Any ex UO players here?

[The.Doover]

It's been a long time since I've played a game that I could even consider riginal mmo, ultima online, and whilst both are very very different games, the piracy and the player killing got me reminiscing.

Anyone else in the same boat? Names, shard and guild names welcome .

 

[Derpster Frey]

I played UO from closed beta and up to the release of Second Age.
Beta was on Chesapeake and stayed there until Europe opened.

For the life of me, I cannot remember name or guild.
I know we had Europe on PK lockdown, and were always in war with the biggest "good guy" guild.

Don't get me started on reminiscing on UO, it has a special place in my gaming heart.
Nothing today have ever managed to give me the same feeling as UO did.

Hell, first time I saw PvP in WoW, I laughed out loud at the fact you lost nothing from dying.
In UO, you lost everything you had on you.

Kids these days.

 

[Ambivalent]

I'm an old UO player, missed the boat at launch but played it from 2000-2003 on Europa, mostly with the pink hat thugs pk guild which was based in reaper valley up near minoc.

 

[iAmLegion]

Been there done that and it was awesome.

 

[Darkfyre99]

It's been a long time since I've played a game that I could even consider riginal mmo, ultima online, and whilst both are very very different games, the piracy and the player killing got me reminiscing.

Anyone else in the same boat? Names, shard and guild names welcome .

Yes. Ultima Online survivor here. I played Seajei of Minoc. I ran a tailoring shop right outside of Minoc (obviously) on the midwestern (?) shard. Had to quit playing after I'd managed to give myself tendinitis from playing too much. Now I have to make an effort of playing games that use different controllers to mix things up a bit. Elite: Dangerous is great, because it's designed for my HOTAS. Most games are designed for keyboard and mouse, and I generally don't like most games designed for a game pad.

Still a bit sore about the Trammal/Feluca split, since I thought dodging player-killers made the game a bit more exciting, and the split meant I had to choose between completely safe and way too many attacks. I do not like PvP, primarily because the constant meta-gaming breaks my sense of immersion, so I'm no good at it. But I do like the sense of danger being open to a PvP attack provides, and in a game with open PvP (like this one), as long as player-killing is infrequent or those playing villians make an effort to make it fun for their victims, I'm perfectly fine with being attacked and inevitably killed if I fail to evade.

Unfortunately, in my experience, including Ultima Online and Shadowbane, the former is far, far more common than the latter, which is a pity. If player-killers took even the tiniest bit of effort to make the experience fun for their victims, they'd find a lot more people willing to put up with their particular game style.

 

[ChavaiotH]

Played between 1997 and 2000.

 

[Cathalo]

I started playing UO in 96' on the Baja server back when it was in its peak. I still have fond memories, I remember kiting blood elementals through portals into covetous newbie areas and killing everyone there. Was a lot of fun back then. I mostly played thieves though, and due to the endless nerfs to player thieving and nerfs to PvP in general I eventually left. I tolerated the Reputation patch, as the game was borked at the time and Glorious Lords were the bad guys while the Dread Lords were good which didn't make sense. I left when they split PvP into the two different areas, Trammel and Felucia I believe. I went to Asheron's Call after that and then to Shadowbane, both were solid games but neither one fully lived up to UO.

 

[Sanguisaevum]

Played on Europa.

The dark lady, kitana of Clan Latria. (The vampires of spirit wood)

It got to the stage where everyone in a dungeon would recal out when Clan Latria gated in.

 

[Kranium]

Remember the 'Carebear' patch? That moment when you eithe lost all your victims or were no longer subject to constant ganking depending on which side of the fence you were on.

No other game has ever launched without a carebear mode since.

 

[Iain M Norman]

Parsley, Founder of the Europa Skara Brae Rangers, Europa.
Alice Dewberry, Deepwater's Finest Tailor, Europa.
Thandiwe, Counsellor, Drachenfels.

I too miss the word Player Killer. I was pondering recently how the term had changed, and be taken over by the use of the phrase PvP. Which in my opinion has gone some way towards legitimising PK behaviour when it used to be quite heavily condemned.

Still a bit sore about the Trammal/Feluca split

Aren't we all?

 

[AdmiralS]

UO was a great MMO. There was a lot at stake because if you died you could lose everything you were carrying and that aspect created some very intense moments. I believe that's why zombie survival games like DayZ are popular because you can lose everything and people want those intense moments. It's something I always missed when playing WOW and thought PvP was kind of pointless, exploring the Warcraft world was more interesting than player interaction.

Elite is not there yet but it could be. Star Citizen has a good shot too if they don't fumble it like their competition did.

 

[Cathalo]

Parsley, Founder of the Europa Skara Brae Rangers, Europa.
Alice Dewberry, Deepwater's Finest Tailor, Europa.
Thandiwe, Counsellor, Drachenfels.

I too miss the word Player Killer. I was pondering recently how the term had changed, and be taken over by the use of the phrase PvP. Which in my opinion has gone some way towards legitimising PK behaviour when it used to be quite heavily condemned.

