What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you remember

[smip]

I started playing November 11th, 1997. I remember looking at that chest at log in (I think it was a chest then) and hopeing the game was as good as the graphics at log in.

Well, after logging in, I got chewed up by a bird and thought to myeslf, "what a stupid game". I waited 2 days before I logged in again and much to my dismay I bumped into something called a Dread Lord.. and no, not a player, but an NPC... (at least I beleived it was an NPC because it never said anything to me, just killed me).

I lived on what I could carry. And I TRIED to carry everything just to lose it hehe. That game has grown so much in 6 years. It's a love/hate relationship. Thank you OSI for keeping me entertained for so many years.

 

[Thunderclap]

It was about a month into the Uo and I was at a game shop for a battletech tourney. I noticed there were guys hovering over the computer back in the corner, so I wnt over and watched someone go around Britain and chat make chair and trapped boxes. He then got guard wacked from a trapped box.
I though it was cool, so I paid my five bucks for an hour and set about being killed by bunnies and snakes, (I was a warrior). Then I watched at WBB as thieves would die and be looted dry. it was a riot. So I tried that too. I went to the inn and stole a book. Then I got guardwacked trying to steal a sword. It was awesome.

 

[imported_Grayshadow]

April 22, 2000. First thing I remember? Running around Brit, doing my newbie ranger quests, and wondering why I kept getting the message that something would be attacking me if it wasn't for my young status. Then the lizardmen & ratmen would attack, and I'd be running around all willy-nilly trying not to get killed.

 

[Lord Dragus]

Aw I remember it well... the same day that I was sent a free UO R CD with a month to boot! The reason I got it for free however was because EA had bought out my old game and wanted us all to goto UO instead...Good thinking actually cause I came to UO and here I am still!

I played on a game server called "Game Storm" those were the days! They had tons of fun games to choose from... a RPG I miss alot, first person shooter RP and a number of other great games, all online with communities!

Unfortunately one day they sold out to EA... next thing I knew they were closing out the games one by one! First off the list was my favorite the RPG(gotta get rid of the most biggest treat first)... I still remember alot to that game and wish I could go back to play it if only once! I had tons of stuff that I liked doing was the clasic D&D game and most every one there RP'd atleast alittle! Next was some of the lesser games but soon followed the most popular ones...

Needless to say they must have made 1000s of new customers from it because I still meet people who remember "GameStorm" and every single one of them wish they'd never played UO over loosing their old game...

Well that was my first day in UO sorry it wasnt as bright as most but soon after players in UO helped me get good and I started enjoying it untill AOS :/

 

[imported_LarrytheMiner]

That's hard, it was right after it came out. I rember my friends and I all beating the crap out of each other for hours just to get our skills up. I also remember the first time we all went into a dungeon, and a second later running around looking for sombody to res me. Those were the fun days way back when. It's still fun, it's just far from the same game it was back then.
Oh, and we also had a couple of monsters trapped behind barrels in a house. You could beat on them for hours to get your skills up.

LtM(Napa)

 

[Guest]

Okay, I'll bite.

My first day was November 24, 1999. I had called my sister during work that day to make sure she knew about the very recent release of Ultima IX:Ascension. She's the one who got me hooked on Ultima, and we had anxiously awaited the release of the next installment. She said she already had her copy en route and asked if I had tried Ultima Online. I hadn't. When it came out I had looked at it but got the impression it was primarily a directly competitive game and knew my machine was not up to the task so, for $9.95 per month, I decided to pass. She proclaimed that Ultima Online was so much more and I would certainly enjoy it. Having found myself not disappointed when she convinced me to try my first Ultima game, I decided to trust her judgment and bought the game on my way home from work that day.

After a few minutes of trying to get through to her that I did not want her advice on what character to make but rather a simple set of instructions (i.e., don't "advise" me, just tell me what to do!), I created my first character, Elaine. Per her instructions, Elaine was "born" in Jhelom. Seconds after I first arrived in Britannia, still full of wonder and amazement at the world in which I found myself, I saw the name "Diana" with the words "Dark Angel, Dark Star" accompanying it suddenly appear. In those days, the Dark Star guild of LS "suffered" from a bug that allowed their full guild name to appear instead of an abbreviation, a bug which has since been fixed.

She bade me follow her and took me to the tinker shop whereupon, after a brief consult with the tinker guildmaster there, she gave me an amount of gold and told me how to request and receive training from him.

Thereafter she took me to her house, a large brick just south of Candlelabra Point on the western coast of that peninsula (though I didn't know this at the time). She there explained many things to me, including how to "use" items. She offered to make other clothing for me, dye my current clothing, help me change my hair color, all in the way of explaining various basic game mechanics.

Then she took me to some town, to this day I am not sure which town it was, and introduced me to a friend of hers. She explained she had to go for a bit and left me in his care. He took me to his tower south of Trinsic where he had training dummies on the third floor. He gave me a sword and instructed me to (including the "how to") attack the dummy. After a bit, he would cast summoned fire elementals and heal me while I attacked them.

