Publish 2000 (The Journey...)

The Journey... May 19 2000 3:44PM On a hot summer afternoon sometime in July of 1997, my life changed dramatically, though I didn’t really know it at the time. I stumbled across a little website with a cute animated dragon and the title of Ultima Online. As I perused through the website reading the FAQ and various game features of a soon to be released massively multiplayer game, I knew I had finally found the next game that would keep me up till dawn, like any game worth its salt should. The game looked bold and innovative, offering for the first time the freedom to live another life in an alternate world along with thousands of other players, and to provide its patrons the chance to make their own meaningful impact in whatever way they saw fit. During my lunch hour that afternoon I somehow stumbled into a little chat channel with some players discussing various aspects of this new game. Included in that channel was one Designer Dragon, who I spoke with for about 5 minutes amidst the crowd of eager people sharing various ideas and thoughts.

In the months that followed, I lived and breathed Ultima Online as ‘Runesaber’, both in-game and out-of-game on the various message boards which sprang up around the game. Who was Runesaber to be? When I created him I didn’t really know, so I made up his name to fit a myriad of possibilities either as a warrior or mage. He became a blacksmith. And how fitting that my carefully laid plans for my character had changed in this new game so that I would end up in a place I never expected. In UO, just about anything is possible. Sometimes I felt I was dictating the journey, other times I felt the journey was beckoning me down other unknown paths. That was the magic of this new world.

Today, almost three years later, I have had the most honored privilege of ushering in the 3rd and largest, most significant era of this great game, Ultima Online: Renaissance, as Lead Programmer of the UO project. Quite an unexpected path I have traveled from that first chat in 1997!

Has UO reached its own journey’s end? Has my journey come to an end?

Ultima Online:Renaissance is not a destination. It’s a stage and a foundation, built by a team of passionate people to ensure the ongoing journey of UO continues on just as steadily as it has since the beginning.

And as with all great journeys, it is with a touch of sadness and reflection that we see certain participants leave the path and pursue other ventures in other worlds near and far. But with the departure of the great people that shaped UO into its current form, the journey for UO does not end nor does my journey with UO.

I invite you all to come partake in the present Ultima Online, as new history unfolds from day to day. The greatest event in online gaming is currently underway, but just as I did not immediately see the relevance of that one afternoon in July, so all of you may not realize the meaning of the events of today. At a later day, we will all be able to look back upon the present with fondness, at another exciting phase of this great, ongoing journey.

Runesabre Adventurer Ultima Online Development Team