Good evening EVOkin! 

Let the trumpets call me in, and allow the applause to commence. 

Here is Emperor Norton's State of the Shard Address:

In the past few months, we have seen considerable, and undeniable changes to our playerbase activity and economy, these changes have been detrimental to our Shard and to our cause, our cause being: Offering a strong, diverse, and fulfilling Ultima Online Experience to the masses.

We can state that UOE has a dedicated, intelligent, and passionate staff, the actions of Dante, Kane and Expo prove that this statement is true.  However! (and here comes the ass kicking) Things on the shard have not progressed or have changed for the positive!  Please allow me to express my bullet points, and the changes that have happened since my re-arrival to UOE, and how these changes have obviously effected the player base:

1) First and foremost is PvP.  We know, and understand that UOE is NOT based on PvP, this statement is proven by the lack of balance given to casting vs. melee, and we know without the shadow of doubt that PvP is not a desired trend shared by ALL players of this shard, but it IS a desired (and what UO was originally built upon) trait for a strong, active UO Experience.

Here is an old post regarding PVP and how I can improve it. 
http://uoevolution.com/forum/index.php?topic=6676.msg17867#msg17867

We are mainly a PVM shard with PVP in Felucca.  PVP plays an important role on this shard and is very different than the traditional style.  There is a lot of custom rules, gear and techniques that you must consider and adapt to, in order to be a successful PVPer.  Think of red players as hard monsters to defeat.  They defend many of the desirable artifacts, that would otherwise be farmed or camped...

PVP balance is complicated and we do try to improve it.  It is very important that we don't just add a fix here and there every time there is a complaint.

How do we "meet in the middle"?  We make all players happy by instituting what the Origin did, encouraging the outlet of PvP to be Factions Driven, and keeping Tram a safe zone for those who wish not to participate.  Simple enough, yes?  In short, no.  Because this shard lacks balance.  In recent months we have seen the departure of both T*E (one of the most financially successful and long standing guilds to grace this shard ) and ++PK (the most Fellucian and PvP centered guild to come around in quite some time).  These are opposing sides of the spectrum when considering "game play styles", but both guilds offered quite a bit of investment to the shard, and both are on hiatus.  Why?  Balance.  Both have taken their departure due to opposing views of PvP, and the shard is, as a whole, weaker for their decisions.  Let us discuss a way to allow both of these views to be seen, and implemented here on UOE, by balancing PvP and giving PvP the appropriate place it deserves.

Suggestions include:  Activating Factions in a meaningful way.  Allowing for a diverse playstyle (involving skill caps).  Factions are really not the solution for Evo, we have tried this system and it was disruptive  Having more PvP events (Hunger Games, PvP Tournaments, Gladiator style events with Balance in mind).  Yes we can do more events and are working on automation


Most importantly, Balance in both PvP and PvM world states, leaving both "sides of the spectrum" to be able to participate in the strong culture of quests, events, and activities our staff has provided in the past.  (Some items can only be found in Felluca, some Quests require players to traverse into Felluca.  Give Felluca an increased drop rate, allowing for risk/reward, but make both sides able to complete the quest.)

2)  Economy.  Both the gold and Experience to Weapons Gain in Champ Spawns has been a hurdle to jump, and in my opinion, one that was forced upon the players in an unnecessary fashion.  Most players can gain 2-3 million in gold daily, level a weapon in 1 day or get multiple artifacts in a single day of play, which was not our intent, see my post below

Not only that, but the Evolution Dollar has gone the way of the Token, there are far too many in game, and not enough things to spend them on (I'm not talking about pets, or deco, I mean, real meat and potatoes items, like gear).  To shore up the abundance of ED in the game right now (and to create an incentive to purchase more ED), why not allow the purchase of specialized pieces of equipment, like Mask of Travesty and Tunics (without the burden of paying $150)?  It seems to me that old ED is staying in game, while fresh ED is being spent, it smells like the housing market pre 2008 (new loans vs. old loans).  This is partially true.  I was allowing players to spend ED to get items in game to get their character back up to par before the revert.  It has now been six months and players still have a ton of old ED to burn off.  The problem was that with the abundance of ED there were no donations coming in, so we needed to make some rare items to give incentives to financially support the shard again

Solutions:  Allow for more things to be purchased with outright ED (other than pets and deco), and reducing gold in Champ Spawns is fine, but the reduction in Weapon Levels seems quite harsh. 
You can get level deeds from the Blacksmith champ, bs bods, sos bottles, treasure maps and tresure chests.  There are a few special mobs that have a chance to drop.  Kane also added to the monthly quest...lots of ways to get the level deeds
Rethink that position, make it one, or the other, but please not both, and allow for more scrolls to drop in the Tram Champs, whether they weapon level deeds or otherwise, make them worth doing again (don't get me started on the unavailability of White Champ Skulls).

