Old Skool Corner - Reflecting back on the classics

11 December 2005

Looking back at...

First released: 1997

Publisher: Origin ( http://www.uo.com )

Category: MMORPG

It's often easy to forget the founding father titles of many, now well established, categories of computer game. Ultima Online was the very first true MMORPG and arguably set the frameworks for the future in this complex, often groundbreaking, area of programming knowledge and technology. It became the biggest networked roleplaying game in the world and by 2000 had been entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the largest "parallel" World. In it's peak over 2,500 players would log in during a busy part of the day on one of the countless International servers. Players would roleplay characters ranging from anything from a "Gandalf" Mage to a Blacksmith to an Innkeeper.

The game's World was the sum of many previous Origin Ultima titles that go way back to the mid 80s. Britannia consisted of dozens of separate towns, caves, dungeons, oceans, and inhospitable woodlands. It truly was a realised reality. The lands were covered with quests to complete and monsters to slay but the core of it became the PvP (player-versus-player) combat. The Guild element became one of the main reasons to build up your character to the coveted GM (Grand Master) title. However UO wasn't all about the combat, or even the char building. It was the fact you could roleplay to such extremes in it as to buy a house, become a well known trader, sell signature items, and even get married with another like-minded character!

UO was the kind of game that had a special quality to it. To those that weren't around at the time, or were simply unaware of the community, it may seem odd reflecting on this title with such fetishistic detail. The fact is it was a feeling that had to felt to be understood. The visuals were hardly impressive, the game was merely a 2D ariel view, nor was the sound. But both the visuals of little figures moving around and the noises of thuddish knocks and other countless random sound effects had an awe to it that kept you locked in the tiny 2D realm. Even to this day I have never felt as immersed in an RPG, on or offline, as I did in UO.

There was an element of customisation in this game that enabled you to perfect your player. The endless catalogue of clothing, armour, accessories, and gadgets allowed you to design all sorts of unique and wacky looks. Fashions even developed as players copied each others "l33t" looks and realised that unwritten conventions were beginning to apply to how you were to dress as an "established" player. Of course the noobs tended to just run around naked, holding spell books and spamming bizarre messages out to all around them.

There was a neat and simple way of communication in this game. Unlike all these new, 3D, MMORPGs where we have a mass of "chat channels" and talk-bar based messaging amongst the players UO incorporated the messages you typed into the world in a much more integral way. What you typed (what you said) would appear above the head of your little cute character model. You could even customise the text colour. This completely basic aspect somehow added a personal feel to messages you typed. The alienation of the "talk bar" was not a factor. I suspect to most hardcore RPG players this is all pretty irrelevant. They play for the stats, PvP, char building. However for us roleplayers who marveled at the actual interaction in this world UO just felt so right.