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Ultima Online Journal One
One of the nice things about our community we built was that it
wasn't anti-social like so many think UO was and still is.
Carpenters built tables and chairs and set them outside for
people to set up a makeshift market place. Very rarely did someone pick
them up and steal them. Just like it would in real life, our community grew naturally by word of mouth. People would migrate to our area because they heard it was the place to go for equipment and socializing. Even with the influx of players, there was not many incidents that required excessive force to stop. For the most part I provided help to the newcomers and
items and repairs to the adventurers that passed through. Dealing with troublemakers consisted mostly of dealing with thieves and occasional brawler who took things too far.
UO was a big world to us back in those days. There were no in
game chat channels like guild chat or private messages, all
conversation took place in the area you were in. Those early
days, not everyone knew what was out there in the lands of
Britannia. We learned about where good monster spawns were like
the Orc Fort. It may surprise people who didn't play in 1997 but
monsters were not spawning, the resource limitations were maxed
out at the time and the servers couldn't produce monsters in
large quantities. Which was also a reason many people resorted to
sparring. We hard about guilds that had put up castles or about
adventurers to the distant Isle of Daggers. It may surprise
some people, but at one time that island didn't look like an urban
projects. More importantly, though, in November we started hearing
disturbing reports from players who needed to be re-equipped because
gangs of red robed players were ambushing them near Despise.
Despise as many know, is not far from the britian mines, so
refugees from the attacks would always find their way to the
mining camp looking for assistance. Luckily, our area of the world was still safe for the most
part. The times were defintely changing though and it started to get dangerous to mine in the pass
leading to Despise.
The Horizon's Horizon
It was nearing the time of the PK, what many pvpers refer to
as the Glory Days of UO. Basically unrestricted pking. Because the
notoriety system was easy to get around, either drop 1 gp on a
healer npc to get increases in notoriety or snoop someones bag to
avoid being a dread lord and simply cap at dark lord, players could basically kill indiscriminately and not face any serious ramifications of their actions. Unfortuantely for me I spent majority of my time at the mining
camp, only making a few trips to the orc fort to fight. I didn't
really grasp how dangerous the world was. I heard the reports
about how the Vesper crossroads was a death trap, but since it
didn't affect me I didn't really think much of it. I was a Master
blacksmith around this time, though I didn't get around to maxing
my skill out to 100 till March of 1998. After about a month at
the mining camp I had amassed more than enough money to buy a
house, which I did. I placed it a cul-de-sac in the mountains
south of the shrine of chaos. My trips to the mining camp grew
less and less, and though the buildings lasted without me for a
long time, the community that was built slowly died off, until
what was left was mostly just people powerleveling miners and
smiths. Because I wasn't around much anymore I can't pinpoint
exactly when that community died off, but I still remember those
days fondly. I think it was asking too much to expect that place
to survive the mass slaughters that were coming, eventually the
PKs would stretch out across britannia and a place where players
gathered to sell armor and items would be a perfect place for PKs to prey
upon. The two houses at the mines lasted about a year until
decaying but the forges themselves stayed behind for a long time,
might even still be there in Felucca today on Great Lakes.
Soon I will pick up the story detailing the days leading up to
the reputation system. I plan to be objective about it. Though it was a time of chaos and violence, it was also an exciting time. Those days weren't a paint-by-numbers game design. The players were as much in control as the developers. The players had more freedom in UO in those days than any other MMORPG at any other time. While many people will call those days "The Glory Days" and others will refer to them as the "Dread Lord Days", the reality is by accident or by design, UO had a life of its own, something I haven't encountered in any game since.
During this time in UO's history will also see the rise of terminology like whiners, kewldewds, and gank. It also
includes Designer Dragons rise to prominence among the playerbase
and how message board forums became a place where players could
truely shape the world.
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