Some primo vidya drama from Ultima Outlands forums.

For those who don't know, Ultima Online is an old, old, old MMO and Outlands is a specific "shard" of the game, meant to emulate the original game's feel in the rulesets, way of play, custom map and unique additions.

The official is more casualized and ruined over the years from being streamlined, at least to ultimastrags.

Background info : You can skip if just wanting drama

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Now one big thing in UO is PK'ing, especially in outlands.

You are able to freely kill people a couple times, iirc you can commit five crimes (killing, stealing loot, general peepeeery) before you become a redname, ie an outlaw.

They're basically branded as criminals meaning anybody can kill them with no consequence and they can't go to most towns. The thing is they can go to other places that don't attack them and since the economy is player driven

they can trade with eachother.

Infact they often work in large groups, going around and clearing out entire dungeons of all players in large mobs. Rednames face literally no consequence from killing other players in these hordes but get loot. Sure, you can kill them but if they're in a group of 10 players at the starting dungeon areas really it's a bad option.

Most players can't actually fight back though, since most skilltrees focus on things other than combat. You can only master like three skills and it can takes dozens of hours for each skill, often requiring the need to buy supplies from other players for anything crafting related.

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The Drama

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Because Player Killers can just freely do whatever in horde groups with no consequence, some people complain, since they want to actually play the game, leading to this shitfight---

Zebulon McCoy makes a big old post, 700 words, saying TL:DR REEEEEE PK"RS!!!!!

It doesn't matter how good your stealthing is, it doesn't matter how good your tracking is, it doesn't matter if you are in a guild. It doesn't matter because there are no penalties that truly deter lawlessness. It happens over and over and over and over.

And the equally sad part is that there will be people that come in and read this and still defend the lawlessness. They will still make excuses that you knew what you were getting into with this shard or this yard has always been PVP or you need to do this and do that. They will make it out to be somehow the pvm players fault.

You can't even talk with these people and reason with them. And they think it's funny. so yes, I'm frustrated right now and I have waited quite a while to make this post. Something has to give, and it shouldn't be players like me just throwing it down and walking away. That is ridiculous. I have a nice house, I have nice things, I have fully developed characters, but none of it matters because there are mobs of lawless PK running unchecked

Just to rub it in the face, you LOSE all your stuff when you die, apart from specific items that take dozens of hours to grind for that are "soulbound".

Now, this guys seethe (albeit a bit justified) led to Elric saying gitgud, but longwinded and really straggy.

Why would you voluntarily participate in an activity that "frustrates" you? I can only assume you maybe have a job. You maybe have a family. You maybe have chores around a house you maybe own. Why spend your free time doing something "frustrating". Why? Seriously, why? I just can?t understand why anyone would put themselves through it. If I went to a restaurant that had shitty food, I would stop going to the restaurant and go to another. I wouldn?t keep going back to that restaurant and complain and complain and complain and complain and complain and complain and complain and complain and complain and complain and complain and complain.

Look, a guy disliking the meta-tactic of just killing everyone in unstoppable hordes that face no punishment since they can easily trade goods to their "clean" main is a bit annoying. But of course, anything that frustrates you HAS to be stopped to.

You say "something has to give". Very true, and it is you. You need to give it up and do something that you enjoy. I want you to take a deep breath, uninstall Outlands, and get a new hobby. Do you enjoy building model airplanes or gardening? Just go do something else. Anything else. If that new activity frustrates you, then repeat a similar process and stop doing that thing and try a new thing until you are the opposite of frustrated.

Zebulon then says

Yes, I have a job and a family. I am a retired and permanently disabled combat veteran who served under five US presidents, elric. I am also a Federal employee. I started playing this game in the '90s. Like most people, I played it through good times and bad.

...

I don't understand why you feel the need to be petty and insulting, other than perhaps it is because you lack the ability to have a genuine and productive discussion. A lot of people do that. They curse and use crass language and insult other people because they aren't able or don't have the capacity for critical thought. Maybe that's you, elric. I don't know you so I'm not going to make that assumption. I just want to play the game when I have time to play it, and enjoy it like everyone else. Does that make me a bad guy, elric? Does the fact that I want to play this game and enjoy it just like you do but I want to make it better not only for myself but thousands of other people who play it and share the same views make me a bad guy, elric? I don't know, elric. I don't know your personal views or the things that have shaped you into the person that you are, elric. But I'm not going to insult you, and try and make it look like the problem is you, elric. I'll refrain from pettiness, and personal attacks. I'll let you do you. But isn't it interesting that exactly what I predicted was demonstrated in your post. That's a rhetorical question, elric. It doesn't require you to answer. Anyway, elric, I've read your opinion and you've read mine. I had you blocked, because your posts are usually crass and insulting. I unblocked you so that I could read your response to this, hoping you would have something positive to input (you know the old saying about a broken clock). Sadly, I was wrong, elric. So I guess I'll go back to blocking you. Much like an elephant using his tail to swat a fly off of his arse, I find the block feature works with folks like you. Maybe you should try it too, elric.

