There remains an air of skepticism from those who experienced the early days of UO first hand. Some will even go so far as to credit UO with the birth of mainstream griefing. Five years ago, Computer Gaming World's review of UO included this memorable line, "Get Ultima Online only if you are willing to put up with a whole lot of grief." Although redemption from the critics may have been recognized over the years as 25k of the initial 100k subscribers continued to play from 1997 until 2001. Still this has done little to change the perception of game designs allowing or focusing on player conflict. UO's solution to their early griefing problem was to create safe-zones, ban accounts, and generally tone down the amount of non-consensual player conflict. That ill-fated UO launch directed investors away from player verses player environments, and helped create the myth that "griefing" was unstoppable without consensual mechanics and/or account bannings.