Constituting crazy, non-casual UO play

[G.v.P]

So what constitutes casual and non-casual UO play? I was curious what people have done over their time in UO that they think is the most crazy?

I just found a guild database I made for my guild at the time when it passed 200 members. Everyone had points assigned to them and it was beginning to get too crazy to sort by pen and paper tactics. I made and scripted an imbuing calculator in Flash with over 4,500 lines of code. I'm approaching 9,000 posts on Stratics. I have about 100 different UO spreadsheets, docs, databases, etc. I've spent over three hours doing a harry (I can still see the e-fields). I've attended three UO meet-ups, dated someone I met in UO. Wondering where I stand on the crazy meter?

Edit: Forgot one...I've printed out HoCs and stuff to read later lol just found one from 2006 (Mondain's Legacy).

 

[NBG]

Back in my younger UO playing days, I played the game for 40 hours only with mini breaks for zapping food and bath room break.... No snoozing the whole time honest!

does that count as one?

 

[Warpig Inc]

Averaged about 16 hour days on UO after I retired for four years. Started to turn into Pearl from Blade movie. Decided fresh air and little exercise was in short order. Sad thing is today, fresh air is on equal ground with UO. Without the group hunting and the group activities, Freecell is also a solo game.

 

[Petra Fyde]

I used to print out publish notes for my hubby. He always expected me to know how everything worked and what was coming up. Look where that got me!! Now I'm writing the darn guides instead of just reading them.
I do tend to play for hours at a time, but never more than an hour or so at any one activity. Housework keeps my keyboard time to fairly reasonable length stints.

 

[Minerva Foxglove]

This is so ambarrassing I shouldnt tell.. Me and my two sons shared one account and one crappy comp..so I used to play a bit late. The comp was next to the oldest sons bed . It was Trammel but before we had houses there . Lots of spawn at the x-roads and Mim died and got resskilled ower and ower and I paniced after a while. It was 3 in the morning when I woke up the 14 year old boy and asked for help. He sat up on one elbow and grabbed the mouse and fixed it for me annoyingly easy.. and half asleep. He instantly fell asleep again..with his head on the comp table amd the mouse arm hanging in the air

On the other hand, when this same guy accidently became red, killing mage npcs inside Trinsic Vulcano, to fix sandals for us, I served snacks and meals at the comp while he worked off the murder count in some fairly remote area of Felucca.

 

[Obsidian]

I consider myself a casual player mainly because I never play more than 2 hours at one sitting. I play usually about 2 hours per day about 6 days week, most of it after work between 8-10pm during the week. I don't try to compete with those that play 12 hours a day, but I admit I am envious of some of their drops. I can never attend EM events because I live on the west coast but play on Atlantic. So my 8-10pm is 11-1am there.

 

[old gypsy]

When I first started playing UO in '98, it quickly became an obsession. If it wasn't for the fact I had a full-time job, I probably would have been glued to the computer 24/7 back then. As time passed, so did the obsession, and I took a few "vacations" from the game over the years. Of course, the underlying addiction never died and I always returned.

Now that I'm retired [the "nest" has long been empty] I have all the time in the world to play; yet I don't spend an excessive amount of time in game now. Things have become more balanced, with more time devoted to taking care of domestic tasks, yard work, etc., and occasional visits to grown kids and grandchildren.

I don't keep spreadsheets. I will never be well-versed in every aspect of the game. The role play potential keeps my interest high, but I approach even that in a light-hearted - sometimes tongue-in-cheek - manner. The obsession is gone although the addiction remains. I guess I'd fall into a category of "casual yet still devoted player".

 

[Vexxed]

So what constitutes casual and non-casual UO play? I was curious what people have done over their time in UO that they think is the most crazy?

