What originally attaracted you to UO ?

[Aboo]

I'd played all the Ultima games including the 2 Underworlds, Savage Empire (my first Origin game) and Martian Dreams. I couldn't wait until the next Origin game came out. The guy at the software store knew me by name and would call whenever they expected a new Origin game to come out and he would hold one for me.

Just so happens UO was the next. I was apprehensive about playing an online game but I loved all the other Origin games so much that I tried it. That was over 10 years ago. I still love it.

 

[Al Thorin]

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Sounds like a GREAT UO bumper sticker:

UO: I break for Babiez.

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rofl!
Technically, it a break for sanity, we PVP, and well, hormones and fel don't mix at all.

 

[Guest]

I bought the original box with the cloth map and the UO pin late in 97, unfortunately my father fell ill and I didn't have any time to play until april of 98. I've played almost non-stop since, there has been a few breaks since then for one reason or another. But what got me, was the article I read about how YOU could alter the game world. Build a home, fight monsters, live the adventurer's life... how could I resist?

It'll be 10 years in April, all in all what attracted me still holds me, but the main draw... the friends I have in game, the fact that I can RP whenever I want to or not when not in the mood.... UO is still the best set up for a game I've seen, and I've tried a lot of the MMORPGs. Bugs and all.. its still the best.

Just not the best promoted.

 

[Guest]

...

I played and loved Ultimas 6 and 7. I had also enjoyed time in text based MUDs. I also always disliked the idea that adventure games always had an "end", so the chance to play Ultima in a wide open and online environment was the next big step.

 

[Guest]

I was in another game - now a free-to-play one, Half-Elf Scout that had gotten pretty high in rankings. A gal from there (anyone remember Leandra from here?) has been a long-time buddy.

Welp, she and another of the players from that game were on Pac. They got me into the UO scene in Dec 1998. They also a) forgot to tell me to NOT hit peasants in a guardzone (neglected to tell me of hitting healthbars); b) got me introduced to Dire Wolf packs on the Yew Peninsulas; c) got me trained up so my tank/mage was reasonably self-sufficient.

Ummm, Jeremy ... if you're reading this? Any way to bump the overall overland spawn a notch and get things to happen again? Orc camps at Brit Corssroads, more than a Dire or 2 near Shame ... nothing huge, just bump it. Please? Shame USED to be like Reapers Point near Minoc currently is ... really popping.

 

[Guest]

fishing.

I had only played a bit of U7 and had missed out on the whole MUD thing that consumed most of my friends. But I read a review of UO that described a fantasy RPG world where you could play without actually ever needing to fight a monster. I had a rush of excitement because it was exactly the sort of world I had dreamed of building if had the time/skills. It was almost two years before I had a chance to play and alas my trial month's experience was awful. But I had a character who had created his own cloths and fished on the shorelines of a living world. It would take another five years to return, but it was still the fishing that brought me back.

 

[Vallend]

I started my life of gaming playing AD&amp;D with friends around a kitchen table and it wasn't long before I tried fantasy games on a Commodore 64C. I played most of the original Ultima games on that platform, along with the Bards Tale games and the old Dungeons and Dragons computer games. So of course in time I moved up to a 486 PC and PC fantasy gamed. Can you say Betrayal at Krondor?

Well thats when I read about a new game coming out in the Ultime series and this game was online. I saw that you could play with other players and own a home. If I remember correctly at that time selling point was it would take you two hours to walk from one end of the land to the other. (I was thinking to myself this game area is going to be huge.) Then I saw that you could be a warrior, mage, bard, tamer or craftsman and I started getting those old visions of living the life of some of my characters from playing AD&amp;D. ( I tended to dream bigger at that time then what the game really was. I really thought I could go become a adventurer and then open up a little tavern with blacksmith shop along a road that people would stop at and visit.) Also at that time as I understood it. You could talk to NPCs and monsters were planned to move to new places if their food supplies ran out. It sounded like a living world to me and I wanted to be part of it. So to play this new game I went out and got dialup and have not looked back from the first second I stepped into this wonderful world we play in.

 

[Guest]

Former BF.
He's long gone and doesn't play anymore, I'm still here...

