**Accidentially deleted the post**

I have reached a bit of a clear understanding that no matter how much I give to Obsidian, I don't get nearly 1/2 back out of it. You see I originally started this shard as a way to relax and have a fun time with a buddy by creating something I could be proud of. It started as a hobby and after a while turned practically a part-time job. Similar services like Everquest or the official OSI servers charge all their players $10 a month that inturn goes into paying the developers and staff to keep this thing running. If it wasn't for the constant income none of these games would exist.

Obsidian tried a different approach and that was to give back to the gaming community. How often is a quality game or service like this offered up completely free requiring no obligation of any sort? Very few i've found and those who do dwindle and vanish either do to lack of developer interest or funding.

What i'm getting at is i'm at wit's end with this shard right now. I put my blood and sweat into this thing and ask for very little in return, yet nearly everyone completely ignores the point and me for that matter and I'm sick of it.

I lost my enjoyment for Obsidian a long time ago and only have since stuck with it because of some close friends, thankful players and the ability for me to keep my programming skills toned. While this has sufficed, after awhile you start to weight the benifits against the downsides. Downsides such as unrespectful players, constant complaining, bickering, flaming and absolutely no appreciative nature except when prompted by a post. A quick example would be the recent quest. So many things have occured that are like a twisting knife in my back.

I'd honestly say i've spend over 6 hours developing and running this dark elf quest single handedly. Yes you heard right! Those six hours don't even include the time I spend checking the forums, patching bugs and other similar things. Now all i was trying to do was create a fun quest for EVERYONE to participate in and enjoy. It was structured so newbies, veterans, PKs and anyone else could work together and have fun. Doesn't sound like that big of a request right? Well nearly every player on this shard has convinced me my time would have been better spent banging my head against a wall.

Player killers did their part by immediately taking advantage of Britain trying to kill anyone or anything that moved. They didn't understand that this was a quest and they shouldn't be pricks but just had to keep with their ways. So instead of babysitting themselves I had to spend an additional hour just plugging holes to make them unable to loot in Britain. If that wasn't enough the new portals in Britain allowed them easy access to the runestone chamber to get back to their cheap tactics of following people and then slaughtering them. Way to go Pks!

Veterans whom a large portion of this quest was designed specifically for didn't want anything to do with it. They would sit around instead bitching and complaining that this quest is so stupid because they no longer get to practice their GM Banksitter skill. To make matters worse they rarely followed up on the happenings of then quest and didn't even bother to participate unless it was in their benifit. Some were even heard saying that they would ONLY participate if they got some uber rare item. Last I checked quests were designed to be fun and were one of the few things in the game that didn't care or even matter who was better then who. Thanks alot Veterans!

Even the new players who should be extremely happy and motivated to play on Obsidian failed to come to the call. I'm sorry but I think it's ok if you stop macro mining for a few hours to enjoy the game and get to know a few more players. Last i checked this was a social game and not a single player clickfest. Sure alot of them don't know better, but then another portion just care about becoming as rich or skilled as the other Vets.

And then finally players just don't even care when i make a demand. Last i checked I told players NOT to hang out in the runestone chamber. The town crier even f****** announces it, yet every time i login there are 10+ players sitting around doing nothing but chatting. I'm sorry if me caring about server stability is ruining your ability to chat, but get a god damn grip. Then the server crashes and timewarps because it doesn't save and the same players who didn't do as I asked are the first to bitch and moan. Screw you guys!

Then there is the people with their egos and holier then thou opinions. From now on ANYONE i catch who badmouths me or whatever staff I have left with be permanently banned. Yes you heard me right. Your constant abuse both of the ingame page system and staff themselves has caused a great number to quit or spend more time doing something OTHER then help you. These people are giving up their free time so you can have fun and all you do is bitch and moan about them not being good enough or responsive enough. If you think there ought to be more counselors ingame then why don't you get off your lazy behind and offer to help us out instead of berating our every attempt to appease you! Screw you ungreateful leeches!

