I was going to post this in the other thread, but it would've become lost amidst the bizarre "Ultima vs. Final Fantasy" argument that broke out over there.
Wintermoor and the Wintermoor Museums were founded and originally owned by Xanthar. Xanthar was one of the first rares collectors, collecting at a time when few people bothered to do so. He built two towers side by side, a north and a south wing, on the southermost tip of Ice Isle to house and display his collection. Showcased within were a great deal of Atlantic's server-birth rares, as well as Seer items and some of the original event rares such as evil Santa's red chainmail tunic from the 1997 Christmas events.
Over time, Xanthar held many events at his museums, and expanded his land holdings into a player-run town that covered the entire southern peninsula of Ice Isle. At Wintermoor's peak, Xanthar had over 40+ accounts for holding almost every building in Wintermoor. Due to his contributions to the Atlantic community, Seers and GMs gave his museums several blessings, including a row of pine trees in front of the southern tower, a wooden wall within one of the towers, making it UO's first customized house, and making many of the towers' decorations immoveable so they could be displayed at a time when the lockdown system had not yet been implemented in UO.
Over time, UO's playerbase declined, and since Xanthar's main interest in UO was the people playing it, so did his involvement in the game. He eventually sold off all of his properties except for the two museums, and then stopped playing entirely while keeping the last two accounts running just to preserve them.
About a year or so ago, Xanthar finally gave up on UO entirely and decided to sell his rares collection. He still cared about the history behind his collection, though, so he wanted to sell it all as one, complete set. He knew this would take a lot of work and a lot of contacts within the rares community that were more up-to-date than any he might have, so he contacted several prominent rares dealers and eventually chose one to broker any possible deals.
Unfortunately, since Xanthar had collected all of his rares first hand during the formative years of UO, long before the current high stakes world of rares trading came into being, he was not up to speed on who was trustworthy and who was not. Thus, he unwisely chose a broker who then became involved in allegations of duping and other activities. This broker was banned from UO, and with him went Xanthar's collection of rares.
Many petitions were sent to EA pointing out that the rares were not actually the broker's, but were, in fact, Xanthar's. After review, EA responded by claiming that they had realized the historical importance of the collection in question, and that GMs had taken possession of the items for safekeeping. As far as I know, the items were never seen again, and neither any indication of their whereabouts nor any further mention of the incident was ever heard from EA.
The current turmoil stems from the fact that Xanthar apparently gave up on trying to retrieve his collection and became so disenfranchised that he let the accounts holding the Wintermoor Museums to lapse, thus putting them In Danger of Collapsing. JCtheBuilder then petitioned EA in some manner, and somehow convinced them to give him the towers to preserve Atlantic shard history. I do not personally know any of the details involved in this transaction, and thus I cannot comment in any way on its specifics.
The claims that the Museums were "full of rares" at the time of the transfer are false, since EA confiscated all of them over a year ago. The items that can be seen in the buildings are the aforementioned immoveable, GM-locked-down decorations, as well as some "items trapped in boxes" that were put down over the years.
(Background info on "items trapped in boxes": There was a very old exploit that allowed people to place boxes at server down in various places where decorative items spawned. When the server came up, the boxes would cover every available tile, and thus the items would have nowhere to go and would spawn within one of the boxes. Unfortunately, the items would be 255 stones and could not be directly removed from the boxes. Players came up with a solution for this inconvenience when they discovered that if one were to sit the box on the ground and chop it with an axe, the box would be destroyed and the item inside would become permanently locked to the ground on the tile the box was chopped. This allowed players to choose a tile in their house to place the item at, sit the box there, and chop it to place the item. If you ever go to a bank and see small statues statically attached to the ground, this is what they are from. EA later fixed this exploit by automatically deleting items left on the ground at server down, and then declared that owning an "item trapped in a box" was a bannable offense. This ban was rescinded many years later.)
As concerns the accusations thrown at JCtheBuilder as well as at EA: As they would say in a court of law, I am not an "expert witness." I do not know the story behind any past interactions between the accusers, JC, EA, et. al. that could possibly have lent to their suspicions surrounding this situation. Are they out for revenge for perceived injustices in the past, as some have suggested, or are they actually concerned citizens that are simply questioning authority, as have said others? I do not know, and thus I have no ground upon which to testify one way or the other.
I, for one, applaud both JC and EA for saving this important piece of UO history. A few years back Tiffric, the owner of the Atlantic Mage Tower in Moonglow, Felucca, succumbed to a chronic illness and passed away. With no one to pay for the account, it went into default, and despite petitions to EA at the time, the AMT went IDoC and collapsed, taking with it a valuable piece of Atlantic's history. If EA had only been this helpful back then, perhaps the AMT would still be around for players to enjoy.
