I am “El of LA” a former AE of Stratics.com Ultima Online and Stratics Central Contributor. Under Taylor Smith’s ownership of Stratics.com I served as a Vice President of Human Resources. I still post as an Ultima Online Reporter for Lake Austin Shard and ran an in-game newspaper under the Stratics name there for many years. I am working now to write the history of Stratics.com with all of its marvelous staff members, owners, and first-ever accomplishments as a gaming fansite and website. Stratics.com is an incredible, ongoing achievement that has survived the brutal test of nearly 27 years in the fast-paced and difficult gaming website industry.
I want to post ongoing highlight articles of achievements and personalities that contributed to what Stratics.com is and has been. I will be highlighting staff members with a series of articles that I call, “The Legend Series.” This is the first installment in this series.
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I want to start my “Legend” series with a staff member of Stratics who was a reporter, editor, and project leader for decades with the website. He was also a leader of and legend on the Drachenfels Shard in Ultima Online, a shard that serves Europe and runs in a primary language other than English. Piotr sadly passed away in March of 2018, but he will always be remembered with honor and great fondness by all who knew him.
Piotr was upbeat and had a very positive outlook. He was gifted at writing, documentation, and HTML! He always impressed me with his language skills and intelligence for he worked with us in a second language, English, rather than his native language of Danish. Piotr was totally trustworthy. If he said he would do something, he’d get it done, even when the task was daunting and had challenges getting the details worked out with the developers or behind the scenes. He worked to post and develop documentation and charts within a cumbersome former editing and posting system used by Stratics that required an expertise in itself, and he did it with style, great competence, and in more than one language! You won’t see signatures on some of his hardest jobs. It became a part of the basic documentation of “Stratics Ultima Online.” Piotr worked well with the editing team who really stretched to document a rapidly-changing UO environment.
Piotr had many skills and so much to offer to the world! Stratics was blessed to have his efforts at documenting the Drachenfels shard life and Ultima Online in general. I had the honor of working with him at first while Ryan Findley owned Stratics and we were working to coordinate the editing of detailed game functions with UO Stratics in the 2000’s. I put him in charge of a large component of our efforts as an Editor there because I knew he was immensely competent and could be entrusted with a lot of responsibility. Piotr the Editor quietly and efficiently put together great documentation that helped all the players of UO who read Stratics’ run-throughs and game outlines. As an Editor, Piotr was able to figure out and explain game functions in a way that was easily understood. He also managed this in English, when his native language was Danish! When Piotr took on a task, everyone knew it was in great hands and would be pursued to completion and presented back to us in record time and with total accuracy. I relied on him a lot and always felt grateful to him for his time, efforts, and steadfast dedication to quality documentation.
This article is hard for me to write, as Piotr was also very dear to my own heart and a member of a small, intimate, and quiet gathering of people on Stratics I associated with as well – people with disabilities from many countries around the world. From a young time in his life he was confined to a wheelchair in his home country of Denmark and I looked up to him as an example of how to live with these challenges. I was a person who was new to serious disability in my own life at that time. He taught me lessons and gave me advice from across the Atlantic that was helpful and instructional in my own life. He helped me adapt. I will always be grateful to him for his example and willingness to share what he had learned. Many Stratics readers are unaware that some of the greatest contributors to our documentation and article production were putting out time and effort on Stratics as a result of their own personal tragedies in life that left them with disabilities and a desire to keep contributing to the world, literally all the gaming world, despite them. I will always remember Piotr as a brave, private, and stalwart individual who faced great challenges and never let it turn him bitter or defeated.
We have been gifted with a memorial from Magdalene of Drachenfels about Piotr. Magdalene knew Piotr far better than I, worked with him longer and very closely, and wanted to make sure his memory is preserved in Stratics.com history. Magdalene and Piotr worked together on the European forums and with our Stratics friends in Europe in a huge way. There is more coming on Magdalene herself – another true Legend of Stratics.com! They are both valuable leaders and gifted Stratics staff whom we never could have been successful without! Thank you Magdalene for sharing your memories of Piotr with all of us.
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Here is what Magdalene has sent as a memorial to Piotr’s memory from my “20 Questions” staff questionnaires:
Piotr (in memoriam, by Magdalene)
Question: When did you begin working for Stratics?
Not sure of the exact dates, I (Magdalene) encouraged Piotr to become a Drachenfels reporter and then a senior reporter on Stratics. Piotr was a shard personality and owner of the biggest rune library right out of Britain (Trammel)
Note: Here is a Screen Grab, submitted by Piotr, of his rune library on Drachenfels!
Piotr’s Drachenfels Rune Library Posted to Stratics.com rune libraries listing
Question: What was your job at Stratics, and the title of the job?
Piotr was a reporter on Drachenfels shard and also an active member of UO reporter community.
Question: Who was the owner of the Stratics.com website during your time there?
Ryan, Taylor and others.
Question: Did you feel that Stratics helped you in your career or gave you tools to use in your life?
Well, due to an accident in his teen years Peter was wheelchair-bound and depended on his caregivers. In UO and on Stratics he was Lord Piotr – a rich merchant living in his tower, he was also a reporter taking part in many events and adventures.
Question: If you have one, please relate an interesting or funny story you remember as a result of working with Stratics.com.
One of the highlights, of which Piotr reminded me years later, was the December 2004 tsunami aid effort, headed by Crazy Joe. Piotr had dedicated vendors in his tower and spared no effort to gather funds for the joint UO Stratics relief – he was so proud of himself and Stratics, and I was so proud of him!
We spoke a lot, in and outside UO and Stratics. For Piotr, and probably for many players and staffers in a similar position, in was the great escape from the dull hardship of disability and, let’s face it, loneliness. He could run, jump and fight dragons in game, he could make friends and virtually travel the world with them on Stratics.
Piotr passed away a few years ago, unfortunately his social media accounts were cancelled by his relatives. No idea what, if anything, of his legacy survived on Stratics.
Note: Here is the Stratics Announcement on the UO Players’ Memorial Forum of Piotr’s passing:
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While conducting searches in WayBackMachine, Stratics Wiki (by Kirthag), and “Old Stratics” a former working publish of Stratics.com, I found a few items on Piotr. I hope that by publishing a picture of his beloved rune library on Drachenfels, actual posting date unknown, it will give a visual memorial to his legacy.
Thank you Piotr, Legend of Stratics.com, and its branch of Ultima Online Reporters, Editors and Managers.
– El of LA, July 31, 2024.