Excuse me whilst I geek out for a moment. If any of you fellow gamers are familiar with the grandaddy of all MMOs, Ultima Online, you will want to read on. The game started in 97. Its still running (albeit nowhere near as good as the Origin servers) and going strong. There is a phenomenon amongst the UO realm called freeshards. These are servers that are free to play on. I happen to play on one called Ultima Online: The Second Age. It is based on an era of the game that was full of challenge and there was no such thing as easy mode yet. At any rate, the contribution of this game to modern MMOs is similar to the contribution of Tolkien to modern fantasy. Its a big deal if you like that sort of thing. Well, I havent played UO:T2A (shorthand for the freeshard I play) in over a year. And I missed out on something HUGE. The Ultima Online game (as well as its 7 [or 8 depending on who you talk to] Ultima predecessors) was created by the genius innovator Richard Garriott. What set him apart, and what sets this game apart in general, is the fact that he often logged onto the game himself, as a real character. He played Lord British, the King of all the lands of Ultima Online. That sort of thing just doesnt happen anymore. Its all about money nowadays, and less about the shared experience and community. Well, I found out that Lord British, after a nearly 20 year hiatus, returned to nothing short of the server I played on!!!! FLIP OUT! OMG! WTF! Sadly, I missed this event, which is as historic an event as the first time someone killed Lord British (YouTube will show you what I mean) on the original servers almost two decades ago. While its graphics do show their age, there is still no game like it today. Nothing can compare to Ultima Online, and the fact that its creator randomly showed up in a free server just to revisit his beloved people and lands shows a little bit of why this is so. I leave you with the best game music ever composed (in my opinion) from Ultima Online. If you read the comments of any video related to this game, you will indubitably come up with one common phrase that stretches throughout: nostalgia. Anyone who has played this game and hears this song will immediately be taken back to a magical time in their lives. :) https://youtube/watch?v=5X1gC3BLq2w
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 02:20:59 +0000
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