The official server starring the scribes and abacuses of the classic MMO Ultima Online was pushed to its limits on July 7 to host a summer solstice celebration cookout with games, prizes, and "drink cold root beer."

An awkwardly written announcement on the official site detailed some of the games that would be available; the one that jumped out at me as most emblematic of the era of Ultima Online was the Dunk Tank, a chance to dunk the event moderator of your choice Offering.

The archived stream of events included a few surprises for me. The event was divided into two time slots, one in the morning and one in the evening, so that everyone could experience part of the festivities. Rewards for participation included consumable barbecue, drinks, commemorative tokens and random loot drops. [Just recently, a choreographed rock concert was held on the Siege Perilous server, where community favorite Lord Galore performed a great riff on a MIDI lute, and a Reddit user on the InsaneUO server reported that the notorious monarch Lord Blithe Tisch has reported sightings of him attacking random players and having them ransack his inventory.

I'm young enough to have never been into Ultima Online, but it's really great to see one of the early PC gaming MMO communities continue to thrive like this, with or without official support. Here's to another successful barbecue.