When you knew you were hopelessly addicted...

[Black Sun]

Anyone who's played for long enough has had those little moments in real life when you know that you're hopelessly addicted to UO. Times when you're going about your daily routine and suddenly you say/do/see something that only makes sense, or would happen in UO.
When did that happen to you for the first time?

Mine was about 6 or 7 years ago, while I was doing dishes and out the window above the sink I saw something, just on the edge of my vision, flap a large set of wings out on the hill behind my house (it was a wild turkey in case you were wondering). It caught me off guard a bit, but I wasn't too concerned. The first thought that popped into my head was "It's probably just a mongbat, if he comes too close to the house I'll just run upstairs and grab my katana and take care of it." And I went back to my dishes without a second thought. It took a full minute before it fully registered at what I had just happened, after that I couldn't stop laughing for a good five minutes.

 

[The Home Guild]

When my father in law came to stay at our home and he was playing Uo[beta]
he was like mike you should get into this..i was like "a game"? Nah, i'll pass and then one day he was like try it out i'll give you an acct to start with
and if you don't like it then so be it.. well i said ok i'll just make a char and go from there.. i explored the lands of fel[as tram wasn't created yet] and found myself staying up allnight being late for work and can't wait for my day to end to get back to my new game.He laughed at me but here i am many years later..and quitting after all this time.

 

[Uvtha]

Years ago I was walking past a big cemetary near my house in the dead of winter, and from behinds the gates you can see a small lake which was frozen over, with a cool little island on it.

I thought to myself: Oh sweet, I can get to that island now to make a rune, and I can recall on to the island in the summer!

Took a few seconds to realize what I was thinking.

I also once asked the pizza man "how much gold was it?". That was pretty funny.

 

[Silly Seadog]

I thought to myself: Oh sweet, I can get to that island now to make a rune, and I can recall on to the island in the summer!

Arrrr, because ye can't swim in UO!

 

[Crystal Canyon]

I had a similar experience getting "rooked" into the game. LOL

My husband was introduced into the game by my daughter. He was hooked immediately! Every night he rushed home from worked and logged on to play.

At first I thought "this will pass, he will get bored soon." Much to my surprise, almost a year later he was still in this routine.

I had become a UO widow and wasnt a happy camper!

Complaining didnt seem to help much, compromising time worked only for about 2 days at a time, threats were laughed at, and hiding the computer was out of the question (although I did at least try it once.)

I thought about getting a Tattoo on my forehead that said UO, but it reminded me of a joke about tieing a bone around someones neck so others will play with them...knocked that right out of the plans quickly.

Next step? Simple...if you cant beat them...join them!

When he went to work one night, I logged onto his computer, figured out how to get UO, created a couple characters, and ran all over Moonglow that night, running from mongbats, and picking regs up off the ground.

Since I had watched him play the game some over the last year, I realized that you could fight monsters or another players. My plans were to not let him know about my characters, practice up and then go into the game one night and kick off in his %*#!

Well, this didnt happen. He came home one night while I was still in the game and caught me! He was estatic. "So, you 've you decided to play, Cool!" Uhhhg!

I felt a bit defeated at that point, but at the same I knew I was hooked!

Nine years later...I still havent taken him down, but for a very good reason... He pays the UO accounts! Luv ya hun!

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

When your at an office meeting and someone says "I cant recall" and you think to yourself you could offer to open a gate.

 

[Aboo]

When your at an office meeting and someone says "I cant recall" and you think to yourself you could offer to open a gate.

LOL - I've done that too! Or I've wondered to myself when I saw something I wanted to buy, do I have enough gold to buy that?

I guess my first realization came almost 11 years ago. I don't remember what it was that had me stumped but I had been working for days on how to do something. One day sitting in a meeting the answer on how to accomplish what I wanted came to me. I said "Ah ha!" involuntarily outloud. I quickly and quite embarrssingly said nevermind and fortunately everyone thought I was thinking about the subject at hand, but I couldn't wait to get home and try the solution I came up with (wish I could remember what it was that I was trying to figure out how to do).

 

[CaesarDoP]

Every time I pass an empty plot of land, I think about what type of House I can place there.

Peace be with You Black_Sun

Caesar

 

[MalagAste]

I recall I had bought UO:Ren at a Wal-Mart I think before I had internet.... When I finally got internet (Dial up mind you).... I still didn't play it.... Was way too busy with the Sims.... Then one day my son grabbed the box and said... "Mom... aren't you gonna play this? You got it ages ago." I was like "Eh, Maybe when I am bored with the Sims."... Few days later I picked up the box read it over again.. thought..... HUM..... says you get 30 days free... So I installed it.... signed myself up to play.... I think I made a character on LS.... But I never really got into the game.....

