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

[Guest]

July '98 (had to look at registration site /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif)

Things i remember pretty well from back then:
Tailoring bustiers/studded bustiers with my warrior to make cash for the first house. Bought large brick deed and small house deed. Placed small house and sometime later noticed that large brick deed somehow poofed on me.
Seeing my first gazer and running like mad when it casted on me.
Bit later on finding a dread spider close to our house, attacking it and almost getting blasted to oblivion... swore myself to never again touching them ... talk about broken promises /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif.

 

[smip]

I think you're confused... or I am. Were there even banks back then?? When did banks come into exsitance? Anyone remember? I know I didn't find out about banks for a very long time. (slow learner). You know it accually took me almost 2 years to figure out macros. I finally hit GM mining about 18 months after I started playing the game. *double click on shovel... click on mountain or cave groud* over and over again instead of last object last target LOL.

 

[Guest]

Hmmm. I started playing about 4 years ago, when I got sick of Everquest. I'd heard about UO, and decided to give it a try. The first character I made was a "warlock", as I had no idea to use an advanced template, and the first thing she did was attempt to tame a cat, after noticing that one of the skills was animal taming. Well, she accidentally attacked the cat instead of taming it, and was running around Haven (back before it got its facelift) with a little tiny cat killing her. Needless to say, she didn't take up taming. Eventually, she managed to get away from the murderous cat, and went to the bank, where she found a bottle of hair dye. I remember how tickled I was at the amount of choices available, and happily dyed what little hair she had bright red (she had the shortest short hair, and still does =D). Then, I did my newbie ticket, and picked a dye vat and dyes, thinking it was very special hehe, and proceeded to be very upset that the leather tunic I'd found wouldn't dye red. I wised up on my other character and got the ranger armor after learning that dye vats were easily available.

That was a fun day, newbiehood always has a certain magic to it =) The first thing I actually killed was a headless, hehe. My first character still gets played a decent amount too, especially after AoS brought in the paladin and she picked up chivalry.

 

[Nevermore]

I cant remember the date, sometime early 2000. My son had been playing UO since just after beta and after watching him spend long hours on the computer (with me wondering how in heck he could stay on so long) I started watching him play. Occasionally I would ask a question and he would answer as fully as he could, so eventually I became interested in playing. He made me a char on his account, an archer he named "Rose Blackhammer". As soon as I logged on, I shrieked! All the animals and I had NO idea they werent aggressive so I thought they were all going to attack me. After being reassured they weren't, I went exploring and ran into a nice person who offered to help me. He gated me to a vendor house, bought me armour, regs, a nice bow and some arrows, then we were promptly attacked by brigands and I was rez killed by them and lost all my stuff to decay. I finally made my way back to a town and logged off. The next day I tried again and things went smoothly for a few hours until (silly me) I ran into a gate someone brought up for himself and his friends and landed in the darkest place I could have imagined. I had heard of dungeons from my son but had never seen one, so after I died and got rezzed by one of the chars in the hunting party, I yelled "GET ME OUT OF HERE!!"...my son then sat beside me for a few days while I played to give me pointers and advice and I've been on my own since.

 

[Guest]

About this time, early October 1997. Met my borthers, Becket and August, in Jhelohm. Banged on dummies till about 25 then hit the Farm. This was Atlantic. Chesapeake wasn't around yet.

 

[Kylie Nightangel]

Febuary 14th, 2000

I remember getting killed by a mass of rat and lizardmen 3 seconds after I created my character. Hooray for in town raids! (I actually liked it, spank me harder)

 

[Iain]

Yes there were banks back then but only in a few cities and I think they only held gold (not sure about the gold part). I remember Vesper had a bank because I would run as fast as I could from Minoc to Vesper to bank the little bit of gold I got selling fish (about 25 gold per run). I was soooo afraid of the PK's that hung out between the two cities. Of course back then the PK's had less that 70 in any skill and usually less than 70 str and there were no 1x GM anythings yet.

Boy those were the fun days....

