Ah, ok then. I wasn't aware of the data loss. I remember I revisited the forums in 07 and was on my E Hime account, the reregistration date was in 2003 or 04 I believe due to some kind of bug in the forums, however I could still find posts I made with that account name before I reopened the account. Interesting
So I'm not surprised that there have been hiccup's since then.
As far as the whole freeshard thing goes, I would first like to state again that I don't play UO in any form anymore and havn't in years. I feel compelled to revisit these forums on the rare occassion though because the game was once such a huge part of my life/childhood. However, I would like to add onto the topic that its not really a debate about freeshards being better then EA/mythic shards. Rather, it is entirely opinionated and subjective. There are many freeshards out there that can and will capture that pre-pub16 and even pre-ren feeling that oldschoolers miss. However, myself included, you will find that it is short lived in most cases. I've come to realize that this game, in all its greatness, is not something I can ever come back to. I guess I'm kind of like a crack fiend looking for that first high again. Ha.
What really makes UO great for most of us is the people that you enjoy it with. I don't know any of my old UO companions anymore. Most have moved on or I've just lost touch with them. I reactivated my UO account a couple of times actually to run around and see how things are these days. It just seems like a completely different game. Everything costs so much money now to that it is lineage2-esque. I feel like I'm playing some korean grindfest when I revisit UO now. So I did what anyone else in my situation would do having good tunes with empty pockets. I ebayed enough gold to purchase a nice plot in fellucca and re-equip my main tune. I got a large marble house right next to the Jhelom farms, where my old clannies use to be in Cats.
After little over a week, I realized that people were to preoccupied with getting their neon hued items of +23 insta-death to actually play the game. No one could spare the time of day to me. My gripes with everything are way to extensive to get into the details, and I'm realizing this as I'm writting so I'm going to cut it short. But to summarize, I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you're unhappy with the state of the game, seriously, stop giving EA your money. I did. There is life after UO. I deactivated my account way back in 04 or 05 and havn't REALLY looked back since one breif revisit. If you have a real itch for MMO's, I guess you can cling to your hope. There isn't anything out there that brings back the feel of the old days. I had fun with Lineage 2 for awhile, but that was it. Vanguard was good fun but to bug-ridden. And everything feels like a grind-fest for that matter.
I've been patiently waitting for Darkfall Online for the past five years and will continue to do so. The MMO itch is getting pretty bad for me. I mean hell, here I am griping about an MMO I havn't even played in years. There are plenty of other great genre's of games out there with great games to boot. But I like to think myself a veteran of all styles of games, and as such they all seem cookie-cutter clones now. If I don't get an MMO here soon to seriously grab hold like the UO of old did once upon a time I think it will be time for me to throw in the video game towel. Perhaps I'll take up a "real" hobby, like sports. Lol. Probably not
