Why Is Ultima Online Considered the Best Online Game Ever?

Ultima Online, released in 1997, is considered the best online game (MMORPG) by many game lovers. Let's briefly look at the reasons.

MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game): Massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It is a large type of video game that many players play together by connecting to the internet from their computers and assume various characters during the game. Games such as Knight Online and Ultima fall into this category

It is not surprising that works of art and all other intellectual property created by creative minds attract hundreds of thousands, even millions. Ultima Online, which has managed to keep players in front of the screen for months and years, not only in Turkey but also in countless other countries of the world, is one of such works. It is an undeniable fact that Richard Garriott, who gave life to Lord British, who first appeared in the game Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness, published in 1981, and thus the Ultima series, is an extremely creative mind. Garriott, who started game design and programming at a very early age, in 1979, spent nearly 12 days in space as the world's sixth space tourist in the following years, which gives a little idea about what was going on in the depths of his mind. So, what was Ultima Online, which was released at a time when the internet was in its infancy for end users and caused users connecting to the internet via dial-up network to face huge internet bills?

Origin Systems' Most Valuable Production in Gaming

When it was first published in 1997, the production was generally available to players via their home dial-up network, or in other words, their old generation modems. It made it possible for thousands of players to participate in the game at the same time and interact with each other. Ultima Online was set in Britannia and followed in the footsteps of the first Ultima in terms of plot. The subject of the production was the countless parallel worlds created after the defeat of the evil power-mad Mondain and the shattering of the Jewel of Immortality. The most interesting point was that the parallel worlds within the scenario represented the servers called shards in the game. Players began to create their characters by joining the shards of their choice. Since we are talking about creating a character, do not think of character creation screens similar to those in today's RPG games. In the first versions of the game, you had to develop your character thoroughly yourself, determine every detail, including his profession, and there were no predefined characters.

For Some, It's a Big World, For Others, It's a Fighting Chat

Although the character prepared in Ultima Online, which has an isometric third-person camera, could be easily managed, it might not be easy for everyone to get used to the realism of the game. For example, in order to make an arrow, you had to go and find or buy an axe, cut down trees with the axe to create small pieces of wood, find chicken feathers so that the arrow could travel correctly, and kill a chicken for this. Such details prompted players to cooperate, and these and similar situations were effective in Ultima Online bringing together such a large audience. On the other hand, hundreds and thousands of players connected to the servers were happy when they found a monster to "slay", but when they couldn't find a monster, they could attack each other. In fact, sometimes the event ceased to be a game and turned into mutual digital arguments, which is why there were even people who called the production "Fight Chat" after their experiences on Ultima Online's Turkish servers.

Declining Popularity with Company Changes and the Appearance of Different Plays on the Stage

Richard Garriott, who sold Origin Systems to Electronic Arts in 1992, probably would not have thought that the popularity of the Ultima series would decrease over time and therefore the productions would change hands. In fact, the factor that divided Ultima Online's number of registered players, which reached 250 thousand in 2003 and was considered a record for that period, was none other than World of Warcraft, which came out of nowhere. Due to both the sales failures of the new Ultima games and the disengagement of players in Ultima Online from the production, Electronic Arts purchased Mythic Entertainment, the producer of Dark Age of Camelot, and entrusted the game to them. As the 2010s approached, the production was strengthened with additional packages and anti-cheat systems, this time under the wing of Broadsword, which evolved from Mythic.

Game Guide

Skill Selection

You will have selected your basic skills at character creation, now you can select further skills and begin training them. Some skills obviously go together but you can mix and match skills as you wish. Most people find that trying to squeeze in too many skills makes them something of a ‘jack of all trades and master of none’. It is wise to choose skills that complement each other, for example a mage character will need evaluate intelligence if his spells are to reach their maximum power. Inscription can also add power to some spells and meditation helps to restore the mana you need to cast. Likewise a tamer will need animal lore to be able to control the pet he tames, and usually veterinary to heal it, though sometimes a tamer is a mage too and the mage’s evaluate intelligence gives his healing spell enough power to dispense with veterinary. A blacksmith will need to decide how he will obtain his resources, will he mine for them? Also he or a tailor, tinker or carpenter will need to be aware of the effect of Arms Lore on any weapons or armor he crafts.

