Five Years of Ultima Online: The Second Age (200k+ contest)

[chumbucket]

By my calculations, UOSA will turn five very soon.

That's five years of a shard that is free, stable, permanent, honestly ran, more and more era accurate, relatively bug and exploit free, well staffed, conducive to a large and lasting community, and, well, this list could go on. No shard has or even likely ever will compare to UOSA.

So, first: Here's to five more years.

Second, there are a lot of reasons for UOSA's success, but three stand out: the policy of era accuracy, the community that has developed, and, most importantly, Derrick, Kaivan, Braden, Maahes, Lord Dupre, and all the staff who have come and gone.

The policy of era accuracy is the most notable aspect of UOSA. Other shards have, and continue, to innovate, to change things, to develop and improve on a fifteen year old game. And God bless them for it. They've done some interesting and fun things. But the truth is the policy of era accuracy has made this shard stronger and better than all the rest for the simple reason that you can't cater to everyone, you can't have a shard that constantly changes in even the most fundamental ways and expect it to last. It is frustrating to see things change out from under you after you've worked to fit your characters and playstyle to the way things were before the changes. Era accuracy gives UOSA a stability almost all other shards lack.

Moreover, the time period that UOSA attempts to replicate was pretty well put together. There are any number of points that each of us might like to change--snooping while stealthing comes to mind for me!--but you take what seems bad with what seems good to you, because, at least in part, the overall balance is very nice. You can't expect things to favor you, to favor your playstyle. There are just too many ways of playing, too many things people enjoy to show favor: bards, thieves, PKs, PvPers, tamers, farmers, rare collectors, people who pretend to be elvish princesses...the list could go on forever.

Derrick and company had both these insights (and more) early on, and we have reaped the rewards of era accuracy.

Another important factor in UOSA's success has been us, the community of UOSA players. We're a motley crew for sure. And we don't all get along. Hell, most of us don't get along. But it works. Two things have been integral to the community: the forums (along with IRC) and the individual players and guilds who go out of their way to contribute.

The forums and IRC are probably where a lot of players spend most of their time. They contain long discussions on how to make the shard better, trash talk among players, advertisements for events, tales of adventure, and even long discussions politics, history, movies, games, and more. And, of course, a lot of it is garbage. The internet has a lot of that, but what isn't garbage is often gold. Who can forget some of the amazing posts people have made here: the time Hemperor destroyed an entire city, the time(s) archaicsubrosa posted a strange template, the time that guy exchanged items with players starting with an apple and ending with a castle, and, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, the infamous Smelt It thread. My God, this list could go on forever.

The players and guilds are even more important. Think of the players who have gone out of their well to help others, run events, tell stories, or just do interesting things. Think of the UOSA history museum, the museum of Felix Tears, the NEW guild, the Bloodrock Orcs. Think of Blackfoot, Mapomatic, Matron de Winter, GuardianKnight, and Wise. How much have just those five players done to make the shard better.

Given that I'm writing this, I have to take a second to mention the greatest guild in the history of UOSA beyond all possible doubt, uh, my guild, chumbucket and Associates [cA]. A finer guild of players I can't imagine. We've had I would guess around forty members of the past four years, many of whom still play and some more who don't play still keep in contact with the guild and make occasional short returns. So kudos to all the Associates who have made us so damn successful and the guild such a blast: Matron de Winter, Downs, Miller, applejack, Pristiq, chainsoar, Ireland's Finest, Clark Kent, Pacifico, Shane, Silent Killer, Populus, Ledouche, Urinefortreats, ciccio, hugdealer, baldsob. And those players who are members but don't want that fact publicly known! And I don't have time to list everyone, so here's to all of you. Special thanks go to Matron, Downs, Miller, and applejack who have kept the guild afloat when I'm away and when I'm playing.

The really cool thing about UOSA is that cA isn't particularly special in this regard. There are quite a few large, long lasting guilds with the same core membership for the bulk of their existence.

Also, a few non-cA players have been really great to me as well. Silverfoot, Blackfoot, Mapomatic, and Coffee were particularly helpful in my first days playing. After they learned of some of my early scams, they befriended me by providing me with a house, gold, and advice. For that, I have never once stolen from or otherwise harassed any of them! Thanks, guys.

A ton more come to mind as having been, willingly or otherwise, people I have had fun interacting with: Guardianknight, Hemperor, Wise, Brules, Cattie, felix, Joshua Lee, archaicsubrosa, Johnny Cash, Conan and Teph, Thraximus Zog, and far, far more people than I list here.

