Read Me

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>Read Me

What is a thief?

Let's begin with the act of stealing;

There's stealing and then there's scamming. The difference between the two is that scamming is just stealing but on "easy mode." You could say that it takes no skill to steal from an AFK bank sitter and to do so is as easy as it gets. I'd say that when you scam, you not only have the game on "easy mode" but also hate the other players on "easy mode." The game mechanics exist to govern the limits of what you can and can't do. These limits (whatever they are, regardless if you play on a production shard or Siege Perilous) are understood by everyone who ever logs into the game. Through the intended mechanics you get the cat and mouse game that I love so much. Through this you get two-way interaction, connectivity, adventure, and theft. Yes, this is true even for AFK bankers who knowingly took the risk of being stolen from when they stepped away from their computer. Them stepping away is their contribution to the interaction and even they pose a greater threat than a scam victim. Scamming gets rid of any real interaction and it becomes a one-way act where you have no way of loosing because you're the only one playing.

Stealing is the act of obtaining items by actually interacting with other players. Scamming is not stealing. Scamming removes the other player from the equation and you're really just honoring yourself in the process -- regardless of the items you end up with. Having expensive items doesn't equate to a successful theft and it doesn't make you a successful thief. It never has and it never will. Without anyone else interacting with you, you might as well be picking up those same items off the floor. No theft took place.

This is why a lot of scammers transfer to many different shards and usually only play the highly populated ones. Eventually, the scammers become more well known. Their style of play requires them to avoid two-way interaction at all costs and for "easy mode" to remain on.


What makes thieves so great?

The glory, of course! Thievery in UO is unique among skill sets in UO, it's unique in its mark on the history of UO, and through UO, it's unique among all other MMORPGs. Through this uniqueness you get adversity. Through this adversity you get glory. From the 1997 inaugural thief class, to the pre-Rennaissance golden days, to the glory days of the disarm thieves, and all the way to modern thieving, each era of UO comes with it an additional era of thievery with its own brand and style. Isn't it great?

>History of THIEF

Founded in January 2006 on the shard of Napa Valley, the THIEF guild was born. There were a few thieves here or there, but none were really interested in joining any kind of organized crime. It was only when I first started posting my stories that thieves began transferring over to Napa to join the guild. In my time on Napa Valley there were probably close to 100 thieves that cycled through the guild. At its height there were 30 thieves in the guild. This was on a production shard, so numbers aren't hard to come by. With seven character slots, many people had an extra "throw away" character to casually dedicate to the thieving profession. I had a small core group of regulars, some weekend warriors, and many who logged on to their thief only once every few weeks. But like I said, I don't want to dwell on numbers. They aren't very impressive when every player has seven character slots per account.

While still on Napa, Jose Muerto and Bill Brasky contacted me from Great Lakes. I was on one of my breaks from the game and didn't want to waste their gold & time transferring over to a smaller shard. I suggested to them to begin their own chapter of THIEF on their home shard. Thievery is mostly solo action after all and which shard you were on really didn't matter. But I insisted that they attempt to take screenshots of their own and post them of they had the time. After all, it was basically its own seperate guild with it's own rules, recruitment policy, and organization, but it was the stories that linked the guilds together -- it's the stories that make it THIEF and it's the stories that seperate it from every other thief guild out there. As the second chapter of THIEF, in February of 2008, Jose Muerto and Bill Brasky founded THIEF of Great Lakes.

Still on an extended break, still on Napa, Tony Emerald contacts me from Atlantic. Like Jose, Tony was willing to transfer over to Napa to join me, but at the time there was no active guild to accept him. As the third chapter of THIEF, in July of 2008, Tony Emerald founded THIEF of Atlantic. It was also at this time where I slowly got back into the game. Voluntarily re-starting from scratch on the shard of Siege Perilous, THIEF of Napa Valley was officially retired and the fourth chapter of THIEF was formed. Picking up where Napa left off, I brought THIEF to Siege Perilous at last.

In August of 2008 Nexus contacted me from the shard of Chesapeake. Wanting to begin a new chapter himself, now forming the fifth chapter, THIEF of Chesapeake. Sometimes slumming around with us on Siege Perilous and occasionally Tony on Atlantic, Nexus had more ambitious plans in mind. After a few months on Chesapeake, together we struck a deal: Nexus wanted to go shard hopping on a world tour of all north american shards, establishing THIEF guilds along the way. He would document 100 episodes of this journey and I'd feature that journey here on UO Thief. As of today, from Chesapeake to Atlantic to Legends, that journy is still incomplete.

In February of 2009, being a brit himself, Tony Emerald brough THIEF to the shard of Europa. Meeting up with thieves he already knew, Tony formed the sixth chapter, THIEF of Europa.

Truth be told, Legends has been the most difficult of shards to inhabit. The thief Rikimaru was actually the first thief attempting to establish another guild. On Legends, before Jose Muerto came along, he briefly gave his own stab at the task. It failed. Years later, Nexus landed on Legends posted a single episode and I've yet to hear from him again. And currently, in September of 2009, Lita is the third thief to found THIEF of Legends on the shard. Her success is yet to be determined, but if it is, THIEF of Legends would be the seventh chapter of THIEF.

At one point or another THIEF has had a presence on seven different shards and is always looking to expand its reach. Some chapters were more successful than others and some burned brighter for a shorter time than others, but through the stories that they bring to UO Thief, it's been fun watching the chaos unfold.

If you want to form a chapter of your own, feel free to visit the forums and let me know.


-Chad Sexington

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