Finally i'm getting sick and tired about people leeching their hearts out. Obsidian uses 150 GIGABYTES a month. That means every month we send out the equilivent of 214 CDs jam packed of data or 30,000 MP3 files. I hate to tell you, but it is EXTREMELY tough for a 22 year old to afford all of this yet I do and I have continued to pay this for 4 years now. I understand many of you have been grateful and donated, but many of you are just leechers. The people who log in and macro unattendedly. The players who sit around Britain Bank for hours at a time doing nothing but chatting. Those of you who create multiple accounts or purchase dozens of houses for one character only to litter the land. You know who you are.

Finally and most importantly are you players who offer NOTHING of added value to this community. Out of 4800 active accounts why does Obsidian only have 3 player run websites? Every day people bug me telling me I should make a race guide or create a world map or something! Can you guys explain to me why Obsidian only has a select few players who are willing to spend their time supplimenting the shard through guides and websites? How hard is it to support a free shard by giving some of your time back? Whether it be moderating the forums, running a website, creating ingame events or even offering to be a counselor in your spare time.

I know if i had the desire I could make all this happen. But for once I'm going to sit back and see what the players do for me and Obsidian. Yes you guys pulled through HUGELY when we needed that new server, but then again only 10-15% of you guys do anything to give back to Obsidian. Perhaps this is an opportunity for you to look at the situation and see what you can do.

For this week I will be taking a break. Depending on how the response to this post goes it may or may not be longer. I will be ingame ONLY to run the quest and will not personally answer ANY in-game pages or reply to ANY private messages in the forums, so don't even try. I will however browse the forums to see how things are going and cross my fingers that I get some of the support I need. If you want to be a counselor please contact Blinkers in the forums or BINKY7000 in AIM and he will get you setup.

I'm just not having fun guys and if you were in my shoes you wouldn't hesitate to quit.

*Hits the back button a few dozen times to find his post *

I intend to donate ASAP. I didn't earlier because I hadn't decided if I was going to keep playing (obsidian takes up a lot of my free time ). Once I've finished recouping my losses from half my computer frying I intend to donate.

I personally think I'd make an OK counselor because I think for the most part I'm pretty patient and fair minded. It's just that the time factor would make that pretty impracticle, what with a full time job with odd hours. And I've still got a lot to learn. How much time would a counselor be expected to be on?

Anyways you're right, in your place I WOULD have quit by now, or at least .killed 90% of the whiners on this shard. I don't know how you do it.

Personally I think there should be more bannings. I hear about all sorts of crap that even a few vets always pull, yet they're never kicked out.
Once your back maybe it'll be time to clean house... Perhaps three strikes and you're out? I can think of any number of guys who've exceeded that (losing paging privileges, res killing, pking in cove and brit gy, exploiting, the list goes on). Would result in a smaller, but better, community

I love ya as much as one straight man can love another, don't let the pricks get you down (and I hope you don't consider me to be one of them )

PS to be honest the reason I didn't take part in the quest was all the pkers exploiting it. Didn't want to fight dark elves and such while worrying about getting pked and looted at the same time.

So, I guess this is why my account has not activated after 4-5 days! (Turns out it was just the "account wipe") Well man, I agree with what Daffy said before this topic disappeared momentarily. You really should just take a break or something for a while. If anything, just to remind people not to take your service for granted and be happy with what you've given them.

I just hate it looks like I've come so late in the game. You don't even have an Ultima fan willing to make a map?!? Asking you to make one eh? Nonsense...

grimme wrote:hey BB, sorry if some my posts pissed you off, i'll try exercising my ego somewhere else from now on and hold my tongue so to speak ...

i'v really quite enjoyed trying to figure out the quest with some of the vets even though i'v only been playing for a week or so ... mission accomplished there i think in my case... the only reason i haven't praised you more for it is that the only real communication i'v seen from you is when something is going wrong like today, sorry about that too, it's a shame we don't all get to know each other under a different circumstance rather than over a problem.

