@vga256 visited your site from this post and saw the Ultima Online section and brought back some memories! such an awesome game and experience in my life. Massive guild run towns and events, the Tamriel/Felucia split, camping falling houses and so much more. 🥹
We built forts out of wooden boxes in Ultima Online on the island of Moonglow. You tried to get revenge against that PK, but he turned you into a ghost (ooOo oOo). Your partner had sympathy when I got scam'd on e'bay for that black dye tub.
You: a slinky blonde with a purple tunic and a yellow feathered hat, fishing at the wharf near brit bank.
Me: a naked miner in white pampers leading a horse loaded with bronze ore to the south forge.
You fed my horse a poisoned apple and you looted its corpse while I tried to call the guards. Did we have a moment?
when i was a lonely seventeen-year-old first-year undergrad, i had a burlap couch that i found in a dumpster outside of my apartment building, and a 27-inch RCA tv with rabbit ears. for the first year of living alone and going to university, i subsisted on 56k internet, Ultima Online, and late night tv.
after class, i'd get home, pour a bowl of cereal and grind away my miner-fighter character on the Great Lakes UO shard. after 11pm, late night tv shows would start to air - most of them were low budget, mildly titillating with adult themes, and a lot edgier than the family-friendly evening fare.
i only logged out temporarily for two shows: Dr Katz, Professional Therapist, and a totally obscure low-budget canadian science fiction series called First Wave.
First Wave was The X-Files on an Outer Limits budget, with a Highlander (the series) acting roster. and yet, within all those limitations, it somehow worked as a paranoid sci-fi thriller. every week, i'd pour another bowl of froot loops and sit for a guaranteed hour of alien abduction fantasies and conspiracy theories.
by the early 2000s, the popular thirst for sci-fi fantasy was replaced by gritty realism; the show was cancelled after three seasons.
after working nonstop for weeks without a break, tonight's the perfect night to break out a bowl of froot loops and settle into some 90s vancouver acting school drama 🙏
And again a very nice and exciting evening! Thank you for being able to adventure with Lieutenant Gelbendil! He sends you a very big thank you! May you come home safe and sound and help out again next time...
Screenshot from the online game #UltimaOnline: The #EM (EventModerator) informs the players what will happen tonight.
Screenshot from the online game #UltimaOnline: The #EM (EventModerator) lets the players fight monsters that are important for the story tonight.
Screenshot vom Online-Spiel #UltimaOnline: Der #EM (EventModerator) ehrt die Spieler die vor wenigen Tagen den LUDO Wettbewerbe auf dem 2ten Platz abgeschlossen haben!
as a 20 year mac owner, i don't give a damn about apple anymore. they aren't the same company they were in the mac vs pc era, and the poetic excitement is dead.
it gave me grim joy to see them launch a laptop with "space black" at a premium. this is literally the same move #UltimaOnline did 25 years ago with black tinted platemail armour 🤣
@massivelyop Remember way back when where studios would delete your characters if you hadn’t logged in for a while? I’m pretty sure I lost some in an #UltimaOnline purge at one point.
back when the world was just getting its feet wet with MMOs in 1996, owo.com ("Origin Worlds Online" - pronounced oh-whoa) was going to be the central station for all of Origin's future MMO projects.
a year later, EA re-launched owo.com as #UltimaOnline's new home. the site was bright, cheerful, used extensive IE4-only function calls, and heralded the arrival of the graphical MMO.
this is the 1997 beta site's splash page, rendered with IE4.
Oggi compie 26 anni il gioco online per eccellenza ULTIMA ONLINE. ❤️
Quello che in realtà io (che non sono per niente un video giocatore) non considero neanche un gioco, ma una vera e propria vita parallela online. Ci ho vissuto per anni dentro a cavallo del nuovo millennio (ricordo una bolletta telefonica epica di 1.200.000 lire nel 1998 o 1999) e porto ancora dei ricordi indelebili come se li avessi vissuti in prima persona.
Ho ancora una virtual machine con Windows XP e tutto l'occorrente per accedervi (Razor, EasyUo, UoAutomap, client vari) che ogni tanto accendo per fare un giro. Ho giocato pochissimo sui server ufficiali, molto sugli emulatori. Ricordo ancora la nascita di Sampei su Moon, poi diventato Sampei di Yew guildmaster dei KEA ed il suo famoso shop "Archi & Balestre" su Universo, poi UoDreams... Poi un sacco di server internazionali... Tutt'ora se ascolto quelle musiche mi scende una lacrimuccia!
C'è qualcuno qui nel fediverso che frequentava le vaste lande di sosaria?
back in 1997, there was no such thing as a subscription system for MMOs that didn't require a credit card. the UO team came up with the "Game Time Card" system, which allowed people to buy 30 & 90 day subscriptions from brick & mortar game stores. every MMO afterward, like EQ, WoW and SWG would replicate that system.
since the cards were single-use disposables, 99.99% of gamers tossed these cards out when they were done with them. they were impossible to find after a few years. it took me 15 years to find a couple of these cards, mercifully saved by a gamer in Germany, which just arrived today
a 90-day card was included in the Charter Edition of the game (only available by special order prior to launch), pictured below. it is now back in its rightful place in the box 😅
i suddenly realized that in the near future, we're going to be convening mmorpg historical recreationist societies to re-enact our merry guild wars of yore
really impressed with the depth that the author of this extensive article about the history of #UltimaOnline went into.
was glad to see that #furcadia got a mention, and that both kristin and raph were acknowledged as its original designers
some of the gameplay experiences i had in UO have shaped what #tomo is becoming. user-created/governed communities, player housing, and server sharding is a big part of that.
@massivelyop Yep, I‘m also definitely still an explorer! My favorite thing has always been the collector, crafter, explorer, in fact in every #MMORPG I've ever played (back when it all started with #UltimaOnline to today's modern #GenshinImpact).