It took forever to raise your mining and smithing, for example, but once you finally got your smithing to a high enough level your crafted armor and weapons would have your name on it. The whole crafting system was so rewarding. What I think I loved most about the game was the economy and customization the game allowed. When you saw a red name, you would freak the fuck out.

if you decide to PK enough, your name becomes red and now NPC guards in most towns will kill you on sight. if they kill you, they're stealing your shit. if you leave town, other players can kill you. also you have to run to a far away location to resurrect yourself so the whole process takes a long time, making it more likely your shit will get looted

assuming you can even get back to it because now you're naked. your items stay on your body and odds are it will get looted by the time you get back to it. The game is very challenging by today's standards I'm making this thread partly to see whether anyone else has had a similar experience with the game, or whether I'm just dealing with nostalgia. I've been playing it on and off on player made servers (shards) for the past 20 years. nothing has come close to giving me the experience that Ultima Online gave me. I feel like I've been chasing the MMO high I got from Ultima Online for the past 20 years and eventually gave up.

Ultima online 2