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Ultima Online Journal Two
I was a member of the CoB board community for a couple years, so I saw several people come and go during that time. I'll throw out a few names that I can remember. Eagle-Eye, Lord Lurker, Magical Bubba, Callyndryl, Runesaber, Faceless (all 3 of those worked or do work at OSI now, but originally were just players), Red Rose, and I can't remember anymore, although I probably would if I saw their name again.
Probably the most expansive player influenced content to come out of the forum was the UO reputation system that I'll touch on later. The reputation system wasn't just some tweak, it was a rewrite of a fundamental system in UO. I could probably name several more productive movements from the player's corner as well as some negative ones like Trammel, but suffice it to say the birth of the forum whiner was a mixed bag for the genre.
And in this corner
One of the first post release events in Ultima Online took place in early Dec of '97 on the Atlantic Shard. A player had taken to roleplaying the personality of Hulk Hogan and in the course of one of his wrestling type tirades he called out Lord British. Of course, a man like Lord British couldn't let this rabble-rouser's challenge go unmet so he sent his gimp, Lord Blackthorn to face the upstart. Bear in mind that the Hulkster was just another player and the event he sparked was not something that started off scripted. This was one of those times when the reality of MMO gaming measured up to the promises.
I wanted to be part of the action, so I created a character on the Atlantic server. I decided to make a hip cat kind of character, so I made an alchemist/sheep herder. That way I'd get a flashy robe and stylin' crook. I then used my newbie gold to buy a feathered hat and viola' - one sexy beast. I met up with a friend named Ambie at the Britian Bank, who had a regular character on Atlantic, she is the one wearing the pirate hat and slut boots in the picture below. The fight was held on the beach just south of West Britian, basically were Paws is located in Ultima 7. Not surprising I wasn't the only one looking forward to the Saturday night rumble. As I neared the event, I was immediately throttled by insane lag.
The lag wasn't just the common three steps and freeze variety either, it was client side as well. Basically I was so lagged I had to restart the client several times. A couple of those times I got a really weird effect were the welcome screen inside the chest never went away and players were just appearing inside the chest and on the welcome screen. Needless to say, I was disappointed with the potential for UO to hold large gatherings of players.
Still, OSI didn't disappoint in creating a neat event. They had several GM controlled characters and even some special colored armor and weapons that most of us hadn't seen. Because of the lag, I didn't get to see the whole fight. I got separated from Ambie due to the crush of people and was forced to the back of the crowd. Eventually I got booted and couldn't log back in for the ending. Before I got booted, I did witness countless people trying to hurl lightening bolts and heal spells at the combatants. They received a quick death for their efforts from the GM controlled characters. Since I had a newbie character I had nothing of value, but it didn't stop the thieves from trying to steal even my starter supplies. I can only imagine what the cutpurses pilfered from characters foolish enough to bring something of value to the match.
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