Afterward, he took me to a forest where he instructed me to attack various animals. I remember my elation when I killed my first panther! My goal that night was to live through killing a bear. I don't recall if I ever got to kill a bear that night, but I do remember that the only reason I killed anything and didn't die myself was that he was there looking out for me and keeping me healed, a situation I was to experience many times in the coming weeks.

My sister came back later that night, and we all ended up at her house where I met a good many more of her UO friends, and we spent what was left of the night chatting and laughing and getting to know each other. I logged out for the night at her house.

And that was my first night in UO.

 

[Novarian]

Date - not sure, was before Renaissance but after Second Age. I had a friend to help me learn the basics.

I played a few weeks and then made my way to the crossroads near compassion desert to surprise my brother who didn't know I started playing. I have his old smithy that has been there for 4 years or so.

One of the things that stands out the most is getting killed by a mountain goat - how humiliating! But that was nothing compared to the other adventures I have endured and enjoyed...

 

[tzigane]

March 2000

I made a character with an all lower case name because I was sure that she would be deleted within a month. I was only trying out this stupid game to see why my boyfriend found it so fascinating. I laughed at the graphics, struggled with the interface, and ran like hell from the first red names I saw on the screen, only to find out later they were npc's.

Trammel really confused me for a while, because it didn't seem real to me at first. I'd heard and seen so much about blues fighting with, running from, and hunting down reds, that I simply could not believe that they were confined to one side of the world.

That first character is still around, as my tamer/mage. She tried out healing, swordsmanship, parrying, anatomy, and even cooking. Taming won out when I discovered that animals would follow me around and I could feed, heal, and command them. We are talking barnyard and forest animals here, folks. Dragons scared the hell out of me then, and I had not seen or heard of a nightmare.

Two and a half years later, I am still wondering how it is that I am hooked on this "stupid game" ;-)

 

[Katmandu]

It was about Oct 4, 1997. I logged in and just started running around aimlessly, looking to see what others were doing. Didn't really have a clue, but I enjoyed the novel experience and continued to play with great enthusiasm. Basically just explored a lot in the beginning and gained what experience I could. Gotta love the days when people were camped at practice dummies to raise skill...lol.

 

[Guest]

i think december of 99, in there somewhere, i remeber having a companion come to my side and ask if i wanted help with anything and i lied and said that a friend was coming to help me learn, lol and im still learning!
o ya i got traded newb tickets with another young and got a ranger gorget! thenn died to a troll later that evening and lost it to decay.. lol

 

[imported_Barrakketh]

January 2000 got a new comp. and a free UOR CD for registering my Ultima 9 game.

Hunted like a dog 24/7 to get enough gold to buy a house deed for Trammel placement.
Placement day came I had one spot , no runes, no runebook, and dial up 56k and got my house first try, then screamed hot damn !

 

[PizzaDude]

First thing(s) i remember:

1.) Not being able to finish the beginner quest. And... its Still busted!

2.) Running away from someones dragon when it growled, thinking it was gonna kill me.

3.) Being called a trammie by people in trammel.

 

[Guest]

I don't remember when i started, but i remember being lost in yew and attacking a goat and getting killed by it, then insta rezzing and attacking a great hart and being killed by it, then insta rezzing again and being rez killed by the great hart.

Eventually while wandering around two players ran into me and dropped some bows on the ground for me to sell for gold, though it took me a long time to find the fletcher (even though back then i used to use the manual's maps).

I didn't learn about radar (alt-R) until a long time later when i ventured into my first dungeon (Despise) and got surrounded by slimes and poisonous creatures and couldn't move and slowly died. I wandered lost for twenty minutes before finding a healer or town.

Whenever I found normal weapons, like katanas, I continued to use my practice sword because my practice sword was bigger, and i thought it would do more damage. For weeks i used just the practice sword, and could barely kill anything.

One guy in town insulted me, and i got in combat mode and challenged him while brandishing my practice sword (having no clue it would barely hurt him but thinking i was pretty tough by then). I knew not to attack first though because I knew about guard wacking.

Times really were good.

 

[imported_Gwyneth]

I started playing just after Christmas, 1998.

I got the biggest kick out of how you could use a spinning wheel and loom to make cloth. I tamed a dog, then released it.... but it whined so pathetically I felt sorry for the poor thing and retamed it. I kept it for quite a while.

I remember how impressed I was when another player cast Wall of Stone in the tailor shop... figured he was really powerful. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif Whenever I spotted an NPC thief, I ran away, certain he was intent upon picking my pocket.

Looking back, one of the most embarrassing experiences was my search for the Yew moongate. I'd walked all the way to Yew (only dying once along the way). I was standing in the middle of town and saw a blue gate open. A player ran out, then it closed before I could go through it. I waited threre for about two hours, thinking that was the moongate.

