Editing Ultima Online (section)

===Beta and assassination of Lord British===
[[Lord British]] was [[Richard Garriott|Garriott]]'s in-game [[alter ego]], who was killed during an in-game appearance at ''Ultima Online''{{'}}s beta test on August 9, 1997. During a server population stress test, a player character known as Rainz cast the "fire field" spell, killing Lord British. Producer [[Starr Long]] blamed it on human error: Lord British's character, like others, had been made invulnerable to this kind of attack, but by design, the invulnerability did not persist over several game sessions. When the server crashed shortly before the incident, Garriott forgot to reset his invulnerability status. Shortly after, administrators banned Rainz's account from the beta test for repeatedly exploiting, rather than reporting, bugs.<ref name="5BM">{{cite magazine |title=Five Biggest Moments in UO History |magazine=Computer Gaming World |issue=220 |date=November 2, 2002 |url=https://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_220.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_220.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=April 13, 2019 |page=104}}</ref> According to Origin, he was not banned for the assassination but rather for prior complaints against his account highlighted by this incident. Beta testers protested Rainz's ban as well as subsequent actions of Long and other developers, during which his in-game character used a spell to indiscriminately kill other characters who observed the assassination.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/2002/06/make-love-not-war-games/ |title=Make Love, Not War Games |first=Brad |last=King |date=June 8, 2002 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |access-date=April 13, 2019}}</ref> September 23, 1997 was the last day<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ultima Online - UOGuide, the Ultima Online Encyclopedia |url=https://www.uoguide.com/Ultima_Online |access-date=2023-02-01 |website=www.uoguide.com}}</ref> of the original [[beta test]].{{clarify|date=July 2016}} The beta ended with a bang, as players were treated to an "end of the world" scenario with Shadowlords, demons, and other evil creatures slaughtering every character in sight.