Originally Posted by trinx

Apologies if this is posted in the wrong thread, I'm kinda at my wits end and truly wish to reach a wider audience rather than spamming multiple different individual shard threads..

Is there a shard where people talk to each other, where the economy is.. well, not thriving, but at least not a stagnant cess-pool? Is there a shard out there where people hunt together and come across and actually interact with other human beings in this wonderful Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Game we play?

My career in UO has been long and very varied. I started playing UO back in beta days, played for a few years, then left for *cringe* EQ.. came back for a few months, then left gaming altogether for about five years. I returned to UO about two and half years ago, made a few friends on my home shard (Baja), but could not find anyone from the "good ol' days". After a third hiatus, I've been playing again for the last couple of months.. and sadly, Baja's population is as dead as ever. In retrospect, I remember that each time I returned, the street traffic was less and less than it was before.. and now, this time, it's painfully low.

Bottom line: I'm lonely.

I remember happier days hunting harpies in Covetous, EVing dragons in Destard (yay purple llamas!), even getting married while fighting liches in Deceit in 1998 (eek, feeling old.. yes, I was a dread lady back then)! Years later, while hunting down Ophidians on my second return, I had a few people at my side, and if I didn't, I met some along the way. Today, there is no one to hunt with and no one to explore with.

I realize that UO has passed its heyday. I've been searching for another shard that has a higher population.. but my visits to Atlantic (the supposedly largest population shard) have only resulted in witnessing a packed Britain bank.. yes, packed.. packed with macroing spammers and no real live or responsive bodies. Visits to other shards have proved as equally fruitless.

What I want is this: Sell me your shard. I want a relatively active hunting community, guilded or not (I'm not opposed to joining a guild, but I would like the opportunity to enjoy the varied community experience of "old school" UO). Have you run into a random person on some of your recent hunting trips? I've been out hunting for hours (HOURS!) on Baja and have yet to run into a single live person. I'd like to experience cities with a bit more liveliness and random conversation. I am not opposed to role-playing (though I'm not very good at it). I am rusty as can be, given my intermittent playing over the years and am still trying to catch up with all the changes. What is not rusty, however, is my desire to play, have fun and meet new people--crazily enough, I like dying (as long as it means I've had fun along the way)!. I should also note that I generally play late nights on the Pacific coast in the US.

So am I beating a dead horse? Am I wasting my time? I'm not asking for perfection, nor am I asking for the game I played 10 years ago. I put in 1-6 hours a night playing and still haven't made any friends--or even acquaintances--in three months. I know there has to be something better out there.. and if there's not, maybe it is time to go back to WOW (say it ain't so!).