Ten years ago, no one could have guessed that the MMOG genre would explode like a star going nova. There was little in the way of choices at the time, and in the early days, Ultima Online and EverQuest were the big dogs of the yard. Before his involvement in Tabula Rasa garnered such hard feelings from the online community, Richard "Lord British" Garriott was hailed as a visionary for creating the original Ultima series of games, an incredibly detailed world that would unfold over the course of nineteen years.
He was also deeply involved in the early creation and evolution of Ultima Online, so much so that he would often be present for live events within the game. In the end, Ultima Online may not have won the MMOG war, but no one can argue that it was fundamental to the genre's beginnings.
RockPaperShotgun: "Kieron's resurrection project for his splendid Liberal Crime Squad diaries brought to mind something I penned during RPS's salad days. At the time, our audience was just a small collective of PC Gamer readers: now we are old, fat and happy with the love of many. Thus, pray allow us to entertain you with whimsical tales from our childhood. In this case, my misadventures in the (at that time) just relaunched Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the most shoeless of times."
IncGamers' Jeff Hollis takes a look at some of the cruellest and, perhaps, funniest moments of griefing to take place in online games over the last few years.
"I spend a good amount of time reading Reddit; I find it to be an interesting online community, and sometimes the topics that come up are really unusual and intriguing. This week, someone posted a thread asking "What's the most devious or infuriating instance of griefing in an MMO you've ever experienced or inflicted?" Much to my surprise, the thread really took off, and not only were the stories funny, but they often linked to elsewhere on the net. The end result was a bucket-full of funny tales of virtual pain and anguish. Ah, good times."
That AoC one gets me every time. So funny to watch but how annoying if it happened to you in-game.
I don't think the Kazzak one works anymore - well, he's not in Badlands now anyway, but I don't think bosses would be kited all that way and stay there like he does in this vid. You get that Evade bug now once the dude he was atacking dies.
The world bosses are leashed. Kazzak was the best one though. He was the reason Blizz implemented their griefing policy back in the old days.
Oh the days @60. Pre AQ, nothing to do but farm worldys. 6 plus guilds with a dozen or so level 1 griefing characters vs each other. Add in Supreme'o Kazzak with his adds. Hours of pointless mayhem.
My favorite was when we had kite Tunderaan to Orgrimmar. Can't do it anymore, stupid Blizz and their leashes >.< Pissed the guy off we stole the mob from though.
EA and developer NetDragon Websoft Inc. have teamed up to bring a new MMO to China based on the popular title, Ultima Online.
NetDragon will work with EA's Mythic to bring the title to China, India, Macau and Hong Kong.
Doesn't seem to be clear on whether it's a brand new game or a newer version of UO. Looking forward to more info on this.
A whole new one? Hrm. That's fairly interesting, assuming that it really isn't just a heavily localised version of the older UO releases, which it certainly doesn't sound like.
UO still has a large following, I think they will be very upset if a new game based on the series came out and people in the west didn't get to see it.
I think so. Be foolish not to bring it over here if it turned out to be a successful mmo.
