The Hot Spot: Unmissable Player Run Establishments

[OvenBird]

What places are interesting to folks? Please post your examples, with locations and shard. I'm posting this because after reading the threads on Abyss houses and Magincia houses (thanks Tina!), and seeing the Serpent's Cross Tavern posting on the Atl forums (and all of the postings about games in which player housing in non-existant), I started wondering about what players look for in way of their favorite establishments to visit. I believe that the average establishment can be split into, or occupy, four categories:

1. rune library/museum
2. Vendor mall or shop
3. tavern or bar
4. available resource hut/skill gain

These categories have been created to fill niche markets in the Ultima environ:

1. people have to get one from one place to another. Gates and portals cover banks/moongates, and portals dungeons. But anything else, such a spawn points, other player establishments and points of interest (PoI), need runes. I'm in love with Goodman's and the Blue Crane Society on Atl. Because these houses offer lots of content for a relatively small space, they seem to also act as librarys/museums.
2. Obviously, NPC vendors don't sell everything, or can't match competitive prices, and so vendor malls are important stops.
3. With barkeeps and the custom house bar tiles this is a pretty average addon, and an excuse to make a house public.
4. as with Abyss houses, I'll visit a house just to use their portal/house tiles. Also, I've sought places for crates to GM lockpicking.

But then there are the downsides:

1. Once a player has a favorite rune house, they're not likely to change. Makes upstarting nearly impossible.
2. Lune and script searching has made vendor loyalty go by by,
3. Nobody wants to drink alone in an empty pub
4. If you don't have the right add-ons, your house isn't worth visitng.

What other kinds of establishments do you frequent? I've tinkered with the idea of opening a poetry house on ATL, as it's my RL profession (i don't suck! I swear), but I can't see too many folks showing up. (though this wont stop me, as its the same way in RL. Look out Atl!) The Golden Fang Casino , northeast of Luna on Atl, is great, I've enjoyed their chicken lizard fights multiple times.

So what other places are fun to visit?

Is it worth it to build an 18x18x4 PvP arena in fel? Would folks show up?
I've heard of maze houses, have these worked on heavily populated shards?
Is there, truthlfully, anything else that seems to draw folks when the proprietor isn't around?

And here's a suggestion: who would show up to a weekend night comedy club? If it was good?

 

[Tina Small]

I've heard of maze houses, have these worked on heavily populated shards?

Maze houses! You really need to watch Raptor's video showing the turnout for Nightstalker's maze house on Siege on February 1st. The link is in post #16 of this thread on the Siege forum: (Player Event) - Nightstalker's A"Maze"ing Adventures | Stratics Forums .

And speaking of casinos, I noticed there was a yellow NPC in Luna on the Formosa shard labeled as "Casino staff" that was barking about some new casino on Formosa. Not sure what that's all about though, whether it's a player-run establishment or something the EM put together.

Also, when EA used to sponsor town hall meetings around the country for UO, I think groups like Whispering Rose Radio would sponsor some kind of in-game get-together in connection with the town hall. I never had a chance to go to one of the in-game locations (or one of the actual town hall meetings either), but I suspect those might have been fun too.

 

[OvenBird]

Maze houses! You really need to watch Raptor's video showing the turnout for Nightstalker's maze house on Siege on February 1st. The link is in post #16 of this thread on the Siege forum: (Player Event) - Nightstalker's A"Maze"ing Adventures | Stratics Forums .

And speaking of casinos, I noticed there was a yellow NPC in Luna on the Formosa shard labeled as "Casino staff" that was barking about some new casino on Formosa. Not sure what that's all about though, whether it's a player-run establishment or something the EM put together.

Just clicked through the video, thanks for the link1 So awesome to leave pets as guardians of the maze! Def makes any puzzle way harder and more compelling. As far as the casino is concerned, there's a new EA created casino on Fire Island in Tram, replete with a clothes optional beach. The vendors haven't been turned on for Atl, but you can still access the area, which has been around for months, with a boat landing.