 

[Guest]

April 2000, I think on the 28th. The first thing I experienced were all those patches during the installation. They looked so fun! One of my first in-game memories is endless hours of gathering regs in Moonglow for my 1st scribe /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

It was right before Trammel got housing, and I was trying desperately to earn enough money to purchase a house deed and planned on placing it myself (I had no idea people could purchase houses from other players) and was wandering around looking at likely places for my house. I met a guy in Moonglow who told me that if I chopped enough trees down in an area, I'd be able to place a house, so I set about chopping like mad...only the trees were still there /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Guest]

Public Beta, after finding my way out of town I thought that the shinny wisp thing would be easy to kill.

 

[Just Because]

My little brother got this game for his birthday, and it enslaved his mind.
One day he tried to get me to play it, and I made a swordswoman. I didn't know what to name it, so he told me to name it after some video game character, Sophitia. This was around May in 1998.

I don't remember by first day in game, but I do remember walking around Britain with my newbie kilt inside a pouch in my backpack. A man in undies walked up to me and said "Hi!" being the nice gal I was, I said hello back, ignorant to thieves.

Then I got the message, "You notice so-and-so stealing a pouch from your backpack!"
I was so scared and insulted that he stole something from me that I turned and ran away

 

[Guest]

Ahhh...the memories....

I don't know the date but it was not to long after Trammel appeared. I finally gave in because I was bored and couldn't find a game interesting enough to play. I went out and found UO after remember an old friend played it, I figured it was worth a shot.

Got home, installed it and stepped out in to someplace that I still can't remember. All I knew was there was this brown looking thing standing there called a mongbat and I thought it looked easy. I took a couple swings and missed and then it came after me. My health dropped and I freaked. I ran for town and was praying it wouldn't kill me. I must have run all the way through town and out the other side.

It was the next day that was most interesting, I ICQed my old friend and said I was playing. He convinced me to come to the shard he was playing (Sonoma) so I said sure; I hadn't done anything yet so why not. I got there and met his cousin who also played. He was busy but asked his cousin to show me around and give me a tour of the sites.

It was a fine tour, Bert was gating me around as I marveled at the magic he had and the different fun things to look at. Bert was able to easily kill mongbats and other things so I figured I could do this. Finally towards the end, Bert had one last place to show me. He cast the gate and I stepped through. I could barely see and turned up the brightness on my monitor. Next thing I see are these skeletons all coming for me. I turn around and run in to the wall, I am ramming the mouse this way and that in a total panic, I can't see and I watch Bert run down the hall so I follow thinking he knows what to do and can get us out.

I am being hacked at by these skeletons left and right and next thing I know it says I am dead and everything goes gray. I just stand there, nothing is attacking me anymore. Next thing I know is Bert coming up in his ghostly form. I am watching what seemed like thousands of skeletons wander around us and I ask WTF. Bert admits that this wasn't where he wanted to go and he clicked in the wrong place. This was the bone knight room or something. He couldn't remember himself but it was where warriors came to train their skills.

I asked how we got our stuff back and what happens to our body. Bert explained that we needed to get rezzed and since he was a ghost he couldn't do it, we needed a healer. Well, where was that? Outside! How do we get there? YOU DON'T KNOW!

Well, we eventually got out after seeing my first view of a dungeon as a ghost. We lost everything but that was truly my first experience in the game and I was addicted after that. Bert and I are now closest of friends and still laugh thinking about the event.

--Anev

 

[Guest]

I don't remember the date I first started playing, but I remember logging into Yew and being shocked that everyone was running around killing all the wildlife (or getting killed by it). I remember thinking, "Wasn't this the city of nature? The city of the druids?" I forgot about the chest! I also remember that spawn wasn't as prevalent as it is today so everyone would be fighting over the few creatures which spawned throughout the land.

 

[Zircon Jenva]

December 1998 (can not remember the exact day).

The 1st thing I did was pick completely inappropriate skills,fletching & lumberjacking. Made bunch of crap junk low level non GM bows and stood at the vesper bank trying to sell bows to people and did not understand why everyone asked me what my skill level was and if they we GM bows and then telling me that they were not interested.

2nd thing I remember was a guy telling me that he would help me get stronger. He takes me out of gaurd protection and tells me that he is going to attack me and kill me and I needed to go to town and get rezzed and come back for another round of death, because as he explained it, for each time I died the game would grant me a point of strength & HP (gotta love noobies).

After the 6th or 7th time of the same person in Vesper rezzing me, he asked me what I was doing. After I told him, he burst out laughing and then explained to me that they guy was just being a jerk and taking advantage of a new player /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif.

A short period of time after reading the several hundred page manual that came with T2a (the 2nd age), I come across a paragraph that says if all else fails in trying to advance that you should ask a skilled or veteran player.

So for the next 1/2 hour or so I walk around asking people if the are veteran or skilled players and if they could help me. After a few people just laughing I ran into 2 great guys that explained the basics of what I was doing wrong, gave me instructions on what kind of template I should be starting and how to advance that character.

Creeping on 5 years now and I am still just as addicted to UO as ever & I play at least 2-3 hours everyday & I just got my wife to begin playing once more so that gives me even more incentive to play if she is going to play also /php-bin/shared/images/icons/biggrin.gif.