OK, here is the bank list from Fall 1997

Britain (West)
Nujel'm
Trinsic (West)
Vesper

 

[Guest]

Jan 27th 2000

i logged in at Yew, went to take a footstep, and lagged
had to reboot client and reconnect to be able to move

some things never change... /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

august 1998. my husband had been playing for 2 months & set up an account for me. things i remember:

man, it's hard to walk through these doors in the town npc shops. can't tell u how many bloody noses my char got from walking into walls.

go mining with husband. red appears. everyone runs.

sitting in the guild house with 3 or 4 other chars macroing for hours on end (attended macroing of course /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif )

gm'ing EI by trapping a wandering healer in the guild house. 1st skill i gm'ed. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

seeing ettins, trolls, & spiders outside the house & being scared to death to walk out of the house.

husband fighting a bunny & dying. hahaha.

vesper being invaded by trolls....oh the lag. lizardmen invading west brit....oh the lag. juo'nar & his undead army in trinny....oh the lag. the final battle in cove (i think it was cove)....oh the lag.

shard crashes. lots of them for hours at a time. kudos to osi for improving stability by leaps & bounds.

bugs. had em way bak then & still have em now.

 

[Guest]

Lets see....

Starting out in the city of Brit 4 years ago. I had 100 gold and some stupid rose I through away /php-bin/shared/images/icons/frown.gif LOL

Lizardmen and gazers invading the town. (in what is now know as fel)

Then finding Trinsic oooOOOoooo the invasions.

Being PK'd a lot for nothing. But I met some very good people too /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Animal1]

Day 1 of UO

Hideous, unrelenting lag... if you could even log onto extra massively overcrowded shard.

 

[Dor of Sonoma]

Ahhh...such memories! *grins*

The original owner of my account bought UO when it hit the shelves, October 11th, 1997. He kept trying to sell me on playing it at the time, but I was too busy with my work shedule to even take a look at it. Then one day, I was walking through the house, and I heard some incredibly lovely music. I followed it to its source at the end of the hallway, and asked, "What is that?!" "Ultima Online", came the answer..."Here, you want to take a look?" I stood behind him, staring at the screen, as he showed me scene after beautiful scene. As an artist, a longtime wargamer and participant in Renaissance/Living History reenactments, I was enthralled. And the music! I was sold, but still unable to try it out until June of '98, when I had a short break in my work schedule.

By then, I had inherited the account. He had moved, taking the CD with him, but leaving the game installed on my computer, along with the pertinent details for the account. I had no manual, no CD, knew no one to ask advice of...in short, I was utterly clueless. So! I decided that I would create a character who would assist parties of players (hey, I didn't know!) as they wandered through the land, fighting evil and promoting peace. Heh...to that end, I chose a template of the time...*winces*...a Bard, who would strum her lute, causing all nasty conflict to cease and Peace to ensue. I looked at the options included, and dismissed Provocation as being an Evil skill (I could not imagine wanting to make anything into a slave to do my bidding by causing harm to another) Therefore, Dor began at the Vesper Youth Hostel with a template and only two skills: Peacemaking, Musicianship, and...13 strength. (If she even sneezed too hard, she would die) *coughs*

In those days, Vesper was a veritable hub of activity, and the Warrior's Guild (with the four practice dummies) was literally standing-room only. You would have to wait your turn in line, sometimes for an hour or more, to get your chance at training there. I therefore moved into the Warrior's Guild for the next couple of months (I didn't know that you could log out in inns till much later), training fervently to raise my strength by training in every combat skill, interspersed with Music and Hiding. (I also didn't know that players hate the sound of practicing Bards...I actually found the sound appealing When I was ready to log out, I would sneak into the Warrior Guildmaster's room there and hide, then unroll my bedroll, light a campfire and log out. It was the only way I knew of, to log out. *laughs* I was so afraid that if the Warrior Guildmaster caught me trying to sleep in the back room, they'd ban me from the building or something.

My big, huge goal was to own and weild a Sword. A Real Sword, unlike my [practice] longsword. However, I was penniless and so I began cutting kindling with my newbie dagger and selling it to the smithy for...one gold piece per stack? Two? After quite some time of raising money in such a (tedious) fashion, I proudly walked to the armourer's in Vesper, and pointing to the shiny new Viking Sword that was glittering in the display case, purchased it. Imagine my dismay when I was too weak to even take a couple of practice swings with it...*laughs*

Oh man, I have so many more memories about starting out...the hushed feeling of great anticipation when the chest would slowly open as the theme music beagn to play, revealing the ruby gem to press..."Entering Britannia..." always such an exciting moment...! Learning how to walk, by trial and error (I had no manual, remember?)--took me two days of trying, before I could enter a doorway, and then...omigods! "Being perfectly rested, you shove through..." "SHOVE?!" I would never shove! Shoving is so rude! I spent weeks abjectly apologizing to anyone I "shoved", certain that they would kill me for being so rude, if I didn't make it immediately apparent that it was an accident...

