History of UWO Headquarters

To tell our history we need to answer why: why create a website in the first place?

WHY do we need UWO headquarters when we have other great databases out there?

Part 1: The beginnings

In the beginning this site had the intention of preserving the knowledge. Some great websites were already gone (OloUS) some were on the way (UWOTool, UWO Market: Both now gone too) and Ivyro was next to go bankrupt...

OloUS was a great source of information

Ivyro was left like 5 or 6 years without updates but it was still the biggest source of information.  Ivyro probably saw the game was dying around 2014 as google trends showed reduced interest in UWO over time:

Google Trends 2013 - 2017 (US)

Ivyro also suffered from constant downtimes. Don't believe it? Take a look at this print from May 1st 2018:

Translation by chrome / google translate

And it sits on a payed host... so it may go down eventually, if it doesn't receive a steady stream of money from its ads.

Luckily, now there are several volunteers that will happily create content, so Ivyro can profit from it. 

Note: Fandom is very profitable (Without having to write a single line of content), so I don't think it will ever close.

Part 2: The new purpose

I did not have to worry anymore about losing the data contained in Ivyro, which is the base to play... thanks to Ivyro's volunteers.

As there was no need to create what others have already made, this site moved on to create the new content that the community so desperately needed. "Fill in the gaps" became the new purpose.

But creating new and original content (with the unique "newbie friendly" editorial policy of this site) is no easy task. It requires countless hours of work.

The solution found was the same one that triggered the Renaissance: Patronage.

Just like in the Renaissance, Patrons financially support (and guide) the creation of new / fresh content for this website (Which everyone can profit from). The more $, the more hours I can spend working on this project.

The art created in the Renaissance has triggered major social / cultural / economic and later technology advances. In fact, all of that artwork can still be appreciated today.

Same goes for this website, with our patron's support, the content created here is and will be publicly accessible for everybody. New and veteran players.

Contributions

The impact of this website can already be felt by those who played in the old Netmarble, OGPlanet and early Papaya's days.

I consider the time period 2013 - 2018 to be the dark middle ages of UWO. And 2019 to be the start of the renaissance for UWO (Again thanks to this site's patrons).

Just to name a few contributions of this website: Player retention rate and player count are visibly growing.

Note: I'm not claiming this site is the only contributor (Florence was not the only state where the renaissance flourished).

Learn more about how you can contribute it too.

UWO-HQ Anniversary

3 Years! (Jan 2021)

In celebration for the 2021 anniversary I created the How to Promote UWO:

• Most people don't know the power and tools they have at their disposal.
• The more players the game has, the more fun you will have. So why not promote it?

4 Years! (Jan 2022)

In celebration for the 2022 anniversary I created the How to Start to Play UWO (A complete beginner's guide). I hope it can guide and help new players to see how truly great this game is.

5 Years! (Jan 2023)

Most feedback I received was from people having difficult finding what they were looking for (In this site).

Indeed, this website grew a lot in the past years. And so did the menu.

It had too many options which did leave new visitors confused, especially new players. 

So last year's task included a complete revamp of this website's menu.

Feb, 2021:	Jan, 2023:
Lots of sub menu options.	Condensed menus and a clear call to action for beginners.

The menu was condensed into hubs that make sense. These hubs required a massive amount of work hours (thousands of manual links were created).

The only downside of last year was the reduced number of pageviews, for the first time since the creation. However, I do credit it to the fact players are finding what they want faster (and do not need to bounce around from page to page as much).

6 Years! (Jan 2024)

6 years of UWO Headquarters and our lobby has excitingly borne fruit! Numerous demands from our dedicated long-time players have been fulfilled, including:

• Increased max bazaar price limits
• Expanded money-carrying capacity (now up to 500 million)
• Introduction of a 1 billion ducat check
• Enhancements to the chat interface
• FS Ship rebalance
• Improved search functionality in the company shop

Thanks matey fer comin to me party!

6 years of filling in the gaps...

... and like always I would to thanks my patrons for making all of this possible. 

Thank you all for being so generous, you're awesome!