There cant be more then a few left. I often think back to 98', all the great people, the vibrant community, good times long gone. Those people moved on, a few like myself hung in there a while longer.
To be frank, the UO reigns where handed to rank amateurs when Garriot left. I recall an event (98') that to me brought home the power of having a community based game.
I had purchased a set of Heavy archer armor from a blacksmith who often sat on his porch and smithed for his neighbors. His name was King Golden eye. He had a nice house up by a shrine. Between chasing off the random PK's that always wondered by he would craft goods.
As I left Brit on my journey to get repairs (not trusting the smiths camping the local forges) I ran into a seer leading a group of adventurers off to stop a white dragon that had laid waste to a local village.
The harbor was filled with fishermen spinning tales of messages in bottles and treasure. The local beggars where competing with the thieves that where rummaging through people's pockets. Newbies sparred in the streets trying to one up each other.
About half way through my journey cries of battle could be heard up ahead. I approached cautiously and saw a murderous mage attacking another. I quickly entered the battle to assist my fellow traveler and with two powerful blows the mage quickly fell. I talked briefly with my fellow traveler as we picked through the now deceased's pockets and discovered my new companion was also heading to King Golden Eye for repairs.
The rest of the trip was uneventful (If you ignore the temperamental ogre we ran into). We reached our destination, met up with our smith and got repairs.
While this trip doesn't sound like anything special it was clearly obvious to me the power of having a community based game, one where the development team provides TOOLS that allow the community to design content and shape it.
Sadly when Richard left the new developers failed totally to understand this concept and began to drive wedges into the community. They pitted one group against the other, they spread people out so far you could play for hours and never see another. The imposed a system where the game became item based. This placed real world value on items, which promoted cheating/hacking for the sake of real world profit. Damn the community, damn your neighbors, someone has an ebay sale to make. When your most prized possession was a GM made armor set, you where free to participate in the community and not waste your time grinding for items.
so the exodus began. Eventually new players replaced the old and the spirit of the original game left with them. When I would share these great old adventures with others I would often get blank stares. A subset of the community system was reborn when factions was introduced. But even this couldn't slow the exodus.
So I remember those great times and allow the rest to fade. Perhaps someday a new set of developers will come around and tear the abomination asunder, bringing new life to an old friend. The reality is, UO's future is directly tied to the success of EA's future projects. I suspect the board of directors have had their hand on the life support plug for a while.
Until then..
Dig
