Of interest to me because a) I very briefly worked on UO and b) we're about to shard off game statistics from the rest of the db at Kongregate. Also Raph's blog is worth checking out for those interested in game design and game economies.
I used to play UO back in they day, first and last mmorpg for me (huge time sink).
I really don't like the word "sharding", sounds too much like "sharting"