It's been a while since I last did anything over here - judging by the date of my last post, over a year at this point. I think it's high time that I did something about that. My last session of Savage Empire has already been played out, long enough ago that I'm glad I cut my teeth on games that expected me to take notes in order to get anything done in them. If it weren't for the notes I have from that session, I might be in a bit of a bind right now! I'm in the process of pulling together a post to wrap up the game proper, but in the meantime I thought maybe to help me get back into the groove, I'd do something else I've been meaning to do - scribble down some thoughts on something else Ultima-related that happened approximately a year ago.
That's right, the UDIC's 25th Anniversary Bash in Disneyland.
It's been on my mind a lot in recent days, in large part because I was actually in Disneyland again at the end of February, on vacation with my parents. I even made sure to bring along the anniversary T-shirt, and wore it on the anniversary of the first day of the bash. There's a lot of fun memories from that weekend, but I think the best place for me to start is before the bash itself.
See, I wasn't entirely sure I was even going to be able to go in the first place. Gallara had done a fantastic job of getting the word out well in advance of the event, and I was very much hoping to go. The thing was, I'd wasn't sure whether I'd be in a position to do so. It was... June or July or something along those lines when Gallara reached out to see if I would be willing to give a lesson in Gargish at the bash, and so I had to make a decision. I'd been unemployed for a long while and thus didn't have much in the way of savings, and I was working a temp job at the time without anything concrete lined up afterward - I had opportunities, but nothing solid yet. I sat down, worked out how much I had, how much I was still going to make over the course of my temp job, and calculated how the trip would cost me. When all was said and done, my budget was going to be tight, but even if I didn't make anything beyond when my temp job was up in August, I'd just barely be able to make it to February and still have enough to afford attending.
So I told Gallara that I'd be happy to give a lesson.
I did end up landing another job on a more permanent basis, which removed that particular worry, but even if I hadn't, I still would have been there. I was excited about the prospect of meeting other Dragons, and even moreso when I found out Lord British and other Origin folk were planning on being there as well. At the same time, part of me was a little nervous. And not just about the lesson - I wondered if I'd get along half as well with Dragonly folk offline as I did online. I simply didn't have the same experience as I knew a lot of Dragons did when it came to the UDIC itself. I knew a lot of folks had been part of the Dragon community considerably longer than I had. I'd known about the Dragons well before I ever joined, and by the time the Bash rolled around, I'd been one myself for a little over three years. I still considered myself a hatchling by Dragon standards. I didn't grow up with the series like many of the Dragons had. I've said before that I'm as old as Ultima V, and by the time I actually discovered the series and played one of the games, Ultima VIII had already been out for a few years. I didn't even have the tech background a lot of Dragons seemed to have. As excited as I was, I wondered if I wouldn't feel a bit like a fish out of water.
That notion was dispelled the moment I walked into the Fellowship Hall that first day.
I'm still not entirely sure what it was that did it. Maybe it was the big hug Gallara gave me when we finally got to see each other in person. Maybe it was seeing Blu3vib3, aka Angelic-Demonic (or was it Demonic-Angelic?) Dragon, all decked out in Serpent attire and realizing that whatever else we might have been, just about everyone there loved the Ultima games just as much as I did. Maybe it was how jovial and personable Richard Garriott, Lord British himself, was when I finally worked up the courage to say hi. Maybe it was finding out just how far some Dragons had come to attend, or reading through the event book, hitting home that yes, we Dragons really did come from all sorts of walks of life.