 

[Takara Ryooshi]

I actually had two first dates, back in '98 played a while then said to myself, "man are these 2d graphics fugly!" Logged out and went back to Playstation. Cancelled the account the next day and deleted the program from my PC. Sure wish I could remember the log on info, be kidda funny to revive those very 1st characters and see what I had in their bank accounts.

Came back again in Sept of 2001, after picking up Third Dawn for $10 at Costcos. 2 weeks into the game , a player approaches me and says, " Hey you want to come help me kill a murderer?" I was like sure sounds like fun. Leads me to Felluca tells me to hit him (after asking me what my weapon skill was of coarse) then proceeds to kill me and dry loot my corpse. Yeah, gee that was fun. Learned a hard lesson that day, and never trusted anyone since.

 

[Bronwyn_of_Baja]

April '98


An online chat buddy talked me into it. I almost bought magic he gathering but decided to try UO>

I log into trinsic. I was supposed to find him at some bank and ran around forever. and slowly, I played on a 166 on a 14 conn then. I remember running into a beggar npc, whom I thought was a real player. I get the message **Feeling perfectly rested, you push into so and so** I freak!. I typed Im sorry only to have the reply "Dost thou have any gold?" I reply "No, Im new and have no gold" The beggar replies" I have children to feed"....... so I tried to run away from this guy who wouldnt lay off, only to have him follow me all over!

Another time, I was trying to recall, and thought I had to leave the rune on the ground..... Duh! and the worst part was, none of my friends or I had enough magery to cast mark LOL! Forget trying to find someone who could gate.. they were Gods.

 

[Guest]

Sometime in early September 2000. First thing I remember is logging into the tutorial and getting my butt whooped by a mongbat. After that I remember calling up and old friend in California and asking him what shard he played...which he then logged on and we hung out, caught up on things...etc... He had me page a Counselor and they got me a companion to explain the basics of the game to me. Counselors for the most part were very helpful /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif I also remember becoming a miner, getting about 10-20k an hour off of mining ingots, and being given a free house by a quitting player in my first week. After that I sold off the free house and purchased a nice small tower within one or two screens of the Brit moongate. After joining a guild, and having a bad experience with it (being killed, looted, and booted), I decided I'd start my own. A bunch of us newbies, none GM in any skill, just wandering around training together...running away from ettins and air elementals...getting our butts whooped, and slowly getting better...enjoying ourselves the whole time. The first few months I played UO were the best /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Guest]

January 1998. I will always remember the first 15 minutes in game. I spawned at the Lyceum north of Moonglow. I was immediately attacked and killed by a snake. After insta-rezing 2 times and finally getting away from the snake of death I tamed a dog and named it, “Dragon Slayer”. It followed me into a house where it blocked me into a corner where I was subsequently killed by the snake, which had by this time caught up to me. I never tamed another animal..

 

[kronides]

I started playing in Q3 98, don't have the awesome memory of some sorry so I don't rem the date, but the first thing I rem is some dude showing me the way to the bank and explaining how it worked, then taking some n00bs (including me) to the theatre even though I didn't know what it was then but I do now and answering questions while he stood on the stage on his horse.
Dude's prolly dead now, or has long since quit, but anyhow, thanx dude, whoever yoyu were.

 

[Guest]

Jan. 15, 1998. I started up the client, and was amazed at the selection of skills. I decided that being able to tame the wild beasts of the world would be a useful skill. So I entered the game, and tamed my first pair of grizzly bears. Feeling quite proud of my accomplishment I took to wandering around, looking for a fellow player to share in my moment of joy. When I found one, he was wearing nothing but a bow and quickly dispatched of my two bears and then me. I logged out and never played the character again. To this day I've never played a tamer. Primal fear? possibly. Not wanting to rely on anything but my weapon for defense? definitely.

 

[Kirthag]

It was in 1997, a few short months after my divorce.

My evil sister drags me from the cocoon of tranquility (denial) I had set up and plops this Mac-addict in front of her peecee. She drags over her little pad (she don't use a mouse) and had me make a character in a "game that will definately appease your creativity, sis."

And this is how I was introduced to UO.

I logged in to Moonglow, as per evil sister's advice, and walked to the bank. My most vivid first memory was meeting one of her "beaus"... Mudpuppy. I thought that was the funniest name I ever heard of.

*raises a glass*
Here's to you, Mudpuppy of Atlantic.... where ever you are!

 

[gourami]

June 2000, although it seems like much longer

My bf was looking for a new game & bought UO:R as he had enjoyed the early Ultimas years ago. While he installed the game, I read the thick book which came in the box and then, with all kinds of rp silliness in mind we created a bard/archer called Quentin The Kind. (In ignorance we created him on Pacific which isn't his home timezone, so in the future he would often found himself wandering its lands in solitude but luckily, being a ranger he didn't mind).

Looking over my bf's shoulder, I watched as Quentin started the new player tutorial, then we both laughed aloud when a tiny but perfectly formed banana appeared in our character's backpack to demonstrate drag-and-drop. That is the first thing I remember about UO and it still makes me laugh remembering it.

