First of all, this is not meant to be aimed at any particular individual. The purpose of this post is not to blemish or embellish anyone's reputation. It is simply an unbiased analysis of the game's strong and weak points. People log onto RPGWO for the first time and immediately think, "Good god, this game looks terrible.." Those of us who chose to gave it the benefit of the doubt somehow managed to create of tight knit community where everyone is familiar with everyone. After a while the gameplay becomes bearable, or even likeable and the options you have seem countless compared to other games. The idea of a huge world with nothing in it except a handful of creations by the Admins and leaving a vast landscape to the players to do with whatever they may choose is an interesting concept. Some players may choose to focus on their weapon skills, while others will go out into the world and destroy, then rebuild it to their liking. After some time the effect the players have on the look of the world is extremely noticeable. Which brings it down to the point: the main focus of this game can not only be directed toward content for Combat players, but the Trade players as well. Content for the Combat players has always been decent, but the game has so many features that it does not implement. How many quests have there been where not a single trap was used, not even a text trap? One of UT's major stresses about submitting quests was that they had to have "depth". Honestly, I never saw much in his, but then again most of what he said and did was purely hypocritical. Focus never really seemed to be shined upon the trade aspect of the game, which caused the trade skill-based players to usually end up quitting a few months into the server. That obviously causes problems because a lot of tools are required in the gameplay, but if there's no one there who can make them you're pretty much out of luck. Another major point in the game that drew us all in were the events. Sieges, LMS, Catapult Wars, Raft Race, Drunken Races, etc. But when the Admins stop showing up, the same happens with the events. The main issue lies there: the Admins. For example, UT. We all understand that Mickey trusts UT to control things as he pleases. This has proven on countless occasions that UT loves to punish people, get truly furious for no reason whatsoever, and push his rights as an Admin to the extent. However he also knows what he's doing. That's the big picture. The problem is that he doesn't have the drive to actually address the real issues with the game. At this point: The graphics, lack of content, lack of depth, lack of committed staff. V2 came along and seemed to give a new life to RPGWO for a time, but then it just seemed to be the same old game. No depth. Gary has run Rebirth exactly as a decent server should have been. And it's on V1. The server overtook and outlasted as plenty of others came and went. He actually addressed the problems. He was around to make sure the event worked. He did the extra work the make the server the way the players wanted it. And the convenient part? He knows what he's doing too. But the server was held back. It could have accomplished more on V2. Or rather, he could have. But UT wants to cling to V2 as if it were his own, something only he can control. With talk of V3 it would only make sense to release the server files to at least one other player and allow them to create things the way the think they ought to be, and learn from it. Why try to make a game that you hope your players will like, when you can simply have them show you? It's a basic concept. The best way to accomplish something like this is as a collective. The main points that, in my opinion, need to be focused on are the depth that is put into the quests and content(including the types and varieties of weapons or armor, trade skills, the layout of the world in general..), more accountability for the people who are supposed to be there to run it and fix the problems, and UT needs to realize that he's not the only one who wants to help with the game. I worked with him one time and that's the extent of what I want to have to do with the guy. He lacks the ability to treat his fellow staff as equals, and shoots down each and every idea simply because it is not what he wants to do. A man like this should not be the one in charge. I have also worked with Gary, and on every decision he would get ideas and help from his fellow staff. He's open to criticism and knows that it's not what he wants to do with the server that's important.
Mickey, if for whatever reason you read this: Give Gary V2. He'll actually push it in the right direction.