Games - Rainz

	Games - Rainz

Rainz is the online alias for Ali Shahrooz, a software developer from Indianapolis, Indiana. On August 8, 1997 Rainz performed one of the most notorious feats in online gaming history, killing the previously immortal Lord British (played by Richard Garriott) during the Ultima Online beta test.

Assassination of Lord British

How Rainz managed to assassinate Lord British is a topic of much controversy and speculation. Rainz himself claims that he was taken by surprise when British fell to his death. Others believe the assassination was beyond mere coincidence, happening during a time when the maximum number of players were online and able to witness the event. They believe Rainz hacked the Ultima Online servers and removed British's invulnerability flag, then proceeded to burn the ruler with a fire field spell. This caused much shock and confusion, after which Lord Blackthorn (played by Starr Long) summoned demons, but Rainz managed to escape the scene.

According to Starr Long, the whole thing was just a human error: Lord British character, like others, had been made invulnerable, but by design the invulnerability never persisted over several game sessions. Shortly before the incident, the server had crashed, and they forgot to set invulnerability on when everybody logged on again.

Origin Systems, the creators of Ultima Online, subsequently banned Rainz from the game and released an official statement:

: "He was NOT banned for killing Lord British. This is the stuff of legend, kudos to him for not only attempting it but actually succeeding. He has now made quite a name for himself. The assassination merely provided us an opportunity to get his account information. We had actually been looking for him in order to ban him before this. He was banned for deliberately going against requests we made of him as a tester."

After the assassination Ultima Online's lead developer informed Rainz that this action was inexcusable, and that Rainz was banned from all Origin Online games, effective immediately. Origin later retracted the developer's statement.

: "He was NOT banned from all future Origin Online products, nor has he been banned from Ultima Online as a commercial product. If that was implied, it was said in the heat of the moment by a very tired and overworked Origin employee."

Other incidents involving Rainz

The Pantless Invasion

One night during the Ultima Online pre-alpha phase, Rainz and his captains swept the countryside gathering stray players and building an army to invade Britain. To distinguish themselves from enemies, Rainz instructed everyone to remove the lower portion of their armor and clothing. Word of the growing army spread to Britain and preparations were made for the attack. The pant-less army rendezvoused at a large barn close to the city. Rainz used this barn as a staging point for the attack, sending in three waves of soldiers in short succession one after the other. The invading army outnumbered the defenders and decimated the entire Britannian garrison within minutes. All players who refused to join the army were also killed. The majority of the battle took place at the main bridge leading into the city. From that day on the bridge was known as the BoD, or Bridge of Death.

The Morphed Chicken

For an unknown period of time Rainz morphed himself into an appearingly harmless chicken. In this form he roamed Britannia and tracked down and killed several gamemasters using invisible fireballs. The activity sent the GMs into a frenzy, who unsuccessfully sought the offender for several days, often blaming innocent bystanders. The cause of the GM deaths remained unknown until Rainz revealed his tactics a few months later.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Rainz ]

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