Excelsior

I was chatting with a few other players today and the sustainability of the shard came up.

With the recent departure of +R I feel like there really needs to be some action taken to prevent the demise of the shard. I've personally seen a slow down of activity starting back when +V & +N left, then +M left, and now +R meaning that 2/3 of the staff has left. This is by no means a post maligning any of the current staff but I think it's time to come up with a plan to ensure the health of the shard and that means getting staff back onboard to monitor and engage the shard. We realistically need 5-6 active staff members to keep things running smoothly.

I know this is a free shard and nobody owes anyone anything but we need to find solutions to ensure we all have a place to go and play. There's obviously so much +C and +A can do. It's not a matter of will but a matter of manpower.

Some of you may say that we the players make the shard which is only true in part because the shard will continue to be populated if players are engaged. Players need activities, events, challenges etc. and those come from staff engagement.

Obviously staff is all volunteer and it's not easy to get someone to give up their time for free. Maybe it's time to put some ads on the website and pay volunteer staff $100 per week (just an example). I donate as do many other players and obviously there's costs involved with running a website and a shard but maybe there should be some effort to raise funds with some type of bonus unlike any other to revamp the website, include an additional revenue stream, and find staff willing to monitor the shard and run events. Maybe hire 2-3 Indian guys to help out at least temporarily? There's freelancers out there and the funds derived from such a fundraiser can at maybe pay for that.

Yes, i'm talking something along the lines of a 30 day donation period where anyone that donates $200 gets a special weapon or armor piece (think 5 x 50 where you choose the properties or a +15 Str & +15 Dex item). I'm just throwing ideas out there and i'm hoping that it leads to something.

Maybe one of our players is a web designer and can revamp the website for free? Or some EDs? Or a special mount?

Some of you may think that all is peachy and fine but if we all sit back and do nothing then we WILL see the player base erode even further and eventually the shard WILL die off. This is what has happened to many other shards. Now, I understand that the fact that UO is an old game also contributes to player base shrinking but there are things we can do to ensure Excelsior is around and populated for the next 5-10 years.

+C & +A thank you for all you've done to this point. I hope that we can at the very least have a discussion (forum or town hall) where we can discuss all of this.

Glad to see people like you, who want Excelsior to thrive, not only by voting and inviting over a friend but also with taking the time to write an in-depth post with their view of things and offer ideas.

I remember a similar post from sometime about 2007, at the time I was concerned, then again a year later, then too... and I can say that now after 13 years, time seems to move slower and I'm looking out for more long-term things. Statistics-wise, the number of online players is about the same as in the same month a year ago.

We talked briefly in public chat earlier, being here since the start I definitely want Excelsior to be a shard with sustainable growth. Over the last few years, we racked up a good amount of technical debt to which I don't want to keep adding. Opening seasonal events which are buggy, or adding a piece of content for the sake of there being something new that most people will get bored of in a few weeks, will just add to that debt and distract from the longer term goals.

It's not a problem of manpower. We currently have 13 active staff applicants, but like I said earlier - adding 3 more staff to answer pages won't help (at this point, would make things more complicated), because improperly addressed issues come back in a greater form, and then it's only me who is able to handle them, and can take hours for every one, while others keep pouring in.

So what we're working on right now, is to build a stable foundation on which we can have the required amount of predictability, and room to be creative. Imagine, if you live about 100 years ago, at the turn of the century, and you want to send messages across the Atlantic faster. You don't built faster ships, you either use an aeroplane or make an underwater cable. But the goal still is to send messages across - or in our case, for the shard to be active with events, to handle tickets quickly and properly, and to add new content on a periodic basis.

I'll announce when there's news, or well some things will just be noticable once they're properly implemented.

Hi C+,
I've noticed that DaRagunCajun hasn't been on for a while. Are you able to tell me if his account was put in hibernation? He lost an old account before due to RL issues (darn RL getting in the way of Ultima time!) so I'd hate to see it happen again.
Thanks
Zalia

He hasn't been on for a while, yeah. We don't put accounts into hibernation, all accounts are kept for the durations that are written here: http://www.uoex.net/codex/accounting

If he has entered his email into the [account menu, he'll get an email a week before his houses drop. He can also contact me via email if he currently cannot get a PC to run this on (in these days, we all have email on our phones or can use a computer somewhere to send email).

I actually wanted to link this in the other thread, but I hit reply here by mistake and it won't let me delete it.

+Colibri wrote:
I remember a similar post from sometime about 2007, at the time I was concerned, then again a year later, then too... and I can say that now after 13 years, time seems to move slower and I'm looking out for more long-term things. Statistics-wise, the number of online players is about the same as in the same month a year ago.

I don't want to put words in his mouth, but I read that as he's not concerned.