4 ms·

I brought this up on Twitter, but I think the term "shard" referring to a partitioned database originated from Ultima Online. The game's fiction included refer

I brought this up on Twitter, but I think the term "shard" referring to a partitioned database originated from Ultima Online. The game's fiction included reference to shards of a wizard's crystal that created duplicate worlds -- a convenient explanation within that universe for the need to run multiple, duplicate servers with different users on them. https://twitter.com/amontalenti/status/615116231092371456 https://twitter.com/amontalenti/status/615116231092371456

boobsbr 11y ago
Mondain, the wizard!
jghn 11y ago
I've always thought the same thing,
- jrub 11y ago
  Same. When I first heard the term "shard," I thought we were talking about UO. I still think about it every time time I hear "shard." I don't ever run into anyone who has played UO either, and so everyone looks at my like I have 3 eyes when I explain the connection. haha.
  - jghn 11y ago
    The only folks I personally know who played UO were my actual friends :) I have coworkers who were also old enough to remember it but they all started withy EQ or WoW. In my mind no game will surpass closed beta era UO. It had the sandbox and freedom combined with q culture that was actually into the idea instead of the grieving
keypusher 11y ago
Wikipedia and Ralph Koster seem to agree. "The word "shard" in a database context may be derived from the 1997 MMORPG Ultima Online, which referred to its game servers and their associated databases as "shards." This was in reference to the game's fiction, in which the broken shards of the evil wizard Mondain's Gem of Immortality each contained a complete, living copy of the world.[24] This usage spread informally through the video game industry, and may have come into mainstream usage via Flickr, which began as a tool for an unpublished MMO." Original blog post: http://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/08/database-sharding-came-from-uo/ http://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/08/database-sharding-came-...

boobsbr 11y ago

Mondain, the wizard!

jghn 11y ago

I've always thought the same thing,

jrub 11y ago
Same. When I first heard the term "shard," I thought we were talking about UO. I still think about it every time time I hear "shard." I don't ever run into anyone who has played UO either, and so everyone looks at my like I have 3 eyes when I explain the connection. haha.
- jghn 11y ago
  The only folks I personally know who played UO were my actual friends :) I have coworkers who were also old enough to remember it but they all started withy EQ or WoW. In my mind no game will surpass closed beta era UO. It had the sandbox and freedom combined with q culture that was actually into the idea instead of the grieving

keypusher 11y ago

Wikipedia and Ralph Koster seem to agree. "The word "shard" in a database context may be derived from the 1997 MMORPG Ultima Online, which referred to its game servers and their associated databases as "shards." This was in reference to the game's fiction, in which the broken shards of the evil wizard Mondain's Gem of Immortality each contained a complete, living copy of the world.[24] This usage spread informally through the video game industry, and may have come into mainstream usage via Flickr, which began as a tool for an unpublished MMO." Original blog post: http://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/08/database-sharding-came-from-uo/ http://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/08/database-sharding-came-...