the last few weeks.....people from Europa, Siege....THIS is what we need! Don't cripple them.

I think a few are a lost cause and it's better to archive them and incentivize transferring out. Solutions for housing/amount of chars can be thought of. 

A "lost cause"?? Wow. Such arrogance.

     I believe he is ready to apply for being next UO Procucer  Mesanna will appreciate 

UO is doomed, but I would really love to hear him trying to convince EA to do this and if he would be willing to put his job on the line.

Bilbo

InLor said:

Sable said:

InLor said:

Sable said:

It isn't just the house , it is the history.  If I'm losing location, if I am losing my town banners, if I am losing the old roleplaying haunts, I'm not playing.  You lose all my accounts.  It's the money in hand versus the maybe someone new pays as much money as me (unlikely).

How many accounts do you pay for?

32

Please excuse me, but how is that even possible? What do you need so many accounts for? 

So not are you the shard population police but now you are the account ownership police too.  What business is it of yours how many accounts a person have, what you gonna make them get rid of some of them too.

Bilbo

InLor said:

Margrette said:

InLor said:

I have stated my reasons for bringing it up and they have nothing to do with trolling.

No, that's an assessment that needs to be made with backend data. Something only the UO team has. But it's clear from visits in peak hours a few shards are ripe for it. Drachenfels is a clear example. People should definitely free transfers out from a shard like that.

So you are making a statement based on no facts what so ever and based on this you know what is better for UO than UO does.  And again with no facts you mention Drach, please enlighten us on who owns all the houses on Drach, but the shard is dead.

Mariah

This is not a topic open to discussion. It has been said repeatedly over the years and still holds true, there are no plans to close or merge shards.