Wow, people sure are hostile to this new expansion.
It seems to me like some people should take a step back for a minute.
1. "EA/OSI just wants to make money!"
Well, yes. They're a business. If people don't buy their games and play on their servers, they can't pay the developers, writers and artists, and then there will be no more expansions at all. Most of us do UO stuff as a hobby; I know I do. EA isn't doing UO as a hobby; they've got a lot of paychecks to distribute. What, you thought they were doing it for fun, or out of the goodness of their hearts?
2. "I can't believe they're coming out with a new expansion right after SE!"/"They don't come out with expansions fast enough!"
Isn't it great that we're getting a new expansion so soon after SE?
3. "They're stealing from player-shards!"
First of all, elves are hardly unique to player-run shards or to MMORPGS (doesn't WoW have around 6 elf races one can play now? That's what I heard...) Now, that being said, I will grant that it does look like EA is going to the player shards for ideas, or at least inspiration. That's great! Don't the fans always come up with the best stuff? Wouldn't you like to see something you came up with integrated on a large scale? No? Why not?
The way I see it, EA and the freeshards have kind of a symbiotic - or perhaps, a mutaually parasitic - relationship. We leech off of them. Do we really have a leg to stand on in complaining that they leech off of us? Why do you think they haven't worked harder to shut down the freeshard community? I, for one, am grateful for the tolerance they've shown to programs like RunUO.
4. "RunUO should just make their own game."
Why in the heck would they want to do that??? By emulating an existing program as exactly as they can, they give everyone a familiar base to work from. The very fact that RunUO runs UO so closely to OSI means that I can go to the Stratics site and look up just about anything I need to know. There are tons of resources in existence for UO; and everyone that's played the original will be able to recognize how things are supposed to work when they get their shard running. This universally familiar structure serves as a wonderful base. Freeshard operators can take the base and add in whatever modifications they desire - can customize it completely, in fact. Even if you're not a scriptor, simply using the scripts released here on RunUO will allow you to customize your shard to a high degree. But that universally recognizable base is critical.
Besides, if the RunUO team were to make an independent game, do you think they'd give it away out of the goodness of their hearts?
Now, having said all this, I will mention that I found the new art available in SE to be...disappointing, to say the least. It's pretty clear that they just took the 3D art and stuck it on the 2D paperdolls. But I'm still glad to have it, because the new animations give me the flexibility to add my own, custom art. I've already made three new kimonos (which I'll be releasing soon) to go with the kimono animation, for example. And I'll be using other art that came with it, everything from sakura trees to wind chimes to origami animals.
I don't pay a monthly membership to play on EA's servers because I would never use it. I've found that I'm not so interested in playing. For me, a new expansion means a new add-on for my favorite world-building kit. It means lots of new art that I don't have to patch or script myself (thanks to the terrific RunUO team), it means new animations and new skills to modify, it means a new map to add to the already extensive lands I can design and build on. The new expansion may end up sucking, but if I get even one thing out of it that I can use, then it'll be worth it. Until then, I'll be reserving judgement. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it! ^_^
My two and a half cents.
-Janice
aka kirax2
I love the idea of the RunUO team doin there own magic to UO! Good to see some ppl have their minds in the right direction for UO lol. Btw nice servers, I play Demise and one other. But it doesn't compair to Demise.