as for donations... i'll send you some $$$ as soon as i'v decided that this is the place i'll be staying and continuing to play UO (after a month or 2 of happy playing probably)

well try not to get too down about it all.... alot of the time when people bitch about the shard it's not aimed at you, it's just people trying to show you what would make things better here in their opinion, and maybe just getting shit off their chest when they're feeling pissed with the game (can i suggest a "gripes" forum for that purpose? the mods can move any bitchy threads there and things would look a lot cleaner surely?)

also try to remember that the real intent of what someone is saying is very often unclear from text alone, so if something sounds harsh i think that probably most of the time it's not as spiteful as you'd think.

grimme

Just to understand your point I checked the archived news and you make no sense. Out of the 45 news postings that have been made maybe 5 of them have been talking about things "going wrong". If you are trying to tell me that my posts informing everyone on the newest patch, or latest quest info or hell even the 4th anniversary of the shard are that of negativity or ill repute then you need to get your logic checked. Seriously. And furthermore I really don't care what people think about me praises or not. What I do care is that these players appreciate Obsidian and the hard work the staff put into this shard day in and day out. Last I checked it's good business sense to keep things running smooth and not bring attention to issues so I don't see how running everything smoothly is a bad thing.....do you?

Cetrocet wrote: intend to donate ASAP. I didn't earlier because I hadn't decided if I was going to keep playing (obsidian takes up a lot of my free time ). Once I've finished recouping my losses from half my computer frying I intend to donate.

I personally think I'd make an OK counselor because I think for the most part I'm pretty patient and fair minded. It's just that the time factor would make that pretty impracticle, what with a full time job with odd hours. And I've still got a lot to learn. How much time would a counselor be expected to be on?

Anyways you're right, in your place I WOULD have quit by now, or at least .killed 90% of the whiners on this shard. I don't know how you do it.

Personally I think there should be more bannings. I hear about all sorts of crap that even a few vets always pull, yet they're never kicked out.

Once your back maybe it'll be time to clean house...

I love ya as much as one straight man can love another, don't let the pricks get you down (and I hope you don't consider me to be one of them )

PS to be honest the reason I didn't take part in the quest was all the pkers exploiting it. Didn't want to fight dark elves and such while worrying about getting pked and looted at the same time.

The problem with that is it is just going to make running Obsidian more of a living hell. Lets say I ban 10 players. They will immediately hit the forums hard spamming it with flames. So next I have to ban their message board accounts, delete all their unnecessary posts and then watch how players who were their friends complain saying my decision was unfair. To be honest it's sometimes easier to keep the parasite then try to remove it

daffy duck wrote:BB, if this is the way you feel about it, take a longer break man...Pull in some favors and have someone else be top dawg for a while...

I think I understand what you're saying and in regards to the quest, all I can say is this...Not everyone plays UO to quest...Not everyone plays to socialise...And a quest of this size, may just be too big for the community to handle...Not numbers or powerwise, but to mentally get it in gear and do the things that need to be done...Hell, even getting 30-50 ppl to join at once can be a problem as we're spread out over so many timezones...I've pushed my sleeping habits (formerly from midnight to 8 ) to 4 am - lunch, simply so I could quest, but most people can't and aren't willing to do this...

Also, if you want people to do the quest regardless of how they want to play the game, how much fun is it gonna be for them? I love quests, I love roleplaying and all that shit, but some people prefer to use the game to do other things...And the way I see, it's their right to choose...If you disagree (and I don't think you do) you should make it clear, once and for all, like in the welcome to Obs email, that quest participation is mandatory...

Now - Bitchers and moaners...These ppl are always gonna be around, and since the internet only allows a few smilies to sort out 10 billion different human emotions, anything text written is always gonna come off more agressive to the reader than to the writer...Why? Maybe because we expect it to or because anger is an attack mechanism and the best defence is an attack...
So when these ppl mouth off, just (and I know this next bit is gonna sound corny as hell) turn the other cheek...Seriously...If ppl can't sit down and type a post without namecalling or lame ass bitching, why should it bother you? It's not really you they're mad at...They're mad at their own inability to handle whatever set them off...You just make a convinient scapegoat for that anger...

