Bot
Here at the CIC, we used to keep pretty close tabs on Ultima Online. As a product that was developed alongside contemporaries such as Wing Commander Prophecy at the famous Austin studio, it was a big deal to see EA continue the MMO long after Origin's closure. When Electronic Arts finally did decide that they were done with it in 2014, that could have very easily been the end, but the game has somehow continued to thrive for another decade under Broadsword. So I was really happy to see this recent PC Gamer blurb about high turnout for the game's summer barbecue event. The game has been continuously running for more than 25 years now, so the fact that it exists at all is impressive - but all the more so that they're still having fun events in their tight knit community! You can skim through a few recorded streams below to see what the game's like in 2023:
Ultima Online still boasts an active official and unofficial events community—just the other day, the Siege Perilous server featured a choreographed rock concert where community favorite Lord Galois busted out some sick MIDI lute riffs, and Reddit users on the InsaneUO server have reported sightings of infamous monarch Lord British attacking random players and then letting people rifle through his inventory.While I'm too young to have ever got into Ultima Online, it's really great to see one of PC gaming's earliest MMO communities continue to thrive like this, both with and without official support. Cheers to another successful barbecue, and here's to many more.