THEN and NOW

[Prince Caspian]

OK, grandpa is gonna start babbling on about his stories well before 2000. Ultima Online was different back in those days, lemme tell you. We had to fight uphill through the snow to use the one forge on the whole shard for our blacksmiths.....


THEN: 1,000 Gold was actually a decent night's work.
NOW: 1,000 Gold is a weak payout even for one kill.

THEN: You were paranoid at the bank, because there were thieves everywhere waiting to loot you blind in a split second.
NOW: You can leave your toon unattended at the bank for days at a time and nobody can do anything about it.

THEN: A magic item was relatively rare. Even a viking sword of power was an exciting find.
NOW: For some reason there is a Britannian Magic Firm that cranks out thousands upon thousands of garbage magic items that outnumber even regular items in the realm by like 1,000 to 1.

THEN: You had to learn to PvP at the drop of a hat or how to recall to safety, you never knew when a PK squad was gonna suddenly take the screen. And it usually happened at least once a night.
NOW: I haven't even seen a PK in months and I go to Felucca regularly.

THEN: When you paged for help, a GM would actually appear, usually within 20 minutes.
NOW: A generic "visit our website" message appears after an hour of waiting.

THEN: PKs talked smack and harrassed you as you were a ghost.
NOW: Trammies talk smack and harrass you, and you can't do much about it.

THEN: If someone got in your house, you were screwed. They could help themselves to everything and you couldn't stop them.
NOW: Houses are 100% secure, so Tasslehoff Burrfoot could walk through the whole place and your possessions are still safe.

THEN: Mages carried reagents.
NOW: Almost everyone has a 100% LRC suit.

THEN: It was actually remarkable to see a GM level anything.
NOW: It's remarkable to see another character who ISN'T a GM something.

THEN: "Connection Lost" after a few bouts of lag.
NOW: Seamless flow, followed by a sudden CTD.

THEN: New player tutorials usually involved diplomas from hard knocks, such as "dont walk outside the guard zone or a PK will get you"
NOW: New player tutorials abound in Haven.

THEN: For a first level fighter, you could actually lose to a rabbit.
NOW: For a first level fighter, you won't lose to much anything weaker than an orc.

THEN: A dungeon crawl usually meant you were gonna meet up with at least one PK at some point, probably several.
NOW: A dungeon crawl usually means you'll not see any other players the whole time.

THEN: Someone with a million gold in their bank account was unbelievably rich.
NOW: Anyone with under 5 million in their bank account is a pauper.

THEN: You could place as many houses as you could put up, and most "enchanted forests" looked like downtown Newark.
NOW: One house per account, but there's still a house within a stones throw of virtually every screen.

THEN: If you didn't have a blacksmith character, you'd have to risk handing over your armor to a stranger in town who was building his own character as a blacksmith by offering pro bono repairs.
NOW: If you don't have a GM Blacksmith on your account like virtually everyone, you can buy dozens of repair deeds cheap.

THEN: Lord British was the soveriegn of all shards... even though he was never home.
NOW: Whoever is in charge (Dawn, Blackthorne, etc), they never are home either.

THEN: There was one armor rating, and one damage type, and your abilities were the key factor to defining your character.
NOW: The devs apparently fell in love with Blizzard's "Diabolo" and turned the game into a clone where the items define the character.

 

[Viper09]

Nice list. Couple questions though.

The CTD comment. Which client?
Back then we had one client. Now we have two. Classic being the most stable IMO. (don't like the enhanced client much.)

Second, who is Tasslehoff Burrfoot? lol

 

[Shiznit Bo'Bourbon]

Wow, most of that list really drives home what a better game this is now.

 

[A Thought Elemental]

I don't understand the point of this post but it vaguely looks like it's complaining about the way the game's moved forward. I first played in 1998 and the way the thing works now is definitely, definitely for the better.

It's not where it needs to be yet but the early years don't compare with it.

 

[atlanticScorpion]

I am not sure if its all about complaning. I think he just pointing out the changes like in the real world say from the 1950s to now. When gas, cigarettes, Milk was this price and now they are this. Or people never carried guns in the city and everyone has em now. Or how banks wanted to give every one money a few years back and now they wanna take everything and throw you out on the street. But I do like how some of the things were in the past. I liked it better when you only had a few levels of weapons ( might, power, Vanq, and siver for undead) and the same with armor ( might, power,etc) Now you have to do alot of calculating to build a suit. Back then you could have a duel and it could last for a while going toe to toe with your opponent and try all different things to get an advantage. Now its wack wack fight over. Really whats the point, might as well give us guns. I agree the game has gotten way better but way more complicated and alot of us veterans are pushing 50 years of age and our brains are alittle slower and our children think it funny when we go to fell and they turn on us ha ha til you reach over and give em a back hand. Not much trash talk in real life when not hiding behind a computer screen. Thank you for the post I like to reminise about the old days.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

some things have gotten better, some things got worse. nice list

 

[anna anomalous]

ok and? uo now > uo then.

