![]() This sequel would've brought the series into glorious 3D, with an advanced steampunk world, but alas, it was not to be. ![]() In 1999, Origin Systems announced that they were working on a sequel - Ultima Worlds Online: Origin (or, as most people called it, UO2). As UO became a modest-sized hit, there were (understandable) concerns about its longevity, especially as 3D MMOs became the norm. While we're hanging awards around Ultima Online's neck, we'd be remiss not to add this one: MMO to Prompt the Most Failed Sequels. Even to this day, to mention "Trammel" in certain online circles is a prelude to a flame war. While loads of players flocked to Trammel out of a desire to experience the game beyond a corpse simulator, the decision to implement this feature became a sore point of debate between those who appreciated the choice, and those who felt that it watered down or took something away from Ultima Online's hardcore nature. Essentially, the world of UO was split into two versions: Felucca (non-consensual PvP allowed) and Trammel (non-consensual PvP denied). Oddly enough, not everyone particularly liked being ganged up on and savaged by other player characters, which is why 2000's Trammel came as a welcome relief to many. Trammel: The Word That Sparked a Geek Riot Rainz got banned from the game, but became a MMO celebrity in that moment. Ultima Online became infamous even prior to launch, as a player named "Rainz" managed to accomplish the impossible: during beta, Rainz used a fire field scroll to kill Lord British, the supposedly-invincible character played by series founder Richard Garriott (yes, Mr. Crafting, housing and social tools were given a lot of focus, for better and for worse (as the sprawling housing tracts across the game world would attest), striving to hit the well-rounded nature of a role-playing game instead of the combat-centric focus we see today. The developers planned to have a shifting ecosystem that would adapt and change based on the population (or lack thereof) of creatures as players killed them - a feature that never made it into the game, but demonstrates the enormous vision of the project. If anything, Ultima Online was ambitious as all get out. In UO, players could focus on increasing any skill they chose simply by using the skill over and over again, allowing them to create a highly customized character build. For another, there were no "classes" or "levels" in the way we now know them. For one thing, the title featured free-for-all PvP with full corpse looting - a controversial feature that only recently started to return in games such as Darkfall. The title would go on to sell over a million copies.įor the modern MMO player, Ultima Online in 1997 would be almost completely different than what we're used to today. Despite being an incredibly hardcore game - especially in its initial incarnation - Ultima Online became the first MMO to reach the 100,000 subscriber mark, proving that MMOs could be serious business. This all changed when Ultima Online hit the market - a scrappy isometric 2D fantasy title that broke the meager boundaries of players and popularity that came before it. Despite MUDs and a few fledgling MMOs on the market, nothing had hit the big-time, and nobody had an idea of how to construct an RPG that thousands of people could simultaneously romp around inside. As technology and game design timidly stepped out onto the frontier of online gaming, developers itching to bring role-playing games to the masses quickly discovered that there were no set rules. In 1997, the term "MMORPG" was all but unknown, as was the genre.
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