I just found a guild database I made for my guild at the time when it passed 200 members. Everyone had points assigned to them and it was beginning to get too crazy to sort by pen and paper tactics. I made and scripted an imbuing calculator in Flash with over 4,500 lines of code. I'm approaching 9,000 posts on Stratics. I have about 100 different UO spreadsheets, docs, databases, etc. I've spent over three hours doing a harry (I can still see the e-fields). I've attended three UO meet-ups, dated someone I met in UO. Wondering where I stand on the crazy meter?

Edit: Forgot one...I've printed out HoCs and stuff to read later lol just found one from 2006 (Mondain's Legacy).

Well... as a quick guess 15 Years at 20-30 Hours per wk. = 15,000 - 22,500 Hours Spent Playing UO. I'd say it's probably closer to 15k hours but thats only bc it has been a few years now that I've a little one and don't log in rack up 3-6 hours on UO through the day. PhD in UO !! My UO Documents folder has 142 Files in it. I don't do the player meet up thing thought & only personally knew people that played UO for the 1st Year. Still too much fun.

 

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

back in 97-early 2000's when i was in my 20's and before we had kids mine and my wife's holidays would never line up as we where both new to our jobs and had no seniority.
so the order of the day was we would take our holidays when we could and just relax while the other person worked.
so i can distinctly remember spending my entire holiday time playing UO 24x7 for like 2 weeks at a shot.
over the years ive put a mini fridge in my den for cold beverages while playing.
a plug in hot water kettle for hot beverages while playing. all for the simple fact that i wanted to cut down my away time while spawning.

ive made so many characters on multi shards that i have a HUGE binder with printed out sheets tracking all characters skills and gold and ethys and pets ect ect ect.
DONT JUDGE ME!

gahd.... here is a bad one.
when i was just starting UO back in 97-98 i was on a small fire department and there where i think 4 or 5 of us that played UO.
well, back then it was dial up internet, so we couldn't just call each other while playing if we needed help or anything, and this was in the years before Team Speak or Vent..... sooooooo one day one of us realized that we could probably use our fire department radio's on one of the unused channels to coordinate our game play and res's and such. would have been funny to see someone in dispatch stumble upon that channel and hear us playing, eh gads!

 

[The Zog historian]

over the years ive put a mini fridge in my den for cold beverages while playing.
a plug in hot water kettle for hot beverages while playing. all for the simple fact that i wanted to cut down my away time while spawning.

Put in a toilet chair, and you will have an unapproachable claim.

 

[Winter]

... Wondering where I stand on the crazy meter?

"Do YOU think I am crazy, George?"
Sitting across the table, he watches as George sits silently, being spoon feed oatmeal mixed with his morning medication.
"I don't think I'm crazy," he says, dodging the spoon filled with oatmeal.

Maybe ask one of the people you meet outside during your daily walks to see what they think.

We here in Uhall think you're normal... mostly... or at least not different than the rest of us.

 

[G.v.P]

Well... as a quick guess 15 Years at 20-30 Hours per wk. = 15,000 - 22,500 Hours Spent Playing UO. I'd say it's probably closer to 15k hours but thats only bc it has been a few years now that I've a little one and don't log in rack up 3-6 hours on UO through the day. PhD in UO !! My UO Documents folder has 142 Files in it. I don't do the player meet up thing thought & only personally knew people that played UO for the 1st Year. Still too much fun.

lol I like that, PhD in UO.

ive made so many characters on multi shards that i have a HUGE binder with printed out sheets tracking all characters skills and gold and ethys and pets ect ect ect.
DONT JUDGE ME!

bhahaha that's mostly why I have so many spreadsheets...I keep spreadsheets on at least 12 shards to track suits on each character, and then I have one master spreadsheet to track skills on every shard.

 

[G.v.P]

Maybe ask one of the people you meet outside during your daily walks to see what they think.

We here in Uhall think you're normal... mostly... or at least not different than the rest of us.

True, but if I ask someone outside, I don't get all the fun stories from you guys.

