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This reminds me of the assassination of Lord British: [1] "Lord British was a player character created by Richard Garriott, the producer of Ultima Online. Usin

This reminds me of the assassination of Lord British: [1] "Lord British was a player character created by Richard Garriott, the producer of Ultima Online. Using this character, Richard acted as Ultima’s King and would sometimes interact with other players. Lord British had considerable protection from an entourage of bodyguards and was even explicitly coded to be invulnerable to virtually any attack. During the game’s online beta test, Lord British gave an address to fellow players at his Castle Britannia. But while British was giving his address, a player character known as Rainz cast a spell scroll that set the Lord on fire, killing him instantly. "It turns out that shortly before this event, the server had crashed and needed to be restarted. Garriott forgot to reimplement his invulnerability flag, leaving him open to being killed. If that wasn’t shocking enough for the attendees, a fellow developer of the game known as Starr Long, with his in-game character Lord Blackthorn, summoned a horde of demons to kill the assassin. Not only did the assassin manage to escape, but the demons had killed nearly every player attending the address..." [1] - https://www.cbr.com/ultima-online-lord-british-assassination/ https://www.cbr.com/ultima-online-lord-british-assassination...

JoeOfTexas 4y ago
Wow, talk about a train wreck lol.
- egypturnash 4y ago
  Thus continuing the time-honored tradition of the entire Ultima series: trying to find a way to kill Lord British. Garriot's self-insert is the king of the land of Britannia in pretty much every one of the games, and there's some way to kill him in just about all of them. https://ultima.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Lord_British https://ultima.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Lord_British
- rvba 4y ago
  It was incredible marketing for the game. I remember all the gaming press wrote about it. It would just inspire you to try to play the game. If someone made an MMO today, it would make sense to stage similar events to get some nice viral marketing. The 'corrupted blood' incident in World of Warcraft gave the game a lot of free marketing even in normal press - who loved to write about it. From what I understand (many?) players enjoyed the few days of chaos too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident
  - RektBoy 4y ago
  - dustymcp 4y ago
    It really wasnt fun in the event the fun part was how it spread all over so fast afterwards and peoples reactions, the ingame experience for most was just dying over and over again :)
synicalx 4y ago
I remember when MMO's were fun like this :(
- b0afc375b5 4y ago
  Maybe we just grew old. I recently paid real money just to support a private server of my favorite childhood mmorpg. After playing a couple of days I got bored and never played again.
  - lethologica 4y ago
    Same thing happened with me and WoW Classic. I was hoping that classic would recapture the magic I felt playing the game a decade ago but after a few days I was just bored and cancelled my subscription. I guess that feeling is just a moment frozen in time now.
    - JeddHampton 4y ago
      The game could return to what it was but the community couldn't. You can't recapture the past like that. Everything has moved on. The game is known, not new again.
    - rightbyte 4y ago
      Playing "solved" games is not as exiting. The effect is most clear with boardgames I think. Also if you were a kid at the time way more things are exciting in gemeral.
      - Alex3917 4y ago
        > Playing "solved" games is not as exiting. The effect is most clear with boardgames I think. While this is probably usually true, a good counter example is Go, which actually become more fun after computers surpassed the abilities of humans. (Because, as it turns out, the boring parts of the game don't actually matter that much in terms of points.)
    - andrepd 4y ago
samstave 4y ago