3)  Balance.   I could speak for hours on this topic, as we need it desperately, and I feel that this is the main reason why many of our long time players have become absent (including myself). 


Kane, allow me to take a moment to address the massive improvements you are working on, and the future of both PvP and PvM.  I love many of your ideas, and loath a few. 


Your implementation for skill checks on special runed skills has been pretty darn cool, I love the fact that some PvP'ers are rocking 200+ Armslore (a previously "useless" skill) into combat, but I only wish you would follow through with other ideas that seemed just as, if not more promising, like the changes you posed to Poisoning.  Instead of taking on too much, why not focus on the ideas you already have had? 


The changes posed to Crafting seem (to me) far too over powered.  Lets face it, crafting is unbalanced, all smiths make weapons, and crafting armor is useless...but smiths craft weapons that are (once leveled) insanely powerful (we need more fletchers in UOE, both of the great names are now gone, I'm looking at you T*E and ++PK), and nothing else. 


Two years ago, I addressed the possibility of buffing crafted armor, that fell on deaf ears, however the changes to crafted weapons seems unnecessary, we are already powerful enough...imagine what MORE powerful weapons would do in the hands on an experienced player in both PvM and PvP!?!  Possible 80% Life Leech, with multiple other affixes?!  Incomprehensible!

Solutions:  Take what is already in place, and adjust it (I'd love to test your poisoning ideas Kane), and address the disparity in casting PvP (although pvp does not have a huge following, it has a LOYAL following) and consider strongly the Skill and Stat Caps, and how that effects PvP.  For PvM, things are looking solid, there are still "one shot" mobs out there, but the "risk vs. reward" comes into play.

In closing:

EVO, please do not take my words as harsh criticism, but as constructive criticism.  I want the best for this shard, and I am loyal to both my guild and my chosen server.  I have chosen both for a reason, because I see promise, new life, and fresh faces and the return of old.  Please, do not let me down.

P.S. (Sturger, before you comment, let me see you in Fel.)  PvP is taking a turn in the right direction, but let me see more Skill Caps, and build on the systems that have already been coded (i.e poisoning).

Many good points.  Let me just add a few thoughts:

Champs;  I was not thrilled with the reduction at first, but I completely understand the wealth that was being generated in a short time.  My record for champs was 28 in one day.   The gold needed to be reduced for the overall health of the economy. 

This is the perfect reason to make the changes:)

The exp from the champs was tweaked down too much I feel. Players were able to level a weapon to 100 in a day, way too fast.  One of the great things about this shard is there is little grinding,  with the exp reduced  leveling a weapon may feel like a major grind.  I also feel this change will hinder newer players. 

Players all rush to do the champs because there is little else to do with similar reward.  I would suggest increasing the spawn in the dungeons, perhaps having more mini bosses in dungeons like Shame, Deceit and Hyloth.   Rock dungeon could be reintroduced. 
Yes we have lots of plans to introduce new content into old dungeons

I also feel the economy is being hurt by the dual clienting ( I am sure I will get a lot of flak for this opinion);  While one account is doing champs the second account is mining/gold panning/lumber jacking.  There is a huge gap between the casual player and the hard core player who runs two accounts.  I think the growth of EVO will depend on attracting casual players.
Players were exploiting and making multi accounts for housing and breeding, so I allowed a second acct, it was a good, flexible compromise

The biggest asset EVO has is the admins;  they are working hard to improve the shard.  The problem is the needed changes may upset older players.  TY for the complement:)

Thunder's wish list to improve the shard:

More context;  perhaps make some of the monthly quest actually impact the shard.  Perhaps the moongate system could be in danger of collapse if enough players to not complete a quest. 

More Deco for Tokens;  yes tokens are extremely easy to get, deco doesnt impact game play, so more deco for tokens will make players happy with little downside.
Yes I added new deco at the flower shop and at the provisioner for tokens.  I still intend to add more secret vendors and deco, just got sidetracked atm

Increased spawn in the dungeons.  Give players a reason to do dungeon crawls again.
New content is in the works

All I want for  X-Mas is an SoT Key.








