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Messages - malicus

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Hi I'm Malicus, but it's Brad in real life. For the past 15 years I have been an Agent of the Geek Squad until about a year ago. This past year has been an amazing transition for me into the world of software development. I was able to break away from a career that wasn't really going anywhere, and at the age of 38, begin doing something that I love and is incredibly fulfilling. It took me 35 years to find my passion, but I'm glad I finally did!

I have 2 children (13 and 18) and my third child, a chocolate cocapoo name Hershey. We live in Ohio, and I will probably be here until they are on their own, then me and Hershey are going to look for somewhere warmer to live (although he loves the snow lol). Gaming has been a big part of my life for pretty much my entire life. From playing Zelda and Mega Man 2 on the NES with all the neighborhood kids taking turns and switching controllers when we died, to tabletop wargames all summer with my brother and our best friends for what seemed like days at a time!

Warhammer was our favorite. We started painting the miniatures years before we realized there was an awesome game that you could play with it. Games have always been a way for me to socialize and use my imagination and discover new worlds. I have tried many different games over the years but in 1997 I found the game that I now refer to as my "Home Town" of video games. Ultima Online.

I remember distinctly the events that led up to the first time I logged into Ultima Online. I remember seeing an add for it in another game I had purchased. It was a picture of a Red Dragon surrounded my piles of gold and it immediately caught my eye. I went to the website and remember looking for hours at the animated models of all the different creatures and monsters that existed in the game. The Elementals were one of the coolest I thought! I was searching all over the site trying to wrap my head around how thousands of people could be playing the same game together at the same time. That was something that had not been done up until that point. I had to have this game!!

I really wanted the collectors edition with the cloth map and the big rectangular black box with some other goodies inside of it. But I was a broke ass teenager and I knew that no one was going to give me the money for a video game, so I had to do it myself! I had a little bit of money, but I still needed more, and I needed it RIGHT NOW. I had a job at A&W but it would have taken so long to wait for my next paycheck (since I just blew the one I had), so I had to get creative. I had a set of Dungeons and Dragons miniatures that I had painted, some of the first miniatures I ever painted and a guy I worked with always talked about how he wanted them and would pay me for them. I didn't want to come off of those pieces because of their sentimental value, but this was a crisis!!! I took them into work with me the next day and he agreed to pay me what I needed to get the collectors edition of Ultima Online. I had the money (I don't remember how much...I think it was like $120 which was a FORTUNE to me back then), but now I had to wait for my shift to end.

I don't remember the exact timing of events, but I remember the race to get to the game store. I had called and confirmed that the closest store that had it in stock was at the mall and they were holding it for me. They closed at 9:00pm and I got off work at 8:30pm (something like that). I knew there was no way I was going to be able to live another night without playing Ultima so I had to think of something because the mall was a little over 30 minutes from where I worked. There was no easy access to internet back in 1997, no smart phone in your pocket, hell, not even a computer in the back office with Internet Explorer 2 (or whatever it would have been at the time). That just wasn't a common thing yet. It wasn't even to the point that it was a given that you had a computer in your house at that time! So I shook down any and everyone for the fastest route to get the mall on time and everyone was telling that it wasn't possible. Any attempt to convince my boss to let me out 10 or 15 minutes early was futile as well. Then this old man that I served a milkshake to told me about this off the beaten path way of getting there that seemed longer but he said he's gotten to the mall in 25 minutes using it because it's mostly highway and he could speed. I had never driven that way (I was only driving for like 6 months at that point!) but it sounded like my only hope.

True to their word, they did not let me out of there until 8:30 on the nose. I shot out of the parking lot and headed towards the stretch of highway that the man had written on a napkin for me and was on my way. I was bobbing and weaving through traffic and squinting out of my windshield because it was raining (of course it was, why wouldn't it be?!). I pulled into the mall and got out of my car at 8:58...28 minutes, they said it wasn't possible!!!! I ran full sprint through the mall as everyone was heading towards the exit and got the store to find the gate mostly down but not locked yet and the lights were still on. An older gentleman told me they were closed and he had already put the money from the register into the safe so there was no way he could sell me the game. I shared my story and pleaded with him to take my cash and he could ring it out in the morning if he would just please sell it to me tonight. By the grace of Lord British, he agreed! He slid the game through the bars and I handed him my wad of cash (probably my larger purchase to that point lol). I drove home a victor.

I marveled at the contents of the box and studied the amazing cloth map of the world of Britannia as the game installed an updated. Finally, I was ready to create my first character. I wanted a gallant warrior that fought for truth and justice. His first name was Creon, named after the king in Antigone. His last name, Mastif, inspired by the English Mastiff. I was reading about them recently and they seemed to be a fitting image to associate the surname of my character with. Creon Mastif was born in Vesper! He left the inn on the south side of town, sword and hand and challenged his first foe...a chicken. After a vicious battle of about 5 minutes the chicken had proved too much for Creon and his lifeless body laid strewn and bloody on the path. After that I decided to spend some time with whacking training dummies before seeing the "You have left the protection of the town guards" message again (A phrase that used to inspire fear every time you saw it).

Today, Creon is still alive and well. He has since learned the arts of the Samurai and been taken by the curse of the Vampire. He also fell in love with an elvish girl and went through a lengthy process of changing his race to be accepted by her family. She's dead now...but Creon lives on! I visit the world of Britannia about once a year, spend a few weeks to a month and then move onto something else. It really does feel like walking through my home town when I am on the streets of Vesper. So many memories there and I know where everything is! It feels like home just as much as my real life home town does. Hell, I've been going there for over 20 years! I am thrilled that this game is still alive and full of such wonderful people.

This time back feels different though. I am thinking about staking a claim because I have realized I don't know what else I would be searching for. Ultima has everything I need. A great community, a challenging and rewarding playstyle on many levels, and the fantasy genre that I love in a world that feels like my home. I bought an 18x18 last week to replace the one I had originally placed when AoS came out only to lose it about a year later to some strange glitch that cause it to crumble and someone else had placed it. When the devs told me there was nothing they could do besides send me gold to compensate me for the loss of the house and my stuff I walked away. That began the process of me visiting other worlds and poking my head back into Ultima now and again. Maybe my new home will be enough to keep me here for good. There's no other place I would rather be...

Thank you for taking the time to read that if you read it all. I enjoyed writing it and remembering those days. I am looking forward to meeting all of you and hopefully sharing some adventures with you in Britannia!

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Hi, I'm Malicus. I go by many names in UO most of which has the Surname "Mortem". I don't know where that came from, but it kinda stuck.

I have used EasyUO in the past and just found ScriptUO which seems a little more up to date. I need to look into UOSteam as well.

I want to make sure I thank everyone for such a great job they've done with some of these scripts. I am a software developer and I can appreciate the time and effort that goes into creating these. I am interested in learning how to create some myself!

Hope to get a chance to meet some of you!!

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