------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ULTIMA DRAGONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BY ETHEREAL DRAGON AND MONOMOLECULAR DRAGON 12-8-94 The Ultima Dragons as a whole are a relative newcomer to the net, and have yet to gain worldwide attention. In the meantime, this document has been prepared to answer many curious outsiders' questions about the club's existence, purpose, and history. Of course, I could just tell you in the immortal words of Fats Waller, "If you gotta ask, you'll never know", but then, what would be the point? If you find a mistake (not that that's at all likely), please report it to Ethereal Dragon (sbrindle@netcom.com). I. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ULTIMA DRAGONS (1) Who? The Ultima Dragons are composed of people around the world who share a common interest: Ultima. Though most of the members are, as of now, in the United States, there are members in Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, and Singapore. (2) What? The Ultima Dragons are a club, a virtual club to be exact. A virtual club is defined as a group of people sharing a common interest who are part of an organization that is based on a computer network. Many of the members may never meet each other, and it's this anonymity that makes these clubs so popular. (3) When? PUFF (Playing Ultima For Fun), of which the Ultima Dragons are a direct metamorphis, was started on the Prodigy bulletin board on February 27, 1992. UDIC (Ultima Dragons Internet Chapter) is the offspring of the Ultima Dragons on Prodigy, and is the current main branch of the club. It was started in August of 1994, and is still under construction, so to speak. (4) Where? UDIC is located on the Internet. It has a newsgroup (alt.games.ultima.dragons), an FTP site (sneezy.caltech.edu /pub/ud), an IRC channel (#udic on Undernet), and soon to come, a WWW site. (5) Why? The Ultima Dragons were started as a hint club (not an original idea at the time on Prodigy). However, it grew into so much more. A government was established, and later unestablished (not in the same timespan), and social interactions between members have grown so strong that many members consider the Dragons to be their second family. 6 Dragons have even met each other through the club, flown out to meet each other face to face, and have gotten married! Of course, since multiple partner weddings are illegal, when I say 6 Dragons, I mean 3 couples. (6) How? The old Ultima Dragons on Prodigy had a fully functional government dubbed the Grand Council (abbreviated G@C or GC. This body of elected officials made decisions regarding the club, ranging from the minor (encouraging quality posting), to the major (intricate conspiracies and expelling members of the club). The G@C became quite unpopular after about 3 years, and was abolished in August 1994. UDIC has remained GVT free so far due to no need for it, and the general opinion of the older members of the club is that a government is not WANTED. II. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CLUB I tried to be more or less accurate with this. Any mistakes included are due simply to the sketchiness level of the notes I was working off of. In keeping this list as brief as possible, many crucial events seem to have been downplayed or ignored. This, however, is intended to be only a general overview of the history of the Dragons. I am, theoretically, working on a longer history file which will cover these events in as much detail as my notes allow. 1990 - Prehistory (before anything cool was happening) 1991 - First Era(the birth of Ultima clubs) - Evil Avatars (EAs) and Guppes (Good Ultima Players Pounding Evil Slime, by some accounts) formed on Prodigy (founders and date uncertain) - Guppes change name to PVLBs (Protectors of Virtue and Lord British) - "Operation Morleycide:" Personal conflict between two EAs leads to one (Morley) creating Warriors of Tyranny. The EAs flame WOT into submission. 