I was there that day. >>"It turns out that shortly before this event, the server had crashed and needed to be restarted. Garriott forgot to reimplement his invulnerability flag" I never believed this... it was a fn PK game. I doubt he had such a flag.
- gfosco 4y ago
  Of course GMs and staff had invuln flags... the Lord British character didn't play the game normally, he appeared for events.
  - samstave 4y ago
    Thats fine, im just saying as one of the most prolifics (we were the 24/7 testers at intel) etc... and being there that day - no way this wasnt lit on by default, if exist...
    - lozenge 4y ago
      Yeah, they could have caught this with even the most basic Github Actions workflow.
      - superrad 4y ago
        I don't know if you're joking but Ultima online was obviously released 20 years before GitHub actions existed
        lozenge 4y ago
        Good point. Still, this could have been caught by fuzzing, which is a term coined in 1988.
      - DonHopkins 4y ago
        Kids these days... ;)
    - 4y ago
trissylegs 4y ago
I think Garriot said originally he stepped out of the fire instinctively. Then remembered "Wait I'm invincible I can stand in fire." Then proceeded to stand in the fire and die. Which is kinda funny as it's become a meme about WoW players standing in fire and dying when they couldn't just moved. (To much frustration to healers) https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Stay_out_of_the_fire https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Stay_out_of_the_fire
- xani_ 4y ago
  Don't think it's related in any way to wow thing aside from a fact you can stand in fire in both games... But I remember telling our DPS "THE GREEN FIRE DOES NOT HEAL YOU" in some boss fight...
  - Retric 4y ago
    That’s mostly just poor game design as players don’t worry about standing in fire when leveling up. MMO’s tend to add such arbitrary new gameplay mechanics in raids and nowhere else. Then everyone gets annoyed because players can only really practice in raids.
  - jghn 4y ago
    In UO standing in fire walls was a method people used to skill up. UO was skill based, not level based. And you gained skill points by doing those actions. A good way to have a group build up spell resistance was to cast fire field, everyone stands in the fire, and have someone cast heals. Casting the field and the heals also improved casting abilities
jansan 4y ago
Rainz was allegedly was banned from Ultima Online and all other OSI games for life. Rainz had used a Fire Field scroll on Lord British without any real hope that his assassination attempt would be successful. When Lord British died Rainz admitted he was in complete shock and even burst out in laughter. Rainz faced immediate repercussions from Ultima Online programmers and was summarily banished from the game. The official reason for his banning was said to be because of the sheer number of complaints other players had filed against him due to his playstyle. He was also banned from all future OSI games, however Rainz refused to rule out that he might continue to play under another alias. https://clanet.io/wiki/Ultima_Online/Beta_Pacific/Rainz https://clanet.io/wiki/Ultima_Online/Beta_Pacific/Rainz
- pixl97 4y ago
  Rule #1: Do not embarrass the dictator.
  - stavros 4y ago
    Yeah, that was shit, when someone beats you with the rules you yourself wrote, don't be angry.
andrepd 4y ago
Ultima Online was an absolutely amazing game and it's pretty telling that despite all the technological advances since, no game whatsoever came as close as Ultima Online to fulfilling the promise of the Computer MMO: a virtual, shared, persistent world. Maybe Star Wars Galaxies was the one who came closer.
- bovermyer 4y ago
  Playable Worlds is working on an MMORPG that should come pretty close to the original idea. Raph Koster - one of the designers of SWG - is heavily involved.
  - andrepd 4y ago
    Wow, I didn't know that! Gonna check it out. Making an MMO true to the name is probably my dream lifetime project. If I had f-u money it's absolutely what I would be doing.
sage76 4y ago
Ultima online just seems to have so many awesome stories.