 

[Jasco_GL]

I started in late Sept 97. I remember going into the Moonglow tailor shop and the only think I knew players could do was try to steal things. I tried and was guard whacked. Made another character and at least several more before I had a clue what could even be done. I do vividly remember people walking around asking "What do we do".

I had read about UO all summer and didnt even realize I could apply for the public beta. The posting on UO made the game seem so very deep and full of detail... I walked around looking at everything closely, al la puzzle games. Talking to NPC's hoping for 'clues' etc.

Making gold seemed to be an impossible dream. I remember finally figuring out I could chop trees for wood and making carpenter tools to sell in Yew for 6 gp each! I remember revelling in glory when I made a whopping 300 gp in an HOUR. I knew I could afford armor then. Later the big goal became a horse. And a replacement hours later for my dead horse. And the replacement for that one when it went wild. And a replacememnt for that one when Honest John bought my horse, but I transferred it first... and he didnt pay. No more open trust in UO.

During my chopping glee in Yew someone came up to me and said "Hey, how did you make GM tinker". I had no clue I was anything skill-wise except my doll title, and I hadnt seen that in a while either. I looked, and sure enough, I was a GM tinker. Apparently it was a bug and I was never aware of the bug, nor my GM level. I was happy making 6 gp scorps to sell.

In those days, I would insta-res like all people I knew, as saving my stuff was more important than skill. I didnt care about skills, I wanted a horse and armor, and the eternal replacements of the same.

As for banking... for the first few weeks the bank was purely verbal. The relics of those days are still here: withdraw XXX & balance. I'll never forget how spooky it was when I tried depositing gold by dropping it on a banker.

The house prices were insane, 11k for a small type and the rediculouos price of 256k for a castle. At the rates I made gold, 256k was as affordable as my paying the US defense budget IRL.

The first time I saw a ship I ran along the shore yelling at the seaman wildly... Eventually I made enough gold from sewing leather armor, killing lesser monsters and such to buy a ship. I was a tamer-taylor-macer-blacksmith-sailor-tinker and none of my skills were over 50 or so for a good while. I remember in late October my str was still 45 or so.

It took 4 months to get to the magical 60... the day you could proudly strut PLATE! I put all the hodgepodge of mixed armor types on and proceeded to hunt in Shame. I was vas flammed by a guy in gold plate arms, white skirt and a gold plate helm... can almost remember his name. He became a notorious pk on Pacific later. I wasnt PKed very often, as I never walked the roads, but stayed totally in the woods.

I saved enough to place a house west of Shame, the second in the NW area where the beach is. My neighbor was 4 screens away in the woods. Mine was on the beach, as I was a seaman!

One day, I was leaving Despise after a particularly great DAY of hunting and had nearly 1000 gp and some who knows what magical items. I stopped in the woods outside to see what was in a bag placed on the ground. A guy stepped out and vas flam, para vas flam and I was dead and being looted. I resolved then and there to learn about this recall thing. I walked everywhere, or sailed.

I contacted a friend, Ardath (some old pac people might remember him, of KGB) and asked him to show me this recall thing. A couple weeks later I join KGB and my innocent days on UO were over. Joining any guild expands a players game so much, i never recommend to new players that they join a guild, or they will lose some of the magical days of innocence. KGB was an anti-pk guild, and was honorable then. No comment on what they later became.

I remember my early days so fondly, I have since enjoyed helping other new players try to enjoy the privilege of a non-jaded game outlook, full of mystery, wonder and surprise. It still happens - just dont pile the wealth on them!!! Show them how to make bandages, how to do the skills they will need to survive while new. Let them ENJOY the hardships of poor skills, not knowing what can and cant be done, let them discover on their own. Dont rob em of their innocent UO childhood /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

An example is Julius Magnus of the Highland Guard on Great lakes. He played UO 'solo' for a while and when he discovered Highland Guard on a guild event on GL, the whole game changed for him. There was suddenly magic, structure and purpose to so many things he took for granted. He never knew players played UO in the RP style. It was even hard for him to tell whether Priam was the local RP or what.. (he had to ask me).

He played for a couple weeks and he is now in Army boot camp IRL. I know he will enjoy the magic of his memories while he is away from a computer and will come back to UO ready to continue the dream as soon as he can. The discovery of community is something everyone should try at some point, just as they should try Guilds, and the countless other opportunities UO offers.