 

I have been getting bored myself. I feel we do need more content. More content?  We have 40 updates in the last 6 months and add content weekly...more than ANY shard out there! We do have plans to add new champs, mobs and challenging content
**edit**
To clarify further, Yes there have been 40 updates and you have added alot. You pretty much hit the nail in the head with the type of content I was interested in "new champs, mobs and challenging content", the way I worded it was a bit to dismissive of everything.


Champs are cool and all..but man. it gets old (not that i can find them up anyhow). On top of that, I dont even care about power scrolls. I want level deeds, which seem like near impossible to get anymore.

Make the challenging spawns currently in game worth while. There are a handful of challenging, tough mobs currently in game. However the majority of them have no rewards or purpose  making them worth the while to kill. They are there, they exist, but there is no reason to kill them. A few have a chance to drop level deeds, but the chance is so low that it almost never happens.  There are little to no special or rare drops, (remember the dojo bosses, tough, but at least they had a chance to drop some decent stuff which fueled desire to kill them).  We are going to add a new version of the Black Belt system along with some intelligent mobs to defeat in the near future, its on top of our to-do list

Legend has it that Stygian Dragon drops Moon talis. I have killed it a few times (when im super bored), and its a huge PITA mob. the usual reward is....absolutely nothing, like most. I dont expect it to rain tali's. but would it be so bad if it gave at least level deeds (or some other useful equivlant) for the effort?

Thunder said
"One of the great things about this shard is there is little grinding".
I used to agree with that. But lately it seems things are going the opposite direction. (especially if you are not playing 24x7. I suppose if you play 8+ hours a day, it may not seem so as much)
% chance drops on worthwhile items reduced.
Kill XXXX mobs XXXX times to get low % chance quest piece.


Lots of cool new items have been created. But for the most part none available in game. Only through ED/Donation rewards.  Yes we will add the items slowly into quest lines, at auctions and for ED again

Systems/skills drastically changed but only half implemented - example, taming/smithing. both systems changed (more grindy in a simplistic term).  so now I got 240 smithing, and can finally make decent weapons again..but..thats it? why did it require so much more time/ed/gold to get 240 smithing? whats the "payoff"?  We have much more to change regarding the crafting system, it will be added in stages

With that being said:
All of this is my opinion. I know Kane is one man, and I think he is great. and he has/does put a ton of time into developing and I respect what he has done. I also appreciate the assistance he has personally given to me, along with all the other staff who are always helpful and topnotch.
 
 
 
 
 

Very well said Norton.

Thank you for taking the time to express your thoughts on the state of UO Evolution.  Before you read my response, I want everyone to know that I really do appreciate constructive player input.  On the other side, I do want you all to keep in mind all of the great customer service, dedication and volunteer staff, that puts in hundreds of hours to entertain everyone:)

Although I understand some of your points, I do not agree with many of your assessments of the "state of the shard" 

Many of your points are seen from a narrow player perspective, but there really is a big picture and a lot going on behind the scenes that you never see as a player.

The shard has prospered and improved 100% since the revert and the player base has at least doubled. It is absolutely better than it ever was.  We have 99% uptime and almost zero crashes since Kane has taken over the scripting.  Most of the major systems have been completely rewritten or improved.

Kane and the staff have made over 42 new shard updates in 6 months and run events daily...read the developer logs here: http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/UOE_Development_Logs

We are the #1 custom era shard, and we can all be proud of that accomplishment!

We work hard to balance the shard and have had to make many unpopular decisions, but were very important for the long term success of the shard.

I also understand that I cannot make everyone happy, no matter how hard I try.  I put a lot of time and thought into each change and try to weigh the short and long term impact it will have on the shard.

"It's too hard", "It's too easy"
"I hate pvp", "I love pvp"

Every player has an opinion of what is "right" for them personally, but it is no easy task to listen to everyone's opinion and then determine the right track for the shard.

We have a huge wish list that we work on daily.  We put items at the top of the list which are priority and work on them daily.  Unfortunately many of the player ideas fall down the list.  The ideas dont "fall on deaf ears", I just don't have enough time, money or scripters to get to everything.

I can only chain Kane in my basement for so long before I have to feed him...

Also many player ideas are good, they are just not right for our shard or cannot be implemented because of our patch or conflicts with other systems.

Here is some perspective of our day...

Kane spends 12 hours a day with me, 7 days a week and codes...starting at 5am to about 5pm

I spend 12+ hours a day doing customer service, answering pages, developing, facebook, teamspeak, forums, wiki, phone, texts, pokes, pms, chat, irc the volume gets rather overwhelming especially when you have a large player base online 24 hrs a day from around the world, that wants my attention.

