Niobe: You've already answered part of the question! UO is a world, and that is its greatest strength. It is a game with tremendous depth, and the game has further grown and developed over time. The amazing diversity of content propels UO to levels that few other forms of entertainment could ever hope to bring.

Cerdith: Since this is a really comprehensive question, I am going to jump in here too. Ultima Online has evolved tremendously since it launched eight years ago. When you look at other MMOs closely, it is easy to see the influence UO has exerted on the designs and gameplay. One of the most innovative features when UO launched was the concept of player ownership of housing, which has since evolved into a highly customizable player mini-game. Now players can build the houses of their dreams, collect rare items to use to decorate their homes, and use the perspective of the game to build new items from scratch by being clever and creative. This simple concept, players owning something they need to maintain, has proven to be a tremendous draw for them.

As Niobe says, UO is a world that evolves over time. Players take advantage of the hugely flexible systems in the game to create their own activities and professions. No designer sat down and came up with the concept of realtors in UO, yet players have created this role and fulfilled it to enhance the housing systems present in the game.

I think that moving forward, the goal is to continue to provide players with expandable, flexible systems so they can mold their world as they see fit.

Niobe: Mondain's Legacy is a conglomeration of content and systems designed to give all types of play styles something to do. Instead of tying this expansion to a singular theme, there is recognition that Ultima Online is as diverse as its player base. The cohesiveness of Mondain's Legacy is demonstrated with the community goals such as the peerless boss encounters or cooperative collections. The backbone of the expansion is told through the supporting fiction.

Existing elements weren't so much changed as they were expanded upon. For example, the crafting system got a serious boost with the addition of recipe scrolls, crafting quests, new resources, and rare and artifact quality craftables. We were able to add these modifications without changing the overall feel of the current crafting system.

There are too many new features to list fully. A few examples are:
- New equipment slot for Talisman objects, along with new property choices
- Cooperative Collections including the zoo, museum and library collections.
- New pets - parrots, ferrets, squirrels and aquarium fish.
- Peerless boss encounters.
- A new quest engine and hundreds of quests.

Cerdith: Our primary goal with Mondain's Legacy was to provide interesting features for every play style. We designed extensible systems that later publishes could use to build more content. For example, the new community collections, armor sets and quest system all have a great deal of room to grow and evolve. Feedback from our beta was positive, both because players were enjoying the content we created, and also because the system inspired ideas and suggestions that build from the base we have developed. That is very exciting to us because it means players are already seeing the possibilities and beginning the process of devising new and interesting ways to enjoy the new systems.

The title Mondain's Legacy is intended to draw the memory back to the shattering of the gem of immortality, which created the shards (the worlds). The ramifications of the destruction of the gem have never been fully understood, and the corruption and blight thematic elements in the expansion pack are based upon this pivotal event.

Niobe: There were several factors influencing the addition of elves to UO. Players have asked for new playable races since the early days of UO. Many role-playing communities are elven-based. Finally, player polls strongly favored the elves as the favorite playable race. Mondain's Legacy introduced racial traits for both elves and humans. Some of the elven ones include the ability to see in the dark and increased resistance cap to energy damage