New historical society banners? Something new. :-)

This may not be a news breaking topic, but it only recently came to my attention while taking a long detour. A classic full tower stands next to the arch teleporter to Buccaneer’s Den, Tram-Atlantic. I always encourage newer players to explore our lands, see what the landscape has to offer, and also explore interesting houses you may come across... when they are public. This tower was in place long before custom houses and had some nice old rares within. When I was new, this was quite thrilling. The owner had taken some time and effort to decorate... but what stood out most was the fact it had a missing door on one of the levels. It was the one and only house I saw like it. For whatever reason, the owner (old or new, I don’t know) changed the house to be private. A real shame, but there is a light skeleton spawn outside. And when I passed, the other day... I saw an off color banner, standing in the grass, I had never seen before. Had to investigate! :-) Pixies.

Awhile ago, long before our big “Town Banner” program, I had noticed these small 2-part banners on Asian shards that said “Shop and Town Award Winner”. These are normal wood with a banner of red and yellow. This was a long time ago, before our custom town banners. They are the same, only dyed green for the new banners that read “This house is part of the UO Historical Society”, followed by a date. These are placed next to houses placed 10 years or more, and the program was started up awhile ago. Not horribly long ago, but it was news to me! You can file for these banners by form and taking a screen-capture photo of your house information menu.

So... with the Red & Purple Mini Mall actually passing it's 11th anniversary this past September... it's really hard for me to believe, but the main current mall building was placed April of 2003. We have just under 6 months to wait! 10 years old. Wow! Where will the banner be placed? :-) This is actually our 3rd house for the mall, the final house.

If you’ve visited the town, the main mall building is in the center of the 2nd row of houses. It's a little tight. The other buildings are a lot newer then the mall building. In actuality... the next oldest building is the “Yew Gate Mall”, Kraken’s old place. The next oldest is the “First Church of Candy”. I will only file for the 1 banner for the town proper. I’m very thankful the modern town banner program was established to help recognize player-run towns. This new program also shines light on each and every shard’s personal history and easily, you could say, ‘this is about time’ as well. *Thumbs up!* to the staff! My only feedback is that a ‘requirement’ should be keeping the house open, to whatever degree. We do need private areas sometimes. hehe

Kraken’s Yew Gate Mall will hopefully see it's own history banner... but the area is so tight, I really have no clue what can be done. The official memorial for Kraken is located next to the Red & Purple Garden Center due to the fact it was a mostly clear and peaceful area that could never see house placement AND it's placement will never interfere with anything else. Still, I guess we will wait and see.

I also don’t know if there will ever be an official listing of these houses per every shard, but that may be an idea. In my limited 3 hour search for just these bannered houses, I only found 1 other. Some houses I know personally are older then when I started playing! This being from the need of a bigger personal house for what seamed like ages and no one selling, back in that part of UO history I call “the great house shortage”, after houses age were locked up after 9/11. Some of these houses have never shown change in all these years. It's amazing... but it happens. :-)

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Also... I would also like to announce that we are now connected to Ultima Online Forums, (UOForums.com). I’ve personally found this to be a far more friendly community environment for Ultima Online. Please check it out. Join, if you wish. Our flag officially will fly with this boards site and not “the other”. ;-)