Once he'd mastered the banana, Quentin was born in Britain. I don't remember much about his first day - heeding the dire warnings he saw everywhere and expecting to be jumped by reds at the Britain crossroads, he was too scared to leave the guard zone hehe - but on his second day he decided to keep a journal in his newbie book to chronicle his expected ascent to greatness. Here's an extract:

"Today on my second day I travelled from Britain to Trinsic. Tried to attack a deer on the way but it nearly killed me. Will retire now and see what's in Trinsic tomorrow.

Day 3. I am no longer young. I write this by the light of my campfire, a big day. Today I caught about 30 fishes and learned how to make a fire, cut them up and cooked them. I also made 3 bows and a cross-bow and 25 arrows (killed a chicken). I did get killed by a giant spider and and orc mage (yes, together) but it was just before the server went down and I was OK when it came back up.

[various details of skill gains, fishing and fletching follow, time passes...]

Whew! Today was a red letter day. After many weeks of training in fishing, wrestling and mining my STR finally hit 100! And then immediately went down to 99 when I gained a dex point. [ heh, *remembers the juggling act before stats could be locked*] Then, I met Barter who fixed my ring arms, then introduced me to Gemini and Pullus. We went to the lizard cave (name?) and helped Gemini collect hides for her tailor, I killed many lizards and I didn’t die at all!.."

Doubtless impressed by Quentin's lizard-slaying prowess, it was a proud moment when Pullus invited him to join his guild B@R, and gave him a secure chest all of his own in the desert guildhouse. Although he never admitted it, he was secretly too terrified to visit it alone due to its proximity to Compassion with its orc and scorpion defenders

The other "first" memory I have is starting on Oceania, now my home shard.. more experienced players were astonished (and, I think, not a little amused) to see an army of youngs, led by my character, setting out by foot to travel from Britain to Vesper. Solo, I'd go miles out of my way to avoid an ogre lurking in the undergrowth. Laugh they may - but together we were invincible!

 

[Romulos]

ahh i luv these threads...

Cant remember when i started, sad thing is i didn't have a gm skill on my account for like 18months :>

 

[smip]

Oh how fun. The Trinsic invasion hehehe. Almost all of these stories had me rolling in laughter. Very fun indeed. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Caven]

Thats the best part about UO, so many odd memories....

I started October 1998 and believe it or not, I spent the first three months I played on Magincia island. I think I popped through someone's gate once and died in serpents hold, and once i ran through the mag moongate and ended up in what I now know as yew. I look at the sea of green on the radar map and freaked. I kept using the moongate till the familiar woods of magincia appeared.

I spoke to know one until someone came up and asked me if they looked like a serpent. Quite surprised by the question, we got to talking and he said there was a bug that could make you look like a sea serpent. And it was on that day, I made my first UO friend who later would help rid the island of lizardmen to keep it safe for me and who showed me the baffling procedure of examining a sword for hours at a time and somehow getting stronger because of it.

It took me forever to learn that simply typing "Kal Ort Por" didn't make you move anywhere.

 

[Lord_Raynus]

I infact have a good memory of the first time i joined...well for that short month in 2000.

I had always been curious of UO, so decided to get Renaissance and try my hand at Archery. That was when Haven was for [young] only.

I really enjoyed it, i never had ICQ but always tried to remember the names of other people i met the previous night so i could play and train with them the following nights.

Mined in the old mines in Haven (ones where you took a ladder down to) and kept trying to gain in strength. I learnt lots of skills thinking i had to train in everything...so i was doing music and camping and mining...loads of things.

Once my [young] had vanished i took a boat from Moonglow to Britain where i was given a boat my some guys i met (10k's worth is alot for newb). But i died by the hands of a harpy i lost all my stuff....got annoyed and quit /php-bin/shared/images/icons/frown.gif

Anyways in 2002 i started reading the old renaissance manual again and got the UO bug so i bought Blackthorns Revenge. This time i decided to steer clear at first of monsters and be a blacksmith.

So thats how i started, i really enjoyed going down to Minoc mines...meeting my fellow mining buddies and talking to them about odd stuff whilst mining.

Happy days /php-bin/shared/images/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Grom_Lighthammer]

God, it was so long ago....

I remember making a warrior char and going out trying to kill anything that crossed my path....well after a few rabbits and cats, dogs ect. I came across a cow...being only 25 str which back then was 25 hp. Needless to say I was owned by this cow...lol. I couldn't believe it. I wandered around as a ghost for a long time not knowing what to do....finally i was rezed. I had nothing. no armor, no weapons, no food. I ended up being a begger, asking for gold, picking up items left around the bank. I was able to then obtain an axe and decieded to get into a less dangerous profession. I began chopping wood, raising my lumberjacking, then converting the wood to bows for profit. I did this for a while till I was bored and started again hunting animals and the occasional monster northeast of Brit. The rest as they say is history. I still have this char...and have changed his templete many times over. Currently I am working on raising his peacing...making him a tamer/peacer.....he has come a long way.