 

[Jhym]

I had seen blurbs about it, thought "hmm looks interesting", got the box for xmas and started up.

Not particularly excited about "Ultima" per se, but the idea of a constantly changing online world was very exciting to me. I've done most of the things I wanted to do, but I'm still trying new skillsets and moving now and then (someday I might get that castle, or at least an 18x18.) And here I am posting about it ten years later and quite content with it.

I have to say if UO ever does go away for whatever reason, and if I can no longer visit Chesapeake and see old friends online, I will definitely be grieving.

However, that is not likely anytime soon.

 

[Latobian]

Oh - I like this question! =)

I never played computer games, and had never heard of an online one, until I met my (then boyfriend) husband Shaun. I spend my time illustrating, drawing and doing stuff outside the house. He said, "Hey have you ever heard of Ultima Online?" Noooo.. what's that? He showed me the game on my lunch hour at work. When he started it up and I heard the calming music I was intrigued, when he logged in at Britain East bank and players were scrambling around on horseback I was sold. I love horseback riding and most of my art involves equine images so I was sold - over the fact that you could ride horses! hehe

I went over everyday at lunch to play UO.. and visit Shaun of course.

 

[Lord Zephyrus]

I started on January 10th 2007 i am now a 1 year vet yay me! My friend who is either 5 or 6 year vet got me into the game i watched him play for a bit and i never thought about trying the game out myself i have always been a huge final fantasy fan. Well set me up with a new account and in 5 minutes i was running around haven confused as one could be. It took me a month to get my first house and then i i found out about peerless bosses. The rest is history .

 

[Latobian]

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It took me a month to get my first house and then i i found out about peerless bosses. The rest is history .

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It took me well over a year to get my first house. lol.. wow! I remember how exciting that day was - to get a small marble for a whopping (great price!) 1 million gold in Yew.

 

[Guest]

Ultima.

 

[Guest]

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Heard about it in the late 90s, but I was in highschool at the time and my parents wouldn't pay for the sub. Saw the 7th ann box and started thinking about it and then saw there was a "FREE INGAME ITEM" and I was sold. Within 5 minutes of arriving, my free item(sam helm) was bought from me for 10k, I didn't really care though.

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Incredible. I had the same thing happen to me except I chose the blue bow and sold it for the same in about the same time. The 7th anni box lured me in, too. Goes to show what shelf presence can do... those were the days.

 

[Guest]

I blame it on my ex wife. When she and her boyfriend had to move in with the kids and I for a few months, back in late '97, they were playing it all the time. I was amazed you could be in a game with other people. The internet was a wonderful new toy. So I had to run out and buy it.

It was my first Ultima. Almost everything I played back then was Sierra or Dynamix. The only other EA game I'd seen was a horrid Zoo coloring book the kids played with.

 

[Guest]

I started on a character on my old roommates "new game" . I was wandering around britt got killed by a PK. I was hooked I bought my own account that next Friday I just had to make my own PK and been here since well kinda. my accounts are active but I remain inactive due to major unbalances and rampant cheating.

 

[Cogniac]

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Those were fun times. I remember Lord Luker and how a lot of players back then either loved or hated what he stood for.

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Aaargh! Luker! That son of a...! Always causing a ruckus at the old BWC meetings and even back before that.

And his constant "suggestions"! And that damn grayscale picture!

Christ. Every time I think I've scrubbed that guy from my memory banks...

 

[Redrum1]

My next door neighbor told me I needed to try this game and gave me a game code to try it. Well that was 4 years ago and I have hated him ever since! LOL

 

[uo addict]

The standalone Ultima games. I'd played most of the other PC adventure games, starting with Wizardry and the text adventure games, and liked Ultima the best (although Xeen was very good). I knew once I started playing Ultima Online I would get hooked, so I put it off for a year and I'm only a nine year vet. Played solidly ever since.

 

[Guest]

The original attraction to UO was two things. First it was knowing of the past Ultima Games and Richard Garriot's name. Once I actually logged in and created my first character, it was the Spells that attracted me even more and got me hooked. I loved the way Spells were cast, needing Reagents and a Spellbook along with Verbal and Somatic needs (like PnP D&amp;D). Being a huge fan of Mages in PnP D&amp;D this is what inevitably attracts me to any Fantasy Game and is what got me hooked and kept me hooked for a decade in Ultima Online.

