he UO Show hit the road and the first stop was fabulous Hollywood, home to stars, smog and more than 65 extremely enthusiastic Ultima Online fans. The first official UO Town Hall Meeting happened March 10, in the comfy confines of EA-Los Angeles.

In attendance (and in awe of the UO fans incredible enthusiasm) were several members of the UO Team, including: Lady Lu, Oaks, Leurocian, Binky, Wilki and UO's Product Manager, Darkscribe.

"The turnout was fantastic," said Binky, UO's community manager. "We met a lot of great people, got a lot of great feedback on how to make the game better, and had a lot of laughs. I can't wait for the next one."

As the players filed into the EALA Café, they were greeted by Binky and Wilki and offered the choice of a Soulstone Code or one of several UO key chains. The Soulstones turned out to be the most popular choice.

As the crowd made its way past the airtight EA security (delaying the start by 15 minutes or so), the ever charismatic Binky kept the anxious crowd entertained with his Binkyesque antics, including a techno dance and exposure of some of his UO themed tattoos.

Binky then commenced with the first of four contests for some awesome UO swag, slang for "cool stuff." What would a player event be without lots of swag? The first swag of the evening went out to the first person able to answer a tough trivia question. He won a limited edition numbered UO Pewter Dragon - very rare, and very cool.

After the first contest we moved on to the first discussion topic of the evening -- large scale events. The dev team wanted to find out what you thought about these events which include the recent Treasures of Tokuno and Despise Invasion which have been running for the past few weeks. Many of the players there got a chance to voice their opinions and quiz Oaks and Leurocian on how they wanted to see the events played out in the future. As it turns out, people really like the large scale events, just not multiple events running at the same time!

Our second contest was for a 7th Anniversary Hoodie sweatshirt. These are rare, and were mostly given out to members of the UO Team last fall during UO's 7th Anniversary. The answer to "Name 3 of the 4 guest artists that have contributed to UO Boxes," took much guessing on the part of the crowd. With hands flying up as fast as Binky could shoot them down, it was beginning to look like we wouldn't get a winner... and we didn't. Several people guessed McFarlane and the Hildebrants but no one could remember Brom or Greg Call. So we asked how to spell Leurocian, finally there was a winner!

Before we could actually get to the next topic people were already giving the team their input and feedback. Artifacts! A very passionate group elaborated of their likes, dislikes and ideas of how to make them better. Leurocian and Oaks spent a lot of time taking notes while listening to the varied opinions presented. It's a good thing those guys can multitask.

The third contest was for a signed copy of UOSE, a Soulstone code, a 90-day game time code and a UOSE T-shirt. We had hidden a UO Keychain somewhere in the room, just inches away from everyone the whole time.

Much hilarity commenced as the players crawled around on their hands and knees searching for it. Funny thing is, no one was actually sitting at the spot where the keychain was, which Binky called before the event started.

By this time Binky was tired from running the microphone from one side of the room to the other and it was only about to get worse as we moved into the open Q&A session. Topics ranged from the latest Magery changes, making Felucca more attractive, the pros and cons of making specific artifacts and power scrolls available in the various facets, large scale events vs. smaller scale events to the accessibility of UO Game Masters and we got lots of great feedback from just about everyone in the group.

With the end of the evening approaching, Binky wrapped up the last discussion topic and started the fourth and final contest. This was for the big daddy of the swag we had brought with us: a signed copy of UOSE, a Soulstone code, a UO 7th Anniversary Hoodie, a UOSE T-shirt, a UO shoulder bag, a limited edition numbered UO Pewter Dragon, and a 1 YEAR Paid Subscription to UO! The players were lucky this package didn't get "lost" in Binky's car. He's been known to hoarde massive amounts of UO schwag at work, so who knows how much he's got at home!

With the main event over, we had everyone stand together for some group hugs! Okay, there were no group hugs but we did get some group pictures, and before the EALA security could throw every one out for running almost 45 minutes over, the crowd began to break up and head on into the night. Some players stuck around for informal discussions with the UO team out in the courtyard area.

With multiple loud eruptions of laughter and cheer, a few odd looks, and a player named Calzone Spaghetti in attendance I think it is safe to say that both the UO Team and the players had a blast at the first Ultima Online Town Hall Meeting in Los Angeles. Besides all of the great feedback that we gathered, it was a lot of fun for us to be able to meet our players and talk to them in person. This was just the first of several Town Hall Meetings that we have planned, so stay tuned to www.uo.com for updates on where we're heading next.