Ultima Online
In September 1997, "Ultima Online" launched and opened the first game servers to the public. Upon release, "Ultima Online" proved popular, reaching 100,000 paying subscribers within six months, causing severe lag problems. In 1999, servers opened around the world to support the rising popularity of the game, in Japan, Europe and South Korea. In 2000, Garriot resigned from Origin, taking Lord British with him. Game players created their own fanfiction speculations as to why the Lord had vanished. In February 2000, a large in-world event had a massive army of undead lay siege to the Britannia city of Trinsic. The event ran concurrently on all servers over several months. Another server opened in Australia during this time. In May 2000, "Ultima Online"s second expansion ' dramatically altered the game. It split the game world into two parts called Trammel and Felucca, one was a consensual PVP zone, while the other was non-consensual. In November 2000, a "Ultima Online's" first official fanfest was held, called the UO World Faire in Austin, TX. In March 2001, "Ultima Online"s third expansion ' was released. It added a new area to the server called Ilshenar. This new area could only be accessed with a new game client that launched with the expansion. The original game client could be used in the previous server areas. In January 2002, "Ultima Online"s second official fanfest was called Online Worlds FanFest, also held in Austin. Players were able to meet the developers, as well as guest speaker Todd McFarlane. February saw the release of "Ultima Online"s fourth expansion '. Notably, it enabled access to the areas previously only available to the newer "Third Dawn" game client. In February 2003, "Ultima Online"s fifth expansion ' was released. It was the most game changing update yet including: offering players the ability to custom design their game homes, a server area that doubled the size of homes, and overhauled the item system. Around March 2003 "Ultima Online" reached approximately 250,000 subscribers. In February 2004, Origin Systems shut down. "Ultima Online" no longer had a named studio managing it. Development headquarters moved from Austin to Fairfax, Virginia.