 

[Shakkara]

The only thing I don't like is the gigantic list of magic item properties on items.

And the fact that leather > plate.

The flat damage reduction from AR should be brought back, so a halberd or viking sword is actually good against heavily armored foes, while a kryss or cutlass are better against lightly armored foes.

 

[NuSair]

Second, who is Tasslehoff Burrfoot? lol

Tasslehoff Burrfoot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Unconsidered nostalgia is one of the most-useless of human tendencies.

And it is one we UO players collectively exhibit a lot.

I'll consider a few points at random.

THEN: 1,000 Gold was actually a decent night's work.
NOW: 1,000 Gold is a weak payout even for one kill.

This is inevitable and by itself doesn't mean anything bad.

THEN: If you didn't have a blacksmith character, you'd have to risk handing over your armor to a stranger in town who was building his own character as a blacksmith by offering pro bono repairs.
NOW: If you don't have a GM Blacksmith on your account like virtually everyone, you can buy dozens of repair deeds cheap.

What's curious here is that in most of your post your complaining that things are too easy these days, versus the old days, but in this point you actually cite an example of free repairs (your term was "pro bono," which usually means "free" when used in most contexts), versus repairs that cost something even if it's comparatively minimal.

Also handing your armor over to some stranger led to scamming and stealing. Some folks I know have no problem with that, and indeed even celebrate it.

I do have a problem with it and am not one of those celebrators.

But yet, pre-Tram you could just kill them, right?

No, not really. Not if it was in the guard zone and not if he had a guild of like-minded friends, which he likely did.

THEN: A dungeon crawl usually meant you were gonna meet up with at least one PK at some point, probably several.
NOW: A dungeon crawl usually means you'll not see any other players the whole time.

The latter depends on the dungeon and on your shard.

The former I fail to see as a positive. And given how many quit accounts it appears to have led to most people also fail to see it as a positive. (Remember that since Trammel they have offered a near-unending series of incentives to fill up Felucca and all have failed. Most people have made their choices and stated their preferences; they just don't have Stratics accounts to say so explicitly.)

THEN: Someone with a million gold in their bank account was unbelievably rich.
NOW: Anyone with under 5 million in their bank account is a pauper.

Funny, I also hear folks complaining that stuff is too cheap. Imbuing killed Valorite Runics!

Oh but in the magical old days UO wasn't item-based!

No? Then why, pray tell, were people one-hit killing others with heavy crossbows of vanquishing? Why was bone armor being farmed? Why were GM weapons more-prized than store-bought regular weapons? Why were there debates over which was better, full-GM made suits of something or magical suits cobbled together from loot?

Could it be that, even then, items mattered?

Of course not.

End of post.

-Galen's player

 

[Hellstorm]

I hate how he, takes a light hearted post, dissects it and ruins it.

I love the nostalgia ... I remember looting grey corpses in Tram. Blue players used the enticement skill to lure seekers of adventure and nobles out of the Moonglow guard zone, and then kill and loot them. Occasionally they would wander a tad to close and get guard whacked.

I remember having a bank box full of back packs containing GM armor, a GM weapon, regs and bandies.

I remember when PVP was in deathrobes at a moongate with a gm weapon, and a bag of regs.

I remember having 5 dragons following me around, I remember boxing Mobs in with crates.


Now, we have bless deeds galore, insurance, artifacts, powerscrolls... So many things have changed... But I love the game in all of its incarnations...

I miss the old days, but GM skills, Vang weapons, PKs, and T2a would have eventually gotten boring... The game could have went another wat... but im happy just to have it.

 

[Njjj]

Well, I too have very fond memories of the first few years of UO. But I think what many vets forget is that much of that feeling stems from the fact that the game was new, and no one had mastered the game mechanics yet. I think some of our feelings of nostalgia are just us missing that new world smell. Put us all in the game as it was back then, and I think we'd all be bored.

I'm not saying I think every change that was made was for the better. But overall, they've added enough to keep me interested.

 

[RL'S pker]

Then- pvp was fun, with lots of action.

Now- pvp is dead, no action to be found.


Then- Pvmers had to earn what they got the hard way. fight off pks.

Now- pvm is one sampire away from killing everything. No threat of pks.



That's what I took out of his post.

 

[Evlar]

Well, I too have very fond memories of the first few years of UO. But I think what many vets forget is that much of that feeling stems from the fact that the game was new, and no one had mastered the game mechanics yet. I think some of our feelings of nostalgia are just us missing that new world smell. Put us all in the game as it was back then, and I think we'd all be bored.

I'm quite the opposite.

I finally had enough of UO "NOW" about a year or so ago. Interestingly, whilst I was also paying to play on official shards, I was also playing free shards that were based on the "THEN" of UO.

I have never got bored of the "THEN" gameplay and player interaction, as I did with the "NOW".

Guess I was never fussed about newer fluff and junk that kept being added to the game. I just liked the simplicity of the gameplay as was, when it felt like people were actually playing a game, rather than logging into a glorified chatroom with graphics, to talk about itemz n' stuffz...