 

[BajaElladan]

Hail Theo,

Respectfully, I say to thee, c'mon now! You appear to me to be creative AND imaginative. Create a unique type character, give it an ongoing purpose or function. Create an event, organise it, advertise it, make it a part of a Shards uniqueness.

Create a peddler, could be a crafter, could be peddling stuff collected of the ground or begged from other players.

Create your own personal Town Crier, and instead of a daily blog, have your Crier make daily announcements.

This virtual world provides infinite possibilities and opportunities.

Stir up your creative juices again. I am confident you will amaze yourself and others.

Elladan of Baja

 

[Cat Crimson]

The Ultima series. I absolutely loved them. The gameplay and imagination and humour is still pretty much unrivalled. My rl best friend and I were so excited when we read there was an interactive online version ! I didn't have internet or a PC that was capable of running UO back then so for the first few months I played on his PC on his account, with him being the UO equivalent of a "backseat driver " LOL - " Look, keep going up that road, you need to go there to get to the stables I told you about " " But I want to go and tame that wolf ! " * exasperated sighs* hehe.

So the day when I actually was able to go online and have my own UO account was pure magic. Amazingly enough I trudged along for 7 and half years on dial up and an old PC before getting modern equipment and DSL last month and I loved 90% of every minute of it..... the 10% I didnt were due to either AOS * grrr* or people ingame who had dull little lives and made up for that by creating ****e and drama online. Apart from that its been great and I still love UO, multitudinous faults and all

Yep T'Amon, I remember Leandra - mostly from here on the boards but we did get together ingame to do some bod swapping sometimes a whiles back.

 

[Guest]

It is all my son's fault. At the time he was in the US NAVY. He was into UO and computers not me. He was oft far far away. He felt if he could get me interested in this game we could hang out somewhere together in some pixel make believe world and then still get to talk see one another as pixels somewhere and not be weeks mos apart never even being on the same side of planet earth at the same time.

So he helped me get a computer. He taught me how to run a mouse and he bought me this game called Ultima Online. He was my first vet mentor in UO back then. He had come home on leave and began to teach me dual things how to run the mouse, how to play UO ..he even made my first ever UO character on Chesapeake. HE named her not me. He called her Queen Zen. He shouted that is soo you mom.......archer sworder ie warrior but I know you ..you won't want to stay in ugly newbie outfit so I gave her you some tailoring too.

I been Queen Zen ever since warrior queen knight of justice yet always tastefully attired kept some tailoring on her, she and the others of me among many other chrs. of my selves primarily that orig QZ is chesapeake..the other QZ is on Siege she cant tailor..I made a crafter for that there...Siege knows me more as Miranda. Chesapeake knows me more as Queen Zen no matter what chr I am playing there they all get called QZ. hrmm even sometimes my guy chrs. lol

I was sucked into this pixel world but then we had a Lord British then, and a Lord Blackthorn, I read their books, we had Chaos shields and Order shields which no one could equip unless they entered the palacial estates of our lords and signed up to become Order or Chaos.

I got sucked into how my son playing a warrior miner oft outsmarted those that were hellbent to lol and pk a supposidly defenseless miner which he oft dirtnapped and I was hooked............back in a SKILL based game of UO and the make believe world that it was back in the day. Then the new lost lands came and it was awesome.

So it is my son's fault I ever even entered the UO world. Then trammel came he got mad and quit...course he also got a rl girlfriend at the same time

soooo he got busy too busy rl for UO. They got married finally this past July. They could not even remember how long they knew each other. I laughed said to my son ya met ye future bride the year trammel was being put into UO ! 99 or so.

Weird how a UO CD can be a timeline for when ye son was getting a gf rl ! HAHA But we did have fun in UO back then hangin out together. He tried to get his sisters to play too they got guardwhacked for killing *pet cows* by Delucia, we forgot to inform them of *blue hued* pets etc. and their guardwhacking soo shook em up in fear being guardwhacked both my girls said
'UO is too VIOLENT not playing no more' and they never returned to finish their newbie chrs. !