Then more people kept piling on

My buddy (Billy-Bob) finds dungeons too hard. I'd propose, if we do add trammel, can we make it so mobs (in dungeons and the overworld) no longer aggro and attack players? Far too often mobs infringe on my buddy's adventures through dungeons. Some of the mobs are very difficult out there and they end up killing him rather easily. It would be much easier for him if mobs don't attack.

He's also suggested that if you /hug a mob, you get their loot. This game focuses too much on combat and killing and needs something for the tinder-loving souls out there. So, with the introduction of trammel, please also change ALL MOBS to no longer attack and change ALL MOBS to drop all their loot by using /hug.

My poor buddy just wants to play this game, but the mobs keep killing him. So, how about it..... Trammel + No Aggro + Hug Loot Drop, what do you all think?

People like you ruined the game before and you want to ruin it again. Let's not repeat history. You are literally responsible for the death of UO and trammel and are still oblivious to it today. Go play something else, don't do this again.

Extremely bad bait. Git Gud. If not, find another server. Take the L and move on.

and then a shill who starts talking about his PVE server.

Now for those who missed it, this line was what made it interesting

Sadly, I was wrong, elric. So I guess I'll go back to blocking you.

so doing some searching, he's made like five posts seething about PvP

and he's been posting since 2018 in different discussions, before posting a thread for the first time this year

I played Ultima online for 11 years. From late 1998 until 2011

MMOstrags paly for 11 years paying neetbux for the privilege to die

and look here, Elric fighting him in what would soon be a seethe war spanning months

pages of fighting, arguing and more

until

finally stopped his posts...

so dramatards, that's why MMOstrags are the scum of the earth.

!g*mers !anticommunists !chuds

155 comments and counting of commie seethe from one image

Arguably, the best ranged combat in a single-player game pic.twitter.com/98Y6PXibAH

— Machine Hunter (@Machinehunter45) August 25, 2024

did yuo buy any of the horizon games?

posting image because pic was deleted but still showing thumbnail

https://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=concord

Annnnd it gets better https://t.co/VXK62fw7uE

— Chris Avellone (@ChrisAvellone) August 25, 2024

What are you playing currently?

!g*mers

Previous Iterations:

2024

2023

Other rDrama vidya content

Last week's game: Fortnite

Final Score: (10*10+9*1+8*2+7*10+6*6+5*4+4*3+3*1+2*0+1*10)/(10+1+2+10+6+4+3+1+0+10) = 5.87

All Previous Games:

Game to Discuss?

This week, let's discuss Devil Daggers, the PEAK open world survival craft game, insofar as your open world is a bloody arena, average survival times are measured in seconds (.3% of people have made it to 500 seconds), and crafting is done by collecting mysterious red gems, which serve to enhance your combat abilities. It's really good, tbh. My elevator pitch: Ultrakill for cis people (men). Find the poll in the pinned comment.

Future game discussions:

September 1: Hollow Knight

September 8: Street Fighter IV

September 15: The Witcher

September 22: Anno (1404-2205)

carp, capy, geto, donger pin please

GOTY /r/concordgame

Have fun, it's just full of people pooping on the game

is the SteamDB data for Concord broken? Surely there are more than 500 people playing it on Steam right now? pic.twitter.com/W4EOykP9d9

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 24, 2024

Ill DM you my friend code.

EDIT: I got in, thanks to @KatserKitty1987. If anyone else wants in, DM me your friend code.

pic.twitter.com/0hFvAJW2nd

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) August 23, 2024

!g*mers don't forget to sign the petition to stop killing games if you're a eurochad

https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

Original Fallout co-creator Tim Cain says 'Critique of capitalism was never the point' of the games and if anything they're about how 'war is inevitable given basic human nature'. https://t.co/HMqJaDBX6z

— PC Gamer (@pcgamer) August 22, 2024

We're a small team of three who recently released our first game after five years of development and a $0 budget. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and I'm super proud of that, but there's a stressful hurdle that's causing us lots of pain.

Our game features a character encyclopaedia of NPCs, and among the numerous details listed, like height and dislikes, are pronouns. This single decision has had a purely negative effect on our game.

• We were placed on "Woke Alert" curator lists before release, attracting negative attention.

• A long Steam Discussion thread attacking pronouns devolved into transphobic rants and was linked from 4chan as a justification for pirating our game.

• A guide was posted on how to hex edit our game to remove pronouns], with offensive replacements.

