The game's fiction included reference to shards of a wizard's crystal that created duplicate worlds -- a convenient explanation within that universe for the need to run multiple, duplicate servers with different users on them.
"The word "shard" in a database context may be derived from the 1997 MMORPG Ultima Online, which referred to its game servers and their associated databases as "shards." This was in reference to the game's fiction, in which the broken shards of the evil wizard Mondain's Gem of Immortality each contained a complete, living copy of the world.[24] This usage spread informally through the video game industry, and may have come into mainstream usage via Flickr, which began as a tool for an unpublished MMO."
Original blog post: http://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/08/database-sharding-came-...
When I first heard the term "shard," I thought we were talking about UO. I still think about it every time time I hear "shard."
I don't ever run into anyone who has played UO either, and so everyone looks at my like I have 3 eyes when I explain the connection. haha.
In my mind no game will surpass closed beta era UO. It had the sandbox and freedom combined with q culture that was actually into the idea instead of the grieving