Sorry for the length...

 

[Erskyne]

Started March 2000 in Cove, had some co-workers who owned several properties there and they were nice enough to give me a small marble workshop. Died alot, managed to survive most Pk attacks by running for my life and or hiding, you see, I didn't know there was a Trammel. I had given my friend my account name and password, he set me up in Cove, Fel with the house. You are wondering why I had given him that vital information? because I was clueless and he asked me to trust him. He did'nt let me down so I started the game better than most, with a house. My funniest memory is being chased around my house by brigands , at the time I thought were real people, and I was trying to talk to them. LOL /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[TheflY of LS]

First of all, I want to say how I truly enjoyed everyone's posts about this topic. I have so many fond memories of the exact same things that you all mentioned. I suppose my first memory was back in the beta-test in '97 and enjoying my newfound wealth of being a miner and selling the ingots. And then after a long day of mining, slowly making my way back to town, only to be killed by the Miner-PKs. For the new players, pickaxes don't do a whole lot of damage against them. =] Thank you all for making UO so enjoyable for me. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

-TheflY of LS, Legendary Smith, Elder Tailor

 

[Nevermore]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

A worthwhile thread...made me laugh

 

[N49ATV]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

Now that is some deep digging. A thread that is over 6 years old ressurected.

 

[Nevermore]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

Now that is some deep digging. A thread that is over 6 years old ressurected.

Hehe, yeah, I don't post much and I was looking at my past posts and came across this one...reading it brought up some good memories and gave me a few laughs, so I thought I'd try to revive it.

 

[Salya Sin]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

This is exactly the kind of post that should be resurrected! I laughed my tail off. Some of these experiences are fabulous and brought back some memories.

Getting killed by a Mongbat! Now that is something every new player has experienced

I started in Nov. of 2002. My first giddy memory is logging on in December, at that time I had no house and logged in the Inn in Moonglow... and finding the holiday watch in my pack. I double clicked it and it told me Britannia time and for some reason... that rocked! I have yet to care less what time it is in Britannia... but right then... I cared and was happy to have a way to find out.

 

[Uvtha]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

Xmas morning 97 (my own account anyway, I kinda played on my friend who was in beta). Tamed a pig or something, and was really excited about it, eventually left town, and killed myself in someones fire field on accident.

 

[Pfloyd]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

My oldest memory is from closed beta when guards didn't auto destroy corpses and i found one north of vesper and it killed lizardmen that were after me. i sent in the bug report and then I looted some cool armor and weapons before the server got reset and they had fixed it already.

 

[maroite]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

December 25th 1997.

I first logged in and went east of Brit to explore a bit. It was christmas and I remember there being reindeer around.

I found a troll, and when it hit me for half my hp I ran back to town. It followed me and I remember as it walked past one of the reindeer the deer actually killed it I got to loot its body!

It was rather an exciting time!

 

[QueenZen]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

The very first day was tiring, learning to use a computer, learning how to use a mouse AND learning how to move my chr. too. My son had come home on leave from the Navy, he bought me a computer, made my first chr. with swords archery, tactics, and mining to up STR. I didnt even know what dex str and int were till he told me. Most of day one was learning how to walk the chr. and chew gum at the same time. My son bought me UO cuz he had been playing it since beta and thought we could hang out together in a game, while he was away, in the USN, which we did do.

Learning that the UO world had two moons, felucca and trammel and one was always waxing the other waning, and to get a moongate to work for me, to get me from point a to b, meant I had to be a math geek and scientist !

Shouting : "recsu recdu" ! Dodging the hordes of mongbats all over Moonglow, to get to the spiffy squares, to get on the one that took me to the north most mage shop, to shout..." recsu recdu " so I could land in Papua....to make my running jog from the Papua stables all the way to Delucia.

The lost lands had just come out shortly after I began, so I spent a lot of time in Delucia, fleecing sheep for wool to sell to npcs, killing cows, upping archery and swords on the livestock and sometimes whacking the lil orcs outside ...when not being pkd out there.

I still make that run though from Papua to Delucia, to this day.

I also learned that the must have been a Santa Claus, prior to my arrival to UO, cuz while I was not in the world then in 97, I had heard that Santa found out whom was naughty or nice and the naughty ones got coal for that Christmas...and all the nice folks were upset cuz whatever they got was not as cool as the coal ... so I had heard, from them then, almost 1 yr. old vets that began, prior to me.