Grom.

<center>

</center>
<center> The Lag Monster Cometh!!</center>

 

[mrwarpig]

The first time I played UO was on my wifes new account in early 2000. I had played most of the Ultima series so I knew everything about it, lol. I started an advanced character, swords and tinkering. I began in Minoc, city of tinkerers. I found an NPC wanting to go to Trinsic. I began escorting them and was promptly killed by NPC brigands. Soon after that I got my own account. I remember things like fighting at the Brit graveyard and seeing the message "so and so is healing you" and thinking how can they be healing me, their not casting a spell. You see I didn't know about healing so I would drop my sword and use magery. I used to gain parry from the torch I carried with me when it was dark, I was completely clueless about nightsight too. Then there was the time I double clicked someones pet dragon while in warmode.

 

[Moradin of LS]

Tried it the summer of 98 at a friends and thought wow this is much better than the Ultima series I have to get this. I finally got the game May of 2002. I remember thinking how hard can a juka be if they are running around town, then dying.

 

[Guest]

December 25th 1997.
First thought...Holy *explative deleted* this game is awesome. But...why cant I move?
=P
That first year was the best gaming experience of my life. I doubt anything will ever beat that first year, especialy the first few months. So much to discover, so much to do, so many times to die!
Still a great game, but nothign compares to the begining.

 

[Guest]

I first played UO at the end of May 2001. I made an archer/tamer and could not figure out for the life of me why my arrows wouldn't hit anything. I got my a$$ kicked by a rabbit at one point. Little did I know that one has to stand still until the arrow actually hit the target. I played for about a week, and kind of got bored and set it aside. My husband kinda pushed me into it because we'd just gotten cable and he was feeling guilty for spending all this time on the internet when I didn't use it for anything except to check my e-mail. He would later regret that decision, as I took one look at the graphics on the back of the Third Dawn box and said, "damn, that game STILL has fugly graphics!"

Two weeks later on June 18, 2001 I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma (type of cancer), which was a bit of a shock as I was only 23 at the time. Well, obviously I am still here and am now in good health *grin*. So about mid-June 200 I was spending a lot of time home sick from work as I underwent chemo, and I started playing UO again. I read on Stratics that a warrior was a good template for a newbie to learn on, so Arcana gave up taming/archery and became a swordswoman. I was still pretty clueless and was frustrated by how much I didn't understand in the game. Then I made my first UO friend at east brit bank, a great lady who alas moved to Lake Austin from Atlantic, but that was my first introduction to the fun and companionship of UO. It was a great escape from RL during a very difficult time for me. I don't play as much as I used to and its certainly not the same game I started with, but I still love it.

 

[Guest]

I can't recall the exact date, but it was the first week of February 2001.

My best friend (whom lived half the country away from me) came along in January of that year and said "you have got to try this game!" - he kept pushing at me to try it - I'd heard a few things about it (not good stuff) and that it was very addicting *LOL* and I knew that it had a monthly fee. I really didn't want to get addicted to it - but finally he said he would send me a cd and to use an old account of his brother's and his brother or he would keep paying for it. So I finally caved in and said okay. Then the wait began. He had overnighted the package but it got completely messed up and didn't get there on my day off and I went all weekend not having the game and wanting to play so badly - because he'd tell me such interesting stories, like how he would fish in the seas and get these bottles and have to fight sea serpents. It all sounded very fascinating. Meanwhile another online friend had been considering it and she ended up getting the game (went and bought it) the same day as the cd arrived for me.

So then we drove my male friend crazy while we spent an HOUR trying to decide cool names for our characters. This was important! He kept trying to tell us it didn't matter because we'd probably delete them anyway, but we were still fussing over it *giggles*.

Once we got that done, then we had to pick the color of our outfits *rofls* - it's so funny looking back on that now - it seemed SOOO important. Finally my friend got logged in - she was [young] but when I logged in, I wasn't because it was an old account. I logged in with my character, Areana (yep, same one in my sig - she was my original char and never was deleted *smiles*) and my male friend met me in whatever city I showed up in (which i have no clue now what it was).

The very first thing he showed me was how to undress. HAHAHA - males *laughs* Then he went off to find my other friend and eventually got her out of Haven and brought her and me to some place that I have no idea of - but I distinctly remember the railroad tracks *rofls*. I am guessing that it was a fence by the Vesper cemetary - because they had a house there - but I remember thinking - I wonder where this railroad goes to (obviously I wasn't grasping the graphics very well).

That night I had to work so we only had maybe a half hour at the most and so he told us he wanted to teach us how to get rezzed when we died, so that the next day we could play as much as we wanted and be able to get help. So he moved over to where a panther was and told us to attack it.

