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Ultima Online: UO is Getting Old
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
Adam Tingle is taking the plunge into some of the genre's most venerable titles available, and finding out if they truly still have what it takes to compete. For the inaugural issue, Adam journeys back to Ultima Online to see just how much life the old bird has left.
Every player has that one special MMORPG. You can remember like yesterday as your eyes met over a crowded videogame store; you remember feeling your cheeks spread to an uncomfortable red; you remember as your palms became clammy; you remember holding the box and taking in its art for the first time, slightly trembling with nerves and uttering a wordless “hello”. And then time hurtles forward; you’re looking at a webpage, your hand gently hovering over the “end subscription” button, in your eye you feel a desperate salty tear, and yet your mind is focused and concentrated. Then you click. And it ends. You don’t look back.
But that is a lie isn’t it? You often wonder, dream, and feel nostalgic pangs for your first virtual love. You wander through forum posts, sometimes brave enough to write a message titled “Veteran Player Returning?” or “Is it worth it?” and yet you still feel doubt and fail to finish the re-install. Well never fear, MMORPG.com has your back, and starting with Ultima Online we are entering long-forgotten worlds, checking for a pulse, and searching for signs of life, and ultimately adventure.
Read more of Adam Tingle's "UO is Getting Old".
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Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
actually made a trial account a few days ago, to venture back into ultima with the enhanced client, sadly i vant spent more than a little hour or so ingame, because i havent had tine, but im hoping to give this a proper go, a bit bored of all the Quest grinding in newer mmos
ps: still looking forward to questing in swtor though, hoping ultima can be my 2nd game, my sandbox hideout lol
so many awesome memories in UO...those were the good ol days!
I never played Ultima Online. BUT it WAS the first MMORPG that I've ever heard of in my life. (Personal experience, i didn't know anything about mud etc).
I remember hearing about it on the actual news on TV. That hundreds , nay even thousands of players could play and interact together at once, fighting, trading. I was fascinated, and a little bit confused....
Now she's an old girl, and although I never had the opportunity to try it out during its heyday, I salute Ultima Online for its precieved depth and vision, while getting all the more nostalgic:D
I'll list UO as my favorite MMO ever... However, I cannot play it anymore and its not the game it was (or even close). It does say a lot about the game that it has a community that did stick with it.
I really wish there was a new MMO that used the original core design and the lessons learned.
Really 1997 ? Seems to my poor memory I was playing that game on a 14.4 modem back in 1987 ? I was working for a laser company then, and a couple friends and myself used to laugh at how long it took us to cross the town .. almost a hour at times ...
My buddy was killed by a rabbit as we had no clue how to fight in the game and he had rolled a spell caster. We need reagents to cast spells .. you had to wait for days to get enough spell reagents to go adventuring as they were being sold out in every vendor location. You see the resources were very limited back then.
So I would quetion The Release date on this Review and submit that it was 10 years earlier then what is stated.
I guess my memory core must be malfunctioning ...
I do agree that it has a special spot in my heart.
Look to the stars to know HE is with us. HE hung them as markers, of times and of seasons.
The 14.4 modem came out in 1991.
The 33.6 modem came out in 1994
Ultima Online was released on Sept 24th, 1997.
The 56K modem came out in 1998.
EverQuest was released on 16th March 1999.
Your memory is indeed malfunctioning.
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
Tried trial.
In 2 days i had 100% magery, 100% eval int, 100% meditation 100% focus, 100% wrestling and other crap. Generally i was able to make 7x100 mage char thanks to some items i have received from othe rplayer. like LRC 100%, FC 2 FCR 6 LMC 40%.
Atlantic and other server buzz with life. Other servers are pretty much dead.
To above comment.
Tried trial for current UO but i have played uo extensively pre-aos era and a bit into Aos.
OH gosh your Right I guess I worked at that company for longer then I remember also.
It was a faster modem, the 56k baud .. man I need more brain exercise ..
And a quick search has the date right of course . I guess so many games have come and gone since that First MMO I playe,d I just figured it had to be longer ..
Did I mention how much I hate those sellers Crapping up the Game threads ? All it takes is a simple rule like the post must be in keeping with the article that it is listed under.
