I watched the movie '21' (2008) for free on YouTube yesterday.
The opening of the movie features the MIT campus full of students navigating its grounds and all the promise and status that higher education brings. [0]
Gave me the same sense of sadness realizing how much will fall to AI.
Same, when I got into UO emulation I used Sphere for a month then this new C# emulator called RunUO was announced haha and I moved over (~ Aug 2001). There's still a forum post from 26 years ago of me remarking about all the brackets { } involved in writing C# code ha. But I remember that spark when I made a change in a sword file and saw it reflected in game. Been chasing and riding that high ever since. Led to a career in software development but more importantly unlocked some of the greatest joy in life I'm sure everyone here can attest to.
UO was the only Ultima game I played. I got into programming doing Sphere and RunUO emulation as a kid without ever knowing about the long history of Ultima games. Assuming that all of the brilliance of UO was architected in a few year span of development. Now looking back at the series seeing all the foundations is incredible. Overnight success 20 years in the making.