I sometimes get over 250 PMs a day, even if I spend 1 minute reading and responding to each one that is over 4.5 hours of my time just to give a "short" response.

* I have answered over 23,000 pages since the revert, avg of 255 a day!
* Made over 2000 accounts, refunded every ED donated to every player from the last year
* I've been online 12-18 hours a day, 7 days a week for the last 4 years!
* Rebuilt 1 year of deco, scripts, accts in 3 months
* Added back 1 year of missing info on the wiki, updated forums, updated website
* Made 40 shard Updates in 3 months to add back old content, make new content and repair anything broken, see the development logs! No other shard does weekly updates or adds new CUSTOM content on a regular basis... http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/UOE_Development_Logs

Yes losing stuff sucks...but we did not miss a beat!

We had a massive revert in which we lost 4 years of development and affected every player that has ever played on this shard, which is over 10,000+ accounts.  In the last 6 months we had to service 5000+ returning players that we had to manually "fix" as well as return EVERY donation for the last year!  The staff did an incredible job with customer service and helped retain the majority of the playerbase.  Overall I think it helped strengthen the community.

Returning every donation did take a toll on the economy, which was anticipated, but there really was no other way to deal with the situation.  No other shard owner would have done this, they would have simply shut down and start a new shard. I decided returning donations was the right thing to do and just bit the bullet.  We now have too much ED in game so no players need to donate, which in turn makes me pay out of pocket to rebuild the shard and operate, this again was anticipated, but never the less hard on me and the shard.

Please read my donation philosophy http://uoevolution.com/forum/index.php?topic=6335.0

A ton of work had to be done to get the shard back up to par.  This is why we are working so hard, so fast, on the economy and balance.

I encountered a lot of expenses trying to rebuild the shard, adding back the old content and also keep developing new content over the last 6 months has been expensive.

Now that we have rebuilt the infrastructure of the shard again, we can now concentrate on all the fun stuff again.  Kane and I have discussed plans for many new systems, additions to the old ones and lots of challenging new monsters!  We are preparing a lot of new content for our 4 year anniversary in January!

Many of the top players have tested each current system for us, to detect flaws, exploits and economy issues.  We have been methodically fixing each one we encounter.

Quotes from players:

"I completely understand the wealth that was being generated in a short time.  My record for champs was 28 in one day.   The gold needed to be reduced for the overall health of the economy."

"I can easily make 2-3 million a day champing"

"I was able to collect 55 level deeds today and can usually level 100 a weapon in a day"

As you can see, this is way too easy and ruins gameplay!  There needs to be a little grind to slow down the farming of key items.  The top players can easily dominate the economy and make it difficult to be a new player with the high inflation rate.

We are trying to make the game fun to play by adding new content, balancing the economy and running daily events.  Our intent is never to make players upset.

There will always be balance issues and changes to improve this custom development shard.  I named this shard UO Evolution for this very reason, it will inevitably evolve!

Quote from the rules section of the wiki:

"Rules will change as we continue to develop this shard.  On occasion, expect us to remove items from the game, adjust stats, add new items etc.  This shard is a dynamic environment and will keep evolving as we add/remove new scripts"

There really cant be any surprises here, this has been in the main rule section for the past 4 years:)

We are all here for the same reason, for the love of the game.  I improve the shard daily and do the best I can.  I have shown my true colors through the revert and demonstrated my dedication to the shard/community over and over

I personally think we have done an outstanding job keeping the Ultima Online community alive!

Enjoy YOUR shard!

Dante

I'll keep my post short and sweet. I would like to see shorter spawn times with lower drop rates rather than incredibly long spawn timers with 100% drop rate. I would like to see the new items available in game rather than just auction items and donation bonuses. I understand the champ spawn nerf but it needs to be balanced with additional content. I realize it's in the works currently but perhaps the nerf could have waited. At least the weapon leveling nerf. The gold thing is time sensitive issue. No complaint there from me.

P.S. We all appreciate the incredible amounts of time the staff volunteer. You guys rock.

Receiving a rapid response from the Shard owner from a long winded rant of a mad man (me), is one of the many things I love about this Shard.  Dante, you obviously care to hear out players, and it truly is appreciated.  You are right, my view of the shard is narrow, because it is coming from just one player...me, but thank you for taking the time to read what I had to say, and more importantly to respond. 


