After being disappointed with more "advanced" MMORPGs, and suddenly finding myself not so busy IRL - I may return to UO.

Question is... What shard?

I am hoping to find a low population server, less competition for hunting spots and housing. I am in the midwest and ping is very important.

Legends, Superior, and Great Lakes provide the best ping (for me)... Any suggestions for which one?

What is ping?

Good question Mira. Ben and I have constructed an answer to that in this thread (clickie click). It is in the second post down. Please reply here if it did not answer your question. ( This is a test of the new FAQ system. If it had not been a test, ummmmmmm, i don't know what would happen)

Welcome back Damage factor (almost). I myself am a recent returnee. For low population, i would recommend those three in the order you wrote them. If you are starting a new account, why not log in a newbie (since you have the young tag) and explore the Luna, Malas, and tramm areas. If there a bunch of open spots, then the shard is not heavily populated.

As far as I know, oceania, origin, lake austin are the least populated servers. UO:F (the uo forums guild) is very active lake austin. Many of the more active posters (and mods) here in the forum are present on that shard.