Ultima Online celebrates 14 years

@pcgneurotic

I can't believe I was 47 when it came out - old for a gamer even then :)!

Congrats to those behind UO for keeping it going for so long, and pretty much in its original style.

@DarkWalker Last I checked the pricing structure was:

Ultima Online: $12.99 per month

$11.66/mo for 3 months ($34.99 total)
$10.00/mo for 6 months ($59.99 total)

@Alluvian EstEndrati

Thanks, I saw the 6 month plan, but I assumed that the monthly plan was the same old $15 per month.

It's still more than I'm willing to pay due to it being published by EA, unfortunately.

@Birk

It's got a wicked learning curve which starts with a pretty good tutorial, at the end of which you'll know just enough, and have worked out a little more, to realise that there is so much more you can actually do - so many ways to play it - if you invest the TIME. I emphasise that because holy shit, do you ever need to put some time in. But if you do, you'll be rewarded in spades, absolutely, yes.

@nimzy

10Six was really fun in those days. The game is still running but under a new company now.

@Utakata It's actually a fixed isometric perspective. While some UO mobiles (monsters, for example) were eventually 3-D modeled, there's really no point since you can't really truly tell. Think Diablo and you've got it. I've always thought isometric games were capable of looking significantly less ugly than they really should because they're not trying so hard to look realistic. EQ hasn't held up half so well, interestingly.

Before polygons, we had sprites. Think Daggerfall. THAT was truly bad!

@Brianna Royce

Hey, don't slander Daggerfall! Perhaps the best sandbox game I've ever played (despite it being single player and buggy as hell).

@TitusGroan It's only slander if it's not true! Hehe. Nah I loved Daggerfall too. But the sprite NPCs... ug! :D

@Brianna Royce

Thanks for explaining that. Though it does show my ignorance of the early industry...since I've been playing WoW 6 years ago as my first MMO (also known for it's primative brute force polygon engine). So there's 8 years I have previously missed.

I do know what you mean by the fixed isometric perspective. Although Diablo 3 is the best example I can think of that made this proto-3D graphic mechanics look good. Most are are...yeah...bleah, ugly to look at and desperately crying for a horizon line...

...but yeah,14 years ago. That does put it around the first introductions on Intel's Pentiums and Apple's Power Mac's I believe. Where hosuehold flat screeens where still science-fiction outside of laptops...and wireless technology was one step up from a carrier pigeon. So I guess where the graphcis of any MMO's at the time, since dial-ups where all the rage. Perhaps I should give UO some slack over that? :(