No, you can't haz my stuff.

I am a player of Uncharted Waters since its inception and US release in 1993.  I was quite elated to find it, since the main difference between it and other good games on the market was you didn’t have to fight and kill anyone or anything to play.  Also, I had at last found a game that met my daughter’s sensibilities and gave her an arena in which to play that didn’t involve using male aggression, something she obviously does not have.  KOEI became a hallmark of a cut above the rest; a substantial, intellectual enterprise.

I was more than happy to buy a Super Nintendo system in order to play the second build of this game and continue the happy tradition which had honestly become a family tradition.  Then, I came across this game, UWO, which was using the name of a venerable product to peddle itself only to find it was an abomination, total and complete.  Other than the fact it has all the aesthetic stature of a roadside attraction, or the fact it closes my browser without my permission, (which is too much reach for a game that’s inception involved the jailing of a CEO), this game actually allows players to be reduced to humiliation and puts them at the mercy of sociopathic malcontents under the guise of “pvp” and “piracy”.

Here, I have to say I’m a 12-year veteran of EVE Online, and I played Battlefield 2 in competition (CAL/TWL) for seven years.  So, I’m not aver to player-on-player competition.  Nor, am I risk averse and afraid of losing things to other players - or winning them from them.  And, as an avid EVE player I have loads of experience with pirating as pvp.  However, UWO doesn’t offer pvp.  All the “pirates” do in UWO is gank people who can’t fight back.  This is because of skill disparity.  This disparity occurs in the form of skill limitation and the nature of training skills.  The game is set up to set-up traders to be ganked.  There is no disputing this.  It’s a natural fact.  Remarkably, UWO will SELL products to traders to avoid this; blue flags!  Surprise!

The tragedy in this is how you’ve taken a game with such a respectable and admirable history in computer gaming and reduced it to playground for sociopaths rather than build a solidly-constructed game honored with repeated purchases from people with appreciable finances and goodwill.  You’ve had to turn it into a cheap time trap to garner nickel and dime purchases, robbing it of the dignity of skilled play just to make any money from it at all.  You have a pathetic player-base count because intelligent people won’t avail themselves to such shabby treatment, especially where regards leaving them open to the victimization of other players - who, by the way, aren’t bothering to involve themselves in anything more than learning what is required to then participate in such demeaning activity.  Who in their right mind will pay to be abused?

 This says a lot about the “senior” or “veteran” players in your player base.  I, for one, have a history of spending thousands of dollars in games I appreciate and respect.  The ilk you cater to can hardly find gainful employment, much less spend that much money on entertainment.  I guess it’s an economic choice you people have made, preferring to be a fly-by-night pedestrian cash cow.  This doesn’t even touch on the convoluted crafting system which defies belief; especially the shipbuilding process - the bread and butter of a sailing game, making advanced ships way out of the reach of the average player, and putting them at the mercy of the hyper-inflated economy being gamed by unscrupulous veteran players effectively transferring all profit and effort from new players into their own accounts.  That in itself is disgraceful, but it’s not the only condition worthy of ridicule.

So, enjoy your little, under-achieving company as you nickel and dime your way to a laughable definition of profit.  No serious gamer is playing.  No serious gamer is even interested, and I will certainly not be recommending this fiasco to anyone else for fear of causing myself great embarrassment.  I’ll leave it to your sociopathic fanbois to tag this post with copious evidence of how I characterize them.  I am absolutely confident they won’t let me down.  Enjoy being as small as they are!

Sincerely,

A “former” player

PS  These people actually believe:  A. The Papaya Play is a "different" company, and B. The game is going to be moved to "better servers" to "fix the lag."  Hooboy.  What a riot.