A world shared by thousands of strangers, in 1997, when nobody knew such a thing could exist.

The gut-feeling ranking puts Ultima Online right in the middle, ahead of half the games. Surprisingly calm for such an ancestor. But the criterion breakdown tells a brutal story: controller feel, art style and soundtrack all land at the very bottom, behind almost every other game. Three floors in a row. And yet attachment holds up, ahead of 61% of titles. That is the real face of this game: nothing it shows you or puts in your hands seduces anyone today, but what people lived inside it still sticks. Immediate fun stays low too, ahead of only 13% of games, on few votes.

Such is the fate of pioneers. A 1997 isometric view and a game built around economy, trade and players dealing with each other cannot win on aesthetic and feel criteria shaped by today's games. What made it great, the invention of the persistent world, is exactly what none of these questions measure.

So, who is it for? For you if you want to understand where an entire genre came from, and if you love worlds built by players rather than by writers. Much less so if you expect a visual punch or instant pleasure in the first minutes.