 

[LadyKeroOfAtl]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

January 2001

I walked through a gate by accident..
Didn't have night sight yet or really know what it was, so all I saw was I was on the edge of a "Mountain" and had multiple dragons eat me.


Of course later I realized it was Destard.

 

[Alezi]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

'99 Summer.. was 10 years old, made a tamer char. Someone gated me to the Lost Lands, tamed a couple of ostards and died to a wyvern or something.

 

[Mitzlplik_SP]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

I`m not sure of the date since this isn`t the account I started UO with. I started about 2 months before Tram was introduced. One of my first memories was being killed in the woods outside of Skara Brae by a ratman named Firecracker.It took a few days of playing to realize that it was no ratman and I was actually pk`d. If anyone remembers the overland spawn there used to be.....chaotic just to get inside your little cottage sometimes,hehe.

Also remember a thief on Pac named Fingers McGee that dry looted my boat right next to Vesper bank as I looked on UNABLE to kill him,lol. Peaple just stood and watched while I went grey trying to kill him. After he folded up ma boat,he killed me and moved on. I lost alot that day,but it was nothing that didn`t get replaced. It was those kinds of times that I remember fondly. I didn`t blame the thief for taking all my stuff. I blamed myself for having the key in my pack and screwing around to long out in the open.

Well,just a couple of my earliest memories. Well another that stands out is me hitting a Tram stone right after Tram was introduced and I was gated to a HUGE land mass with ZERO housing. I could have placed 3 castles back than or more but I was to naive to realize what I had stumbled upon. I gated back to Fel and said to my friends,man theres nothing there. LOL ahhhh to be young and dumb again.

Best times I`ve ever had online.

 

[yuggie]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

I can't remember the date, but it was before Trammel existed. I remember having to walk everywhere and how gigantic the world seemed. I was killed constantly by red players, so I stopped playing for a while thinking that was all the game was about. I started back up after Trammel and became completely addicted, playing every chance I got. If you had told me that I would still be playing today I would have never believed it, but here I am! Thank you OSI for the constantly changing game, it's hooked me now and I can't let go

 

[Sean]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

Started in beta Sept, 1997. Was actually in game playing with my 3 RL brothers, they dragged me down to Jhelom to die fighting chickens. Never laughed so hard in my life.
It was a world of wonder back then and am still paying for the same account 12 odd years later. ( Actually I have both accounts from that time that are still active)

 

[prizim618]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

The week of Easter in 1998, was dating a guy in the Navy and was in Washington state visiting him, he was leaving to go to the base and said if you need something to do i have a game on my pc you might like, here is the log in info have fun.. I logged on, he had a miner set up in Minoc and I mined all day... realized the first few minutes that people could steal from ya... and was also paranoid that I would lose something of his that was valuable...I was hooked and when I went back to NY state I bought the game and have been playing ever since. Joined Molten Lava, then Isle of Avalon when ML split up, and now I just float...lol

 

[Wakiza]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

When the current devs were still in diapers!

 

[LadyMargaret]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

I remember starting about 2 weeks after release date, I preordered but it took that long to get up to Canada.

One of my first memories is finding out I could use Item ID on the stuff the NPCs had, so I was buying Power and Vanq weapons and reselling them to players. I made a lot of money that way. [for those that don't remember, or weren't here then, magic stuff was just magic stuff until it was ID'd. Players would collect loot and sell it to the NPCs.] I had my own little corner of the market for awhile, lol.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

Leaving the Trinsic North Gate with my terribly named character for the first time, back in 1997.

 

[Alezi]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

"The bone knights appeared in waves. They hit hard, and I wouldn't have had a chance to kill them by myself. Sometimes I was authorized to loot a skeleton corpse, and they carried most valuable items: A large pile of gold (around 200 coins) and different pieces of desirable plate armor."

"We had been fighting in the room for quite a while, and I had gathered several pieces of plate armor and the gigantic sum of 2300 gold pieces, when some of the adventurers left us. With only the two of us, it was quite dangerous to stay, because it usually took at least 2 or 3 fighters to engage a bone knight."

http://www.aschulze.net/ultima/stories/story026.htm

Those were the days

 

[Lord Drakelord]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

I did not have internet till 99 at home, played on a single phone line connection, every time it rang in a incoming call I would be disconnected. In April of that year my daughter got me UO-R, I been playing the home versions of Ultima since my retirement in 92 from the US Army. Of course my daughter had to play, a fact I found when logging in on other shards she would have characters already made there.