But whatever it was, I had a grand time - even despite the fact I was sick the whole time I was there and was popping coughdrops like they were going out of style. (If you were there and got sick afterward, I'm so sorry, it was probably my fault.) I got to meet Dragons I knew from online, but never yet met in person, Gallara and Sorceress and Goldenflame. I got to meet Dragons like Shadow of Light, who I knew by name and by their work (I have stark memories of tearing through Shadow of Light's Ultima-related writings when I was in college) but never had a chance to put face to name. I got to experience the reverse, too - I can't tell you how many times I had someone tell me "oh, so you're Linguistic Dragon!" and it still caught me by surprise every time. I got to sit back and indulge in one of my favorite pastimes - origami - with Doctor Cat. I was there when Dominus helped christen Lord British as Splut Dragon, I chatted with Dennis Loubet about the poster he designed for the event while he signed mine, I got to play a bit of Goldenflame's The Dark Unknown with him right there to chat about its development. My Gargish lesson was small but glorious, soon turning into a discussion on what Gargish oratory tradition might be like. I exchanged favorite (and frustrating!) moments while playing the games over lunch. I joked about how riding the California Screamin' roller coaster in the rain must certainly have earned me some valor points. There was laughter, there was joy, there was exuberance, and there was Ultima.
As much as those particular memories make me smile, though, I think what stood out to me the most wasn't what I made of the event, but what my parents did.
See, neither of my parents are Dragons, nor have they ever played an Ultima - they don't play video games much at all, except mobile versions of board or card games they're already familiar with and the occasional family Mario Kart session. When I told them I'd been asked to give a lesson in Gargish, they asked (once we'd taken a moment so I could explain what that was in the first place) if I'd mind if they came along so they could be there for it too. I was more than happy to have them along for the ride, though I wondered whether they'd feel out of place themselves, on account of they don't have the Ultima context the rest of us did.
In the weeks leading up to our departure, I gave them a bit of an introduction to the series proper. I sat down and ran through Ultima IV's opening (and the virtue quiz!) with them, playing a bit of the early game, explaining what was going on and what I was doing and the basic run-down of the story of some of the other entries in the series - I remember my mom's looks of consternation as she deliberated over a few of the virtue questions and which way she'd answer, she really liked that aspect of the game. By the time we arrived, they had at least a vague idea of what Ultima was all about and why I liked it so much, why I wanted to hang out with this wacky group of people who called themselves Dragons for a few days.
And the thing is, even though neither one of them knew and loved the games the same way I and my fellow Dragons did, at the end of the day, that didn't matter. I remember my dad chatting excitedly with Lord British about his time in space, my mom having a lively conversation with Auora about knitting, the two of them talking with Dennis Loubet and Gold Dragon over dinner as they were all sitting at the same table. They listened with rapt interest during the Origin developers' panel, and told me how impressed they were that they didn't hold themselves apart - they were friendly and personable and were right there enjoying everything with us. And when we left the Fellowship Hall that first day to head back to our hotel room, I remember my mom telling me, "I can see why you wanted to come. They're good people." Neither of them had the context or experience with the games the rest of us had, but they were still right there laughing and enjoying themselves. It's an event all three of us have good memories about. My dad still asks how Shroud of the Avatar's development is going, even though I doubt he'll ever play it himself, just because he was so interested in what Lord British had to say about it.
One of the things the three of us talked about on our way home was just how impressive it was that the UDIC had been around for a solid 25 years, even though there hadn't even been a game released in the series it was formed around since 1999. I'd long thought that myself, but being there with my parents, I think it clicked exactly why.
We may have come together over our mutual love of a video game series - but that isn't what defines the Dragons as a community. My parents are proof enough of that - they've never played an Ultima themselves, but it was pretty obvious to me that they felt welcomed and enjoyed themselves anyway. And that, I think, is what's ensured the Dragons have stuck around this long. Sometimes fan communities can be ostracizing in their love for what it is they're fans of - not so, with the Dragons. They may have needed me to explain some of the in-jokes, but for that weekend, my parents were just as much a part of the community as any Dragon was. And it drove home that while it's Ultima that brought us together in the first place, it's not the only thing that ties us together. Word nerd, knitter, ham radio operator - the three of us found ways to connect with Dragons over all those things while at the bash.
Whoever you are, you're welcome among the UDIC. I saw that clear as day while I was at the bash, and I remember feeling, when it was all over, that I was proud to be among their number.
Still am, really.
Let's not wait another 25 years to do it all again, okay?
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