An underrated aspect of UO
For the most part everything is, or at least seems to be, unfolding forward, in real time.
By contrast, I've read that in Lord of the Rings Online, Elder Scrolls Online, and even (didn't notice this when I played it for awhile...) World of Warcraft, it's understood that certain places and events only happen once, and that when you do that content in the game you just happen to be there when it happens. Even if it was, say, chronologically before the previous thing you did.
To me that's really weird and I was shocked to hear from folks on Reddit that this is kind of standard in MMOs.
Has that been your experience in other games too? Or am I being misled?
Assuming I'm not being misled, I'd like to praise UO for following a different model -- everything is unfolding forward, in real time, and it just happens that certain big bosses regenerate and are difficult to perma-kill. There's rarely if ever a pretense that these battles occur only once unless you want to pretend so, for RP purposes. Let alone that when you fight a boss that you're joining a battle that already happened in the past.
PS Before someone says this, I do not accept the logic that this kind of weird timeline twisting is the price we must pay for story-driven content. I can conceive of story conceits that allow us to repeat content without pretending we're not.
Comments
Please make the Grizzled Mare a 5 slot mount, it's incredibly rare and deserves it. Some of us have been waiting a long time for this simple addition.
At the end of the lecture our professor said "Now that you know these words, you must promise me to never, ever to use them in a normal conversation."
I had an Astronomy professor that would say that it is possible to have more dimensions. He came up with some very interesting lectures on what the inhabitants and life would be like there.
A LOT of content in other games is one and done but A LOT of other games are not the Sandbox and force you into arcs and styles. I think RuneScape hit a good balance with quest chains but kind of goes overboard with mini one time content but also has the Sandbox do whatever you want to. UO other than Dynamic Grinds and A event here and there along with the holiday give aways has stayed pretty true to the Sandbox that I prefer even if there are more than a few cat turds in it.