Back then they had this warrior mage option so the first character born on LS was macer/mage. The first day out, the character died while exploring the sewers of brit, having made it thru to the swamps outside Papua and running into the Ophidians, yes was a young but was thinking they did not look that bad we attacked and promptly got our butts handed to us.

I did not stick around LS that much, because back then LS was crashing every five minutes, so I made characters on other shards, my daughter played LS and later Sonoma, I went to Siege and other shards, Later once LS had settle a bit I went back and made other characters and would transfer those same ones to Sonoma in 2004.

My daughter quit playing couple years ago, mainly to going back to school, her job and raising her two kids alone, but my grand daughter is learning to play and has a tamer/spell weaver in training on Sonoma. My wife now also plays, got her in the game a few years back, so we have a lot of fun now in game.

 

[Saphireena]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

Wow this is an old thread!

It was the fall of 1999 and I remember disliking my first week in the game because of lack of direction. Having mainly played single player games, the experience of the game not guiding me along a predefined path was new. Now I had to create my experience all on my own. Very soon it would be this very quality that would make me become so addicted and in love with UO and later on so many other MMOs.

There were new player tickets and I happened to find someone to do the exchange thingie with. Thanks to that person's advice, I wisely chose the ranger armor versus one of the worthless items in the list and set out to test it out feeling literally indestructible as I ventured out to the forest to kill some ettins. At the time, ranger armor was not blessed, which would soon explain why a couple of red names appeared on the screen and started attacking me. In a huge panic I fled for my life and with my heart pounding and hand shaking, made it to the safety of town. After that the ranger armor popped straight into the bank for special occasions only! I still have that same chest piece safely tucked away. *sighs wistfully*

One of the most epic moments in my first week was when me and my friend crept down into the Britain sewers. She'd discovered these huge rats earlier that day and excitedly told me about all the gold we could make killing them. So down we ventured, deeper and deeper into the sewers until we came upon a strange tunnel. Daringly we investigated and came upon a swamp. Little did we know at the time that we'd found the Lost Lands. For the next hours we explored these lands, utterly enchanted. Ridable llamas! That was... until we realized that we hadn't seen any towns for hours and were thoroughly lost. During the first week of game play, newbies tend to be faithful to the notion of logging off inside an inn "to be as safe as possible" so we started to panic when we couldn't find any signs of civilization. I think we must have spent half an hour genuinely fretting, when suddenly we saw someone ride by. We ran after them in a panic and the person was nice enough to take us to the nearest town, Delucia. Delucia would soon become the main place we spent time for the next year or so, and even today it's still one of my favorites, if for no other reason than those wonderful sheep!

 

[Kallie Pigeon]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

The actual first time I played was about a month or two after UO was officially released. I was at my friends house and he let me play his fisherman. I started off fishing out of his house. Which I thought was cool. I would have loved a house like that in real life. Then I ran around doing things learning how to work the character. I made plans to get my own computer and shortly after that my father got rid of his old work computer and my friend beefed it up so that UO would run on it them helped me get my online and I started Uo on my own. Prior to actually playing I would watch my friend play for hours. When the beta came out my friend told me there was a game that took 500 megabits of space and we were thinking who would want to give up that much room on the computer to a game (besides his brother who played from beta)?

 

[angelus aconitum]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

I started with UO:R and the first two things I remember is that I thought that the game is by far too dark (I didn't knew about light sources, so it was pitch-black during nights in UO) and the next thing I remember is that I talked half an hour to a wandering person without any response from that guy who turned out to be a wandering healer, so it was an NPC I talked to.
Oh, another thing I remember: The lovely music was so addictive. I really miss the old music and sometimes I still hear to the old songs.