1992 - Second Era (the creation and growth of the Ultima Dragons) - Prodigy revamps bulletin boards, loosening restrictions on posting - Knights of Anarchy founded by Vargo (friend of Morley). EAs begin similar actions as Operation Morleycide. - Players of Ultima For Fun (PUFF) formed by Doug Ricket (February 27, 1992) - Following a taunt by Scorpion (an EA, the phrase was "PUFF the Magic Dragon"), Doug Ricket renames PUFF to Ultima Dragons. - Gold Dragon (Ricket) invents Dragon government system (the Grand Council). - Dragon member roster begins building to the total 200-300 members it would eventually have at one point. - After being personally hurt by miscommunication, Copper Dragon begins creation of various Dragon policies and ranks with the end result of him having access to and some control of the Dragon GVT for long stretches at a time. - "United Clubs of Ultima:" proposed by a group of Dragons and EAs to unite the various Ultima clubs on Prodigy into one unit. Did not pass in EA voting, passed in Dragons. Later learned the vote was rigged *pro* UCU in the EAs. - Copper Dragon continues revenge against current Grand Council. Eventually, his membership is suspended. - Evil Avatars and PVLBs begin to fade from the political limelight. - "Aaron:" Aaron forms clubs with names similar to the other clubs. Several Dragons band together and harass him for this. Aaron retaliates by initiating a flame war. He would revive his grudge at frequent intervals over the next two years, including one (so far) stint in UDIC. - "The Exodus:" Following the aftermath of UCU, the entire Dragon Grand Council abdicates, leaving power vacuum. Several Dragons elect themselves to fill the space and try to rebuild the club. Rules of operation (the "Tomb") codified. 1993 - Third Era (the Dragons' dominance and inner corruption) - "Sylvan's Snowball Fight:" Turmoil of the Exodus and GVT rebuild continues. Sylvan Dragon starts a virtual 'snowball fight' as a (rather successful, if only briefly) diversion. - "Matrix:" more of the same flame wars that became in Dragon vogue. I don't remember much of this one, actually. - "Chammy's Convention:" During a Dragon convention at Chameleon Dragon's house, someone posts notes harassing Whisper Dragon. End result is further instability in the GVT, including the impeachment of Spectacle Dragon and the eventual resignation of Aiel Dragon. - Prodigy, in an attempt to recover from losses, raises prices. This forces a large number of old-core Dragons to leave. - "Operation Blue Duck:" Copper Dragon, still holding to his grudge, enlists Dark Vengeance to try to cause major political change in the Dragons. Dark Vengeance brings in several other dragons, with his own agenda being the political and emotional humiliation of Whisper Dragon. Copper backs out and tells Whisper. Using this information, the Grand Council, over the space of a week, gathers enough evidence of the conspiracy to force it public. The aftershocks keep things pretty ugly for most of the rest of the Prodigy Dragons' existence. - Storm Dragon attempts to create Ultima Dragons - Florida Chapter. This does not go over well with certain other Dragons, due to Storm's involvement in Blue Duck. 1994 - Fourth Era (The fall of the Prodigy Dragons and the birth of UDIC) - Dragons member roster falls to roughly a dozen members, many without direct Prodigy access. - Many Dragons begin discovering that they all have some form of Internet access. Within the space of a couple of weeks 24 Dragons are reunited. - Ultima Dragons - Internet Chapter formed by Stephen Brindle and Doug Ricket (August 1994) - Prodigy Dragons finally vote to abolish government, effectively marking the death of that club. - Decision made to have UDIC remain government-free. - USENET newsgroup alt.games.ultima.dragons created to continue the original tradition of the old club, that of helping Ultima players. First international members. Member roster, counting infrequent posters, jumps to 60+ members in the space of a week. 1995 - Fifth Era (continued expansion of UDIC ??? ) III. UDIC POLICIES Due to the absence of a government, these rules can not be stressed. They have bled over from our Prodigy days, where they were sort of the golden rules of the club. A constitution was written there, but it has not been, and probably won't be, enacted in UDIC. These moral standards were practically forced on us, to be exact. Prodigy had (has?) a very strict policy of what you could and could not post. So, all the members of the club had to get into the habit of not swearing and not bashing other people. Along with that, proper netiquette, which you should be following anyway, is pretty much the basis for these morals. * In order to join the club, a person must have played (not completed) at least 1 Ultima on any platform. * When talking with other members, and especially when posting notes in the newsgroup, stay away from "heavy" topics like abortion, religion, etc. At least, you CAN, but just do it via e-mail. And don't come whining if you