What else...Vets...All vets on all servers in all games everywhere (did I say all vets everywhere?) are gonna be somewhat like the ppl represented here...Some of the things that newbies and the middle ppl can't even touch, they'll just waltz right through...And if you look at some of the posts, you'll note, that what they want, is the same stuff they had in the old days...Good quests...Memorable shit...All that stuff...And that's exactly what you're giving them...So what's the problem...Why don't they do, what you want them to do...?
Well...They might be lazy, but more likely, they're just like everyone else...When you recall a memory, you add your won emotions to it...Not necesarrily the emotions you had at the time, but more likely the emotions you'd like to have had...And since the emotions they'd like to have had do not match the ones they actually have while doing the new quest, well...A year from now ppl are gonna be saying 'Hey, do you remember the bigass quest BB did where he burned down Brit bank and all that? That was some funny shit...'

Anyway...Prolly 90% of what I wrote here is off the mark, but I for one love what you're doing with the shard...Lots of changes have pissed me off in that they hit where it hurt, but now, a few weeks later, I have adapted and can hardly remember what it was like before...

Face it - You've created something truly Fabnastic...!

You are completely correct I am not going to try to force a playstyle on anyone as I wouldn't want it done to me. But most of my complains were made in a general sense so people could possibly see if and where they fit in. But if i had more people going up to bad for Obsidian then it would make things easier. I shouldn't have to read all the bitching and moaning in the forums. If those posts are negative and unimportant I should have people happily moderating the forums to get rid of them. You wouldn't wanna move to a city people bad mouthed so why do you think people would want to join Obsiidan with some of the things said in the forums?

And veterans are extremely frustrating. I have gone out of my way to add things for them to do. Quests, treasure hunting, shadow monster hunting yet they continue to do nothing more then banksit for hours at a time. I'm sorry but I would prefer that bandwidth going to someone who is atleast going to adventure or do something.

I'm one person with a splintered staff who is sometimes extremely active and other times unavailable. I can't do everything and I don't try to. And I can't just pass Obsidian over to someone to run for the meantime because I have yet to meet anyone who has managed to successfully run a shard this complex without major issues.

Lister wrote:Alright....I've been here for about 3 months now, and I can honestly say that you've put alot of effort into the shard. Man....if some one bitches or whines at you, do what you like to them. They're playing something for free....and they complain about it...I mean...wtf? People...last time I checked, you shouldn't complain about anything you get free...it's just wrong.

Just hang in there bb....we all love u (as Cet said...as much as one straight man can love another).

I appreciate the compliments but as you can tell those are the last thing I need. It's amazing how you have donated coin to the shard, designed a website dedicated to it AND still have time to always be helpful and engaged with the community. What's confusing is that for most of the players they can't claim any of the above short of maybe helping a newbie here or there. Not to shine the spotlight, but it's players like you that make me keep this going. If your going to donate your spare time to help me, I should return the favor and keep adding to Obsidian.

Tyger wrote:Try to make this short to ease the pain on your eyes.. you'll be getting a lot of replies, bud.

Im an ass, and I push off rules that I dont see as very important, and all I do is bank sit when I'm on anyways.. No need to list all the things I've done, I'll just appologize for all of it.
Then, just talking smack about you knowing you could hear me, haha. For all that, I appologize man, I dont mean any of it (and if you never heard me do it... uhh, lets forget i said that part, okay? ).

Anyways, I'd hate to see this place die. I've met a lot of great people here, good memories, shit like that. I know it cant last forever, and I won't be here that long anyways. But, I dont want to see you be our slave. If you've lost all love for this, and it just feels like work now... dont continue man, I for one would start flingin' poo at people (including me).
Bring it, I can dodge poo like a pro... heh

Everyone tests the limits of the rules while noone stops to think that maybe the least they could do is respect the wishes and boundaries of the people offering you this service for free. I mean is that so much to ask?