Skill Training

Once you decide on your skills, you need to begin training them. Initial training, on skills not selected at character creation, can be ‘bought’ from an appropriate npc. Select the npc’s context menu by single clicking it to see what skills he/she will train, then click on the skill. the NPC will name his price for that training, in the example shown the skill selected was ‘armslore’ and the cost 333gp, this will take the character’s skill to 33.3%. You must drop the sum he asks for onto his head. If you have no gold in your pack, you will need to go to the bank and say to the banker or minter ‘withdraw [amount]’ the required gold will be placed in your backpack. For more information on how money is handled by the game please read the page ‘Money’. Most combat skills can be gained quickly by undertaking Accelerated Gain Quests. The NPC character ‘Sir Helper’ near Haven Bank will help you to locate the NPC you need. You may not purchase skill while engaged in one of these quests, so be sure to do that first. Other simple quests can be undertaken in the same area and your bank balance would probably benefit from taking a few escort quests. Those taken in Haven town are the simplest quests and involve escorting a non-player character to a location within the town.

Adventuring

The undead in Old Haven that you are sent to fight in some of the gain quests are not the only hostiles on Haven Island. You can find mongbats, greater mongbats and boglings close to the town, with Ettins south of the public moongate and Brigands to the far east of the town. Of these the Ettins and Brigands are the strongest, but none will attack you while you bear the [young] tag, unless of course you attack them. In the mountains south of the moongate is Haven Mine. Here you will find Earth Elementals, only when you have a modest amount of skill should these be attempted. The second level of the mine is inhabited by lizardmen and ogre lords. Avoid the ogre lords until at least ‘master’ level in your main skills and have armor that offers a good level of protection.
Should you wish to explore the wider world and still continue your training at a low level you might like to attempt a quest on the Tokuno island of Makoto-jima or some other simple monster slay quests in Ilshenar, Malas or Heartwood. To reach these areas enter the public moongate found just south of Haven bank, a dialogue box will appear listing the locations of similar moongates that you can be transported to. The facet maps will help you select the right location; the entrance to Heartwood is found at the center of the village of Yew in Trammel. You may, at this stage, wish to be more mobile, perhaps obtaining a mount and learning a little of Pet Ownership.
Further adventuring may be suggested by the Quests, Combat and World sections of this wiki.

Stuck

Very occasionally you may find yourself in a situation that you cannot get out of. An example of this would be dying when digging a treasure map on an island with no moongate and no wandering healers. Open your help menu and choose the option ‘My character is physically stuck’. After a short delay you will be offered a list of towns to choose from. Your character will be teleported to the town of your choice from which you can continue your game play, possibly having first visited the town’s healer shop.

Equipment

As you fight more difficult foes you will need improved armor and, if you are a warrior, weapons. There are a variety of ways you might do this. Loot from monsters you kill is an obvious one. Some suits of armor can be obtained from the ‘clean up‘ system. Artifact items are obtained in several different ways, players sometimes sell through global chat, which can also be used to elicit help or advice from fellow players, or you might purchase from player vendors. You will not wish to lose such items, to avoid this you will need insurance.

Conclusion

These few paragraphs and links will hopefully start you off on the great adventure that is Ultima Online. Many, many more pages are included in the wiki for your help and guidance and many of the players in the game will be more than willing to help you too. There’s also the ‘early settler’ method of assessing risk when facing a new monster. If it kills you, it was too hard, time to find a healer.
A small word of warning; Ultima Online is a world like any other. Some people lie, some people cheat and some people scam. Don’t step through a player gate unless you trust the caster, it may not go where you think it does. Scammers work exactly the same way as they do in real life, if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Be safe, be lucky and above all have fun!

Sources
https://www.uo.com
https://www.worldofuo.com
https://www.amentesuo.com