Finally, staff. They are not only super-competent, but supererogatorily nice and tolerant to the complaints, accusations, and paranoid diatribes of we the great unwashed, undeserving masses. Maahes, I should mention, is the person who told me that this shard exists. Thanks!

The most obviously in need of thanking is of course Derrick, who made this place happen and keeps it happening. His good sense and technical ability is demonstrated by the past five years, but so too is virtual saintliness when it comes to dealing with the players. How many of us, myself included, have given him grief over things we can't even remember now? How many panics over the always-soon-to-end-the-shard changes you can't remember now? And how many times can you remember him responding in any other way that calmly and graciously? I don't think anything else really needs to be said.

So, thanks, to the community, thanks to staff, and most of all, thanks to you, Derrick! I hope to see you all here in five more years!

Finally, finally, you should all take some time to show your appreciation. First, if you can spare five dollars, send it to the shard. If you regularly donate, add five more bucks. Five dollars for five years. And say thanks to Derrick when you send it. Second, and this is a contest, reply to this post with some of your recollections of your favorite players, moments, events, forum posts, ridiculous drama, and so on. The best post, as judged by me, will allowed to select one item from my incredible collection of odd rares that I keep always in my bank box no matter what. (Or 100,000 gold if you don't like any of them.)

[Blaise]

There are a ton of highlights from my time spent in these lands. Most noteably were rolling around the shard with 15+ K^A members and basically owning the shard after a good guild meeting. That was fun, but unfortunately we met no opposition to such a force. :/

The Walk Across Britannia I truly enjoyed, not just because it was my event, but because it drew out the players together in a mission for nothing. A mission of presence and party only with no objective but to be a part of this shard and publicly acknowledge its greatness, on its anniversary one year ago. Having cr3w come around and slaughter all/most of us was the essential seasoning to that lovely dish. Good times were had by all as far as I recall.


I know I'm being self-centered, but the Gauntlet event that took the coordination and efforts of several players to bring a good time to others, really brought a tear to these RP eyes. Good people, good times, this is what UO is about. The bad people (characters) make it all worth while to keep being good.


I'd get more long winded but I'm a bit under the weather and just wanted to share a bit and say thank you, again, to all the staff and players that make UOSA what it is and always has been. The greatest era-replica shard to ever exist and likely, the best that will ever exist in the realm of accuracy as best we can muster.

Good game sirs and madams, good game.


Edit: Really, the players. I've 'met' so many good and bad people here that this is a community I will likely never let go of. You may love me, you may hate me but that's exactly what UO is good for. Community without restriction. I love you all no matter how much I hate you. (Yeah, I'm talking to you __INSERT NAME HERE__)

[Pirul]

Hear, Hear!! Well put chum.

I am have not been nowhere near as long here as some other people, but there are some good memores I have from my time here. As is the case with chumbucket and cA, and Blaise and K^A, these are mostly revolving C^V and FoW.

I remember after dismantling FoW to create C^V and going down to 2 members, benny- and myself with our guild house in a shared small out of which both of us lived. How we managed to build up the guild to have more than 20 active players at any given moment for a long time is beyond what I could have imagined. That's not to mention the people we took onboard who helped immensely to achieve that. I won't even start mentioning names because I'm sure I'd leave people out who really deserve props, but you all know who you are.

I've always respected players who have excelled at their craft. Some names that pop up are Theograd, Kelektra, Rammar, Tabius, Telamon (yes, THAT Telamon), Cattie, Orphik, and many others who have focused on doing one thing in game, and have been the best at it.

This shard has also had some very memorable events. The chumbucket event was very intelligently planned and well executed. Of course I'd have to mention the brigand invasion of Vesper, which took over a month to conclude, and it's spin-offs. The URK invasions of Minoc, Cove (a couple of times) and their attempt to take Vesper which concluded with the destruction of their fort. I remember my first player organized event was mage poker at the roof of K^A barracks. I liked it so much, I copied it to run it myslef a couple of times. Cockfights, 1v1's, and many more have also been highly entretaining.

But I'd probably have to say that my fondest time here was the week we held 2 events a day every day. I had the pleasure of meeting more players in one week than I had in all my time here. People were generally and genuinely eager to participate, help keep the order and listen to instructions. I personally put up all my gold, and most my silver, and my guildmates did HUGE personal contributions to put the events together, and I'd like to say they were a HUGE success. We managed to put together a large portion of UOSA players, from the hardcore PvPers to the casual crafters or rare hunters.

