I am from Atlantic, that was my shard in early 2000's, before Trammel, before private housing and lockdowns, before housing tools, when house keys and trapped boxes were your only real way to defend your house items.
I loved it, but went away for five years. I decided to return based on the memory of the game, remembering how fun it was. I reinstalled ( 9th Anniversary Collection ), patched up, and logged in... my 5 chars were still on Atlantic! Naturally, I checked their packs and found a bunch of junk on them, my house deeds were replaced with house placement tools, I was wearing bone armour from the graveyard ( pretty good for its day ), and the town was bursting with activity! People selling their wares in front of Brit bank! I didnt know about trammel yet, and someone saw me in bone armour and knew I had just returned from a long absence.
They updated me on rules, facets, and skills, sorted through my belongings, tossing most of it out ( but I'm sure they must have kept some server rares, I didnt know any different ), and made me a GM suit of armor to get back on my feet. I played there for about a year, found a guild to join, we did champ spawns regularly, but something was missing...
I was longing for the old UO I remembered...
I kept hearing about Siege, and made a character here by the name of Nightstalker. I typically just logged in and trained some skills when Atlantic shard went down ( which was pretty often ), stealth lockpicker, detect / remove trap, ninjitsu.
I joined NEW long ago and logged in a few times here or there, but never really made use of the guild, I was eventually booted for inactivity after 2 months maybe.
It was when I found Chad Sexingtons web episodes that I remembered the good old days, he looked like he was having so much fun, and in his later episodes, he mentioned he had moved to Siege... I had to be in his guild!
( I was training remove trap when he passed by )
http://uothief.com/misadventures/ep192.html
I seeked him out, and that began the process of my eventual permanent stay, two houses on Siege, no looking back. Its not perfectly like it was when I fell in love with UO, but this is as close as it gets!