I'm done.

[Bruin]

(note that this is cross-posted into both the Siege Stratics forums and our guild/alliance forums as it has parts that pertain to each)

Community (n): an interacting population of various kinds of individuals in a common location.

There are two thing about this game I love that I have not found in any other MMORPG that I have played.  The first being the way this game forces you to interact can foster great communities, which I will mostly talk about.  The second being the pvp that I love that is now long gone, but is not the point of this post.

During my time in UO, I've been primarily part of 4 communities.
1.   During my trammy years, as part of the Britain Forge community, in Trammel, on Pacific.  This community was destroyed by repair deeds and insurance, though I left it long ago.
2.   After I finally got the balls to venture into felucca, I joined the Rangers of Skara Brae (RSB), a guild that was part of the Skara Brae community on Felucca, Pacific.  Here various types of guilds would interact with each other on a daily basis, be they good (RSB), outlaws (KIN), thieves (BUB), murderers (FL), and it was fun.  This community began to die with the advent of Trammel, but was destroyed when AoS came out.
3.   Wispwood Community.  Ahh yes, wispwood, it's what really drew me to this shard.  When I first joined back in 2003, Wispwood itself was always busy with all sorts of people.  Citizens, allies, friends, enemies, and unknowns came by all the time to have an ale at the Unicorn, duel at the dueling pit, or raid our town.  I'd say it finally died out in about 2005-2006.
4.   The Siege Stratics forums.  Yes it is a community, although one that bitches to each other more than anything.


The last few years my main purpose was to rebuild the Wispwood community by helping rebuilding Wispwood, its allies, and this shard.  A guild or an alliance does not make a community by itself, and the only way the Wispwood community would ever become strong would be with a strong shard.

The community is more than just the people hanging out within it.  But what immensely help it are the people that maintain its lore.  Websites devoted to bringing communities together and sharing their news, events, and history, something that hasn't existed for 7-8 years.  No other game could bring this about but UO, and I doubt no other game would.  But even if a classic shard were brought about, I doubt it would bring about people to write the same type of lore that existed when uo first begun.  I just wish I was around at that time.  Some of these websites that I knew of were:

The Community of Skara Brae
Skara Brae Chimera
Council of Nine
Sosarian Atlas

I know for a long time I've been fighting a loosing battle.  And I guess that this is the point where I'm giving up, I'm done.  This doesn't mean that I am leaving.  But, I'm no longer going to try and actively build up a dying guild, and a dying shard, within a dying game.  It's an admirable goal, but one that I believe can never be achieved.

In about the last year that I have actively recruited for CWS, we have had 46 new members (Initiates), mostly from NEW.  Seven of them are relatively new initiates, but of the remaining 39:
•   13 have lasted about 2 months and were promoted to full membership (Citizen), or about 1/3 of all recruits.
•   Of the 13 that made it to full membership, about 4 of them are active today.

So roughly 10% of people who joined CWS over the last year still play.  This is a horrible statistic.  And I share it not because I think it's a CWS problem, I see similar issues with recruits that make it into GIL, the largest recruiter of new people on this shard. 

Once you figure that of all the people that join NEW, only 50% ever graduate and make it to another guild (I think the real number is less than 30%).  So between 30%-50% of the people who join NEW ever move on, and of those only 10% last, that means we have about a 3%-5% a new person to this shard ever make it as a full productive member of our community.  I believe the 3% to be more accurate.

This tells me the allure of Siege exists, people ARE joining, they're just not staying.  Imagine if we as a shard could increase this number from 3% to 10%.  That would mean another 50 people or so running around each year.  How about 30%, or 50%!  And these are just the people that run through NEW, I have no idea of the numbers of other people who join this shard and don't make it to NEW.

With this, I am giving up the positions of both Lord of CWS and chancellor of the White Council to anyone qualified who wishes to lead them.  If no one steps up, I will still perform the administrative tasks required, but no longer have the desire to lead.

I will still be around and in game (albeit less frequently), having an ale at the Unicorn, out hunting with friends, or whatever.  Simply put, my desire to try and rebuild something that has become obvious to me will never again exist is gone.  I do not know if I will continue my assistance in NEW.

And with that, I guess I finally say goodbye to the communities that I was once a part of, but are no longer here.  I've met some great people in this game, many who are long gone, some who I still play with.  Hold a tavern night, and I'll be there ordering an ale recanting stories of times past.  And if anyone ever discovers a game with the same richness of lore, that fosters a community that UO once had, and gives the same risk and fun in pvp, please let me know.

And with that, I'll close with a saying we had in the Skara community, appropriately changed:
"May we all stir with the Spoon of Skara Brae."

[Tjalle]

 

I feel your pain...

[Troop]

I wandered into UO about three years ago. I like the game, but allways think that I was too late and missed the best of times. From all the people I have talked to that have been around for a while, they all tell me the same thing. That UO was a very special place to be. It makes me sad that I missed out.

[Goodah]

Thanks for being there for us during the split and when Grot left us Bruin.  Your efforts brought light to us when things were dim and your leadership has always shown through.  Worry not about the politics or the burdens but enjoy the game for the simple things it offers...a brief escape from the spirit world...and the group of good hearted people that you helped build.

