Difference between revisions of "UO:1997-08-12: Official response to Rainz ban"

(Created page with "Letter From Lord British= Greetings and salutations, As of the writing of this message we have released for shipment all 25 thousand of the Beta test CD's. I know only about...")
 
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Letter From Lord British=
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=Official response to Rainz ban=
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To All Concerned,
  
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Greetings and salutations,
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Recently we were forced to ban a player named Rainz from the Ultima Online Beta Test. I would like to thank him for the wonderful attitude he has maintained despite his ban. He remains complementary of the product and Origin and we are most appreciative.
  
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As of the writing of this message we have released for shipment all 25 thousand of the Beta test CD's. I know only about 1/2 of you have them now, but the rest should arrive within the next week or two. We staggered the release of the CDs so that we could slowly add load to the various parts of the game and fix them as they broke, rather than having way more than we could handle from the start. As some of you might have experienced, each time we double the number of people we've ever had online before, it takes us a day or two to fix the basic stability problem, much less address all the gameplay issues. Please bear with us as we ramp up to being able to support all of you simultaneously. No game in the world has even attempted the levels of massive multi-player interaction we hope to see here in a few days. We are excited and grateful to have you as a part of it, and we do appreciate your continued patience and support.
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I would like to clear up the very muddy waters surrounding this incident:
  
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Of course we continue to fix hundreds of bugs every day, and though that will make the game much better, it also means that you beta testers can experience very long patch times as we fix certain kinds of problems. We will try to make the large ones, (over eight megs), happen no more than once a week, when they're necessary at all.
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1. He was NOT banned for killing Lord British. This is the stuff of legend, kudos to him for not only attempting it but actually succeeding. He has now made quite a name for himself. The assassination merely provided us an opportunity to get his account information. We had actually been looking for him in order to ban him before this (see below).
  
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I know many of you who have yet to start the beta test have been worried about early players having an advantage over later ones by having more time to build up wealth and power. Well, to fix certain bugs we will have to restart the world. We hope to do this no more than once a week (again, when it's necessary at all). When we do, this will put everyone on the same level. We'll even try to warn you a day or two ahead, when possible, so that you can "go for broke" with your soon-to-be-doomed characters.
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2. He was NOT banned for playing an evil character. Evil characters are part of the game world, in fact without them what would good characters do?
  
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Additionally, we're going to try to mail you regularly like this, to keep you up to date with where we are, what we are up to, and what we'd like you to do. Our first order of business is to get the servers running smoothly with a large number of players. Next we will improve play balance and fix a lot of the fun factor stuff like quests, skills, usable items and magic. Finally, we will try to move into a mode where (we hope) the game will be virtually identical to the shipping product, with little incursion by the development team needed.
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3. He was NOT banned from all future Origin Online products, nor has he been banned from Ultima Online as a commercial product. If that was implied, it was said in the heat of the moment by a very tired and overworked Origin employee (who got that way trying to make the game fun for everyone). He is only banned from the Ultima Online Beta Test.
  
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Please check our Beta Test Center on the web site (www.owo.com) daily for known bugs, and our plans to eradicate them, as well as information on special events, notice on character wipes or extended downtimes, and our new, daily Development Journal, where our designers let you know their most important tasks of the day.
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4. Now let me explain exactly what he WAS banned for: He was banned for deliberately going against requests we made of him as a tester. Participating as a beta tester is a privilege we grant people so that they can help us make it fun for everyone. He was exploiting flaws in the game system that put him at an unfair advantage to other players. He then used that advantage to go on a huge killing spree that left hundreds of players dead. Let me emphasize that going on a killing spree is fine, but doing it when no one that you are attacking has a chance to defend themselves because of your advantage is not fine. Only when he was caught doing this did he then describe the problem to Origin. He was then requested to cease these activities or be banned more than once yet he chose to continue. (Incidentally he participated in very similar activity during our Pre-Alpha test over a year ago.)
  
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Finally, think on this ... the deep ills of Britannia will be solved only when all the shards of reality are reunited.
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5. Hundreds of complaints were posted by other testers, many of them saying that they would no longer be participating in the test because of this activity. Please understand that we are trying to stress test our servers to make sure they can properly handle large loads, losing testers makes that much harder. The last thing we need is to lose hundreds of testers because of one player who continues to break the rules.
  
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Your obedient servant, - Lord British
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6. If he had found the flaw, reported it immediately, and then left it alone then no harm would have been done.
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These are the facts as we at Origin see them. We have always, and will continue, to try to be as fair as we can to everyone who participates. We hold no animosity towards Rainz and we hope that he will join us (hopefully reformed from his fault-exploiting ways) in Ultima Online when we release the final version.
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Sincerely,
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The Ultima Online Team
  
 
Tuesday, August 12
 
Tuesday, August 12

Latest revision as of 18:09, 7 March 2017

Official response to Rainz ban

To All Concerned,

Recently we were forced to ban a player named Rainz from the Ultima Online Beta Test. I would like to thank him for the wonderful attitude he has maintained despite his ban. He remains complementary of the product and Origin and we are most appreciative.

I would like to clear up the very muddy waters surrounding this incident:

1. He was NOT banned for killing Lord British. This is the stuff of legend, kudos to him for not only attempting it but actually succeeding. He has now made quite a name for himself. The assassination merely provided us an opportunity to get his account information. We had actually been looking for him in order to ban him before this (see below).

2. He was NOT banned for playing an evil character. Evil characters are part of the game world, in fact without them what would good characters do?

3. He was NOT banned from all future Origin Online products, nor has he been banned from Ultima Online as a commercial product. If that was implied, it was said in the heat of the moment by a very tired and overworked Origin employee (who got that way trying to make the game fun for everyone). He is only banned from the Ultima Online Beta Test.

4. Now let me explain exactly what he WAS banned for: He was banned for deliberately going against requests we made of him as a tester. Participating as a beta tester is a privilege we grant people so that they can help us make it fun for everyone. He was exploiting flaws in the game system that put him at an unfair advantage to other players. He then used that advantage to go on a huge killing spree that left hundreds of players dead. Let me emphasize that going on a killing spree is fine, but doing it when no one that you are attacking has a chance to defend themselves because of your advantage is not fine. Only when he was caught doing this did he then describe the problem to Origin. He was then requested to cease these activities or be banned more than once yet he chose to continue. (Incidentally he participated in very similar activity during our Pre-Alpha test over a year ago.)

5. Hundreds of complaints were posted by other testers, many of them saying that they would no longer be participating in the test because of this activity. Please understand that we are trying to stress test our servers to make sure they can properly handle large loads, losing testers makes that much harder. The last thing we need is to lose hundreds of testers because of one player who continues to break the rules.

6. If he had found the flaw, reported it immediately, and then left it alone then no harm would have been done.

These are the facts as we at Origin see them. We have always, and will continue, to try to be as fair as we can to everyone who participates. We hold no animosity towards Rainz and we hope that he will join us (hopefully reformed from his fault-exploiting ways) in Ultima Online when we release the final version.

Sincerely,

The Ultima Online Team

Tuesday, August 12

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