Ultima Online Forever

15 years, 4 months, and 3 days ago, I began my adventure online as a ranger. I chose the greenest of the green leather armor, and hand crafted a bow made of the finest oak wood. I killed countless chickens, various birds, and eagles for feathers. I crafted arrow shafts, and eventually became skilled enough in the art to make these bows and arrows in exceptional qualities.

I was 12 years old. My father had purchased a computer with 32 mb of ram, and a 4 gigabyte hard drive. It was the fastest computer in the area at the time, as we grew up in a rural setting.

We had a 12 inch monitor, resting on this beautiful machine. This machine had this massive hard drive, that my father said, "You will never fill it up!" I now have a thumb drive with 64 gigs.

One day my father came home with a box. He told me his co-worker had bought a game for his son, and that we should get the same game. I remember opening the box to find a mural of dragons fighting people and these lizard monsters climbing ladders, I was so excited.

Little did I know I was about to immerse myself in online gaming for the first time on a large scale. Soon I realized, not only were my friends playing but over 50,000 other people were online as well. 50,000 people, by today's standard, this is not that many. But in 1997, 50,000 people online at the same time was tremendous!

Not long after I created my first character, I began seeing gangs of people. Guilds they were called. To a 12 year old computer nerd, the opportunity to make large amounts of friends was a scarce one in real life. On this game however, On this game, I was Falgar, the ranger with a heart of gold, saving damsels in distress, and killing skeletons that were pillaging gypsies. I was a crafter, I could craft my own armor, craft my own bow, craft my own arrows. I could loot bodies that were left on the ground after large battles. A whole world of opportunities arose for me. I learned things. Trial by fire if you will.

Soon it became clear. If you were an outsider, an unknown, you were saw as a threat. Constantly people were on edge. They wouldn't allow you near their neighborhood of houses placed in rows deep in the woods. If you tried, they would attack in force, eventually kill you, cut your body into quarters and place your head on a stick for all to see.

Murderers and thieves lined the roads, only to prey on innocent victims. People began running in packs to gather materials for their weapons or for their materials. Open world PVP, it was an absolute nightmare. If you were killed, not only would your name be disgraced, your valuables would be looted, your dignity would be washed away, and sadness would overcome you.

How would you over come this obstacle? Learn to defend yourself.

Like being bullied in school, you also, could be bullied in the game. Except this time, no rules decided your fate. You could fight back, and rain down pain on those who opposed you. Instead you were in control, you had the power. Sure, you could back down, and simply avoid those high traffic areas.

You could be all you ever wanted to be in life, on a game. A hero of sorts, or a criminal. It was your decision which path you rode.

It's amazing the evolution of the world, especially in online games. Never after has a game created so much turmoil. Of course as the game began to lose money, and the players who did not have the drive to learn to fight, or learn to defend, started complaining. Soon the game would take it's first major change. Renaissance.

I woke up one Saturday morning, same as always. I would get up, brush my teeth, have breakfast, and brush my teeth again. I would go outside, feed the chickens, feed the rabbits, and feed the dog. I would do my chores around the house. I would watch Saturday morning cartoons with my sister. Then I would be off to my room to log on to our 56k internet connection.

I connected to my character, everything was dead. The leaves had fallen off the trees, patches of blood, and bones filled the landscape. It was like Halloween had come. I realized that the expansion I had installed the night before had changed the game some how. I resorted to my game manual. There had dawned two worlds, Player Vs. Player, and Player Vs. Everything.

Trammel and Felucca, As it was called in the game manual. In my bag were placed 3 stones of each. Trammel Stones, and Felucca stones. I found myself in Felucca, which was the PVP world. I clicked the trammel stone, and a gate had opened. I walked through the gate, to find my house missing, but the grass that was once under my house was once green again. The trees had gained back their leaves. It was like a different smell to the game. Adventuring had started over. I walked up the road, not once did I hear the battle music engage. I ran to the Brit graveyard, no one was dying, or fighting to live.. It was all.. Gone.

No more, fighting. No more, mayhem. It was a world where players could casually play without fear of someone pickpocketing them. They could play without living on edge. Players could focus on building money, and gathering their resources without the fear of brigand road blocks, or packs of thieves and murderers. It was calm.

Care Bears, they were called. Complainers of the open world PVP. Soon people who owned houses in Trammel never visited Felucca. The players whose names were red, were banished to Felucca. They could live but no longer in the outskirts of major cities. Felucca became a barren wasteland of thieves and criminals. It became, a Ghetto.

Classes began to arise. If you didn't live in Trammel, you were again, an outsider. Soon your friends who had made the transition to Trammel, wouldn't come to your house because you lived in the Ghetto. You were once again, the unwanted, and the undesired. So you would have to adapt to your new surroundings.

Now there were some, that were perfectly happy living their Ghetto life and stayed in Felucca, murderer or not. If you wanted to trade however. The cities were empty. You had to travel to Trammel to trade.

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UO Forever, a server group, who have hosted their own free non-associated server, or shard (game lingo), has created the world in which we all use to love so dear. No Trammel, no Felucca, open world PVP at it's finest.

You can join this server for free by visiting their website. I have linked it below.

Try this wonderful game, as it was intended by it's creator, Richard Garriot.

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