I've written so much about Ultima Online, a game that changed my life as well as an entire industry, that I feel there is not much more I can say that is not repetition. On this day in 1998 I rushed home from Best Buy with my first modern PC, paid for with my first credit card, with a copy of this magnificent game, and no knowledge whatsoever of what I would encounter.
For example, when logging in, one is prompted to select a shard. I had no idea what that was, so I selected Great Lakes from the top of the list the first time, since I live near those. After a quick run around with my character, I logged out for dinner. When I came back, Atlantic was at the top of the shard list so I logged into that and started over before I understood what was happening. Shards are servers, and each was a copy of the game world all its own.
Once I was up an running, the rest was history. I made a name for myself in that game and in its community with my passion and dogged insistence that they do something with the ships and sailing part of it all.
So last night I logged in to check my vendor and my house. That was it. I really don't have time to play as I wish, the few friends I had in-game are long gone, but maintaining that house and my little piece of history in that game is still important to me for some reason.
Still, I should not let the 25th anniversary of the most important game I will ever play pass without some fanfare, so here is a screenshot of my pirate character in his glory days.
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