Every gamer had a beginning, a place where this new hobby began. Today Pokket recalls one of her earlier adventures in Ultima Online. Check it out and then tell us your story in the comments.

Walking through the woods at this time of the night happens to be one of the most dangerous things a girl can do. The whistling of the wind holds tune with the howling of distant dire wolves that run in packs of four or five. Their howl serves a sign that another victim has been defeated and dinner awaits. The full moon hovers above the trees, casting light down upon the shadowy path that seems to lead to nowhere. Leaves, foliage, and fallen branches often get in the way and cover the trail that once was wide and clear and up-kept by fellow countrymen. Now their abandoned houses promise nothing but doom as the rickety porch doors sway in the wind, slamming against the side of the house in anger. I can’t help myself from wondering what scared them all away, but somehow I felt I knew. This is Felucca, a place unfriendly to strangers and unfit for the weak.

Read more of Hillary Nicole's Pokket Says: The Beginning.

Does this have something to do with video games, or is it more Twilight fan fiction?

It's nice that you're getting to write again.

This and the last 2 columns are an interesting change of pace from the usual facts/criticism articles that one sees at MMORPG.com.It's sort of like the screenshots section that way.

 so if i rad between the lines here pocket?you answered the CALL TO ARM?for those wondering what it is:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCu7QjL2FKP8%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded&feature=player_embedded&v=Cu7QjL2FKP8&gl=CA

Much better, Pokket. Much better. Good work.

Sorry Pokket, but your "diary" column is just boring.

You honestly dont look old enough to have played UO.  At least not when it was in its prime.

This brings back fond memories of my days roaming around in a band of black cloaked PKers, descending upon the unwary, and relieving them of their hard earned stuff. Great times.

Hahaha.  This actually reminds me of some of my adventures when there was drama in our guild or in a dungeon and my wife is bla bla bla in my ear.  Luckily I have two ears...one for the wife and one for the mmo.  Unluckily for me, my eyes are my ear antennas, and whatever they are pointed at that is what my ear is listening too.

To be fair I'm 29 but I look like I'm 21. I doubt anyone would expect me to have played UO in its old days either, but she definitely seems to have captured the wild, untamed aspect of the way it was. It helps that she's a very capable writer, and if you found it boring, then you're obviously not much of a reader, and I question why you read it in the first place.

Oh to be back in the Ultima Online days, missed playing with my older brother when he introduced this game to me.. hell i missed making weapons and armor for everyone in a little house near a mountain..

Then when i got killed... everything changed, the hell with making armor and the hell with making swords... THIS MEANS WAR! *unarmed combat and lots of immunities to magic* youd be surprised at how effecient that was at times against players who tried to gank you while you were mining or just in town

anyone remember when Lord British was Slain and they had to reroll the servers?

Originally posted by Deathwing980

Oh to be back in the Ultima Online days, missed playing with my older brother when he introduced this game to me.. hell i missed making weapons and armor for everyone in a little house near a mountain..

 

Then when i got killed... everything changed, the hell with making armor and the hell with making swords... THIS MEANS WAR! *unarmed combat and lots of immunities to magic* youd be surprised at how effecient that was at times against players who tried to gank you while you were mining or just in town

 

anyone remember when Lord British was Slain and they had to reroll the servers?

Oh my God, I remember that! The dude got perma banned for abusing a 'hack', but I saw the pics and it looked like just a really clever placement of Firewall. Maybe he used a bug while placing the spell, I don't know.

My favorite thing to do during those early days was exactly what you said, prey on miners. Or get someone to attack me on a town border, then cross the guard line and call guards on them. Completely cheap and a total abuse of a poorly thought out mechanic... but I was 15, and it was hilarious every time.

Originally posted by rygard49

Originally posted by Deathwing980

Oh to be back in the Ultima Online days, missed playing with my older brother when he introduced this game to me.. hell i missed making weapons and armor for everyone in a little house near a mountain..

 

Then when i got killed... everything changed, the hell with making armor and the hell with making swords... THIS MEANS WAR! *unarmed combat and lots of immunities to magic* youd be surprised at how effecient that was at times against players who tried to gank you while you were mining or just in town

 

anyone remember when Lord British was Slain and they had to reroll the servers?

Oh my God, I remember that! The dude got perma banned for abusing a 'hack', but I saw the pics and it looked like just a really clever placement of Firewall. Maybe he used a bug while placing the spell, I don't know.

My favorite thing to do during those early days was exactly what you said, prey on miners. Or get someone to attack me on a town border, then cross the guard line and call guards on them. Completely cheap and a total abuse of a poorly thought out mechanic... but I was 15, and it was hilarious every time.

It was a fail by the guy behind the GM tools.

The GM invun command only stopped you actually being hit by a player it did not stop you from taking damage :) this was something nobody was really aware of until a player created a fire at Garriotts feet.  The rest as they say is history.

Theres a great video out there of a 20 minute interview with Garriott where he goes into more detail on this chuckling away about it the whole time.

Pokket was right around 10 or 11 when Ultima Online was released. 13 or 14 by the time the game was ruined.

I always admire someone who started gaming at such an early age.

How old is Pokket? I don't buy that UO was her first game. Most 10 or 11 year olds didn't play UO.

Originally posted by Tenebrion

Pokket was right around 10 or 11 when Ultima Online was released. 13 or 14 by the time the game was ruined.

I always admire someone who started gaming at such an early age.

Yup! I was 12 when I started playing with my uncle and dad. They still had "power hour" in the game and I'd go to Humility Shrine to train my disarm thief and lumberjack on the rotting corpses.

I got about a year or two in before they "ruined it". I bounced back and forth between the main servers and [mod edit] That server was a lot of fun. Not going to lie, I still liked UO even after Age of Shadows :s I played up to Kingdom Reborn.

I can buy that an older male in the house was playing and you picked up on it. Not to sound sexist but not a lot of 12 yr old girls played computer games back then. It was hard enough to get them to play Nintendo.

Originally posted by TruthXHurts

I can buy that an older male in the house was playing and you picked up on it. Not to sound sexist but not a lot of 12 yr old girls played computer games back then. It was hard enough to get them to play Nintendo.

Well then my family was just strange :D

Almost everyone in my generation is female... and all of us play video games (and played them back then). It was definitely due to the fathers' influence. UO was just my first online game. I played console games before that (mainly on playstation and nintendo).

Originally posted by Pokket

Originally posted by TruthXHurts

I can buy that an older male in the house was playing and you picked up on it. Not to sound sexist but not a lot of 12 yr old girls played computer games back then. It was hard enough to get them to play Nintendo.

Well then my family was just strange :D

 

Almost everyone in my generation is female... and all of us play video games (and played them back then). It was definitely due to the fathers' influence. UO was just my first online game. I played console games before that (mainly on playstation and nintendo).

Most girls my age hate video games. I'm guessing you're a litle younger than I am. I think they are jealous that we spent all our time playing games and not telling them that they aren't fat.

There was no way to say that without sounding sexist so whatever.