ArsTechnica has a very interesting video (with transcript) that features Richard Garriot, co-creator of Ultima Online, discussing the virtual ecology of the game and how it went pear shaped as soon as the game was released.
When creating Ultima Online, Richard Garriott had grand dreams. He and Starr Long planned on implementing a virtual ecology into their massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It was an ambitious system, one that would have cows that graze and predators that eat herbivores. However, once the game went live a small problem had arisen...
Source: http://video.arstechnica.com/watch/war-stories-ultima-online-the-virtual-ecology [Ed-Requires ecmascript]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 27 2017, @07:39PM
My youth was not wasted on this enterprise. I had more fun in that game then just about anything else in life, though it may not be as rewarding as some other things (fatherhood mainly), it has given me more enjoyment than I can put into words. Too bad there is not enough nostalgia to bring it back to the moment in time where it was the best game out there. You can still play it of course, but it it's current state it is a poor substitute for what was essentially a social distopia, where might ruled.