YOU’VE GOT MAIL! [Author: lum]
From Origin’s Ministry of Information (Carly Division):
I say, “woo woo!”, not woop woop. 😉
Correction noted. On a far less important note, Sir Fragmor has something to say:
Community.
Community would assume people together being social. This was one of UOs big selling points way back when and you can still hear them chanting it today. “It hurts the community”, “It would’nt be good for the online gaming community” Well its funny that they have these concerns about the “community” cause THEY themselves are setting forth precendents that will hurt the “Community” much more than any macro-miner or PK. A commune of people suggests interaction between members of players. Be that team work in fighting monsters, defeating PKs, questing, or treasure hunting. The point is these are all things that help Build, Make, and perpetuate the “community” because they are social in nature, as is a “community”.
Recently the Dev Team has started to crack down on “unassisted” macroing due to its terrible affects on the game balance. I find it odd that a given UO player who has: an intrnet connection, a web browser, and access to the same FREE download sites that I do, is at a disadvantage simply because THEY do not choose to use any of those tools to download a free program and macro. At this point it becomes a active CHOICE of a UO player to NOT macro. The software to macro is FREE, they all are required to have the tools to download it, per reqs on the box that the game came in, so WHY exactly is my macroing with EZMacros a game imbalance?
I digress…
Back to the “community” issue. There is no communal effort involved in cutting up fish steaks. There is no teamwork invloved in cooking meat. There is no festive esprit de corps whilst mining ore. There is no roleplaying when determining the Dexterity and Physical Strength or Intelligence of the town cryer. Here is where we find OSI putting the players of UO at odds with 2 directives. On the one hand, you need these NON COMMUNITY building skills in order to actually participate in COMMUNITY activites and have fun. You need meat for food, cooking to prepare it, Ore for armor, Anatomy and Eval Int for PvP and PvM capabilities but wait!! On the OTHER hand……actually building ANY of these skills requires HOURS and HOURS of NON SOCIAL, NON INTERACTIVE, NON TEAM ORIENTED time. This time is normally spent macroing overnight while the player is sleeping or doing other real life things. When they actually want to play this Community Oriented game they dont want to play it doing non community things. OSI obviously is being extremely doubleminded in their efforts. OSI, we HEAR you, we WANT to help the community by actually BEING PART OF IT. A player ISNT part of a Community if they are sitting there cutting up fish steaks not talking with other players. Why is this a hard concept to ascertain?!?!?!
Sorry for the rant here, I just got sick and tired of OSI.
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The Illustrious Sir Fragmor
Guildmaster Central Server Crusaders (CSC)
Grandmaster Smith, Archer, Swordsman, Warrior
Great Lakes
http://lonestar.texas.net/~fragmor/csc.html
Excellent points. I have some more to say on community, why Everquest doesn’t have it, and why UO may lose it soon. Until then, keep that email coming in; it keeps me from having to make stuff up!