Hey everyone! I've once again came back to where my gaming experience began. Up until that point, I really wasn't interested in games at all. I'd much rather be running around outside, getting bruised and cut up playing soccer or football... until my uncle came over for Christmas in '98 and I caught him fighting these half woman - half bird things. He explained to me that they were called "harpies," and that their feathers were really valuable, but you had to be quick to loot them otherwise someone else would snatch the feathers up first. Over the holiday I watched him battle harpies, ophidians, terathans... even dragons! I was enthralled. This was the coolest thing I had ever seen. He must have noticed how entranced I was with the game, because he was nice enough to set up an account for me. I made my very own character and chose had the coolest name that nine year old me could possibly dream up - Keithblade.
I absolutely loved the game. My best friend came over all the time, and we would take turns playing UO. On one occasion, shortly after getting the game, I was fencing with mongbats outside of Moonglow when my mom called me into the living room for something. This situation called for Raymond to take over while I attended to my mother's summons. As I returned to my room, Raymond sitting at the computer, I noticed the screen seemed dulled out and grey... I was dead! He had attempted to take on a grey wolf and lost. I quickly took over command of my character and ran back to town, frantically looking for a healer so that I could be resurrected and recover my precious NPC bought kryss. I managed to make it back in time to see that my corpse had decayed into bones, yet my kryss and bandages were intact! Crisis averted.
On another occasion, I was outside of the deserted bank in Cove, depositing my hard earned gold coins before I went out on another adventure when I was approached by another player... Raymond sitting by my side, this mysterious player asked if we would like to see a magical item. "Heck yes!" we said as we high fived each other. Raymond and I were so thrilled to see our first magical item in this incredible game but, strangely enough, the guy starts taking off all of his clothes...
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
..he starts spamming the bowing motion...
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
I start to run for the hills. This guy is nuts! I'm running all over the town trying to get away from this madman, but I can't shake him.
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
I ran from this maniac for at least ten minutes and he wouldn't give up the chase!
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
"THE MAGICAL FLUTE!"
Thinking frantically, I have a stroke of genius! Open paperdoll! Log out! Okay! I was so smart! Little did I know at the time that my character stood there being violated by the "magical flute."
My UO stories go on and on, and despite all of the other games I've played over the years - Diablo, DAoC, Lineage II, WoW, Warhammer Online, Guild Wars, TERA, etc. etc. I always end up looking back on Ultima Online and say, "that's how an MMO should be."
I just recently began playing on the EA servers again, starting from scratch, and I'm excited to experience the world again. I know it's a vastly different world than I remember, but I feel that it's still the best one on the market. Thanks for reading!