Haha, I know I'm a bit crazy, otherwise I wouldn't have made the thread. ;P

 

[Crysta]

I ran out of my house last night to buy a card to get gametime with to make it in time for an event 20 minutes before I left because my account had gone off and I didn't realize it. When I was running back into my house, I twisted my foot and it still hurts. Does that count?

 

[Winter]

When I was running back into my house, I twisted my foot and it still hurts. Does that count?

That all depends...

Was it your RL foot, or your foot in UO that you twisted?

 

[Ludes]

Back when I was younger I would pretty regularly put in 25 to 30 hour stints.. I remember server down was when I'd actually cook something.
Now that I'm older I have trouble sitting more than 3 or 4 hours at a time.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one though....

 

[MalagAste]

Oh dear... Hi..... I'm...... er.... I don't rightly know... You can call me Malag or Willa or whatever.... and I have a UO addiction.... My problem.... lets see 9 active accounts 2 or 3 inactive. 56+ Characters at LEAST on my home shard 100's of characters all over the other shards (mostly for Xshard trading some may or may not have some skills)...

My typical time years back was to keep stats on the guild..... who lived where, have runes to everyones house..... keep track of what rank they achieved in the guild..... etc... any spare time not spent at that was spent RPing or working skills on a dozen or more characters..... I remember Power Hour used to last me from the moment I got off work till I went to bed pretty much.... 3pm to 11pm.... Rinse and repeat day in day out...

I have logs of all sorts of things. I have printed the virtues, most the arties, what does what with leathers and ingots... wood etc..... I have ooodles of pictures of houses I have created over the years since AoS allowed me to design a house and all myself.

I keep track of strange things like collections..... do i have all the birthday bells? All the Mini-house deeds? What about samurai swords and the urns from ToT? Reindeer? Cakes? You name it I probably have a list.... I keep charts on my characters....... who's working what skills, what powerscrolls I still want for this or that character... who gets the next Tangle I get..... etc...

I have a nice calculator for imbuing that is not really fancy but does what I want it to....

The obsessive compulsive in me INSISTS that I constantly categorize and sort all things I gather in game... From plants to rings.... Bracelets to Death Certificates.... MUST be alphabetized or organized in some logical (to me) way...


So I don't know likely I'm insane.

 

[Crysta]

That all depends...

Was it your RL foot, or your foot in UO that you twisted?

Real.

 

[Fogsbane]

Non-Casual play.

I too have done much of what others list above.

I've got the spreadsheets, checklists, screenshots, and have also printed my fair share of documents.
My Ultima Online archive folder looks to be 114GB with 29440 files.

I have purchased dozens of copies of the boxed UO game, some still not even opened.
I have driven to another state just to buy the last copy listed within 100 miles.

I certainly have -
Scheduled time off from school and work for an Ultima vacation.
Scheduled time off from school and work to coincide with a UO publish.
Called in sick just to play UO.

I'm probably at a UO Masters level, and not UO PhD.
While playing UO, I enjoy listening to a Radio Frequency Scanner.
I guess I do not live close enough near Voodoo Bad Mojo

While not UO, an entry on the "GvP crazy intensity scale" would be when me mum first got a IBM computer.
I stayed awake for just over 24 hours to play completely start to finish through Ultima VI in one sitting.

Most UO crazy. Crazy is in the eye of the casual beholder?

I have played UO:
In bed
Simultaneously on two computers using both hands (what is ambidextrous UO playing called anyways?)
On a second computer using my foot to click the mouse
In a car
Outside under the stars
On a 100' projected screen
On a Nintendo DS, and on a PSP (RDP connections)
During a major power outage when nothing else worked (battery+dialup=UO)

I have awoke the entire house at all sorts of untimely hours due to my UO excitement.
I have played in my underwear, and while underwater (OK - so one of those is an exageration)
I do not have a toilet chair. My foot does not hurt, yet.

I have even been able to answer obscure Jeopardy questions with knowledge gleaned via UO.

My wife tells me I have talked UO in my sleep.
One of her favorite lines is to tell me that I have hidden myself well.
She has been known to tell me to go tame a CuSidhe (I LOVE the way she pronounces it).

