Braving Britannia: Tales of Life, Love, and Adventure in Ultima Online

Braving Britannia: Tales of Life, Love, and Adventure in Ultima Online

Welcome to a digital world where anything is possible. Over the past two decades, millions of players have inhabited the virtual world of Britannia inside the Massively Multiplayer Online fantasy PC game, Ultima Online. Released in 1997 by developer Origin Systems and publisher Electronic Arts, Ultima Online is known as the grandfather of MMOs. Braving Britannia: Tales of Life, Love, and Adventure in Ultima Online collects interviews with 35 of the game’s players, volunteers, and developers, revealing what they did, where they adventured, and how their lives were shaped, changed, and altered through experiences in Ultima Online’s shared virtual world. In a fantasy world of limitless potential, the only thing players seem to enjoy more than playing the game is talking about it, and yet, the true stories behind the avatars have largely gone unpublished for the past twenty years. Until now. "I had no idea what to expect from the book Braving Britannia: Tales of Life, Love, and Adventure in Ultima Online by Wes Locher. I've never played Ultima Online , or any Ultima game if I'm being honest. I do, however, love hearing about why massively multiplayer online role playing games are so important to the those that play them, and a people's history of the grandfather of all MMORPGs sounded like it would provide that. I wasn't disappointed." - Joesph Langdon / Sidequest "If UO had any sort of measurable impact or created lasting memories in your life, you owe it to yourself to read this book." - Chris Mayer / Former Lead Programmer, Ultima Online "If you want on-the-ground insights into the formation of the first large scale MMO community of Ultima Online, Braving Britannia is where you'll find the real story! I was there for some of it, but I learned a lot from this book." - Gordon Walton / Former Executive Producer, Ultima Online Wes Locher is a writer of prose, journalism, video games, and comic books. You'd better believe he's regularly dumbfounded by the fact that he gets to create such things for a living. Wes has written video games for developers such as Awem Games, FableLabs, Based on the Play, Pulsetense Games, and Pocket Gems Games. His comic books have been published in the USA, UK, and Canada by Alterna Comics, Titan Comics, Markosia Enterprises, Arcana Studios, and many others. His first book, a collection of humorous essays called Musings on Minutiae, was published in 2010. His second book, a nonfiction exploration of the MMO video game Ultima Online, followed in 2018. Wes's father was a journalist. His mother was an English teacher. Wes is genetically doomed to write for all eternity.