Now the problem was - he didn't send a manual with the game so I was learning everything on the fly - I had no idea how to attack that panther - and I don't think my friend did either. Finally the panther wandered off and so next we tried a bear. I must of at some point figured out about war mode because the next thing I know, I was seeing grey, which was VERY depressing hehehe. I hated it (I still do to this day) because I had a hard time distinguishing what anything was. After I died, he led us to a healer to show us how to get rezzed - and the healer wouldn't rez me *lol*. I walked back and forth and back and forth and tried everything I could think of to get that healer to rez me but it wouldn't and all he could say was "how wierd" - and I wanted to cry because I was sure it was me that was messing up *LOL* (it probably was)

We went to another healer then and I got rezzed and then I had to go.

The next day I came back and us 2 newbies did a lot of exploring - we were sooo green. IN fact it probably took a good month for that to wear off hehehe.

I would never leave the town limits - I didn't like bad stuff, although sometimes my friend would bring us to his log cabin and let us stay there - and we'd work from it.

I have a memory of running from the cabin to the mountain, mining and finding out that ore weighed so much and running back to his cabin and smelting it like 2 or 3 ore at a time - only problem was, his cabin was like 2 screens away hehehe and of course with no skill, I hardly ever got ingots.

I also remember one time running from britain to trinsic with my newbie friend - she was tons more adventurous than I was. I remember passing red "players" and a chest in the road. We were running at a good clip and would have been fine but about the time I passed one of those 'players' said something like "oh ho, i hope no one tries to take me booty" and then I was too intrigued and just wanted to *look* in that chest to see what his booty was. I never made it to it as he killed me LOL. In tears I ran down to trinsic and tried to find the bank because I'd sent a massive panic to my male friend saying I was killed. Eventually I figured out that a player was trying to help me and he/she rezzed me then was going to help me find my stuff - we met my friend at the gates and soon after that 2 other players came along and asked if I'd lost my stuff and handed me a bag (which was amusing in itself because I thought they were just giving me only a small bit of my stuff and had kept the rest - not realizing they'd put it all into one bag). They asked me what had killed me and I said I didn't know - I was embarrassed to admit a red player had killed me (which would have been even more embarrassing since it was npc brigands if I'd told them it was red players *Lol*)

*grins* - another time I remember was after my newbie friend and I had our first house - placed in a hideous spot that spawned reapers and gargoyles and dire wolves and ettins and trolls and stuff - but it was close to britain, had been given to us, and we had our own house - we loved it even if we hated the spawn. One time while going for a run to britain, my newbie friend, whom seemed to have massively good tracking skills or something told me that a dire wolf was in the area. I absolutely vividly remember saying to her "dire wolf? we can handle it, how tough can it be?" Needless to say we were both OoooOOOOOoooing over that - and laughed ourselves silly over it hehee.

Oh there are just too many memories - but that's some of the very early ones - amazing how different the world looks when you're brand new...

 

[Gamma Zulu]

I started in October 1999.

The first thing I did was create a swordsman in Britain, and started running around. I was completely broke, but some lady blacksmith was kind enough to make me a complete set of chainmail a weapon, and about 3K in gold. I thought "wow, people are so nice in this game." (LOL)

As I wandered around Britain, I used the coin to buy enough skills from NPC's to lose my [young] status. I then heard someone at the forge say that a good way to make money is to go mine the mountain range near Minoc. So, I broke out my trusty map, and started on the road to Minoc (this is within the first hour or two of playing). While I was running along the road, 3 red names showed up, and the next instant I was dead. I watched them loot my body dry, and emote some nasty things about "ownerz" and "newbs". Then one asked me to come here, and he'd rez. He did rez, then killed me again. I wandered as a ghost up to Minoc thinking "man, people are really a-holes in this game."

 

[smip]

Sorry to hear about your cancer. I'm glad to hear your still around and playing /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Triezee]

4th qtr of 99 for me

My friend at work got me started then on it because that was all he talked bout was uo an got me intersted in the game.so i went out an bought it an started playing it.my friend help me on my first char i made a warrior in glow.taught to learn tailoring for a bit so i can kill animals for hies an wool to make shoes for gold .bad thing for me was thieves at bank steal my stuff hehe.i get so mad an start fights an remeber gettin guarded whacked 4-5 times within first hour of uo for me.when my skills gotten better i went to brit fought around that area.when i started to bank in brit now on i noticed alot of spawns (ratmen-lizardmen)hit bank killin alot of ppl at the bank an in town .i always laughed when i walked around seeing o0o0oo0o in brit.well thats my first few day of uo for me hoped ya liked my story.

ps (Sure do miss them spawns at bank seein alot of dead people)

 

[Guest]

July 1998. Ahh, I remember: Going in the provisioners shop and being unable to open the door to get out. heh -Running into a chicken and being too tired to move! -Seeing a "red" and wondering why is that person red and then going to a gray screen OOOOOooooOoo

 

[jat]

In July of 2000 I was at my neices house and she was alll in a tizzy because she wanted to place a house on some game she played. Seems that the login was taking forever and she said something about lag. First time I had ever seen UO was during house placement. I got back home and promptly went out and bought myself a copy. I started out in Haven and made many friends who day after day I hunted with. I still have several of those friends now.