Wintermoor and the Wintermoor Museums were founded and originally owned by Xanthar. Xanthar was one of the first rares collectors, collecting at a time when few people bothered to do so. He built two towers side by side, a north and a south wing, on the southermost tip of Ice Isle to house and display his collection. Showcased within were a great deal of Atlantic's server-birth rares, as well as Seer items and some of the original event rares such as evil Santa's red chainmail tunic from the 1997 Christmas events.
Over time, Xanthar held many events at his museums, and expanded his land holdings into a player-run town that covered the entire southern peninsula of Ice Isle. At Wintermoor's peak, Xanthar had over 40+ accounts for holding almost every building in Wintermoor. Due to his contributions to the Atlantic community, Seers and GMs gave his museums several blessings, including a row of pine trees in front of the southern tower, a wooden wall within one of the towers, making it UO's first customized house, and making many of the towers' decorations immoveable so they could be displayed at a time when the lockdown system had not yet been implemented in UO.
Over time, UO's playerbase declined, and since Xanthar's main interest in UO was the people playing it, so did his involvement in the game. He eventually sold off all of his properties except for the two museums, and then stopped playing entirely while keeping the last two accounts running just to preserve them.
About a year or so ago, Xanthar finally gave up on UO entirely and decided to sell his rares collection. He still cared about the history behind his collection, though, so he wanted to sell it all as one, complete set. He knew this would take a lot of work and a lot of contacts within the rares community that were more up-to-date than any he might have, so he contacted several prominent rares dealers and eventually chose one to broker any possible deals.
Unfortunately, since Xanthar had collected all of his rares first hand during the formative years of UO, long before the current high stakes world of rares trading came into being, he was not up to speed on who was trustworthy and who was not. Thus, he unwisely chose a broker who then became involved in allegations of duping and other activities. This broker was banned from UO, and with him went Xanthar's collection of rares.
Many petitions were sent to EA pointing out that the rares were not actually the broker's, but were, in fact, Xanthar's. After review, EA responded by claiming that they had realized the historical importance of the collection in question, and that GMs had taken possession of the items for safekeeping. As far as I know, the items were never seen again, and neither any indication of their whereabouts nor any further mention of the incident was ever heard from EA.
The current turmoil stems from the fact that Xanthar apparently gave up on trying to retrieve his collection and became so disenfranchised that he let the accounts holding the Wintermoor Museums to lapse, thus putting them In Danger of Collapsing. JCtheBuilder then petitioned EA in some manner, and somehow convinced them to give him the towers to preserve Atlantic shard history. I do not personally know any of the details involved in this transaction, and thus I cannot comment in any way on its specifics.
The claims that the Museums were "full of rares" at the time of the transfer are false, since EA confiscated all of them over a year ago. The items that can be seen in the buildings are the aforementioned immoveable, GM-locked-down decorations, as well as some "items trapped in boxes" that were put down over the years.
(Background info on "items trapped in boxes": There was a very old exploit that allowed people to place boxes at server down in various places where decorative items spawned. When the server came up, the boxes would cover every available tile, and thus the items would have nowhere to go and would spawn within one of the boxes. Unfortunately, the items would be 255 stones and could not be directly removed from the boxes. Players came up with a solution for this inconvenience when they discovered that if one were to sit the box on the ground and chop it with an axe, the box would be destroyed and the item inside would become permanently locked to the ground on the tile the box was chopped. This allowed players to choose a tile in their house to place the item at, sit the box there, and chop it to place the item. If you ever go to a bank and see small statues statically attached to the ground, this is what they are from. EA later fixed this exploit by automatically deleting items left on the ground at server down, and then declared that owning an "item trapped in a box" was a bannable offense. This ban was rescinded many years later.)
As concerns the accusations thrown at JCtheBuilder as well as at EA: As they would say in a court of law, I am not an "expert witness." I do not know the story behind any past interactions between the accusers, JC, EA, et. al. that could possibly have lent to their suspicions surrounding this situation. Are they out for revenge for perceived injustices in the past, as some have suggested, or are they actually concerned citizens that are simply questioning authority, as have said others? I do not know, and thus I have no ground upon which to testify one way or the other.
I, for one, applaud both JC and EA for saving this important piece of UO history. A few years back Tiffric, the owner of the Atlantic Mage Tower in Moonglow, Felucca, succumbed to a chronic illness and passed away. With no one to pay for the account, it went into default, and despite petitions to EA at the time, the AMT went IDoC and collapsed, taking with it a valuable piece of Atlantic's history. If EA had only been this helpful back then, perhaps the AMT would still be around for players to enjoy.
never forget it.
