That's a great anecdote. Ultima Online was mind-blowing to me when I first read about it in early 1997 and then started playing later that year. There was something magical about just being in a virtual world where other players would go around doing their thing while you did yours.
Ultima Online server emulators were also what really got me hooked on programming in my teens. I'm now a CS prof working on collaborative systems.
Recently, I've started playing again. I stumbled over a project called Ruins & Riches (http://ruinsandriches.com) that's a total modification of Ultima Online in the spirit of the early Ultima games. I don't do MMOs anymore, but Ruins & Riches can easily be played alone or as a small group.
I started playing around with UOX late 90s then with a shorter-lived one called CFuse.
Then I moved to POL where I did some scripting and finally RunUO where I worked on a customised server for a long time until my "great data loss of 2002" where I managed to wipe a disk containing everything I had been working on, among lots of other things :-)
Recently, I've started playing again. I stumbled over a project called Ruins & Riches (http://ruinsandriches.com) that's a total modification of Ultima Online in the spirit of the early Ultima games. I don't do MMOs anymore, but Ruins & Riches can easily be played alone or as a small group.