Then the moderator can move all the selling posts to one huge Garbage Can Pos,t so that they all fit into that RULE and POOF we do not have to see the B.S. of their posts.
Look to the stars to know HE is with us. HE hung them as markers, of times and of seasons.
Man I miss UO. The classic nastalga calls to me like a Siren.
I played when it was just Felucca. When communites were tightnit & housing was close to impossible to find. Lich Lords & silver Vanquishing weapons.
If someone would just buy the rights & make UO2, keep it a Sandbox, I'd pay 29.99 a month if it was anythin like the original.
They can't merge the servers because they are all different, mainly the player housing.
The players on the unofficial shards wouldn't play on the official anyway because they don't like what the game has become. I love that the game is still around but it's alien to me now.
UO was my first graphical MMO after I made the jump from MUDs. I remember my guild leader locking me in a training house to build up my skills. I had left, the door locked and I got chased by creatures in the swamp.
I have a lot of good memories and met a lot of cool people. I tried going back recently but my eyes just couldnt adjust to them after all these years of "eye candy".
Wow, funny because 14.4k didn't even exist in 1987. Just giving you a heard time, but yes your memory is indeed malfunctioning.
EDIT: Sorry didn't see the other post.
Where's my UO2 plzkthxbai.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Suprised they dpn't go for an iOS/Android client...would go down a storm there.
Well written article.
Great topic- hope you will look at Asheron's Call next.
You never played back in the day then. I grinded for months trying to gm swords back in 98'. The game is a shell of what it once was. Being a GM in anything back then actually meant something. Anyone remember the bone knight wall lol. I miss old UO
I am excited to know that you are revisiting the old MMORPGs that have almost been forgotten or covered up by newer generations.
This was a very well written article and as a old time Ultima Online fan, I felt much nostolgia while reading it. UO is full of a world that still strives and when you talked about the empty feel of houses that were no longer being taken care of, I could only feel a story being written as you think about it all.
I miss playing UO, I really do. At times I tell myself I want to go back and try it out, but in the end I never give it time anymore. Maybe this up coming weekend I will finally give the game time and dive back into the world that I once called home.
Thanks for the read, I look forward to more!
Total time played: 9125 Days, 21 Hours, 29 Minutes, 27 Seconds
Time played this level: 39 Days, 1 Hour, 24 Minutes, 5 Seconds
UO is getting old? Really? Wow... :P That title is an understatement... I tried playing UO a while back and, in my case at least, the game was neigh unplayable. Games from the current decade have spoiled me, I guess. Time for an Ultima 2.
I'd be tempted to go back if they did some official classic shards.
Back in it's prime it was the greatest mmo imo.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
LOL the buy it now button should not really link to the Renaissance edition, which is out of date uhm 10 ? years
UO was, and in many aspects still is, the best MMO on the market for me. No other MMO has had a working skill system, community, and true feeling of a world as UO does. The AoS expansion really is what started the downward sprial for me, making the game more and more 'WoW-friendly' with items becoming more important then you skill build. The balance of the Paladin and Necromancer spells were also completely borked, and almost everyone had one of those two (at the time) skills in their builds.
It is a pity that EA has killed both UO2 and UX:O when both were reportedly very close to reaching the beta phase. Ulima needs a true successor, and Lord of Ultima simply does not count.
Sir...you have no right to say your a gamer if your spoiled by new modern graphics... i still play Doom 1 because it was more challenging than most games out here, replenishing life, almost infinite ammo from never ending ammo boxes.... Least back then in those games you had to think... and let us not forget the ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO WIN BATTLES!!!
I loved ultima online for the reason you had to literally think hard and keep trust to a minimum unless you know your friends very very well... that game was all about trust and politics much like eve today... if you died you lost everything including your ears, head, torso, arms, legs, and possibly your soulstone (i think that was added in later updates?)
I really miss the fun times i had with friends in it... and i missed calling GAURDS! in town when someone was threatening to kill me lol
anyways, if the free shards weren't so unpopulated i would go back to playing it again... but for now its just a memory to me... the subscription servers aren't a bad idea but im not about to go back to paying 15$ give or take for the game again... i cant really since College is sapping my money for living expenses
The irony being that AoS came out a full 18 months before WoW... But no really lets blame WoW for everything. -.-
UO2 would be nice.