A few days after installing the game a friend came over and accidentally turned the power off to my pc frying my hard drive.... took a good 3 months to get a new hard drive and then and month or more before I re-installed UO.... only now my 30 days was LONG since over.... Never had really a time as a "young" player... But after that time.... I was hooked.... ever since I can't wait to come home and see what I can do... From RP to PvP.... to Design and Deco... I love all of it. (Except maybe working begging)... 8 accounts later I'm fully hooked... I have no desire to play WoW or anything else... that would cut into my UO time!...


Please click my egg and help my dragon hatch. Bel'la Dos (Thank you)

 

[prison bound]

not as similar as previous replies, but back circa 2001-2002, i was very intent on IDOCs and placing my own house. there were so many days that i knew a house was going to fall so i stayed home from school (university of florida) to catch them. i had fun with the IDOCS but missed so many classes that i had to withdraw from an entire semester... cost for UO each month: $14.99; cost of IDOCing until i almost got kicked out of college: priceless

 

[feath]

I dropped a pen on the floor, and wondered why the mouse wasn't working to click and drag to pick it up.

 

[LdyHawke]

When my boyfriend started playing UO 11 years ago, I made a character on his account. I enjoyed running around and picking up things and taking them to npc vendors to sell. I'd spend hours running through the woods above Minoc picking up all the loose reagents on the ground. I remember that after a particularly lengthy scavenging session, I went for a drive with my boyfriend. Everywhere we went, I'd see little flecks of color out of the corner of my eye: red, yellow, white, brown, purple. I'd immediately think they were reagents! It never got bad enough that I made him pull over so I could investigate, but everytime I saw something, I'd think, "man...I played way too long today".

Kinda like when you play Tetris for a long time, and when you close your eyes, you can still see the blocks falling.

 

[GarthGrey]

Late late late 97 when I started. I had a job test driving cars for VW/Audi. It was a cool job because I got to get all cleaned up and dressed up to drive a brand new Audi Quatro..or some other model before it was released to the public yada yada...anyway...

We had routes that we were supposed to take, with mileage very specific. Drive 10.4 miles and turn here, take this left , that right...you get the idea. Well, once I started playing UO, I would get my car to drive at roughly 11pm. Take a look at my route plan which required approximately 215 miles on this trip. I would head out to I-75 ( I lived in Tampa at the time, haul ass out over the Skyway bridge, down to Sarasota/Bradenton, rack up 1/2 the miles I needed, head back to town. Go to my apartment, log in (remembers Chest Opening scene), and then mine mine mine for ore.......until about 20 minutes before I was due back, go get back in the car and return to the shop. Only to have the German engineers ask me why the computer was showing a huge gap in the numbers *oops*...

 

[DevilsOwn]

my first death, in Moonglow, had been poisoned by a snake.... made it all the way back to town and died in front of the smithy

didn't know about death at the time, and began asking the people around me to help.. they were npc's, of course, and did not respond (had no idea that even if there were players about all they would see is ooOOOOoooO )

then someone ran up, and I watched all of my meager belongings flying thru the air.... thought "how nice, he's picking my stuff up for me" at which point he laughed at me and ran away

furious does not begin to describe it... I vowed to get strong enough that I would be able to hunt this person down and reclaim my treasures, and more importantly, that I would never, ever again die and risk losing everything I owned

hundreds of thousands of deaths later (yeah, really) and I'm still here

 

[Redxpanda]

When i found out i needed knee surgery all i could think about was being able to stay home from work and play UO all day....That was 2001. I played it so much that year i had to get a second account to keep it fresh.

 

[ColterDC]

I had horrible nightmares about being chased by giant black spiders shortly after ML came out.

 

[Calla Lily]

Kinda like when you play Tetris for a long time, and when you close your eyes, you can still see the blocks falling.

Yes! I finally decided I was addicted to UO when I was driving down the road and passed a house with a load of chopped wood for sale in the driveway. My first thought was to ask how much gold it was and how I could get it in my backpack because I was heavily working on bowyering at the time and needed all the wood I could get. My second thought was "Omg, I've lost it!"

 

[Norrar]

seeing a deer and wondering if i was in fel ruleset and how many hides it might give me.



Edit: oh and maybe going as an orc and lich for halloween two years in a row... *sigh* =p

 

[Sara Of Baja]

A few years back, an x-ray tech commented about my 'artifact' (vena cava filter) she'd spotted on my x-ray. I had never heard it referred to as an artifact before, and without thinking I asked her what level arti is it? She gave me a look that implied one more remark like that and she was finding a straight jacket for me.

 

[Experimental]

When I started the game right after UO:Ren came out, I remember working in the yard and seeing a spot of something red out of the corner of my eye. I got happy and started to go pick it up because I was low on blood moss.

