Come along with me in the Way Back Machine and remember your good times playing – – – Ultima Online!
Ultima Online was my first Graphical MMO. I played MUDs and other games on bulletin boards but this was the first with graphics! Before all this, I played just about every Ultima game that came out, upgrading my computer just to play the next version.
Ultima Online was released back at the end of 1997. I wanted to play it sooo badly, but I only had dial-up service, good ole AOL. I can’t quite remember if I did take the plunge and get it while I still had dial-up or if I got a more permanent connection, but in spring 2000, I bought it! WOOT! I joined with a friend that I played online spades with. We linked up with Net Meeting and ran through the tutorials. It was so cool!
I joined right after they released the 2nd expansion, Renaissance. This expansion split the world into two mirror versions, Felucca and Trammel, with Fel keeping its PvP ruleset and the new lands of Tram, also known as Carebear Land, not having any PvP at all… Coming into the game and being placed in Tram lead me to a life in the carebear world, but I wouldn’t be staying here!
I made Chesapeake my home server. My first character was Tymber and I wanted to craft. My life started in Yew and I chopped trees…turned the logs into boards and the boards into tables and chairs. I made little forts in the woods out of them. When I joined, there were no houses on the Trammel side of the world, and after a few weeks, they enabled house placement and I failed – getting stuck with a small tower while others placed castles and keeps, and were instantly rich. Back in the day, a small house on Ebay would get you $45-$65 dollars…castles and keeps were selling in the thousands of Real Life Dollars.
But at least I had a house to decorate and to set up vendors. It faced the Yew sheep pens and was a screen or two from the bank. I sold furniture and potions and some other items. Vendoring and gathering for the stuff to sell was my favorite part of the game. UO didnt have a fancy chat system. No direct tells, no global chat. If you wanted to talk to someone, you used ICQ or just went over to their house. It made the socialization have some meaning…not just people spamming garbage.
Like I mentioned before, I came into the game in the age of the carebears, starting my life in Trammel…where you couldn’t get hurt by other players. Felucca was taboo! You didnt go there because you would get killed! People feared it. So I of course had to go see for myself. I didn’t die. Normal people were running around. It wasn’t as populated as Trammel, but that was understandable. I met a player named Angelica, and she let me copy some rune books at her shop so I could get around easier in Fel. As we talked, we made a deal to trade fel/tram stones which let you move between the 2 worlds where ever you were standing. I got one type killing mobs in Tram and she got the other type killing in Fel.
Then as we got friendlier, I started supplying her with potions, and then helping her make other items for her shop…eventually I moved in with her and we both ran the shop together…and a true real life friendship was formed. As I played, I got to know other people in the game who after 11 years, I STILL talk to or see present day.
I stopped playing back in 2003 and moved on to Anarchy Online or Dark Age of Camelot – dont remember right now which. Since that time I have played quite a few other MMOs. None quite had the magic UO did but they had their own magic and ability to grab me and keep me playing. As of a month ago, I rejoined UO to see what it was like. Most of the people I knew are long gone. Angelica is still there going strong on her 13th or 14th year :). I’m not the only one to come back recently. Seems quite a few old timers have come back to the gave they loved so long ago to relive the magic. I brought my son along too, and he has gotten past the old style graphics and loves it too. He has a keep….something I could only dream of 10 years ago.
It is still fun and challenging. Still has things that new games just couldn’t recreate…great fishing, totally open world, no linear areas, pushing you on the correct path or telling you how to play. Custom housing you design. You cant carry unlimited items and weight. You don’t magically come back to life and have all your stuff. I do miss the disposable armor and weapons part of the game, where people didn’t have magic items and would stop by your shop for a new set of armor each week or a few times a day if their luck was bad!
I have a house now, in Malas. Still on the Chesapeake Shard. Azzura lives there and sells some armor, archery and cannon supplies. Its a great rewarding game to start from having nothing to getting your first house and slowly upgrading it, and your skills. Still a bit old though but was fun to come back a try things out and let my son experience how the older games played. (forgot to post this back in July)
Tags: Gaming, Look Back, MMO, Ultima Online
Just dropping a “Hi!”
I played on Catskills from 1998-2001, and indeed UO hasn’t been surpassed (gameplay-wise) by anyting out there, even 10 years after I stopped playing it.
Looks like the game finaly started offering good housing patches (your house is awesome my friend).
Too bad they went for “The Mad Looter” approach as I call it, where you just aim to get better items. I loved the fact Crafted items where in high demand.
Why I stumbled on your blog ? Let’s just say I’m sick and tired of Class+Levels gaming… Starting to hope a new UO (say FF14 graphics) comes around and keeps the spirit of the original UO intact.
Hope you have a good time in there,
— Francois424