I played Ultima Online for over a decade. Missed the start by a year, but after that pretty much saw it through the highs and the eventual decline. Stopped playing during grad school as I just couldn't do the hours needed and balance that with the career, school, relationships, etc.

UO started out brilliantly simple - not much of a story line, some basic rules and a never ending cycle of PvP. This total risk of losing everything and having to start over, including houses being robbed and such, actually resulted in an almost life-like story line that players made themselves.

Guilds formed, turf was claimed, order maintained or chaos wrought. Playing completely solo was really tough, just like surviving in the real world is harder by yourself.

But the team managing the game seems to have decided that the difficulty and PvP were liability and not assets. They tried to retrofit the quests and what not to the game that really didn't need them. The result was, just as the article laments of more modern games - boring, predictable, safe experience. But what's the point?

After enough complaining by the "old guard" UO team made Seige Perilous shard (server) with old style rules and punishingly tough economics. This kept me playing for another 6 years...

I tried some newer games, but the safe/boring environment doesn't really let human creativity/nature come out. There really isn't much of "role playing".

If I ever have time for games again, private UO servers with pre-trammel rules will probably be it for me. If they still exist that is.