It was only condemned in the old days because games actually featured real risk if you died, a player could lose a good deal of time spent in the game and the victor could also loot the victims possessions giving him a boost. Most games of today have no death penalty and when you kill a player under these circumstances it is considered PvP, because PvP is more of a FPS thing and people who like PvP are people who like FPS games. Personally, I like to play games that feature heavy risk and that also allow for open PvP. Which is partially what attracted me to this game because there are so few on the market that currently offer it.

But, my main focus is on sandbox gameplay. I want to play in a world where the players have the power and there are little to no restraints that control them other than the players themselves! UO gave me that, I hope this game will too. So far, I have my doubts based on the fact that this game is P2P.

 

[Driver]

I played UO for a couple of years and hated the forced PVP.

All I wanted to do was play an Ultima game with friends, why are all these moron PK's attacking me?

It took a while, but I gave up on trying to enjoy an Ultima game. Became an anti-PK. It wasn't as much fun as the PK's just run away when they lose. It wasn't enough that they were bullies, they had to be cowards.

Quit UO, went to EQ and then on to AC. Never went back to forced PVP. Gaming is so much better without forced PVP.

 

[Cathalo]

I played UO for a couple of years and hated the forced PVP.

All I wanted to do was play an Ultima game with friends, why are all these moron PK's attacking me?

It took a while, but I gave up on trying to enjoy an Ultima game. Became an anti-PK. It wasn't as much fun as the PK's just run away when they lose. It wasn't enough that they were bullies, they had to be cowards.

Quit UO, went to EQ and then on to AC. Never went back to forced PVP. Gaming is so much better without forced PVP.

UO was a social experiment as much as it was a game.

With that said, my playstyle is the complete opposite of yours and I'am in no way anti-social. My guild on Baja had 30 members and we were known as the Drog Barrens. We socialized, we loved the game and everything it offered. We were PK's and thieves but those mechanics were part of the game, and very enjoyable. We didn't care if we lost a full set of black dyed plate mail because it was just a game. We didn't care. The people who ruined UO and MMO gaming are the people who cannot ever get over the fact that it is just a game. It is not real life, you can't keep anything you make in a game, it all disappears in the end. Nothing you ever do while playing a game will ever help anyone else in real life, or yourself. It is all just entertainment. PK'ers like myself are people who love to be entertained, not because I take satisfaction in killing another player but because I enjoy playing a game with depth, freedom, good mechanics, good engine and the like. People who cry about PK'ers are people who play MMO's like its a job, like its an extension of their real lives. People like that have completely crapped on gaming and turned it into a sideshow. People who complain about grinding are the very people I'm talking about. They grind because they choose to grind, not because anyone forces them to. Which makes no sense at all. Play a game because you have fun, don't play it if you don't. If you suck at it then ask for help, but don't blame others.

 

[Derath]

Parsley, Founder of the Europa Skara Brae Rangers, Europa.
Alice Dewberry, Deepwater's Finest Tailor, Europa.
Thandiwe, Counsellor, Drachenfels.

I too miss the word Player Killer. I was pondering recently how the term had changed, and be taken over by the use of the phrase PvP. Which in my opinion has gone some way towards legitimising PK behaviour when it used to be quite heavily condemned.



Aren't we all?

I think its the evolution as multiplayer as a whole, I was telling my friends about ED recently and explaining to them that since UO this is the only game i've played with high stakes pvp/player looting (to a degree), something that I think the video game world has sorely missed. Sadly its missing the grim dark feel that I think really needs to go hand in hand with such choices but its still much closer than we've been in many years.

PK = Murderers taking your stuff
PvP = legitimised player combat, like athletics with combat

tldr: Pk hasn't existed for many years, pvp the friendly version.

 

[bluefin]

I played on Europa for about 7 years =0)
My main characters were my tamer, Blue Fin, and my crafter, Packrat.
I hated the patch that replaced my silver katana of vanquishing with a series of numbers yeuchh!
When I was a noob, I got fed up being ganked that I joined a PK guild, which split up with the introduction of Trammel

 

[The.Doover]

Great to see some fellow survivors!

I could probably write a book on my adventures in UO, so I'll spare you that!

But in short I played on Europa for several years, first as Baratus in the crazy lunatics of the wild north, (bit of pve character mainly, back when it was a heart pounding experience just to leave town pre trammel) then later as lizardare for the most part did factions pvp.

I loved the non consensual part about it, and the bit about elite dangerous, which I find most compelling.

I'm Cmdr Doover in game, feel free to add me should you have a desire to play with someone that's been through the same uo stuff

 

[Stahlknecht]

yep, here ! played on drachenfels and now "shroud of the avatar"

 

[Windscreen Smudge]

Kentora, I think the public shard I played on the most was Atlantis? It's been way too long to remember. I played private after the expansion.
|
Kids nowadays.... "He rammed my hauler!"
|
My call to reality in UO was when I got murdered by a rogue in a graveyard, and came back to find parts of my butchered corpse scattered in the trees, my possessions ransacked and my clothes cut up for the bandages the PKer was using in between slaughtering the rest of the noobs in the area.
|
I swear if the kid gloves we treat players with nowadays were any thicker, fluffier or whiter they would have to be censored as licentious pornography.

 

[Stokes]

I played from Day 1 Release 'til about 2001(?) on Lake Superior. My home base was Trinsic. I was a GM alchemist before being a GM alchemist was cool. I loved it.