Rares, who said rares?

Ultima Online was the first MMO of the history, a game that introduced a ton of rares items, digital goodies with a real price in the "real" world. Being the new creation of Richard Garriott, we already knew that Shroud of the Avatar could have a good portion of these valuables.

In the Release 10 Portalarium introduced the Grand Tours, a special quest to run around Novia and get a time-limited hat that could be obtained only in that particular release ("did someone say rares?"). The Release 26 will be the last one with a "virtue" hat, but we already have here a market for the collectors.

By now these rares could be split in three big groups:

In-game/time-limited items

Since the game is still not finished, and we have a wipe every few releases, we actually only have the "Grand Tour Hats" in this group, but probably we will have a good bunch of them in the future, after the final release, including seasonal presents for everyone or eventual drops. Other examples in the old Ultima Online were the events like "Tokuno Artifacts" or the "Magincia Invasion".

In a near future, the avatars will be able to place any of those "more or less hard to get" items in their own houses and yards, even the pieces of armor and weapons. Housing, did someone said housing? Envy, did someone said Envy? And pizza, nobody said pizza? Ey, I just want pizza...

Off-game/time-limited items

The dreaded items of the add-ons store, those that help to pay the company bills and that only can be obtained opening your wallet (well, or buying them from someone in-game!). Specifically those which are offered by a limited time or inside of an event, as the Telethons (summer and winter), or any other restricted ware, as the high-level backer tidbits. Most of the actual rares are in this category.

From this list the most popular is the "HOB Cabinet", from the first Telethon, but there are many others, like that big Oracle Head (the only decoration that was offered in a limited quantity), or the Lord British birthday cake. My favorites, because they are dark and siniter, are the All Hallows' Eve items. Well, those and the hot Mrs. Claus. But now we have all that cheesy love stuff. The Vortex Llama have no heart!

In-game hard to obtain items

Rare drops, (the also dreaded) artifacts, odd (purple?) pets, top pvp items, hard quests rewards, supreme crafts, steleables, semi-rares... we have here a wide range of treasures, and those considered "rares" could change with the time. For example, the Throne of Bones or the Obsidian Bear could be hard to obtain in some releases, but probably will not be real rares after several months following the launch.

Since we live from wipe to wipe we still could not collect many in-game items, but we have some small examples: As early as the Release 1 we had some secret chests with hidden pieces of armour around the walls of Owl's Head. Additionally, that armor was bugged, so the pieces seemed like some ancient Ultima rares (bugged items are in the red line between in-game normal rares, time-limited and ilegal pieces).

Another "mini-rare" was the steleable skull, a modest tribute to the first steleable artifact of the dungeon of Doom in Ultima Online, that anyone can find in the chamber of Nestor, the Necromancer, inside of the cave of Owl's Nest (not stealable in this moment, you can purchase it at Digit shop, close to the port of Ardoris).

To this list we could add some notable player creations and arts, as my wonderful, magnificent, supreme "paintings". But now I really should go, since I will add a pizza to my stomach. I mean, to one of them.

Bye, bye, hooves!