I still consider this my favorite game of all time, I don't think anything can beat the fun I had playing back in the day. I'm guessing I am not the only veteran who checks the forum, and wishes the game was in its former glory. I know absolutely nothing about the current gameplay, but I know it's not hard to make changes and balance a system given a good group of dedicated staff. I have known GM Bob since way before he was a GM and I know he's a very smart guy who knows a ton about obsidian, but he's obviously busy and can't do this by himself.

It seems pretty simple that the only way to fix the shard is to get a much larger and dedicated staff. Once you have a good game and a non laggy server, staff can focus on recruiting. I see plenty of shards with active player bases, so it can't be that hard.

The problem for years has just too much workload on too little staff. Balance out that equation and everything else will fall into place.

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Characters
Death Angel[L.A] - Tank
LegendProdigy - GM Tamer
Giorgio Armani - GM Tailor

Is that what happened, guys? Staff that used to run the events moved on in Life™? So that started a chain reaction? People started to stop interacting. The excitement, the raison d'etre started disappearing. People still working on the code or hosting the game on their hardware started asking themselves “why”? So, you are left with the conundrum of how to attract those with the time, skill and ability to be effective Staff when all you have to show them is what you got? And what you got seems to you very terribly unexciting? You want to suddenly make changes. Just trash the whole thing. Take the people elsewhere…

I love Obs, well, back when I played a lot before. And I DO mean to start again (and there is a whole story behind that and where I am at life, sitting at home 24/7 in a wheelchair…but that…is another story for later…) now, because A) it was Ultima Online and, warts and all, I love that game and still do and always will. B) When I got here, there seemed to be a nice balance of good and bad people. Those existing in this virtual world MADE the world. Yep, this clunky ol’ buggy game brought all these people together and we liked it and we literally “lived” in it. Sorry to sound all mushy about it but it was literally like a large extended family. In fact, if you were to add too many people and you would lose that, so I don’t think making the server super-popular is the answer. I know I wouldn't really like it or even be here typing this freaking wall o' text if it had a huge amount of people. I mean, really, for godsakes, having a “snowball fight night” would NOT work if 50 people showed up. Somehow, the number of active players, Staff and administrators/coders/hosters was juuuuust the right amount. However, it happened it happened. And it was good…

I’ve started this stupid post about five times now and so this is it. I’m tired of re-typing it out. So you get what you get. Warts and all, just like Obs.

So...everyone wants the magic back and you’re trying to figure what that is/was/should be. I really can’t answer it. I really wish in my heart of hearts that I could. We can all throw stuff out but in the end the answer might be what we’re doing right now. I think there is interest enough. I guess you guys just need Staff, is that what you’re saying? And the game doesn’t look exciting enough in your eyes to try and “advertise” for them? Well, I say just do what Obs does best. Get the word out via word of mouth. If you want your server to survive, go forth and find the right people by doing some legwork. Hell, ‘I’ would do it if I knew what in the heck I was doing anymore. But I got to get back in the game and I think I’ve picked a fine time to do it. But don’t go and change everything willy nilly in order to “pad” your resume, so to speak. Whatever. I’ve talked way too much and I’m expecting to get reamed for “not playing in forever blab la bla”…

I’m actually curious. People seem to have mentioned lag a lot. Where and on what is the server hosted? What are the specs of the machine(s) and the pipe it’s on? Just curious…

Is whoever hosting this thing having trouble or growing weary of it? I hesitate to throw this out but…maybe…MAYBE…in the sort of not-too-distant future…it ‘might’ be possible that I could set up something… Let's just say don’t forget about me if it comes to the plug being pulled. At least throw me the backup tapes or something…

In the meantime, what are the server specs in hardcore nerd language?

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Speaking to you from the third eye of the society machine.

How did you know gm bob before he was a GM? When he was added to staff team he was added as a GM access (bypassing Counsie and Seer).

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He was a player long before he was a GM.

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Characters
Death Angel[L.A] - Tank
LegendProdigy - GM Tamer
Giorgio Armani - GM Tailor

GM Bob has a player? I thought that was classified information only staff to know basis.

which staffer leaked out the info! Spill the beans!

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GMBob was a legendary player.....only legends knew him...He had touch screen monitors before touch screen monitors were invented.....It took about .2 seconds to die when facing off against this incredible guy...He brought you to your knees in real life if you ever passed him in game. He once was trapped in a stone wall with 12 wyrms and a necromancer ...made them all eat his spells...just for the Lols. True Legend.

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Scathach of Skye - Pure Ranger

Rippa man, how the hell are you? log in some time say hello Hunt......lol! and kill just about everyone else hahahahaha!!!

I laughed to rippa's post. ha

I can't even kill a mongbat ... I am doing well and you?

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Scathach of Skye - Pure Ranger

this is true... if they had wall pots hed be screwed

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Shadow Hunter [Outkastz]
Hemlock [Outkastz]
Shadow [GWAR]

i know better and lol so does shadow hunter!!!!lmao...

Its sad that we cant get a post from bob. its been what weeks since he made this?

he keeps saying how busy he is and how he has no time to post.

Sorry bob but no one is that busy.. hell get on your phone wile your taking a shit and do it idc. f****** anything.

This is the guy whos supposed to be fixing this? Cant even make a simple f****** post

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Shadow Hunter [Outkastz]
Hemlock [Outkastz]
Shadow [GWAR]

Whelp, it's sad, but... It's pretty clear this place is dead. It's sad. It didn't have to end this way. All that happened was the new traffic died. And that because of little to no updates on a website that looks like it's from the 90s. And the loss of the main domain, which was a no-brainer loss that shouldn't have happened. Yeah, I guess if "the owners" don't have time for it, they don't. No sense bitchin' about it. It will just never happen. And what happens in cases like that is people move on. So let them just sit here and bitch every few months about having no time to work on the server and move on. Time for someone else to fire up a new server and go there or something. Anything is better than this. I would love to come back but I don't know. Not if this is how it is... :/

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Speaking to you from the third eye of the society machine.

Bob needs to take his head outta his ass and hand over the server, it aint that hard. I'm sure he doesnt want someone to take over and take credit for what they've done, but who gives a rats ass, atleast it'll have someone who can put in time towards it. Quit being a little bitch bob and hand it over.

I happen to know a few programmers and I can totally understand why they don't seem to ask for help. And it is a HUGE deal for them to hand something over to anyone. But there comes a time in life when sometimes it is best to walk away and let things go. While it is totally within their right, again, it seems very sad just to watch the whole thing go down in flames. It can be reborn. There are people playing and enjoying themselves right now on other servers. But I understand why people don't want to leave and want to hold on. They have a history and a sort of family - love them or hate them - here. Oh, well. I guess we'll just see what happens... :/

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Speaking to you from the third eye of the society machine.