 

[Xenobia]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

It was late 1997 and my X husband (of all people) talked me into trying this cool new game. He explained how to make my first character on Lake Superior who's name was Xenobia. I remember running around for 20 minutes trying to get the bank box to open and then I remember my X (Dorbon was his char name) and I running down a road outside of town and some guy attacked my X so I start attacking the guy. My X yelled at me for getting involved and I was like "uh, I just helped you kill this guy!" That was probably the one and only time I ever killed anyone and survived to tell about it Some of the guilds I was in were ToB, SGP and am currently the proud owner of NKD (originally started by Victoria's Secret) After playing for many years, I had several accounts and got a wild hair one day and decided to give that account to some poor girl in town who was asking if anyone was selling an account. I charged her nothing for it. I literally gave away that account and could kick myself for it!!! I have been a faithful UO addict since. Ultima Online has got me through some tough times in my life. I could come home from work, log in and see my friends and literally laugh until I cried. It has been my "good book" for a lot of years and I will never stop loving it.
EDIT: Notable friends...Ethan Hunt (deceased), Fever, Lexie, Hiro Jukinzoku, Onyx Ironhoof, Black Angel, Lara, Morxeton, Kona, Lord GorMach VonLeal, Iceberg Slim, Lord Corwyn, Lord Accident, Hemmingway, Victorias Secret, Coley, Tessa, Foxy Roxy, Mithryl Elves, YoSmith, Sweatshop Kids, Lord OZZY, Nick Blinko, Amythyst Dawn, Prophet, BabyDoll, Buzz Aldridge, Caro, Garr, Hephaestus, Jarun Thaks, Jeff, Jinx, Lord Mortivex, Mandilin Scarce, Pimp of Skyhood, Quaid, Rackhir, Rayzor, Ridgey, Rodack OneEye, Te'Gan, Tiny, Vlademar, Venezia, Phoenix...Just to name a few!
EDIT2: Those of you who did not know me as Xenobia knew me as DKNY

 

[Fizzleton]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

All I know: It was before Trammel was build.

Found UO on a box with other games, and tried it. Had no clue how to play that "game"; I was so irritated standing around in Britain that I asked myself what kind of game that was! I didn't get the logic! So I logged off, very confused.

But somehow, it had hooked me. My adventurer learned that he could manipulate the world, and this was quite a thrill. So I went to the woods near Britain, when suddenly something came near that called itself "a snake". I didn't realize that it attacked me (just heard the noise it made with it attacks), and eventually got the "you have been poisoned!" message. I saw my health bar drop, and in panic I ran around for help (didn't know the poison concept in uo and how to cure it). Then I saw a NPC named "xxx the healer", and gladly ran to him, since I found logic in this encounter and was sure that I would get help. So I stood in front of him and waited for something to happen, but the healer did nothing. In panic I thought: You need to say something! And I tried everything I was allowed in that short time before my death, including all variations of HELP! or POISON! I was able to form.

I was really pi**ed after dying, but then the wonder happened: I was turned to live again! However, I didn't relate it to the healer, but instead thought that it would happen to you anytime you die! I really needed the help of another player to get the basic game mechanisms, including the function of this special NPC called "xxx the healer"...

 

[Otis Firefly]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

oct 97, myself and 2 other rl friends log into UO for the first time directly into a fire field and someone saying, Welcome to UO as they looted the people for the newb char cash,...from there we went to a secluded place to train on some training dummys..while training we would snoop each other for fun, attack each other etc...decided to go for a run through the woods to see whats out there!..picking up weapons whenever we found them and attacking each other for the hell of it...eventually coming across some players!!, we thought kewl!!, hey hows it going? one of us said!...was responded with, you guys are a$$'s and bastards and stay away and they would run...couldnt figure out why..so we kept going and saw a city in the radar (trinny)..decided to go see whats up in this big place.....as soon as we got close to the walls BAM, guard kills all of us, standing around wondering wtf just happend? and why everytime we try to get inside BAM guard wacked??...finally someone comes by and answers it for us lol...turns out we were dread lords from attacking each other and stealing from each other ect, and here we thought we just had really kewl red names all along...lmao!, thats my first memory

 

[IgorBR]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

It was in 99. I walked to Britain Graveyard and got killed for some skels.

 

[Lord Gareth]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

September 98? Logged onto Chesapeake (Sweet Dreams Inn) Was told to follow some guy who was going to have me join Lord Blackthorn. Another came along. Blackthorn was sitting on this throne overlooking the water and we were told to attack him at the same time and we would join the Chaos guard or whatever.

So the other newbie and I did as instructed then met our first black and white screen. I lost my 100gp. The guy I died with stayed a good friend of mine for years to come and we built small homes against the mts by the Brit GY. The end

(Yes I was that stupid )

 

[Ahuaeyjnkxs]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

first day of beta... I don't remember when that was, but it was fun to run it on a 14.4k modem !

