My favorite all-time computer game is probably Ultima Online (UO), one of the oldest subscription-based MMORPGs, which set the stage for many of the more popular games that have come in its wake (Everquest; World of Warcraft; etc.). UO is owned by Electronic Arts (EA). And, it must be said, EA does not appear, and has never appeared, to quite understand the MMO business model, and thus never seems quite certain in what direction to take UO. For much of its dozen or so years in existence, UO players have enjoyed their game under a state of indecision and uncertainty.

I don't want to gush about it. UO players actually tend to not like to gush. In fact on the message boards you're considered one of the “cool kids” if you appear to hate the game you play. I don't go that far, I accept that I have never been and never will be a “cool kid,” but let me just reverse the normal, logical game reviewing process and start with the negatives. And there's no greater negative in this game than the Jerk Situation. They are numerous and vocal in UO. All MMOs have them, but UO is defined by its jerks in a way that I'm not sure any other MMO is. A still-controversial decision was made over 10 years ago to mirror UO's original map, and severely limit PvP in the mirror. Further, since then all of the game's new maps have maintained the PvP restrictions. As PvP was and remains a critical part of UO, one may wonder why this decision was made. And the answer is that Because UO's PvPers had behaved like a bunch of jerks and were driving away players to such games as Everquest.

Other negatives include graphics and gameplay that don't measure up to modern standards. I'm pretty sure these graphics weren't state-of-the-art 12 years back. The standard, 2d UO client works best with a third party program, known as UO Assist. The game is playable without UO Assist but is a lot more fun with it. UO's team has made several attempts to update the game's client (both graphics and interface) but each attempt has been rejected by players. Weirdly enough, even though these attempts didn't get enough players to warrant their being continued, they all acquired enough fans to be vocal presences on the message boards.

The latest attempt to update is referred to as the “enhanced” client, and the still-popular, old 2d client is now referred to as the “classic” client. The enhanced client will be officially released within a couple of weeks, as part of UO's latest expansion. Accompanying it will be loads of new content. (I'm not exaggerating. This is a big expansion.) However, from the brief period I spend in the enhanced client's beta test, even it isn't really up to modern standards, it's just closer to them than the classic client. The game content is available to players of any active client. So when you are in game walking around, the other player characters on your screen could be seeing the world, and interacting with it for that matter, very differently than you are.

UO's new player experience is questionable. It's improved over the years. There are no more Player Killers camping the new character spawn point and killing new characters before they are fully logged in, and the new player experience is driven by a competent quest system that allows for accelerated skill gain (UO's “leveling”). But UO's item-based nature, combined with occasional skill gain bugs and other factors, help to insure that new players will have a tough time without help from other players. Luckily, such help is on most servers within reach. The new client does seem to have a brand new new player tutorial attached to it, but the initial experience is just one of the issues.

So what do I like about my favorite game? Let's start with what is to my mind, the game's biggest virtue. There's two basic MMORPG designs: sandbox, and directed experience. The directed experience approach, most associated with World of Warcraft, means that the game manufacturer is most-responsible for providing meaning to your in-game experience. In the older sandbox approach, the manufacturer mostly provides you with a gaming environment, and any meaning to what you do is assigned by you or other players. At its best, UO exemplifies a happy medium between both approaches. The in-game quest system has been beefed up considerably within the last 4 or 5 years, and “contract employees” of EA (the term “contract employees” means they can be fucked over easily and legally in terms of hours and pay) called “Event Moderators” run in-game events about weekly (the quality and frequency of the events varies a lot by server). Some of these events are related to a big storyline called “Warriors of Destiny,” which should be concluding shortly, and some aren't.

UO is skill-based rather than class-based. “Templates,” meaning combinations of skills, thus replace “classes” as the means to develop and designate character professions. This system allows for wide flexibility. Though of course not all templates are equally viable for every aspect of the game, players can find templates that work for them. At least 5 character slots per game server are allowed, thus enabling players to experiment with many different playstyles and character templates. One negative of this has been an ever-decreasing level of player dependence upon other players, thus helping to decrease the social aspect of gameplay. However, it is still incredibly difficult to be entirely self-sufficient, and thus UO's social aspect remains. Which is, despite jerks, by and large a good thing.

Another of UO's virtues is the borrowing of the Ultima name and much of the Ultima lore and setting. For those readers too young to remember, “Ultima” was the name of a series of mostly superb (if occasionally silly) single-player games that set industry standards throughout much of the 80s and 90s....if not for graphics and gameplay, then definitely for storyline and interactivity. Many of the elements of the old Ultima games are present in UO to one degree or another, giving the game a sense of history and richness, and an elaborate mix of genres and atmospheres.

UO also provides a stellar atmosphere for role-playing. The manufacturer provides just enough content that role-players aren't developing their characters in a vacuum, and just little enough that the background isn't strangling. As long as one doesn't try to role-play something too ridiculous (such as being the ruler of one of the maps, or trying to pretend you're actually on Middle Earth), the odds of being contradicted by the official fiction are small.

And, despite the Jerk Situation I started this review with, other players are among UO's greatest assets. Though UO's jerks are vocal and hard to ignore, the good players overwhelm them in terms of raw numbers. Every once in a great while this 12+ year old game does get a new player or two, and the helpfulness of other players is one of the first things they comment upon. Remember earlier when I mentioned that getting along in UO as a new player was almost impossible without help? Well, that's true, but I wouldn't worry. Most servers are superb at helping “noobs,” a term with both affectionate and insulting connotations. Some servers even institutionalize it, in the form of either formal guilds or informal groups of players dedicated to helping new players.

Let me state again: The game's gameplay interface is often not intuitive, is overly complex, and most players seem to find at least one third party application (called UO Assist) necessary to play the game at even a basic level when using the “classic” client. There's jerks, and they like it when you know they're there.

But, at the end of the day, this game has been around for over a dozen years for a damn good reason. WoW players, come give the original a try. And buy 6 months in advance so you can have a shot at playing the game at more than the “noob” level. Trust me, it gets better than wandering around the “noob island” killing ogres.

I'll see you Britannia.  Or not.