Difference between revisions of "Magic Moments"
(New page: '''Magic Moments''' was an in-game events service that was introduced in September of 2003. The short lived service allowed players to purchase events for $39.99. Each Magic Moment in-game...) |
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Revision as of 15:56, 5 October 2008
Magic Moments was an in-game events service that was introduced in September of 2003. The short lived service allowed players to purchase events for $39.99. Each Magic Moment in-game event was hosted by an in-game moderator and featured special items that could be customized for the event.
There were 3 types of Magic Moments that were offered:
- Wedding Ceremony:
- The Wedding Ceremony lasted from 15-30 minutes and featured the following:
- • Two wedding rings, each with a customized inscription up to 30 characters long.
- • Wedding invitations with the wedding party's name and the date, time, and location of the event sent to up to 15 people.
- • An in-game wedding ceremony conducted by an in-game moderator with your choice of self-prepared vows or pre-written vows.
- • An in-game marriage certificate commemorating the ceremony.
- • A real-life marriage certificate sent to both members of the wedding party that mirrors the in-game certificate.
- The Wedding Ceremony lasted from 15-30 minutes and featured the following:
- Birthday Celebration:
- Celebrate your real life birthday or your character's birthday with a Birthday Celebration that will feature:
- • An in-game birthday ceremony conducted by an in-game moderator.
- • Birthday party invitations with the guest of honor's name and the date, time, and location of the event sent to up to 15 people.
- • An in-game birthday present for the guest of honor with a custom message up to 45 characters long.
- • The option to choose two party games to play at the party hosted by an in-game moderator.
- • Simon Says, Musical Chairs, Relay Race, or assorted board games.
- • A real-life birthday certificate that mirrors the in-game present inscription sent to the guest of honor.
- Celebrate your real life birthday or your character's birthday with a Birthday Celebration that will feature:
- Remembrance Ceremony:
- For retiring characters or those ready to begin a new journey, the Remembrance Ceremony made that switch a little easier. A Remembrance Ceremony features:
- • Remembrance party invitations with the honoree's name and the date, time, and location of the event sent to up to 15 people.
- • An in-game remembrance tablet with 45 characters of customizable text presented to the guest of honor or their next of kin.
- • An in-game remembrance ceremony with your choice of a self-prepared speech or scripted tribute remembering your character's adventures.
- • An in-game remembrance certificate with the name of the retiree and the beginning and ending dates of his/her in-game journey.
- • Real-life remembrance certificate that mirrors the in-game remembrance certificate.
- For retiring characters or those ready to begin a new journey, the Remembrance Ceremony made that switch a little easier. A Remembrance Ceremony features:
At the time, Magic Moments could be ordered toll free via telephone from Monday through Saturday 9:00 am to 6:00 pm CST, with a special number for international calls. The Magic Moments ceremonies were available for anyone with an active Ultima Online account. Events could occur on any shard worldwide, however, EA only offered English language versions. While the Magic Moments service was initially offered on a trial program that was set to end on October 17, 2003, it came to an end on January 23rd, 2004 [1]
Initial Reception
After the annoucement of the Magic Moments program, John Torrey, a OSI employee, answered several questions related to the program.[2]
Hey Dev Team, why are you launching new programs instead of fixing bugs/creating content/developing something?
- The UO Magic Moments program was designed from the very beginning to be something that could be handled without any help or time taken away from the UO Development team. Step-by-step, the Magic Moments program uses a team of people dedicated to these types of programs across all of EA's Persistent State World games. The team that answers the phone to take your UO Magic Moments order was there before this program was launched. The one person that preps for and performs the UO Magic Moments ceremonies has been working on programs for multiple games since this program was just a twinkle in someone's eye. This isn't to say that we're completely detached from the UO Live Team, but their involvement is limited to question answering and program approval so they can stay focused on UO as a whole.
Why does something that used to be free now cost $40?
- We decided to develop the UO Magic Moments service because, at this time, we are unable to provide these types of personalized events to you for free. Our current crew of Game Masters is busy working to keep things running smoothly on a daily basis inside Britannia. Unfortunately, that team just doesn't have the time or resources to step away from their regular duties and perform extracurricular events like weddings. No matter how hard we tried, working these sorts of activities into their schedule wasn't something that we could reasonably do without sacrificing hold times on the GM queue. In reading the threads that have been posted about this program, I noticed a common theme: No one wants to wait in the GM queue because a GM is off marrying two people as a courtesy. We didn't want to negatively affect the help queue either, but we still had great interest in providing this kind of service. So, we took the original idea of in-game celebrations and expanded on them to create a real value-added service that justifies the time and manpower required to produce them. Imagine planning multiple parties on a daily basis and ensuring that each one is just as special as the one before. It's like New Year’s Eve every hour on the hour. The cost not only covers a half an hour of OSI Employee time, but also items that are customized specifically for your individual Magic Moment.