Ultima Online, one of the founding MMO’s from many a childhood, has an interesting secret that not many players know about. For those who played back in the day, it was an amazing experience going into a new world with friends and companions, slaying monsters, ravenous creatures, and even simple animals like deer and rabbits.

In the game, you had the option of slaying different animals for pelts and hides for sale. At the time when 3D graphics cards were new, jumping into a virtual world and killing these animals was a thrill. So much so that players apparently destroyed the “natural” ecology the developers spent three years creating. The creators of the game had no idea that the player base would love to kill, not just the evil creatures like bears and wolves, but also the innocent creatures.

The system in its essence was simple. Carnivores eat herbivores and herbivores eat plants. The way players fit into this equation was that the they would embark on quests to kill the carnivorous animals and the pelts that they gained from those quests would be worth more than those gained from the herbivores. The problem was that the player base population was so large that the server was wiped clean of all furry inhabitants.