 

[Millie]

A month or so ago we had to bomb our house for Black Widows. We needed to put the animals at the Vets over night. When I called the Vet and Asked how many gp's it would take to stall my 2 dogs and cat. I realized what had came out of my mouth and though to my self "Omg shes going to think I'm Crazy. She never missed a beat and told me the prices. lol , She must play online games also.

 

[Jesara]

Every once in a while, when driving in wooded areas, I catch myself thinking "I wonder if any of the trees have Frostwood".

 

[Frarc]

Sometimes in the morning when i jump on my bike to ride to work, i sometimes think that i just wish i could recall to get to there.

 

[Lady Tiger]

you know you're addicted to UO when you're dreaming about killing purple bunnies and your little brothers stepping on them and you're screaming in your dream for him to stop that it's a special purple bunny and you want to tame it.

 

[Sheridan]

I knew it was hopeless after I stayed up all night to defend sigils, despite having to work a full day the next day. At one point, I finally succumbed to sleep and ended up snoring in the Wilco channel much to my chagrin.

 

[Jasonleebeck]

Just a few days ago actually, I drove past a yard sale and excitedly pointed it out to my wife saying "Check out the IDOC!" Unfortunately she had no idea what I was talking about and replied with, "What?" (Doesn't play). As I continued to drive with a dastardly grin shaking my head, I knew I was having withdrawal and promptly answered her with a low-key "nothing dear."

 

[agpga]

when I opened up my bank account and realized I had 10 accounts

 

[Lady Tiger]

this has to be bumped cause I need to read more of these stories....so post!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tabby Kapak]

Back in 2001 our bestfriend who got us into UO was helping us move irl, and at the time he really was into trading "rares". Also those vet reward statues, so when he saw the statues on the bridge near our new place he went like: "Statues!! Statues!!!" every time we drove past them.

Still can't recall any silly things we did ourselves... We know there must be something...

 

[gunneroforgin]

I had a similar experience getting "rooked" into the game. LOL

My husband was introduced into the game by my daughter. He was hooked immediately! Every night he rushed home from worked and logged on to play.

At first I thought "this will pass, he will get bored soon." Much to my surprise, almost a year later he was still in this routine.

I had become a UO widow and wasnt a happy camper!

Complaining didnt seem to help much, compromising time worked only for about 2 days at a time, threats were laughed at, and hiding the computer was out of the question (although I did at least try it once.)

I thought about getting a Tattoo on my forehead that said UO, but it reminded me of a joke about tieing a bone around someones neck so others will play with them...knocked that right out of the plans quickly.

Next step? Simple...if you cant beat them...join them!

When he went to work one night, I logged onto his computer, figured out how to get UO, created a couple characters, and ran all over Moonglow that night, running from mongbats, and picking regs up off the ground.

Since I had watched him play the game some over the last year, I realized that you could fight monsters or another players. My plans were to not let him know about my characters, practice up and then go into the game one night and kick off in his %*#!

Well, this didnt happen. He came home one night while I was still in the game and caught me! He was estatic. "So, you 've you decided to play, Cool!" Uhhhg!

I felt a bit defeated at that point, but at the same I knew I was hooked!

Nine years later...I still havent taken him down, but for a very good reason... He pays the UO accounts! Luv ya hun!

I was completely hooked after watching my friends play UO at the office after hours. I didn't have a computer or modem capable of playing UO at the time but as soon as I got one I was in the game store buying the game and I have been at it since 2001 and the birth of trammel housing.

when are you coming back to the game crystal? we all miss you.

 

[Sarsmi]

I went on vacation (vegas) a few years ago, and there were tall potted plants in the hotel room. I got that really excited buzz when I saw them (ooh potted trees!) before my brain kicked in.

 

[Playhardgopro]

Not UO, but during my A-levels, at the high of my gaming addiction, I informed a friend that I was just 'off to Counter-Strike' before leaving him to go to Chemistry.

 

[Playhardgopro]

Damn, I have another good (sad) one, but I'm afraid it's Counter-Strike again.

I was in my last year at school, volunteering to listen to slow kids read in the mornings. I was helping this one boy with his homework - to make a 'Newspaper' for one of his classes.

He asks me how to spell 'news' for the front page and I, being totally pre-occupied with UO, CS and gaming, start to spell it to him.

Only what comes out is "N, E, S, W" the initials of a UK Counter-Strike clan at the time.

And he's already written N, E and S when I notice. Then the bell rang and I never went back (or it was my last scheduled meeting with him - I can't remember).