I loved the music... and the whole game, we had spent months prior to release with my bunch of thieves friend, we had a plan to rob the bank bare, with info from insiders on the alpha.

When I showed up... noone of the 50 or so guild showed up.

I ended up begging for my first weapon.

And it didn't work at all with the people, so I really learned the skill begging and finally got on my own. I tought... I'm not welcome here.

 

[KalVasTENKI]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

Leaving the Trinsic North Gate with my terribly named character for the first time, back in 1997.

Hahaha , that's great.. " Mad Biker " pretty intimidating if you ask me man!

 

[Meadow2]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

March 1999

I remember creating my chr at the salty dog inn. I remember my friend telling me to follow them and i didnt know how to walk yet lol. After learning all the basics. I remember being in Occlo all the time chopping trees with my bowcrafter and selling all my stuff to npcs. The first time i was killed it was by a rabbit lol.... Sometimes i wish i could have those days back. I wish for all that excitment and learning new things. I also remember i tamed a panther and that panther went everywheres with me. I even cried when it died. My two friends were on top of our tower fighting and one of them cast EQ. My friend felt sooo bad.

Anyways thats what i remember.

 

[Jesara]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

April 2000
A friend from another game had been trying to get me to try UO for months (now I wish I'd listened!). He had me start in Skara and my first memory is wondering how he possibly learned how to find things there. Then I found out how huge the world really was! I never quite understood the moon phases at moongates, but it sure made for exciting trips. My first death was a snake in Moonglow and I didn't understand what had happened. Times have changed, but I still enjoy the game almost 10 years later (and the other game was gone for me by May 2000.. hehe).

 

[altarego]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

Some of my first memories:

1. Wanting to be a mage, and dying to a few mongbats a few paces outside of moonglow.

2. Realizing that I could create 3-4 other characters and hide their 500 gold in the bag outside of moonglow and come back in a few minutes later with my original character and snatch it up, a la the loophole in U3.

3. My first real fight with a lizardman, with 10 other players...and getting totally beat down.

4. Picking cotton in Delucia, when the spawn for it was so high and I could get 80gp ber pale. I had enough for a small 8x8 house in like a week.

5. Placing my first 8x8 house *ever* in the "Maze" just to the east and north of the main house over the valley, when the housing "check" only looked at the four corner positions, and ignored rocks and dips in the terrain.

6. Losing my silver war axe of power to this silly guild outside of covetous who raided my body. And spending hours getting attention from the guild members so that I could woo them into getting my weapon back....and eventually joining their guild

I've played on and off since beta...but I was probably playing the Ultima franchise since before most of you were born. I should probably qualify and say that I was at the University of Arizona, when UO was first released in beta. So I had full broadband access to UO.

 

[Gem]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

Started during beta, early September or late August.

My main memory is intense lag....it was so bad sometimes you could be killed by an assertive mongbat.

By December I placed my first house (a small). I was so thrilled!

Oh and I had a vendor TENT. Yes--we had tents. They were cool.

Used to wander around picking up reagents off the ground. There was no LRC or commodity deeds...People used to line up at the mage shops buying them...

And my first fight...it may have been with a rabid bunny.....

Good times

 

[Lady Arwen]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

April 2004

I dont remember too much about my first day in UO, I remember making my first character named Arwen, a tamer, which is still my main character to this day. Then I remember just walking around Britian, not really sure what to do next. I was wondering around outside of Britian and ran into a mogbat, when I saw it coming after me I started running, I thought it would kill me. Which it very well might have at the time, considering I didnt know how to kill it.

 

[Shantia]

Re: What was the date you first played UO (online) and what was the first thing you r

I got my first taste of UO in 98, i used to sit in my dad's room on his bed watching him play it. He would just simply do 'busy' work cause he didnt really want to play but didnt want to feel bad for paying for it monthly and not play it hehe. He would go sheer sheep, pick regs up off the ground. Sometimes he'd go to my uncle's house in the swamp and kill lizard men with him. But what really got me was sheering the sheep and making it into cloth i thought that was the coolest thing ever! My dad finally made me a character on his account, and i would spend hours making cloth. Occationally a nice soul would let me use their black dye tub to dye my goods and then i'd sit at the bank selling black cloth. I realize now a lot of people just bought it from me for the role playing aspect i guess, but man it was fun!

Now i own 5 accounts that i keep active, only 2 that have been perm active since back in the day though.