*raises an ale to the Lord of Wispwood*

[Hoffs]

Another sad day for the shard, but I fully understand your thinking. Thanks for trying for so long to breathe some life back into the shard and especially the RP community, and for being an exemplary Chancellor and GM.

Good luck in the future.

[Vortex]

Bruin, your a great person.

Thank you for all you have done and have tried to do. I share your pain.

[Cress]

Sorry to hear but totally understandable. *raises a mug of ale* . Thank you for trying so hard to bring life to this shard. Hope to have a drink at the unicorn sometime and listen to the tales of how it once was.

[Tiberius]

Being a guild leader can burn you out for sure.  Congrats on a job well done from one of the founders.  I am amazed that the idea cooked up by me, arthur, Rythias Rose, and a few others has lasted this long.  Grot bought in too after getting over the shock of me disbanding CGG and merging with AOE to become CWS. Lots of tough fights in those early days with some of the nastier orcs and Boz when he would go off on one of his drunken "you killed me so I'm gonna dry loot you all" kicks:).

P.S.

if you are willign to trya free shard this looks somewhat promising..A few of the old BV crowd sent me a link..
http://www.uosaviour.net/forum/index.php

[UONanook]

Just wanted to add to the thankfulness expressed in this thread.  I'm one of those new Citizens that walked this year.  My only regret is that I did not find Siege and CWS earlier in my time on paid shards.  Sort of along the lines of Troop's sentiment, I came to Siege and could not help but feel I had missed something.  I came in an attempt to find something that had been lost some time since I first played UO.  Unfortunately, Siege may be a veteran shard; however, it is not a classic shard.  I have come to the realization that there will never be a way to replicate the UO experience of yesteryear even if EA decided to open a classic shard. 

At first, I did not mind role playing in my sandbox of the map which is what role play has been relegated to in UO.  In Felucca, the artie whores have been replaced by faction suits (which have flooded Trammel RP as well).  The result is the same... orcs and every other "evil" role play threat of note have departed from the land and role play cities are shells that slowly disintegrate as accounts get closed and disillusioned pillars of the communities no longer bother with passing the torch.  In Trammel, the grievers grief the sandbox with no fear of retribution and even open disdain for role players that is sanctioned by the GMs through their inaction.  The migration from ingame role play to "in character" forum role play played its role.  Siege is its own animal but many of the plagues of Felucca are a plague on Siege.  I'm not going to try and fool myself or anyone else.  I am not a PvPer at heart.  I enjoy moderate amounts of balanced RPvP but I doubt Siege was ever going to be a suitable home for me in the long run even if it was the closest one can come to what UO used to be.  The game has changed, Siege included, and I don't particularly care for some of the changes.  Stygian Abyss drove it home for me.       

With that in mind, I decided to look for what I find to be the most valuable - a role play community.  I have found what I believe is one of the best available in the UO client.  It is not perfect (no community of role players is) and it makes Trammel look hard core at times.  All PvP is consensual and the risk is minimal to the extent that I do not even bother insuring my equipment (not that I have anything that could not be replaced).  It is nice to see a diversity of crafted and looted equipment.  The community ebbs and flows (many UO role play communities have not flowed for some time).  In place of the UO Virtues (I think they are the defining bedrock of UO role play) and Lore, it has and entirely different set of lore (fairly well developed for a bunch of volunteers and thoughtfully considered in most cases).  The sense of community is great at times and underwhelming at other times.  So while not perfect, it satisfies that which is most important to me at the end of the day - I can consistently log in and have an enjoyable role play experience in a community of role players.   

If it had not been for the honesty of some Gilfane members who correctly ascertained that my characters would likely be happier in CWS, then who knows how things would have turned out.  As a result, I had the chance to become a Citizen and I have fond memories of the experience because it was the last place where I found vestiges of what UO used to be.  When I lurk on UO forums, I go to four places (in no specific order):  the Atlantic Role Play Community forums, the Order of Sanctus forums, the Siege Perilous forums on Stratics, and the White Council Forums.  My time may have been brief, but it left an impression.  The White Council is a quality community and no one can ever take that from them.  Bruin, you are a quality leader in that community and part of the community's quality is owed in part to you.   

I hope you find what you are looking for.  I would agree that it no longer exists on paid shards and never will again with the same vibrancy that it once did.  Frankly, those communities will never exist again in any great number because EA will likely never allow themselves to shift from a focus on the bottom line to a focus on fostering communities.  Understandably so, Richard Garriott had a vision and EA has stockholders.  It is nice to be gaming under the influence of visionaries again.  I doubt you can find the entirety of what you are looking for in one place.  It is a tall order and UO had (past tense) a unique ability to fill that order at one time.       
 

[Tjalle]

Thank you for your post Nanook!

Too bad I never got to see Aglocharinlem become a full grown gargoyle... 

[Honeycomb]

I , too, feel your pain Bruin.  You are one of the nicest players I have ever met. I wish you happiness. 

I just got a job, finally, after looking for nine months.  I will be busy, so I don't know how much I will be around. Love playing with all of you, but UO feels very "been there, done that" to me.