@Spiritless
Some interesting opinions you have there.
I have to counter some of them though with some very harsh facts.
First off, I will say that I played World of Warcraft for 5 years during my time away from UO and have spent time lots of time pvping, raiding, and doing 5mans, etc. I can say that I have completed far more quests in that game than any person should. I leveled 3 shamans, one to 60, one to 70, one to 80, a priest to 80, a mage to 80, a deathknight to 80, a warrior to about 65 I think, and a warlock to around 60 or 70... i cant remember.
With that out of the way... in PvM in WoW not only do you have to wait for the right amount of other people to go into a dungeon, but you have to have the right classes, whereas in UO, you can just get up & go whenever you want for the most part.
If you are interested in reading paragraph after paragraph, looking at screen shot after screenshot or watching a video tutorial on how to defeat a boss and then spend at least 4 hours in a row at least once (for some guilds up to 7 times) a week learning a single boss in a dungeon before you can actually kill it, then UO is not the place for you. Oh yeah, and then don't forget you have to compete with other people for equipment, so even after 3 months of learning the boss, if an item drops that you need, you aren't guaranteed to get it... maybe next week, or the week after...
That kind of challenging I don't personally need, though I know many enjoy it for some reason, and they are welcome to that. It's true that most of the monsters in UO are soloable, and that's actually part of the reason UO is better than other games... it doesn't force you to be social for one, it doesn't suck up all your time, and you don't have to compete with other players for specific items you need from a monster.
As far as PvP in WoW goes, sure there's plenty of it, but it's really not very different from just loading up call of duty or battlefield or any other game like that... what I mean is that there is no risk whatsoever in WoW, and that is why people aren't afraid to PvP in it. In UO there is some risk, not nearly as much as there used to be (which is sad imo) but that is what really makes the PvP really exciting in UO. You are right that many of the pvpers have left. The majority of my former guild in UO (Black Company) moved over to WoW years ago, shortly after I did.
You called character progression in UO tedious... Honestly, what is more tedious? Raising magery from 0 - 100 in a day and then going out an traveling the world being able to defend yourself from most threats, or spending a month or more grinding up through the levels and not being able to travel where you want when you want or being able to defend yourself from most threats until you're a high level? I personally think the month+ long grind is far more tedious. And then of course when a new expansion come out, you get to grind up some more levels.
It is really sad that you think spending time reaching an endgame state in UO is tedious and pointless when it doesn't take very long to get to that point compared to WoW.
To the OP: I'm sure you already have alot of your own comparisons and don't need mine or Spiritless's opinions to make up your mind on whether you want to play UO or not. Don't let someone talk you out of experiencing a game again just because they are sour on the game and have become addicted to a pixel-crack time sink like WoW or some other similar game.
There are many of us who still enjoy UO and MANY people returning to the game lately.