As always I appreciate your well thought out posts and bringing issues to my attention, my focus also gets a bit narrow when I get so busy:)

I agree with you Meta, nerfing gold in the Champ Spawns really doesn't bother me...nerfing the weapon experience gain does.  We can easily modify or add to the drop rate, if its out of balance.  If a player wishes to dedicate 8-12 hours doing T-Maps to obtain 55 Weapon Level Deeds, more power to them, but it would bore me to tears.  Even when Champing hard and heavy, it would take mountains of dead deamons and succubus to get a champ axe to 100, but you have to think, not ALL weapons can be leveled so easily...weapons that do not incorporate the whirlwind special attack are not as easy to level.  Sure, a champ axe could have been taken to 100 in a day (of mind numbing clicking and finding ALL the spawns), but a Kryss or Bow would take considerably longer.

A bottle neck was already created by making the weapon level deeds harder to obtain, but that bottle neck is exasperated by the reduction in weapon level experience. 

Norton you are correct in saying a kryss or bow could take longer. Unless you use wither. Then the weapon as a 'whirlwind' effect.

You have btw made some amazing points.  I will say from a players point of view, is the most important. We see what needs to be changed, fixed or nerfed.  And its a shame when its turned a blind eye.  I'm not sure what you think I have a blind eye to?

Kane has done some amazing things to this server. I give him much needed kudos.  But he has lost the view of the player.

Staff should be required to play the server as a new player at least every 3-5 months. To remember what it is like. To see what the players see.  You can watch and listen, and from that 'think' you understand. But you don't. Unless you actually feel the experience. There will always be this huge disconnect.  And trust me, as a player we feel and see this disconnect. I have sent you several messages and asked you if you wanted to have a meeting and discuss any issues?  I have an open door policy and are welcome anytime

Maybe one day. The staff will come together with the player base. Its two separate worlds.
What would improve this perception, Im online 12 hours a day, 7 days a week

The subject of donations strikes a huge cord with me. Kane and I had spoken about this very thing. I have bent over backwards supporting this server.   Yes you have always been a big supporter of the shard, not sure I understand the issue?

And left over a donation item issue.  Its been months and this is still a hot topic for me.  So I will not go into details...You should contact me and talk, maybe we could resolve any issues, I'm clueless as to the donation item issue?

Good job Kane. This server would not be were it is today without the works of you.  Now play a char and see the world thru a players eyes

I had a brilliantly thought out and well written post and then it went poof so this one won’t be so eloquently put and might come off a bit brash but will hopefully convey my thoughts.

State of the shard in my eyes: The Best It Has Ever Been. Four years and it has never been this stable, populated, enjoyable and plenty of other adjectives. I applaud Dante and Kane for sticking it through because anyone else would have just thrown their arms up in the air and said “forget this stuff”. Our customer service is the best of any shard, including OSI. It kind of stings when folks say there’s “no new content” when in fact, besides all the things Kane has introduced, I’ve worked on quite a bit. Even though the stats by Dante were impressive and should basically blow everyone away, I'll add a brief list of some of the things I've worked on since the big revert:

• Reintroduced the old school rares
• Created new ones to go along with them
• Written up a bit of new lore for events, monsters and areas
• Storm the Keep event
• Friday the 13th event
• Termination Trek and Raceway events
• Tower Defense event
• House decoration contests (which there will be another for XMas soon)
• July’s full month (almost.every.single.day) of Bomberman
• Mistas Homebrew Festival - revamped Mistas with new events, quests, monsters, rewards, etc
• Tinker’s Dungeon - a completely new dungeon with custom items, monsters, rewards, events, etc
• Haunted Hallows - updated a custom holiday area with new items, monsters, rewards, events, etc
• Santa’s Workshop - updated a custom holiday area with new items, monsters, rewards, events, etc
• New Player Dungeon revamp - updated it to make it more enjoyable, new items, deco, etc
• Classic Dungeon revamp - If you go into Despise you’ll see the beginning manifestations of a long project
• Wiki updates
• Website updates
• Forum updates
• Social media presence

Expo, much love to you man *thumps chest*, you know I love the flair that you bring to the table, and all players (new and old) appreciate your events!  My rant was really created to throw my thoughts into the fire on the hiatus of big names (Jessi and her crew, Fekk and some of his guild) the economy and the drop in weapon level experience.  Along with the idea of crafted weapons becoming MORE powerful (something that should be carefully tested).

