Secondage is the only shard thats population is increasing.

[Chaos]

Derrick for President 2012, UOSA Party!

I would back this .. but then who would be our admin

[Wise]

Derrick for President 2012, UOSA Party!

I would back this .. but then who would be our admin

some high paid secret service representative, CIA will crack down on those AFK Mining Mofo's!

[Oswald]

I keep teasing Derrick that we are going to have to use several servers for this one shard

I'll aid you with the teasing, I wanna see real server-lines too. The first free shard with server-lines... Ah, dreams...

Ugh I hope you guys are kidding that'll ruin taming.

[Hemperor]

Derrick for President 2012, UOSA Party!

I would back this .. but then who would be our admin

But, how? I doubt the banksters even have a clue who he is currently!

[Lonebob]

I was looking at all the free shards today and I was only able to find two servers with more than 50 players online. It was second age and the shard that must not be named. So yeah, good job Derrick!

[Bag]

I don't understand how this shard isn't ranked #1 on the top free shards lists. this is far and away the best/most reliable/most rewarding server I've played on, and also the most populated.

[Lonebob]

I don't understand how this shard isn't ranked #1 on the top free shards lists. this is far and away the best/most reliable/most rewarding server I've played on, and also the most populated.

Its all about actual votes and lots of those servers cheat with vote stones in-game.

[Oswald]

Well none the less this server continues to grow while the others die out.

[Pac]

I don't understand how this shard isn't ranked #1 on the top free shards lists.

Those shards are only concerned with rank and put more effort into getting votes than they do running a quality shard.

[morganm]

Yeah yeah yeah... I'm res'n this thread... =P

I was researching on the web to find out what the heck happened to Divinity and stumbled on this thread. Almost two weeks ago I got a new laptop and the itch to play some UO. Previously I played Divinity ... year ago? I dunno; long time ago... the forums are now broke... said screw it. I had heard about how awesome Second Age was so I logged in and haven't looked back. There's just something about this server, it's players, and staff that has capture the essence of pre UO:R. It's not any single thing but rather a mosaic of small things that make an awesome shard.

Back on Divinity I was even a staff member for quite a while... and yet I'd never go back under any circumstances after playing UOSA. Don't get me wrong; I loved Rebrith and then Divinity... played Rebirth till they closed the doors... Played Divinity until real life got in the way... loved them dearly... but I log in to UOSA and think "I'm back... I'm back playing UO of '99... and I LOVE it!" I played on OSI from beta to UO:R... I log in to UOSA and it just feels ... right!

What astounds me is the consistently high population on this server over the years. I was looking at population graphs on JoinUO for Divinity, Revelation, and Second Age... they don't even compare. UOSA consistently has hundreds of clients online, everyday, of every month, of every year. You look at other graphs and they just steadily decline to nothing. I remember having to help quell the talk of UOSA on the Divinity forums; all the ppl talking about how awesome it was, threads of ppl and guilds leaving, and I checked it out myself... it was sweet... but I was beholden to Divinity thus I didn't switch.

Now in the dust of many other pre UO:R wannabe shards we see UOSA standing tall. I laughed at a post in this thread about how Divinity is going to take a significant portion of UOSA's population after 'Ryan starts fixing it'.... the 'ad campaign'... that's just laughable. My 5 year old has a longer attention span than Ryan. He'd pop in now and then, say he's gonna 'fix it up', the population would increase... and he'd disappear... then he'd do it again a few months later, maybe do a patch or two... disappear... Even after his 'ad campaign' shot up the population he disappeared as soon as it turned downward again! The population plummeted and Divinity was worse off than ever... get a clue; that dude doesn't give a shit about Divinity. He did the same thing to Rebirth as well. The only RunUO dudes that ever truly cared about Divinity were Zippy and Mark. The post here trying to foreshadow the rise of Divinity and IPY again is almost a year old now.... how's Divinity doing now? What did Ryan do with Divinity since then? When is IPY 2 coming online?

Obviously the people running UOSA have either figured out how to make a pre UO:R shard that retains a large player base or they've happened upon success and haven't messed it up yet =) Somehow I think it's the former but either way; I love it and can't wait to waste yet more hours playing here.

[kwhiz73]

I came to second age 4 months ago and it has more than exceeded my expectations. Nothings forever but if there's only 2 people left playing on this shard 5 years for now, I"ll be one of them.

[Zeppelin]

I came to second age 4 months ago and it has more than exceeded my expectations. Nothings forever but if there's only 2 people left playing on this shard 5 years for now, I"ll be one of them.

I'll be the other?

[Eastwood]

I've played a near death server before,

There is something kind of peaceful about it, but the other people and competition is what make a shard better.

For all you saying that you'll be the last to play here,

There will be rewarding experiences in that. IDOCs galore

[Lupos]

All this talk of server death is prematurely morbid gentleman, the amount of activity I've seen this evening says the time of the IDOC apocalypse is a long way away

[Clx]

I'm another recent convert to UOSA. Tried tons of player shards before, never gotten 'into' any of them. They all felt like someone's pet project to create the UO they wanted. This feels like I'm actually back in 1999 in proper UO. Thank god I'm not as poor as I was in 1999, or on dialup.

Credit has to go to the admin(s), and to the player base who seem to have created something of a real community, which has to be a first for a player/free-shard. Like most people that really 'got' UO, nothing has ever come close to it in terms of fun, so here's to a long future for UOSA.