Lately a few players seem very critical of the staff and shard.  I just wanted you all to see behind the curtain a bit and realize how hard it really is behind the scenes!

This is a re-post of something I wrote a few years ago, that I think is relevant today

Here is some perspective...from the staff point of view

When I originally made UO Evolution it was easy to greet new players, give tours
etc. when you have 25 players online, but now with over 500+ players on daily I
have had to distance myself from the personal aspects of the game and concentrate
on the managing of the content, balance and economy.

I have now had to give "silent service", which means I have to stay hidden, stealth
in like a ninja and take care of a problem as fast as possible, without showing up.

It's not that I don't want to talk with every player daily, but it just becomes
unrealisic.  I spend 12+ hours a day doing customer service, answering pages,
developing, facebook, discord, 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 your immediate 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 personally answered over 105,288 staff pages, avg of 98 a day!
* We currently service over 8,000 accounts with a relatively small staff
* Ive been online 12-18 hours a day, 7 days a week for the last 7 years!
* We add new deco, scripts, and content event Friday for 7 years now!
* Added back 1 year of missing info on the wiki, updated forums, updated website
* Kane/staff made 198 Updates in the past 3 years to add back old content, make new content and repair anything broken (see the dev logs on the wiki)

I have learned over time if you become "too" friendly with the players they expect
free items, favoritism and special treatment which is very hard to keep the
perception of your shard as fair and balanced to everyone.  The reputation of the
shard and my personal reputation of being nice and fair is very important to me.  This is why the staff does not play the game or interrupt gameplay.

I still make an effort to personally answer every page and have an "open door"
policy with the players and allow input on the direction of the server through the
forums and discord.

I do take the time to listen each player and their concerns, BUT at some point,
everyone cannot be right and I cannot implement everyone's ideas.  There is a lot
of consideration and thought put into every change.  Some are great and some are
not, but we do try and adjust to make the shard better!

If you do disagree with a change, there is no need to riot or throw a tantrum and quit.  We are all adults and will listen to constructive criticism and attempt to correct any imbalance. If you present an issue to the staff, please also suggest the solution.  We are no longer going to listen to general rants or put up with any abuse toward our staff.

At this point I seem to get to know all the negative players better that I really
want to, because of their bad behavior, rather that enjoy my time with the players
that make the community great!

Bottom line is that running a shard is no easy task, and if you don't have access to
the top admin developer and owner, it's probably not personal, we are busy behind
the scenes working hard to manage a fun world for you to enjoy!

We appreciate all the hard work that is put into the shard!

I'd like to think that most players are appreciative of the work that the staff puts in, but I'm not on the receiving end of the criticisms.  Please remember in your hearts, that there is a silent majority of players that love all the time and dedication that is invested into UOE to make it what it is, and those of us that don't speak up, are relatively happy!

Thank you for everything!

~Alexandra

 

love you Alex!

So well said Alexandra and thumbs up UOE for this post!  Just part of the silent majority here, with something to say.

Since i am new here - i just wanted to take a quick second and say i've had nothing but an amazing time since starting on this server (about 1.5-2 weeks now) so im limited in response to what others is saying. I just wanted to say thanks this is an amazing place and rekindled some feelings i haven't had in many many years.

So anyways - thank you! and don't let the minority (unfortunately loudest voice) discourage you!