Well the first eventful moment was losing young status and having to choose somewhere to go. I chose Moonglow, left messages on the bulletin boards all over the place for my Haven friends to see. I didn't even know about icq or any chat.

One day this girl named Rose comes up to me and asks if I would like to see her house. Sure says I. She gates to it and theres this huge monster outside it. Ettin and Orges were everywhere! I had never seen one but she dispatched it pretty quickly and says that they are easy. My char was a swordswoman and not very good as I was only two weeks old! Rose says she would like me to watch over her house for her and leaves. Now she either a. forgot to friend me or b. was getting her jollies at me since the orges and ettins decided that they were gonna eat me alive!

I kept getting killed over and over again so I thought ok...I will place my ship (took all my gold to buy it the day before) in the water nearby and sail off this godforsaken island! I couldn't live long enough to even put it in! After two days of dieing and getting really mad since I couldn't even play, I went out and bought myself a brand new account. Deleted that char without even knowing I could have used help or made a new char in a different slot.

I still look for a char named Rose or her/his? other char Uncle something or other. If you are out there...I really would like to kick your you know what! Wanna go to fel?

 

[Guest]

September 3, 2000

When I bought UO I opened it very carefully so that in case I found that I really didn't like it I could seal it back up and return it. Well, I kept that box for quite some time and never resealed it. lol

I remember logging in and going directly into the new player tutorial. I was in a room that had a big spider web in the corner that looked like some one was trapped inside. I then learned how to walk, buy from vendors and fight. I ran from the mongbat because it was kicking my butt.

I then went to Haven. I remember a lot from those early days. I quickly learned not to set my stuff on the ground to sort it out as I watched it quickly decay. I had a hard time figuring out who was a real person and an npc. My first kill was a rabbit. I tamed a dog. I killed a cat and felt bad that I did it. I ended up in a party with 2 other people and we killed headless together, then went to brit and saw a guy with a horse that had a "saddle" and followed him so we could find out how to get saddles for our horses.

*Sigh* the days of discovering UO for the first time. I wish I could do it all over again.

 

[Guest]

It was like maybe Jan/Feb of 2000 ...
I remember starting my character in I guess Haven, and people were trying to get me to give them my newbie ticket but I thought they were mean scammers or something. There were all these gate things all over the place and I went through one and ended up in Britain.

At some point, I decided that I wanted to see what another town was like so somehow I figured out that Skara Brae was southwest, and started walking. I found the pass and got ganked by three monsters right after I went through. It started raining and turned night at the same time too, so I thought for a long time after that that it was because it was a scarier place on the other side of that mountain, like the "forbidden forest" or whatever...

It wasn't very long after that, and I started down the road toward Trinsic ... and met the gazer that used to hang out by the bridge ... That trip was a bit more productive, because that's how I found the public moongate and started town-hopping. Eventually I settled in Vesper, and lived out of the inn there for a year or so.

 

[Snow Flake]

Mid October 1997 started at the vesper in......walked west ran into a spectre got smoked......i'll never forget that heart stopping sound that damn thing made just as i died. wondered around as a ghost...............logged of.......made another character.......got killed....did same to all 5 slots and figured out that I couldn't delete them.............ick.

I didn't know there was a bank box for 4 weeks.........lol man what fun.

Snow

 

[WarGrind]

Mid september 1997, logged into a VERY crowded inn in vesper, walked a screen, some guy attacked me and I got back into the guard zone and called guards on him, looted his folded cloth and sewing kit and two handed axe.



Revert AoS!

 

[Iain]

October 29th 1997

Created my first toon in Minoc, tried to find a bank (didn't know I had to go to Vesper) and while standing next to the bridge, a thief stole my 100 gold. There I was no skills and no gold. Found a fishing pole and sold fish.

I still have that character...

 

[Guest]

July 2000.

My 1st memory of UO is wandering around haven and seeing tones of NPC's just standing around and wondering what was going on.
My 1st memory of 'the main land' was getting sent to Britain and the second I arrived this guy runs up to me offering to help me use my newb ticket. I agree and I took a piece of ranger armour, a tunic I think it was. Later on I sold it to another guy for 150k. I know now I coulda gotten more for it but back then, to a newb, 150k was a lot &amp; what would I use the tunic for? Better have the $ than an ornament sitting in the bank I say.

 

[Lady Sexy Metal]

Sometime towards end of Sept in 1997 when it first came out. Like the day after since I had to send away for my limited edition box.

First thing I remember..(yes..it was an opening chest)..creating a character, named Aljebra (I'm a math teacher), destined to become a blacksmith to make her own armor. I had no idea what city to go into..so I choose Moonglow. Ok, wrong city...and someone nice helped me to the moongate and to Minoc. Showed me the bank. Showed me the forge. Showed me the mines in Minoc. And there I stayed.

I would make multiple run after run after run to the mines to mine, and at that time...EVERYONE was there, including ore thief..which could steal over 12000 sotnes of ore that used to be able to be put into your pack. The faint line of where the city limts were was the deciding line where the thief would go before they would get guardwhacked. Oh..the griefing.

Oh..the fun and memories.