Games like Ultima Online and Everquest 1 still exist after all, because they downscaled well.

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In 1997 the Origin Systems studio in Texas released a medieval fantasy game called Ultima Online.

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Ultima gave rise to Ultima Online which was one of the first significantly popular massively multiplayer games.

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It would also take some elements from Ultima Online such as player housing and a detailed crafting system.

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Raph Koster, designer of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, holding rightful court in the sociable games design session.

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One subscriber to Ultima Online is a U.S. soldier stationed in Germany.

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Want to play Ultima Online, Electronic Art's groundbreaking multiplayer, online dungeon crawl?

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West Virginia entrepreneur Robert Kiblinger has a thriving business selling castles, characters and other items accumulated by players on games like Ultima Online.

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Electronic Arts faced a currency crisis last year when hackers figured out how to make unlimited amounts of "gold" used to buy items on Ultima Online.

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But Ultima Online offers something more: Players go online with tens of thousands of others and begin to trade, have real relationships with other players, farm, hunt, kill, and be killed.

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Those nights of jubilation spent wasting time on City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, and Ultima Online just aren't what they used to be, but in just three days, the wait for the world's next incredible MMO will be over.

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