Other worthy mentions are, in no partcular order, the Monster Bashes, UoH's dungeon crawls, each and everytime we interacted with the URK, the same for the bazookas, when we dropped a couple of TG's in Thera Keep and the time Hazy was "capet bombing" our guild house by dropping items from his back pack, one by one ... on the grass in front of the house!

And of course, the most important thing is the friendships you take out of the game. Benny, Cattie, Lightshade, Xevec, Faber, Theograd, Atraxi, Haywyr, Huzke, Albee, Huzke, Cado, Mazus, Meso, Christoff, Rammar, Rufus, satori, Alex, Melryn, Worldhunter, Grizz, TC, Ullic, Jacen, Steel, Joe, Baby, Kyfus, Intrepid, Scabs, and many more I'm forgetting!

[Hemperor]

is there a deadline on this?

I'll have to mull over memories over some Christmas bourbon for a few nights to decide the best.

[chumbucket]

is there a deadline on this?

I'll have to mull over memories over some Christmas bourbon for a few nights to decide the best.

Two weeks!

[Elph]

I haven't been here long, but I can say that the other day was one of the most fun times I've spent playing UO.

I had been watching an Lshaped in Snake pass for a few days as it went from greatly worn to IDOC. Inside I saw what I thought was the crown jewel of the whole thing, a black dye tub. I also noticed ranger leggings, and after looking them up I expected to bring in between 350-400k for the whole thing.

I placed a small directly next to the l-shaped and waited it out. It still wasn't IDOC when I awoke at 5am to go welding. As I drove home I hoped that it would still be greatly worn so I could time it out, but had no such luck. At 4:30PM, it was IDOC, and I had no idea when it had gone that way. I did the math in my head about 30 times, and figured at the earliest it would drop at 11PM, the latest, 10PM EST. At that point I went down to the gas station, got myself 2 cans of redbull and a bag of almond m&m's. It was going to be a long night.

Hours passed. I watched every single Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel episode available on Hulu, and probably 5 episodes of South Park, all on a minimized screen as I constantly checked to see if it had fell. Sometime in the middle of all this, around 3AM, the shit hit the fan...

A player who I assume was the owner came and opened up the L-shaped's door. I about shat. It was a member of -F-, Shipteez. For some reason, the house didn't refresh. I checked myUOSA to see if any members of -F- were still online, and seeing a few, I remained vigilant. After about an hour, it appeared to me that they might not be coming back.

Around 4:30, I allowed myself to sleep at increments of around 30 minutes, until about 6:30, when I drank the other redbull and ate the last of my almond m&m's.

Time rolled by, and I realized I might be up until 11am, as the reboot pushed everything back almost an hour. I held strong, and started to make myself a bacon, cucumber, and bleu cheese sandwich. As I made the sandwich, I kept checking the screen, and the bacon had not even finished and I looked to see something almost surreal, the building was gone. I immediately ran to grab the dye tub and ranger legs, put them in a secure I had in the loot house, then began to piggyback the rest of it into the house. But it didn't end there.

Another small had fallen directly next to the loot house, apparently from the same person. Not too much in it, but a decent amount of raw materials and arrows. I also found a rune that lead me to an IDOC on ice isle which had already been more or less picked over.

After this happened, I returned to the loot house, and I saw someone check the spot, and apparently they had been watching it but not closely enough. We talked for a while, then he left, saying he would be watching an IDOC castle. He said he might be interested in buying my loot house since his guild owned all of Snake Pass. I mulled it over but decided to wait.

Well, I went back to checking the loot, and in the process, opened up a trapped chest that killed my character. I tried to find a wandering healer and happened upon a gate. I went in. Turns out it was that same person's gate to the IDOC castle and tower. I went into war and a guildmate who also happened to be there resurrected me. I immediately began stealthing around to check bags while I got my mage to run to the location and provide gates to Vesper bank.

I pulled out another 60k in raw gold, a bunch of runebooks, vanqs, rare sandals/cloth, reagents, 60k fish steaks, and a whole bunch more.

I didn't even feel like sleeping at that point. I put up the ranger legs and dye tub on the trade forum, only to be offered 1mil for the leggings from Azeroth. I accepted immediately, and became fuckin' rich. Win. The other side of this though, is that I had no reason to play anymore. This lead me to eventually think of my gold sink guild idea, and today, I created Regulators.


