Later this year, Ultima Online will turn 18 years old. In the genre of MMOs, that makes the game positively ancient – and it’s even more remarkable when you consider that it’s still funded via a subscription model.
I’ve never played an Ultima game, much less one that’s nearly my age. I wanted to find out what the game is like to play today as a newcomer, and to ask people why they’ve continued visiting Britannia for nearly two decades.
I have little to no interest in MMOs, but seeing one of them run for this long is fascinating.
I don’t like MMO’s either, but Ultima online sounds like fun, if for no other reason than to plot against the life of Lord British
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_British#Assassination_of_Lord_Bri…
Poor bastards who have never played an Ultima game. Ultima 4 has been given away free for a while, and there are mods to make it look a bit less dated, but it is positively still one of the greatest CRPGs ever made.
Everyone was so impressed by The Witcher, where they say your actions have consequences. Ultima IV pioneered that, though admittedly you had to better yourself to become the avatar, or you couldn’t actually win, on the other hand Alternate Reality would let you become evil and join evil guilds, it was great.
I played Ultima Online for many years, and it is where PK was defined as Player Killer. It didn’t have any of these ‘challenge to a dual’ or anything like that, which most MMOs have now, it was free for all. Last time I played it though (admittedly a few years ago) they had implemented moongates to transport between ‘PvE’ and ‘PvP’ areas. I stepped through once just to try it out and was immediately pick-pocketed by a thief. And so it goes…
Still I would prefer an isometric style like that over WoW (which I could never get into).
I could simply not get into a model where I pay continuously to play a game.
When some other companies cuts the servers after 18 months…
True classics never get old. It’s what made the game fun from the beginning: new defining genre, gameplay, storyline, atmosphere (things that unfortunately lack so much nowadays).
you’re looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses
AYFKM ? After 18 years they can’t even add proper Win 8 support, which results in requirement of setting compatibility mode to grandpa Windows XP and can’t even provide client for other platforms ?
They did release a Linux client at one point, but sadly dropped support for it shortly afterward.
I was a WoW addict a few years back, but have never tried Ultima. The concept sounds intriguing though, I may just try it out.
It’s a completely different beast. WoW has become the poster child for “it’s not about the story, it’s about endgame” despite having a very rich and entertaining set of stories from level 1 up. When I played back in 2005-2008, I had more fun following the stories for each race/class combo than I ever did in instance dungeons (though some of the lower level dungeons, especially the pirate-themed ones, were quite fun). I tried to pick it back up last year on a whim, and it’s just so boring now. No one wants to talk to lowbies because the game doesn’t really start until level cap, there’s no sense of community any more (I found this to be true across several servers), and overall it’s just dull. There’s really no reason to buy a new subscription unless you just want to raid 24/7.
It’s been at least ten years since I’ve played UO, but from what I remember, it was literally whatever you wanted it to be. If you wanted to build a house and just chill out Second Life style, you could. Or you could form a gang on a PvP server and take over an entire area. It was much more “real” than later games like WoW and most of the free MMOs out there. Ultima has (arguably) a richer and longer history than Warcraft as well.
There’s also Furcadia and all its dramas for that
I totally feel you on WoW.
Long after playing WoW extensively, I tried out EQ again. I never made it anywhere close to maximum level, but I recall one time where I was trying to sell what I thought was possibly a decent item in the bazaar. Some fellow found out I was for real, he gave me what seemed like absurd amounts of Platinum. Of course, the EQ community needs more newbies and WoW probably needs less … something.
I also tried UO even after EQ. Wanted something I could play from about any comp. Sadly, I just could not get into the extremely laggy-feeling combat, and I certainly didn’t have a high bar to begin with.
Edit: The greatest PvP game I ever played was Shadowbane, Mourning Server. RIP SB.
Edited 2015-07-02 19:04 UTC
You might be better off trying out Shroud of the Avatar, LB’s new game. As I gathered, they aim for a similar, albeit more modern, genre (player owned towns, etc.) I find it a bit strange that it was not mentioned in the article. I am wondering if they are planning to shut UO down when SotA is released — then again, maybe not, as the publishers are different.