completely destroy your friendship with that Dragon. * Respect ALL members of the club, regardless of the real life lives they lead. * Try to answer peoples' Ultima questions in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg. Even answering one question a week is better than answering none at all. * Your level of participation in the club is a personal decision, but you will generally be more liked and you will like the club more if you post in our newsgroup, help others with their Ultima queries, send any interesting Ultima related files you think should be up on the FTP site to Ethereal Dragon, and try to come to at least ONE IRC chat party. * Most importantly, HAVE FUN! IV. SOME DRAGON LINGO This lingo is rather foreign to most members of the net, and rightfully so: it is personal and obsolete. The newer, hipper crowd of Dragons will probably not use these sayings, but you may catch a few old timers spitting them out like they were tiny seeds harvested in rich soil, warmed by the nurturing sun and cool spring rains, blossoming into beatiful trees...Well, enough of that poetic crap. Let's cut to the chase. (1) NMPR No more public replies. The software on Prodigy would blast you with this not very friendly message if you tried to post publically to a note that was scheduled for deletion, whatever the reason may have been. When starting a new note but staying on the same topic, Dragons would prefix the note with the line, "Damn! I got NMPRed! Anyway, as I was saying...", or something to that effect. (2) JP Junk post. A junk post is defined as a useless waste of net bandwith that serves no purpose. They can be pretty fun, actually. JPs come in many variaties: ramblings, meaninglist lists, and just plain silly. (3) Anadaking I admit, I made this one up on my own. But don't you agree that it should be a part of our extended Dragon vocabulary? Anyway, Anadak Dragon, once in a fit of boredom from being home sick from school, posted over 100 blank notes in the Dragon sub, taking him 30 minutes. Though quite an accomplishment, this was a generally looked down upon phenomenon. Therefore, Anadaking is trying to post a large number of notes in a short period of time. (4) :* Whisper's kiss. Whisper Dragon had quite a fondness for putting a few (hundred) smoochers in her posts, and this two character symbol became her trademark. (5) B) Sun's shades. Sun Dragon puts this chic smiley on his notes. Obviously, his future is so bright, he's gotta wear shades. (6) G@C, GC, GVT All three of these acronyms are shorthand for the Grand Council, but GVT encompasses the Granch Council and all the circle leaders and honor cirlce members. Since we have no circle system anymore, it is useless to explain it in this FAQ. If you really want to know, ask one of the old Dragons. (7) Any strange 2 or 3 letter word that is used when referring to another member It's tiresome to write out Dragon names again and again, especially when you are referring to Monomolecular Dragon or Demented Cheez Wiz Dragon. Therefore, nicknames are quickly developed. Some examples include Beo (for Beowulf), Chammy (for Chameleon), DV (for Dark Vengeance), Eth (for Ethereal), Mono (for Monomolecular), etc. And then, of course, there are nicknames that are just as long as the regular names, but slightly less formal, like Whispie (for Whisper). Share your nickname with the Dragon crowd. (8) OBD Operation Blue Duck, a conspiracy that it just too complicated to explain in short order. Maybe we'll get one of the members to write a complete thesis on it which we can store at the FTP site. V. JOIN US... If you want to join the Ultima Dragons, improve your miserable life, and possibly put half of the cerebral matter in your head back to work, send a letter to Ethereal Dragon (sbrindle@netcom.com) asking to join. Be sure to include: (1) Your real name, first and last (2) Your Dragon name (there have been enough examples listed already) Please note that you must have played an Ultima. It doesn't matter what platform you played it on. So join us! We'd love to have you, and I'm sure the feeling is mutual! V. FUTURE PLANS (1) What are the, if any, future plans for the Ultima Dragons? Once the membership reaches 200, it has been agreed upon that some form of government will most likely be established at that point. The details will not be worked out until the meberhsip does indeed reach that amount. There are also plans to move the IRC channel #udic onto EFNet. Finally, a web page is in the works. Stay tuned.