I'll note that if I am given anything all proceeds will benefit my trash barrel. I will post an RPV of the act for all to see.

[Light Shade]

I'd like to just thank everyone for the memories, both good and bad, that have made this shard a lot of fun over the years that i've played.

As far as nominations...i'd probably nominate everything associated with D^D and Hazy's guild. I have never laughed more while playing a video game than when pulling all those antics with the help of many of this shard's players, across countless guilds from cA to DG to C^V to WL to NWO...

Great times.

As far as just some good memories in general, i'd highlight this thread:

The C^V / DG Chronicles of Adventures

I've found myself reliving a lot of memories of friends and events that have come and gone....and talking to the friends still here about the good times we've had.

As far as donating, I always encourage players to do that. I still donate whenever I remember to.

Thanks Players, Staff, and Derrick.

Hope you all have a happy holiday season.

-L/S

[Downs]

Ante upped:

I donate 100k to this as well. Chum you can make it a 200k prize or make it 2nd and 3 place prizes.


My favorite memory is turning Hemporer's tamer red.

Best in game drama was our feud with $$$.

Best forum drama was every time Josh Lee reinvented himself

Scariest moment was when we discovered archaic's IRL magic.


Hard to believe it's been 5 years!

[Light Shade]

Yeah, i'll toss in 100k for a 3rd place prize.

Edit: *sighs*

I guess I won't be donating since chumbucket has me on ignore and clearly doesn't want me to add to the prize money. I don't feel like dealing with petty people anyways.

Good Luck with the contest.

Thanks for the memories.

[GuardianKnight]

Favorite moments of GK shame: I have no gold atm to donate for prizes, but If I win, I'll Donate it all to NEW

1. I did a house brokering for Joshua Lee (he was pretending to be princess peach at the time), and he asked me how to get recall runes in the back wings of his keep. I told him that he would have to eventually drop his keep and mark in the spot, if he couldn't reach it with teleport. Realizing that I had said this, I immediately said DON'T DO IT RIGHT NOW!....It was too late, the keep came down and chumbucket popped out of no where, with his GM powers and the placed a house ..smack dab in the way of replacing. Joshua Lee was so angry at me, but at the same time wasn't....It felt like he didn't know how to react or who to blame. Just logged onto another character to come back and argue with chumbucket. I never again gave anyone special extra tips during a brokering. Just did my job and left.

(((Pretty sure there is a tales of adventure about this, but this was my inside story)))


2. My first real outing as a fully developed character (tamer), was a house idoc in a spot that I really wanted. I waited hours near it, only talking about it in guild chat (UOH). Matron de winter brought her UoH character "Joan Jett" right before it decayed, killed me, left guild. I must have sat as a ghost at that house for hours so no one could place. I gave up and vowed to avoid house idocs ever since. Have yet to go to another. Dirty business.

(((Also a Tales of Adventure somewhere in these forums. Again, my little untold story)))

3. I once had a rogue character sometime in the middle of my rise here. Looted a tower with him, and chumbucket somehow found the place too...started looting. I came back as GK and chased him around for like 30 minutes straight. He got away. I then Had to just give my victim a ton of gold and magic weapons because I felt like a butthole.

(( Don't know if chum made a Tales about that one or not ))
**Extra- My first encounter with luca blight , who was friends with felix at the time( i know right?)...I was running a vendor house at yew gate and luca told me that as long as I kept selling him stuff at good prices, he'd let me continue living. ...Turns out that I'm still alive. ****

These events brought a lot of character to my play time here. I appreciate the adventures that people here have brought into each time I would login. Even the pks that viciously targeted me because I was a wanabe famous blowhard.

[chumbucket]

chumbucket and Associates make my UOSA life worth living.

[GuardianKnight]

batman needs his villains or he's just man.

[chumbucket]

So the contest prize is amended as follows:

1st Prize - An item from my small collection of unusual rares PLUS 100k
2nd Prize - 100k (thanks Downs!)

[chumbucket]

The full story of the blocking of Josh Lee's keep placement was simple: I saw you and him gate from Skara Brae bank. I quickly figured out what you two were up to, and so stealth about blocking replacement until Downs, I think, showed up on an alt and placed a small. I was accused of HAX by all involved.

[Ohm]

I haven't been here too long.. but it's been fun.

Thanks Derrick and everyone else that keeps this place afloat.

One of my best memories here: Killing Braden at mYm, while still learning how to cycle a halberd properly. He wouldn't let me take his head