And I guess I'm lucky i haven't caught much of your ill-saying about me. I would think that a veteran who has been around for 2+ years would appreciate and understand the dedication and hard work i've given to the shard as opposed to a player who has been here a few months. Yet for some reason some of the newest players are more supportive then the oldest veterans. And no i'm not thinking of anyone in particular.

this sux like hell, o loose money, skills, stats, cuz of some stupid fuckers(some players)i think that was not the best choice, many ppl will get angry, (for eg mining skill is very hard to ganin now, so when some1 loose 1%.....)And another thing: why normal players, who r just playing, and doing nothing bad(like pagin for nothing etc.) have to suffer??? AND SOMETHING IN POLISH(HEHE) :POCAŁUJCIE MNIE WSZYSCY W DUPE CWELE JEDNE(TO PK'S, AND SOME PLAYERS) Yarpen the Dwarf-> gm armsman
Thorfin -> adept warrior

Dude STFU. I'm gonna be blunt as f*** with u. Don't be a god damn ho! This post is a prime example of the problems we're facing as a gaming community. U realize that someone is footing the bill for u to play here? U realize that other people don't wanna hear u complain?

Look it's like this... something goes down for a couple hours and EVERYONE starts dropping PM's and BS posts about omg omg the server is down. Or omg omg omg there's a timewarp I didn't get the 0.01% gain for killin that zombie. Or wtf ever else u guys bitch about. I haven't played on here in like what a year and a half... I was here when it was a damn ghost town. I was here before PVP was outlawed... and while it was outlawed. Didn't solve anything... just made the game boring from a player standpoint. Now I come back and omg it's the same old shit again. Why the hell can't people grow up! I can understand BB if u get frustrated by people... they f****** suck. U should be ashamed of urself to f****** post a god damn msg like that on this one. Would u just rather see Obs vanish? Or better yet turned into a private server where u're NOT welcome?

If I see one more post on here from someone bein stupid... I'm gonna be pissed. Jokes are cool and fun cuz nobody gets hurt in the end, but bein an asshole isn't needed. I don't wanna hear it. BB doesn't wanna hear it. The other staff members certainly don't wanna hear it. So god damnit STFU and enjoy ur free ride u god damn leach.

It works now. Thanks a million for my account to your shard! I look forward to helping this community any way I can once I get my bearings.

http://www.dxgaming.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... highlight=

Normally I get annoyed tat ppl are always going STUF to just about anything, but in this case I'm behind Liquid 100%...

Well i have been here for about 4-5 months and i love it here, i love the people and everything.. even CoKane is cool, i appreciate all you have done and all the staff. I might not be a donator yet but i have been recommending obsidian to most of my friends and there are currently 7-8 active members who play who are personal friends i have recommended some of which have donated so i think that is a good contribution on my part, main reason i havent donated yet is i dont have a creditcard and being in the UK it is kinda costly to get money orders here, one day i will be getting a friend to donate on my behalf.

Also i know you have accepted me to be a counselor and when i am i will do all i can to help the shard out, i dont want to loose this as i have grown quite attached to Obsidian..

OMG BB,

I'd love no to agree with what you said but you are right... I just wish we had some sort of warning before you get to this point (Or I wish we'd have got it if you did give us a warning)

But one thing is certain: I will not allow this shard to die. And I'm absolutly sure that I'm not alone thinking this. I've allready told you BB but I'm ready to do anything to keep this shard standing and I know many who think the same.

You have our arm.

This is my first post and its for you BB
like i sad f*** all the pk-ers

They only kill people becose they suck thats all to say
Im playing this game for a month and i can say its cool, you done wright to set it up and run it for 4 years. Thats a long time if you count all the money you put in, And all the free time you spend to make it so fun, for all the players that are wiling to join and play this game for fun (for adventure and friends and not to kill other).