I know of you of all people enjoy my shenanigans. I'm glad you appreciate them. My rant wasn't really aimed at you but was more general on some stuff I've been holding back for a while.

I don't really agree with the "disconnect" Allestaria says we have from our players. It's actually the complete opposite. My son plays and I see how he's gone from a complete noob to now sort of holding his own. There might be a disconnect but it's not between the staff and players... it seems to be "how things were" and "how they are" and that's not only a problem for us but UO itself.

Also another issue, as you stated, is the excess amount of ED (and the hoarding of it) which is a product of the revert. If we hadn't given it back, we'd have been hung for it. Now we're being hung for there being too much ED. Damned if you do, damned if you don't! =) We've thought up of ways to help alleviate this but there's only so much we can do. More ideas are always welcome.

PvP is always an issue, even on OSI now where they finally updated the Factions system with Vice vs Virtue... and even THAT is broke/abused/exploited/etc. Evolution wasn't ever supposed to be "the PvP server". With all the custom additions, it's obviously quite different and difficult to balance everything. I've read some interesting discussions on the forums and feel they're on the right track, but implementation takes time obviously.

 @ Norton

  What does seeing me in Fel have anything to do with the state of Evo? I do not play like you, nor do you need to play like me. When I PvP'ed during my ORIGIN run back so long ago... {Vanila+} I held my own, and had the respect of ever reputable RED on Atlantic server. But that was when you had to be able to defend yourself to enjoy UO, it was part of the thrill of the game. Call me what you will, but i respectfully decline PvP at this time. That being said please understand I still know how PvP works, though perhaps not the mechanics of it here on EVO.

  Most of what you posted, Norton, was on the level. I think you are wrong, however, about the experience drop, for weapon leveling. From what you have posted, as well as others, I think that this drop, in experience gain, is working as intended. Also, so no one is confused: I am agreeing that it should be hard to level up a weapon into a PLAYER created personal artifact. No one area, and no one person, should contribute so much to the potential power of any player. Because I believe this, I agree with you, Norton, that a large amount of time needs to be spent on figuring out Balance for EVO. That being MY view, however, I leave it up to the care-takers of the shard. As of yet they have not let me down.

 P.S. Thanks for giving me a shout out at the end of your post.     [It's good to be remembered]


 @ Allestaria

  I am not Kane, but all nerds share something in common... for me my common link with Kane is being a pretty good Dungeon Master. Yes, I am talking about Dungeons and Dragons; and any DM, worth his/her salt, knows that several hours, days, even months go into creating something worth calling your own-- let alone becoming something your player pool talks about around the after table.

  What I am trying to state is simple. Kane puts himself in the players chair every time he creates. It is you who has to put yourself in his chair, and find a way to accomplish the tasks he provides the shard. If you fail, try again. If the new content is not for you, well the choice is simple. Do or do not. Play or don't play. Enough said there.

 @ those who have left EVO

  All my well wishes on your journeys. You have stood up for yourself, and made a choice. Probably not an easy one, but yours none the less to make. Life, lack of time, or non-enjoyable content/changes are the potential reason/reasons for your absence here today. I do not chide you for your maturity.
  However, your absence does not change my view on the State of EVO. It is said that in time all things change-- would this not include the people as well? Indeed, it has. Who out of the 250-300 players/accounts, whom play today, can say they where here playing EVO shard in January 2010? Not so many I would imagine. Change... it happens every day.

  @ Thunder

  We may not see eye to eye on some things in this post. But after reading a majority of your other posts, and this one; I would like to say your opinion has my respect. From what I can tell, you're not just about yourself. You can admit your misgivings may have been misplaced, and instead of throwing, a tantrum-- because you may have been wrong-- or becoming close lipped about the topic, you build on the topic in a positive way.

  I mention this because the forums needs more posts from minds like yours. This is how we/EVO will find balance again.

  @ EVO Staff

  Recently I have been away, playing WoW, I apologize. However, every time I peek back in and see the new changes/patches I am excited. Soon I will find my own balance and play both WoW and UO, two games I love. I say this remembering this little fact, without UO there may not have been: EQ, WoW, Neverwinter and so on. Just remember you guys are the best in my book-- even if I don't always like what you have done here on EVO. [but that's for another post]

  P.S. [at Dante] what you posted was right on. I would follow you, Kane, EXPO, Zoe and all the rest of the staff into the abyss... as long as Zoe made cookies.     [that's heart felt, and I mean it] 

  --Sturger--

  "Two roads before you; the easy road, or the hard road. Which will you choose in the end?"