Ultima Online Celebrates 10 Years

The well known EA-run MMORPG Ultima Online is now celebrating its ten year anniversary. At the time, Gamespot referred to the game as a 'buggy, unplayable mess.' Here's to another ten years, UO. 'In recognition of the game's 10 year anniversary, EA has announced the "Return to Britannia" initiative. Past subscribers of the game can download the free Kingdom Reborn update through Ultima Online's Web site, and then play the game gratis until October 9. EA will also be hosting a number of events during this period, including a monster hunt where players can win loot such as an ankh pendant necklace, a map of Brittania, an Ultima Online commemorative sculpture, and a virtue armor set.' I think it's also worth pointing out that UO isn't the first big graphical game to hit ten years; that would be Meridian 59.

10 Years...

[Anonymous Coward]

And still waiting for that mac version. Boo!

Pimps and Dragons

[klenwell]

It was Ultima Online that was the basis of one of the earliest and most entertaining articles I read on MMORPGs: "Pimps and Dragons" by Elizabeth Kolbert of The New Yorker. A quote from that article that still haunts me:

"Playing a virtual-world game takes some getting used to," Garriott told me. "You have to realize that the world is what you make of it. Unfortunately, that means most likely you're going to have a relatively mediocre life."

You can find a copy here:

Pimps and Dragons [btinternet.com]

Re:Condensed summary of the article

[This_Is_My_Happening]

having played from 1998-2000!

Noob!

Ha, kidding. I remember being a part of the UO beta myself back in '97 - those were great times. Hell I was actually there when Lord British was assassinated - it was an impossible to control lag-a-thon (dial-up FTW!), but at that time it was an unparalleled experience.

I went on to play UO after the beta for about a year before I called it quits. After being lag-killed for the 20th time or so I decided to give my hard-earned house (literally about 30 hours of tailoring skull caps) and my boat to my guild and move on :(

Post from non-anon dev

[Psychochild]

To those people, I remind you (cough) that UO was the first MMO to be a major success[...]

Of course, it all depends on how you define "major success". If we define it as the game that had over 1M subscribers in North America, then UO is merely a historic oddity compared to WoW.

(Caveat: I run the company that currently owns Meridian 59.)

While Meridian 59 didn't live up to its potential (IMNSHO), it was still a success. For a while, 3DO was only making significant income from two areas of the company: Meridian 59 and lawsuits. Considering that M59 began as a small garage development project, not a project from a large company using a long-cherished IP, it succeeded quite admirably.

But, you can split hairs and try to define who was really "first" in what capacity. Even your highly qualified statement, "So, here's to the longest running, continuous, subscription based MMO[...]" doesn't describe UO because you forgot commercial text MUDs; I believe Gemstone is the game that matches that description. In the end, both M59 and UO influenced online games. M59 even influenced UO by going with a flat-rate monthly subscription model, which set the trend for the rest of the games you mention.

Anyway, no need to put down other games to make UO seem better. It's nice to see games that reach the 10 year mark at any rate.

Have fun,

Re:MMORPG

[gravis777]

My problem with the summery is it said Meridian59 was the first game to hit 10 years old, however, from the Wiki, the game was shut down in 2000, and rereleased with an updated rendering engine in 2002. As such, you cannot claim 10 years, as the first incarnation was killed after 5 years, and the rerelease has only been out 5 years, and there was a two year timespan between the two. Ultima Online has been online nonstop (with the exception of maybe a few server hiccups) for 10 years. That should be a better article summery than what was given.