It will come the day for pk-ers to die every hour

(bad englisch -learning)
thats why im playing this game to

i am maybe some evil freak
but i sure do agree with lakini.

To qoute Theodore R. Long -
"Lemme holla atcha playa..."

I'm certainly on the same boat as Lakini there, I may be relatively new to the shard, but I'm not leaving any time soon and I plan on giving back as much as I can. As far as the "dollar dollar bill y'all" I think I'm probably one of your strongest donators, and plan to donate more in the future. And that money of mine isn't easy to come by, but I think its worth it, considering the amount of time I spend playing on Obsidian, as its a tool that distracts me from the circumstances of my real life that I like to forget about.

As far as giving something back is concerned in terms of free time to help out, I like to give advice and assisstance to not only new players, but also staff on occassion whether the advice is acknowledged or not.
Furthermore, I have been writing editorials for the minerd diary as of late that I'll hopefully see put up soon on a weekly basis. I would like to do more for the shard, as I spend roughly 15 hours a day playing in on a good day, but I wasn't really aware of how you could go about doing so originally, and writing for the miners diary seems like a step in the righ direction, but I'm not sure I, like many, have the means to create something as valuable as Lister's site.

When I first started here, Obsidian was my first online MMORPG, so in the first week or two I got a little bit annoyed at bugs and glitches, but as I've gained more experience here and I've learned a lot more, its made it obvious to me how easy it actually is to overcome these things if you are actually participating in the game, and not just expecting to get something for lazing around, and then spend the rest of the day afk macroing, as I've seen a lot of new players do on both accounts.

I would hate to see Obsidian go, as I have came to love it, and will do everything within my power to help you keep it up.

To see that a lot of players, particularly newer ones are whinning and complaining, that make me think, and realise that a lot of the players on this shard are teenagers. I would love to ramble on about the psychological effects and sociological impacts that this regards, as thats what I do, but I think it speaks for itself.

I have seen a lot of vets with ego problems, abusing bugs and of course bank sitting, claiming to have nothing to do, but socialised now that they have GM everything they want to. I can't say that theres anything wrong with a bit of socialising now and then, but to say that theres nothing to do when you're a 6 x GM or whatever is bullshit, I guarantee that I will be just as active as I have ever when I've GM'd the skills I want to. If anything I could always make a new character and try something different. You aren't exactly limited in what to do on Obsidian. So put your heaving ego, and bug exploits away for the day, delete one of your old guys and try something different.

I think I'll leave it at that for now, as my editorials in the miners diary will put my views across on a variety of more specific elements that I could address here.
Feel free to PM me with any questions, or for your Playa Card.

"Now Belee Dat"

GD

Hey, Sorry. I have donated and I am makeing a player run site if that makes ya' feel any better?

I think that you are very generous for have8ing a great game and only asking for a measly 10 dollor donation.... I have donted 10 dollors and I am planning on donating more... Dont really have any right now I am heading over to Disney World in the next week...

Most all of us have taken you and the shard for granid ( Yes Iknow that is not the correct spelling )
I would help out with any thing I can...

"These people are giving up their free time so you can have fun and all you do is bitch and moan about them not being good enough or responsive enough. If you think there ought to be more counselors ingame then why don't you get off your lazy behind and offer to help us out instead of berating our every attempt to appease you! Screw you ungreateful leeches!"

I have offered help... I would LOVE to become a councler... I try and help in other ways as well even though im not one...

I really like the shard and I hope that you will gain your intrest back in it . Well, that was my bell and the teacher that wrote me up for being on here just walked nby so... TTY guys later...

to liqudix---pocaluj mnie w dupe cieciu, nie powiedzialem na ciebie zlego slowa, a tym bardziej na server, wiec kurwa mysl, mysl kurwa! takich idiotow jak ty powinno sie deportowac z Ziemi, bo kurwa smieci jest tu az nadto, i kurwa nie mow mi cioto jedna czegos czego nie powiedzialem, wyskrobie jeden.......translate this for urself