I am fortunate that most all my friends and family know of my Ultima craziness.
I am fortunate that most all my friends and family still put up with me.

I am sure some say that when I profess that I am no where near done, that that is UO crazy.

 

[Penderrin]

Once upon a time when I could not afford internet at my residence, I drove down the road to park at McDonalds and use the wifi 3-4 hours a night for a month or so, just for UO. I've had the police called on me because they thought I was casing it out but eventually word got around that I was just an addict gamer. When I would go inside time to time to use the restroom or buy a dollar McChicken they would ask me if I've "Slayed any dragons tonight?", though on McD's wifi I probably died more than slayed. I ran my car battery dead a few times also because I could not afford the fuel to keep the car running and charged.
When I look back on it it always makes me chuckle, wouldn't trade it for the world.

 

[Merus]

Try inviting your girlfriend to your UO wedding where your character is marrying someone else's character (but it isn't her character).

If you end up marrying said girlfriend irl, you will never hear the end of it (even after 15 years!)

 

[Dixie of Chesapeake]

during the 1st years of the game i barely ever saw my husband, we had 1 pc "on dial up" , he was off work at the time and he would play during the day while i would sleep then when he went to bed i would wake up and get on there lol.....i dont play nearly that much now, not even close to it...during the summer months i check in on stratics more regularly than i check in on my chars "if i havent shut the accts off entirely" ......but there have still been those times when ive had to wrap up a photo shoot a wee bit early just because i got a really good idoc falling lol!

 

[NuSair]

I married someone I met in UO.

In my most active days, I spent over 60 hours a week on UO (in addition to my 40 hour a week job).

There are over 20 binders of notes, printed out sheets.

I had a UO keyboard where I color coded my macros onto the keys.

I've taken up to 2 weeks of vacation when there was an expansion/huge update to play.

I also took a week vacation to beta/alpha test.

Longest I've played in one sitting it 55 hours.

 

[King_Fisher]

I started playing in 1998 with my dad and we would take the game in shifts, but rarely would one person be sitting alone at the computer. I remember my father waking me up one morning around 3am letting me know that we finally gm'd our blacksmith. We celebrated quietly and made suits of armor with our characters name on them. I'd say we probably put in at least 10hrs/day combined. Now we try to go out and enjoy the summer and play more in the winter. Gives me a chance to organize our in game houses, before he returns and tornadoes the place.

 

[Lady Storm]

Welcome to my world Lady's and Gentilmen ...
I have read here stories that had me giggling my tush off cause they mirrored a lot in my UO life. 99% of it has happened to us.
Hours spent in UO would make most think I was crazy to do. 18 hour days in a game with little time off to fix dinner or clean up after them..(kids)
Crying over someone killing my dragon and me .... getting upset over pixel loss...
UO ease has been a part of our house language so much it spilled over to shopping and such..
I am still sure that lady over in produce is still scratching her head over what we were talking about cooking up... tribal berries.
You all know I have 53 accounts and that most times at the very least 47 are in active run in UO...
spread sheets?? where to I begin.....
I have a binder full of UO, mostly for when I was a counselor for quick reference to help players.
Maps and notes on everything form how to make a fish tank to designing a full armor suit with imbueing..
Running with my son on one comp my nephew on another and I on my laptop and getting telestormed out of tram so much when the housing came open....
1 UO marriage and your afraid she will hang it over your head?? Try being married in game to not 1 hubby but 3 at the same time on 3 different shards doing 3 different RP rolls...
I am crazy...

 

[Voodoo Bad Mojo]

Try being married in game to not 1 hubby but 3 at the same time on 3 different shards doing 3 different RP rolls...

MORMONS EXTREMISTS!!!!!

 

[kelmo]

Meh... I can take it or leave it.

 

[Winter]

Meh... I can take it or leave it.

YEP... yep... first sign is denial.