 

[Mirt]

Wow I have a long list I better go check names to make sure I get them all correct. There are so many unique and special places that folks really shouldn't miss.

 

[Nimuaq]

http://stratics.com/community/threads/europa-auction.219106/​

From Monday to Wednesday:​

O*T Arena, ECL venue
Owner: Aurelius
Mondays: Europa Chicken League match (currently on season 3) or Poker Night.

Sword & Shovel Tavern
Owner: Tyranissa Wrath
Tuesdays: Open from 7.30 pm to 10 pm GM, "A hub of social life in Valoria, for its citizens, its friends and every traveler."

Europa Auction of Europa Auction & Events
Owner: Amantala.
Wednesdays (387th Europa Auction will be held today).

Other:

New Player House
Owner: Mim Foxglove
Built by Mim Foxglove to provide inspiration and encouragement for the young ones. "If you like what we are doing, help us to direct the new players here!"

Swaggers Inn
Owner: Sioned
"[D]runken customers dancing on the tables and delightfully out of tune bards provide all sorts of entertainment."

 

[OvenBird]

Great post Nimuaq, I'll have to register a char on Europa and check this out. Seems that shard is pretty active in terms of player run stuff? I've heard of the Newb house and the auction house, is the Swaggers Inn still going strong? (UOguide is a bit outdated. On a side note, I stayed at a hostel called the Stumble Inn in South Africa once. Great place ) Anyone else have more? Perhaps on other active shards, like Catskills, Atl, Chessy?

 

[G.v.P]

1. Once a player has a favorite rune house, they're not likely to change. Makes upstarting nearly impossible.
2. Lune and script searching has made vendor loyalty go by by,
3. Nobody wants to drink alone in an empty pub
4. If you don't have the right add-ons, your house isn't worth visitng.

[...]
And here's a suggestion: who would show up to a weekend night comedy club? If it was good?

I do mark cheap vendors on off-shards until I am suited up. Unfortunately there's no benefit from being in a pub, whether it's NPC controlled or player controlled. It's just a matter of whether the EM directs a group there or not. The only way to make a pub useful, really, would be to put a bank in the pub.

I ran a poetry/comedy event on Chesapeake for quite awhile and it was more successful than I thought it would be, but that was awhile ago, now. I'm sure ATL would have the people still, but I don't know about Ches.

 

[Nimuaq]

is the Swaggers Inn still going strong?

Sioned returned some time ago and the tavern is still active. Swaggers is a very important place for me. When I returned in 2009, I was pretty lonely since all of my old friends had already left the game. After two weeks of wandering around and training taming - I set up a new account and my first char was a tamer since I was really impressed by this line on stratics' tamer essay:

In the old times it was said only Tamers really traveled all across Britannia and could say “I have seen it all”

- I saw three players near Vesper who were making wine from grapes (or something like that). One of them said "Would you like to join?" and I finally found myself a guild, Vesper Trading Company (little did I know that it was actually a role playing guild). They gave me a suit (dyed blue), equipment and a place to hang out after hours of training: Swaggers Tavern. I spent months there, finally enjoying the company of other players. I'd probably quit again if not for the Swaggers.

I also remember heading to the sacrifice moongate after a long day of training taming in Healer's Grove when suddenly lost of players appeared, leading them a man with a gold shield and a bad suit of armor. Drawn by curiosity, I followed the group to a town nearby where they fought victoriously against some monsters. They further moved to the north and attacked the very city of the monsters. Then the group went to the moonglow telescope to talk to an astronomer. I was really impressed by this which I learned later that it was an em event.

I quit several times in the past ten years but when I look back, I can say without any hesitation that these are two of the most important events, not only in uo, but also in my life which I will always remember. So thank you Swaggers, Nathan Hawke and Fynn Barret.

(If you want to know about that EM event, here's the report from Mapper's Europa History: Meeting With Fynn Barrett (The Astronomer))

 

[Rupert Avery]

I used to do features on UOForums for Establishments of the week. the submissions for it dried up though.

Feature of the Week! - Info! - Ultima Online Forums