I remain duo sharded still. I am and will no doubt remain ChesaSiege. There are reasons for this though.
Upon Chesapeake as Lord Gareth and Jhym have stated there is HISTORY going back to nearly the birth of Ultima Online itself. I began on Chesapeake back in the day right before the lost lands were coming down the pike. A guild I was in way way back then oft defended PaxLair as it was our neighbors across the bridge there. And I DO like roleplaying in game especially with my very first ever created chr. in UO. So nothing is quite special as to hear someone like Mayor Gov. Winfield shout "hail my queen* to my QZ on Chesapeake.
The rich history of player run towns esp. fel side PaxLair where Lord British himself blessed a sign over one of the buildings...ie the history of UO with Richard Garriott is still alive there if ya look. Last year when SOMEONE pulled the April Fools joke that a Twr. fell in Pax that had stood since 98 I rushed to where the rubble was to have been located in Pax ready to mourn the passing of very rich history wondering why oh why did anyone just let it fall....a building created special back when EA UO actually helped create things into player run towns that were very very specially created unlike any other shard. When I got there I did find out it was an April Fools joke posted on the forums here and whilst overcoming my fainting and mourning glad to see the twr. still there...someone NEEDS TO DIE lol for that April Fools Day joke that even I fell for...cuz it upset me so that PaxLair the special towers would fall is horrid...so MUCH HISTORY yrs of it standing right there. . why would anyone let that happen there and I was glad it did NOT happen and was just a joke. Roleplayers history and my OWN uo history reside on that shard Chesapeake and yes ALL MY STUFFS too.
History players whom began or ya met along the way over time.. does not make the game..but history which is linked to your own entry timing into UO always remains special to me as well as any folks remaining that were around then remain special on both shards...so many old feluccan player run towns of Ches. and the original lost lands their citizens, are forever tied to my ches. characters...similarly are KNIGHTS tied to my birth on Siege...and Shire and Iantown..all thriving when I went to Siege but not thriving now, yet many of those whom were tied to those towns still play Siege ... ya are forever linked to *the past* sometimes or the friends ya met along the way at those times still playing, and that may be what keeps someone on any shards that which remains of that community. To see again folks gathering, all in kelmo's pub former Iantown quite recently.. was very special indeed.
In 2004 I did make a newbie on Siege..........and got hung up addicted to that shard TOO. I can not explain it...some of the old magic that was UO before ITEM$ LUNA and AOS and all that resides upon SIEGE...and smaller population makes for tighter community as well...back in 98 UO chesapeake every one knew every one too...were lots of folks playing but everyone seemed to know everyone else...and that is how Siege is everyone knows everyone else and I DO like that...everyone's rep yay or nay is molded made remade everyone knows whom they can or can not count upon even an enemy in *role* may be one you can count on more or less *OOC* out of chr. so to speak.
While roleplaying itself is not huge on Siege by any means, it does have the few pockets of folks whom do rpl yet. Siege also is more challenging...ya start with nothing and you work your chr. up to whatever ya wanted them to become...and you soon find you have as much STUFF there as ya have elsewhere.
more of a challenge cuz it is more difficult ya loose more, ya die more.
I myself em ANTI INSURANCE on BOTH SHARDS I am not insured lol... but for myself it was part of what UO was originally about... building a citizen up in the pixel world wherever, will they ever survive will they ever own a home...will they ever have GP in the bank enough to one day maybe donate to some new new citizen...game to me was originally about CHALLENGES, facing all odds pre trammel my chrs. survived and made it on Chesapeake in gp, things stuffs property and reputation...could I do so again from scratch on .......that HARD SHARD fel only ruleset of Siege ? Found out I could...now I can no more leave those chrs. behind than my original ones...I like em all...upon the shard their pixel lives live and or die and those shards be Chesapeake and Siege BOTH.
We were not supposed to be born into the UO World on some silver platter.
We were to face challenges, hardships, newbieness, and to be challenged, we could die, be killed, loose stuff, and we are to work & keep at it develop our skills or change em, to make our chrs. viable, at whatever skills, wherever they *we* choose to create and live out their pixel lives.
I did so back in the day UO on Chesapeake and in 2004 also tried to do the same again on Siege...so it is my chrs. their struggles, that they each went thru to *become* or to grow up and mature, to get their own earned reputations, upon two shards...those pixel chrs. are why I remain...two sharded, the newbie Queen Zen of 98 a warrior to this day, pre trammel Chesapeake, and the Miranda of 2004 pure defenseless crafter Siege are my two most favorite chrs. to play.
EACH chr. is very very unalike, yet they struggled as newbies each one once and *made it*, I felt they succeeded* where I put them...cuz UO lets us DO this... and that is what makes UO still addictive to many customers. They build our world, we make our places IN this world and grow very fond of our lil pixel peeps lives where we grew them up, which may be very unalike per shard we play upon. To me that is what Ultima Online is all about..making a pixel life for whatever chr. we create wherever and feeling we succeeded at it, did not give up...and thus we WIN UO by becoming..as we had hoped for our lil pixel citizens wherever we placed them to become respected pixel citizens.
So pardon the long post novel but I enjoy BOTH SHARDS for their own uniquenesses, rich history and people *communities* playing upon them so vastly different yet oft quite alike.
I am and no doubt will remain... a citizen of... ChesaSiege.
