Dev teams starting as early as the Third Dawn expansion attempted to update the client, the graphics, or both, only to be met with extreme resistance by the existing "2-D-forever" playerbase (because nostalgia). It hasn't aged poorly so much as been frozen in time. Even when I talked some EQ guildies into trying UO in 1999, the game was already like an alien planet to them because of its isometric view. Let's get the obvious out of the way: Ultima Online doesn't look like a game from 1997 it looks like a game older than 1997. The granddaddy of MMORPGs and one of the only true sandboxes still standing turns 16 this autumn, having survived EverQuest, World of Warcraft, the internet bubble, EA's blundering, Mythic's takeover, layoffs, price hikes, a recession, and disastrous design shifts. It has a special magic that only a handful of MMOs have captured (let alone topped) since, and what it lacks in modern conveniences it often makes up for in unique features. And every year since, only I never again made the mistake of selling my accounts even when I took extended breaks. A year later I was back in UO with a new account, prowling around Britannia. My guild was eyeing Dark Age of Camelot, and I wanted to cash out and rid myself of the chore of maintaining a dozen grandfathered houses on the dying half of a shard struggling to find its footing in a post-open-PvP ruleset. When I (legally) sold my Ultima Online accounts in 2000 for the hefty sum of $1800, the game was already three years old and being challenged by the likes of EverQuest and Asheron's Call.
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