JoeOfTexas 4y ago

Wow, talk about a train wreck lol.

egypturnash 4y ago
Thus continuing the time-honored tradition of the entire Ultima series: trying to find a way to kill Lord British. Garriot's self-insert is the king of the land of Britannia in pretty much every one of the games, and there's some way to kill him in just about all of them. https://ultima.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Lord_British https://ultima.fandom.com/wiki/Killing_Lord_British
rvba 4y ago
It was incredible marketing for the game. I remember all the gaming press wrote about it. It would just inspire you to try to play the game. If someone made an MMO today, it would make sense to stage similar events to get some nice viral marketing. The 'corrupted blood' incident in World of Warcraft gave the game a lot of free marketing even in normal press - who loved to write about it. From what I understand (many?) players enjoyed the few days of chaos too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrupted_Blood_incident
- RektBoy 4y ago
- dustymcp 4y ago
  It really wasnt fun in the event the fun part was how it spread all over so fast afterwards and peoples reactions, the ingame experience for most was just dying over and over again :)

synicalx 4y ago

I remember when MMO's were fun like this :(

b0afc375b5 4y ago
Maybe we just grew old. I recently paid real money just to support a private server of my favorite childhood mmorpg. After playing a couple of days I got bored and never played again.
- lethologica 4y ago
  Same thing happened with me and WoW Classic. I was hoping that classic would recapture the magic I felt playing the game a decade ago but after a few days I was just bored and cancelled my subscription. I guess that feeling is just a moment frozen in time now.
  - JeddHampton 4y ago
    The game could return to what it was but the community couldn't. You can't recapture the past like that. Everything has moved on. The game is known, not new again.
  - rightbyte 4y ago
    Playing "solved" games is not as exiting. The effect is most clear with boardgames I think. Also if you were a kid at the time way more things are exciting in gemeral.
    - Alex3917 4y ago
      > Playing "solved" games is not as exiting. The effect is most clear with boardgames I think. While this is probably usually true, a good counter example is Go, which actually become more fun after computers surpassed the abilities of humans. (Because, as it turns out, the boring parts of the game don't actually matter that much in terms of points.)
  - andrepd 4y ago

samstave 4y ago

I was there that day. >>"It turns out that shortly before this event, the server had crashed and needed to be restarted. Garriott forgot to reimplement his invulnerability flag" I never believed this... it was a fn PK game. I doubt he had such a flag.

gfosco 4y ago
Of course GMs and staff had invuln flags... the Lord British character didn't play the game normally, he appeared for events.
- samstave 4y ago
  Thats fine, im just saying as one of the most prolifics (we were the 24/7 testers at intel) etc... and being there that day - no way this wasnt lit on by default, if exist...
  - lozenge 4y ago
    Yeah, they could have caught this with even the most basic Github Actions workflow.
    - superrad 4y ago
      I don't know if you're joking but Ultima online was obviously released 20 years before GitHub actions existed
      - lozenge 4y ago
        Good point. Still, this could have been caught by fuzzing, which is a term coined in 1988.
    - DonHopkins 4y ago
      Kids these days... ;)
  - 4y ago

trissylegs 4y ago

I think Garriot said originally he stepped out of the fire instinctively. Then remembered "Wait I'm invincible I can stand in fire." Then proceeded to stand in the fire and die. Which is kinda funny as it's become a meme about WoW players standing in fire and dying when they couldn't just moved. (To much frustration to healers) https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Stay_out_of_the_fire https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Stay_out_of_the_fire

xani_ 4y ago
Don't think it's related in any way to wow thing aside from a fact you can stand in fire in both games... But I remember telling our DPS "THE GREEN FIRE DOES NOT HEAL YOU" in some boss fight...
- Retric 4y ago
  That’s mostly just poor game design as players don’t worry about standing in fire when leveling up. MMO’s tend to add such arbitrary new gameplay mechanics in raids and nowhere else. Then everyone gets annoyed because players can only really practice in raids.
- jghn 4y ago
  In UO standing in fire walls was a method people used to skill up. UO was skill based, not level based. And you gained skill points by doing those actions. A good way to have a group build up spell resistance was to cast fire field, everyone stands in the fire, and have someone cast heals. Casting the field and the heals also improved casting abilities

jansan 4y ago

Rainz was allegedly was banned from Ultima Online and all other OSI games for life. Rainz had used a Fire Field scroll on Lord British without any real hope that his assassination attempt would be successful. When Lord British died Rainz admitted he was in complete shock and even burst out in laughter. Rainz faced immediate repercussions from Ultima Online programmers and was summarily banished from the game. The official reason for his banning was said to be because of the sheer number of complaints other players had filed against him due to his playstyle. He was also banned from all future OSI games, however Rainz refused to rule out that he might continue to play under another alias. https://clanet.io/wiki/Ultima_Online/Beta_Pacific/Rainz https://clanet.io/wiki/Ultima_Online/Beta_Pacific/Rainz

pixl97 4y ago
Rule #1: Do not embarrass the dictator.
- stavros 4y ago
  Yeah, that was shit, when someone beats you with the rules you yourself wrote, don't be angry.

andrepd 4y ago

Ultima Online was an absolutely amazing game and it's pretty telling that despite all the technological advances since, no game whatsoever came as close as Ultima Online to fulfilling the promise of the Computer MMO: a virtual, shared, persistent world. Maybe Star Wars Galaxies was the one who came closer.

bovermyer 4y ago
Playable Worlds is working on an MMORPG that should come pretty close to the original idea. Raph Koster - one of the designers of SWG - is heavily involved.
- andrepd 4y ago
  Wow, I didn't know that! Gonna check it out. Making an MMO true to the name is probably my dream lifetime project. If I had f-u money it's absolutely what I would be doing.

sage76 4y ago

Ultima online just seems to have so many awesome stories.