(Question) Is Great Lakes the shard for me?

[Stashy]

Hello! I'm recently decided to return to UO after a very long absence (7 or 8 years), and I'm trying to find a shard to call my own! I apologize if these questions have been answered recently; I know some have been, but I couldn't quite gauge how they'd pertain to me personally. So, the questions!

1.) From what I can gather, there is space for housing available here? Is it a barren wasteland with tons of open space, or just a nice amount of spots here and there? I fancy owning a house some day, the bigger the better!

2.) Roleplaying: I've seen it mentioned a lot around the other forums I've perused here, so does the shard have an active roleplaying scene? All guild based and cliquish, or out in the open?

3.) Is there a healthy population here? I've seen some say this was the second most populated server (after Atlantic), but that thread was from some time ago.

4.) Can a complete newbie make a livin' here? I don't expect to become super rich, but I really enjoyed selling via house vendors. Do people even buy lower tier things like recall scrolls, reagents and low-tier metals anymore? I guess that's more of a general UO kinda question.

I'm mostly a lone wolf kinda guy. I really enjoy being a part of a community, role playing a bit (more out in the open rather than lets-gather-and-RP) and smiting ugly monsters! Will Great Lakes be lovely for that? Thanks!

 

[iamSnippa]

Greetings traveler,
Great Lakes is far from a barren wasteland, though there are some pretty decent size housing plots available around if you search long enough.
I cannot really say much about the roleplaying community as it is now, but I know that the Great Lakes server has a very rich roleplaying history. At one time the roleplaying community on this shard was fairly large.

The population in the game has majorly declined since you last played, that goes for all shards I cannot really speak about the population of GL vs other servers, but it appears to me that there is still a decent amount of people.

I am sure there are still people that purchase the basic things like recalls, though if you have a character with inscription, you would probably make more money off selling spellbooks or runebooks.
The game has expanded an insane amount in the last 8 years that I'm sure you will find something to sell on vendors that may bring more customers than just the basic items would.

 

[T-Hunt]

Hello and welcome back..your best bet would be to make or take the free 14 day..

Have a look around town and see whats going on..
Tokuno main city is good for selling now..so thats not to bad..Luna you can rent vendors but will cost..

You can always drop runes around town for out of way places for your vendor, theres many options open to you.

And yes there is plenty of housing areas. just need to walk around and look.
There are alot of EM events on GL so the RP can be found easy enough , and there are many players still rp,ing around..

But try the free 14 days and give that a go, it is free..
Theres is a higher population on Atl server but with it goes the rest of problems or good, up to you to decide..

Good Luck and hope to see you ingame.

 

[Stashy]

Thank you for the responses you two (and the ones who sent me PMs; sorry, it won't let me respond until I have 10 posts!)! With what's been said and my own experiences during the 14 day trial, I think I will give Great Lakes a go!