It's the year 2008, I'm sitting in the lecture hall of the university when a school friend tells me about his latest accidental discovery. There is a DAoC Classic Freeshard that seems to be great, absolute nostalgic feeling. The lecture Physics Basic Course 2 is coming to an end, it is shortly before 10am. The rest of the lectures unfortunately have to be cancelled today, I jump on my bike, drive home, turn on the computer, start TS, open Uthgard in the browser and download DAoC full of anticipation. The download takes forever, against the impatient anticipation the first character is planned on Daocpedia. Finally, the download is ready, endorphins flood the body, it begins, login!

With the first step of the character it is clear, the bed will remain empty this night and also the university will not be visited this week. Slowly the XP bars push their way up, there are no XP bonuses, no twink gear, no QoL features, just the never-ending tough leveling - and it gives the greatest pleasure. In every new area, every new dungeon, every new group a feeling of nostalgia, happiness and youth. We meet other players, friendships are formed, friendships that have not ended even today. We rush through Agramon, stealthers retreating from the Milegates as the 8-man group runs towards the gate only to get back into position seconds later. At the AMG, a Melee Ranger gives his weapon to the Nightshade to be poisoned while a red-bearded Skald fights a fierce battle with an Infiltrator. At Center-Keep, the loud cursing of the Fire-Wizard can be heard from the walls, who has been given a red Nearsight by the server's only Sup-Runemaster. Relentlessly a warrior with a passion for German beer from the north beats on the big wooden gate as suddenly a tiny stag spurred on by the sounds of a bard comes running around the corner of the keep gate - the battlefield is alive! It's perfect!

Months go by, one character has become many, in each realm there are several fully equipped 50s, dragon and legion raids are played down confidently, the 8-man core group scrubs through the RvR in the usual manner, all that glitters is no longer gold and many bugs and errors are known, imbalances cause the one or other excitement and now and then there is grumbling. If someone overshoots the mark, the long arm of the law appears on the mat with the ban hammer in the form of Blue or Nayru and mediates. Despite all the quirks, DAoC is great, life is beautiful.

More time passes, Tajendi opens its doors, finally a new challenge, finally wipe again, there are crocodiles! The server fluctuation is high, old players leave and come back, new players start and drop out, sometimes one realm dominates, sometimes the other dominates the PvP, there is always complaining but we all have fun.

At some point comes the seemingly inevitable, the player numbers drop, everything has been achieved, massive changes are imminent the server is shut down. Uthgard 2.0 is announced but months of stagnation follow, alternatives are sought, some decide it's time to bring an end to a wonderful episode and acknowledge DAoC as part of the past.

Uthgard 1.0 was not optimal, there were countless errors, bugs, imbalances, decisions of the staff that allow different opinions and here and there maybe the smaller or larger abuse of power by the leadership - nevertheless it has been one of the – if not the - best DAoC servers that existed until today. The launch of Phoenix was of course great and many things were done right (up to a certain point) - but the memory of Uthgard 1.0 remains unchallenged.

Hence this tribute to the Staff, thank you for an experience that still evokes joyful memories soon 15 years later. It was a wonderful time - maybe one day we'll see each other again on a new Classic Shard with all of us old hands, so we can show our children the most beautiful MMO ever.

On that note, thank you, good luck and stay healthy!