 

[Nine Dark Moons]

A month or so ago we had to bomb our house for Black Widows

oh my gawd i hope i never have to say that irl!!! *FULL BODY SHUDDER*
bad enough having so many spiders you need to bomb your house - but black widows? CRIPES MILLIE! *just had a frightening vision of thousands of spider corpses to vacuum up after they all die*...

almost all my recent (last year and half) UO real life slipups have involved magincia rubble sightings... even last week i was driving by a field and saw a cut up tree with a perfect slice of trunk sitting upright on the ground and thought "finally!!! the rubble i've been looking for!!!" (pier piling without the rope) only to realize my mistake. d'oh! i've also spotted moongate boulders, log piles, crumbling wall pieces, saplings and random shrubbery rubble irl.

my funniest memory is walking into my new boss's office 6+ years ago and yelling "OMG SNAKEPLANT!!!" and pointing at his windowsill which had a large potted plant on it. he was like "um... yeah" and stared at me funny.
when i had first started playing i was addicted to plants and plant growing and cross-pollination and i thought it was the coolest thing ever that snake plants actually existed irl (i'd never heard of or seen real ones before!)

 

[Lady Aalia]

we have a company close by with the intials GGS

Everytime we drive by it i keep thinking yup dont forget my ggs'ses today

 

[wrekognize]

When I saw the advertisments in PC gamer before UO was released was when I was hooked.

 

[Playhardgopro]

I got very, very drunk once and walked around a nightclub, wondering what mods everyone had on their 'suits'.

 

[Lynk]

When you watch a movie and when someone dies you think "I wonder if he's got any good loots"

 

[athos_uo]

No, I'm not addicted at all.

 

[Alezi]

Anyone who's played for long enough has had those little moments in real life when you know that you're hopelessly addicted to UO. Times when you're going about your daily routine and suddenly you say/do/see something that only makes sense, or would happen in UO.
When did that happen to you for the first time?

Mine was about 6 or 7 years ago, while I was doing dishes and out the window above the sink I saw something, just on the edge of my vision, flap a large set of wings out on the hill behind my house (it was a wild turkey in case you were wondering). It caught me off guard a bit, but I wasn't too concerned. The first thought that popped into my head was "It's probably just a mongbat, if he comes too close to the house I'll just run upstairs and grab my katana and take care of it." And I went back to my dishes without a second thought. It took a full minute before it fully registered at what I had just happened, after that I couldn't stop laughing for a good five minutes.

Here you go..

 

[Lord Drakelord]

I had played the PC games of Ultima and so wanted to try the Ultima Online version that first came out in 97-98, but the only way was by phone thru ATT and we were having a big problem with them. In 99 a local company open up near by and we were able to final go online and join the UO community. My daughter got me UO-R for my birthday in April of 99, and our first account had females running all over, it seems she saw them as dolls and could now play dress up with them, it was two yrs before I saw a male char in game on another account!

 

[Splup]

Summer 2001 or 2002 (Can't remember which).

We were going to beach with my friends and I watched my clock and thought "There's no point going to beach now since the server is not saving anymore".

 

[Splup]

we have a company close by with the intials GGS

Everytime we drive by it i keep thinking yup dont forget my ggs'ses today

Oh... If I see markings like LMC etc. I always think "Hehe, Lower mana cost" but I'm very careful not to say it out loud

 

[debii]

waking up in a cold sweat, realizing you just dreamed of you being your character and running from Titans and Cyclops in pixels -

 

[Alezi]

I checked an IRC link which had some emo with his/her (gender not recognizable) arms sliced up somewhat. There was blood on the floor etc. and I thought someone had used bleed attack.

 

[sablestorm]

I don't know if this counts, but I had a very vivid UO dream last night/this morning. I can't remember all of it, but I do remember bits and pieces. I dreamed I ran out of the Yew Moongate Fel. My dream was first person, but I saw a pack of reds, complete with their names and guild affiliations floating above their heads. I bypassed them and ran to a house I once had in that region, only to find it was gone and replaced by, of all things, a Burger King.

I sat there thinking:

Did EA demolish my house? Do they still have all my things? Will they reimburse me the value of my house? Did they remove my house for a corporate sponsor?

Later on, I find myself in a huge parking garage doing escort quests, leading people down the car ramps while orc scouts are ambushing us, shooting arrows at us. There was one particularly fair maiden I remember guiding and while we were making our way past the ambush area, I heard the UO sound of a broadsword smacking flesh. Next I see what looks to be a bunch of LARPers taking out the Orc Scouts.

I woke up at this point and just had to laugh at myself.

 

[Alezi]

Talking about LARPers... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oWAb5NVALw

 

[Lynk]

lol "i'm out of mana"

 

[Budweiser]

I'd like to Flame Strike people who hold up lines for dumb reason's. I did try and Corp Por a RL friend once. Too bad he played UO also, He had Greater Heal pre-casted, sob!

 

[NuSair]

Christmas just after the game was released... got into a 'discussion' with someone about a parking place at Gwinnett Place Mall, in which I said:

You're lucky I don't Corp Por your ***.