• Our game is called "woke" in Youtube comments and Groomercord channels.

• Negative reviews protest the inclusion of pronouns despite enjoying the game otherwise (Example 1, Example 2 ). The oldest remains a month later, despite being reported to Steam. These reviews have dropped our rating from what would have been 96% to 94%, below the 95% threshold for "overwhelmingly positive" when we hit 500 reviews.

• The encyclopedia is purely optional fluff; practically speaking, we'd actually benefit if it (and its tens of thousands of words) were never written, which is a shame because we loved making it.

All this for simply including pronouns in an in-game encyclopedia.

It's not just us. Fellow indie Arco recently faced a Steam user threatened buying, refunding, and negatively refunding the game over perceived "wokeness". Multiple comments assure the devs that Steam would quickly remove such reviews. Is this the general perception of how Steam handles this kind of thing? Based on our experience, I don't have a lot of confidence in that. That's what pushed me to make this thread and start a dialogue about it.

AAA games can outpace this kind of attention; indie devs can't. In an algorithmic world where every bit of feedback has a huge impact, the fact that protest reviews mask the actual reception of our game is extremely frustrating and disheartening, and it feels like Steam doesn't have our back.

Discussion points:

• What should Steam be doing about activist reviews?

• How can small indie teams protect themselves from this, without self-censoring?

We're lucky our game found some success, but any small game risks being buried by an angry mob before it gets any momentum of its own. The current climate forces indie devs to choose between inclusivity and financial success. Would we, or other devs, make the same decision today? I'm not sure. And this doesn't even touch on the broader issue of games getting tagged in "Woke Alert" lists just for having female protags or diverse casts.

!chuds !transphobes !g*mers

NEWS: 2nd Neuralink patient Alex plays the first-person shooter game Counter-Strike 2 on his laptop computer using the Link.

Alex playing Counter-Strike 2: https://t.co/M1pikMoGSJ pic.twitter.com/ROQNYgeXao

— ALEX (@ajtourville) August 21, 2024

When asked if he was sure that Albion couldn't be copyrighted due to its historical context, he replied: "I don't know if I'm honest, I don't really know… I hope so. I mean you would think that the responsible person I should be, I would've spent the last six months in lawyers' offices…"

Never change Peter

"[It's] like saying if you set a game in America, you can't set any other game in America," he says. "So Albion can't be copyrighted. It's the name for England and Wales and that's how we get away with it."

"Fable was set in Albion, Masters of Albion is set in Albion," Molyneux clarifies.

"It's not actually Fable 5 or anything like that," he said. "But if you've played Fable, then definitely Masters of Albion will be familiar to you. One of the things that we have got and we absolutely wanted a nail was the humour.

"I think in the Fable games, it's not so much about telling jokes, it's more about giving you, the player, the ability to do ridiculous and funny things. And we've got that in Masters of Albion in absolute spades. I think we're really nailing that."

It's an autobattler but with some depth. You can't reposition units after the turn you buy them so positioning is really important. Combat has a sort of rock/paper/scissors vibe but it's more nuanced because of positioning and which supporting units you have (one of your units may be weak against one of their units but if you support them with something else now they're strong against their units for example). Each game feels very different due to the variety of unit types and the different strategies that can be employed via positioning.

One of the more interesting aspects to me is that there's almost no hidden information (each unit type has upgrades you can buy, you can "equip" four upgrades for each unit but you have to do that before the game starts and which upgrades an enemy has available is hidden until they buy at least one of that unit). You know almost everything about the enemy (except the choices they're making on the current turn obviously) and they know almost everything about you. There's very little randomness involved anywhere. When you lose you feel like an idiot but also you have nobody to blame but yourself, you had all of the cowtools and information available to win but were simply outplayed. Conversely when you win you feel like a strategic genius for anticipating their strategy five turns ahead of time and planning accordingly. Losing also isn't all bad because you saw a strategy you didn't know how to counter. You can figure out why you lost and what you could have done differently to counter that strategy in the future.

tldr: it's a good game!

Pretty much everything coming out for "Project Caesar" (It's EU5, everyone knows it's EU5, just call it fricking EU5 you fricking Swedes) except the meme year start date (Byzantium should not be a viable country in an early modern period game, those schizos died in the middle ages let them stay dead frick byzaboos) and the ugly 3d model they keep forcing in every game since CK3 to justify having an in-house 3d modeling department sounds too good to be true, the newest dev diary literally has them talking about playable "army based countries", which I assume is paving the way for playable mercenary company DLC, that sounds fun as heck especially in multiplayer.

Feel free to PM me a link to this thread and laugh at me for being an r-slur when this game comes out in two years and ends up being a Victoria 3 tier trash fire.