The Old Days ..

[Bonkers]

I miss the old days of MMORPG's
Did anyone here play Ashron's Call here?
Now that was a fun game ..
A Clan wa a Clan ..everyone in the clan worked together, or would just go out and hunt or have fun in the game .Todays games requires you to grind for hours at a time or somthing like that , so noone whats to waste time just "messing" around when they could be "Grinding".So a clan is somthing that one joins only to get somthing in return not for the plesure of just being with good friends or what-not.



Bonkers

[Lichbane]

I played 'em all (... see my sig).

[BodyART]

Yep, I remember the good ol' days. My first "mmo" was Meridian 59 and then Ultima Online back in the mid to late 90's. Although prior to that I played games online that had a lot of the qualities of MMOs, and are still being argued as to which is the first MMO. lol. Neverwinter nights on AOL and Dark Sun Online are two I remember fondly.

Since then I've tried and played just about every MMO out there. Some I stayed in longer, some I tried and immediately bagged.

I personally miss the days of online gaming before the MMOG explosion. Now the list at mmorpg.com is huge, and there are plenty of foreign backed free games to play, so many that its giving false expectations as to what to expect from a pay to play MMO in the states. My best memories were in Everquest, back in early beta and then through release up to and including the velious expansion pack. Luclin (the third expansion, after kunark and velious) was good in many ways, but marked the decline in EQ for me.

Many of the gamers today don't even know what I'm talking about when I mention the original EQ player models. A lot criticize luclin models, which I think still stand up to this day. Their jaws drop when I show them the retail ship models, and then pull out the old pre-beta models that are hard to find screenshots of today, showing the old boxy characters in the original retail environments. lol.

oh well, my memories are all eqish, and I'm still a big eq2 player when I can find the time. I just wish things were simpler like when I first started playing. A few less cheat websites that allow you to breaze through all quests without needing to think, and games with a little rougher edge that were very playable, but weren't dumbed down just to get big subscription numbers. Maybe if more players didn't have the luxury of their MMO holding their hands, they'd appreciate some of the more challenging games out there.

-BA

p.s. oh, and my generalization of "most gamers" is a stereotype, and I appologize for it. I have in mind an argumentative 12-16 year old who first started playing MMOs with some free ones, moved on to WoW, and now calls himself an MMO expert worthy of critiquing all other games out there. :P Seems like there's a few of them in every general/ooc chat channel.

[Deadfyre]

MUD's from 94. UO 1s-3rd age, EQ, EQ2, SWG, AC, AC2, DAoC, Eve, Coh, Wow beta (didnt start playing wow again till 2006). Probably a few others, but if I cant remember them were they worth mentioning?

Back in 98-2001, the gaming explosion of MMO's was where it was at. A lot of people did not have broadband, myself included.

I ran my own mud for 6 years (getting ready to run it again). I remember much joy was had in mmo land back in the old days, trying to run around in shame or hythloth. corpse retrival runs in eq. Trying to keep reg's in ac.

Now days there are just too many mmo's, and none of them seem to be any where near as fun as the originals.

Now granted, there were/are quite a few mmo's I skipped, but frankly, nothing reached out and grabbed my attention.

We are getting to beyond the point where it has been done before in mmo land - and that is sad.

Frankly I had more fun at KFC in EQ then I did playing some stages of WoW.

[BodyART]

I spent a lot of time in SK at KFC, lol. That was a great zone to hunt. I think it was high teens/low 20's. I still remember a lot of my old camp spots I used when I leveled up my original character, a wood elf druid. Turning into a treant for health regen while pulling a 3-spawn camp of orcs in rathe mountains to level quickly from 16ish to 19.

As for new MMOs, I had a lot of fun this morning playing mabinogi. Its a free to play korean MMO(nothing new there), but what sets it out is the fact it attempts to immerse you in the life of your charcter. you can start at age 10 to 17, 10 being more challenging but allowing you more game time overall (each week your character gets a year older). You can harvest, bake, go to school, fight of course, learn magic, get part time jobs from shops in town, and a lot more. Its also done in cell shading to compliment the anime art direction.

I can tolerate new games that are at least trying to innovate, like this one. Unfortunately like you said deadfyre, there's nothing new under the sun. and that is indeed depressing. I actually had high hopes gary gygax would leap onto the scene with a new IP and MMO that would kill all out there. but um, that's kind of moot now that he died. LOL.

-BA

[brohawk]

I think you guys are jaded. Nothing is ever as fun as the first time... unless she is very good. I've dabbled or played a lot of multiplayer games myself starting with MTREK back in 78. Now that wasn't a MMO by today's standards but it was multiplayer and fun even though we didn't even have a monitor. Your turns printed out on a teletype (combo typewriter/printer). My expectations then were very simple, I wanted a tactical challenge and MTREK delivered that. (BTW: it was a game based on Star Trek and you had to do trig in order to shoot your opponent)

As far as players being less friendly, I think that is a direct relationship to how many are playing, much like another thread in these forums talking about the general observation that country folks tend to be more friendly than city folks, which is tied to people per square mile (or kilometer). There is actual scientific evidence to support that phenomenon based on controlled colonies of mice. I call it street face. Myself, I am great one on one but as the density of people around me increase, I tend to introvert and become more offish, put on my street face and just move on. Why? Well because I think part of it is human nature and part is a learned response. In nature, most creatures tend to disperse throughout an area so that the natural resources are not all used up and therefore life can be supported indefinitely. Humans tend to somewhat ignore that concept. The learned response is well if you ever have been ganged up by other humans, you learn that mob mentality isn't something you want to be the object of their attention. Predators tend to seek out the weakest, so survival ends up leaning on the facade factor, eg: who looks the weakest and don't be that one.

Anyway, games tend to lose their luster with me when my only goals are to gain another level or a new shiny bauble. The only games that stay with me are those that have a higher calling so to speak, like Civ4 where you actually win, and I play that multiplayer only for the most part. I am thinking that WAR will with their RVR bring that longevity for me. I never really got into DAOC enough to try it there as I arrived at that game late and it just didn't stick with me.

So in retrospect, our expectations on what a game should deliver is the salient point. I also think that your actions within the game world making a difference is the other and that gets watered down in direct relationship to how many players are in that world. Everybody wants to be a hero/villian.

[Adriana M]

My very first ol game is Ragnarok way back i guess 2001 i think. I quit playing cause i got hacked 3x and even if i reported it the GMs would only gave me 50% of my hacked items... *sigh

[Mal Fesince]

I don't miss the old days at all. I had such a crappy time with UO that I didn't play another online game until I got Guild Wars a few days ago. So from that perspective I am looking at this with a fresh eye. I already see a vast improvement over what I experienced back then. I haven' met too many TOG folks online yet but the ones I have met are making me glad that I decided to get back into the swing of things.
I had envisioned a vast virtual landscape of nothing but pre-pubescent boys and Guilds so tight knit even light wouldn't escape their Hall who only allowed Lvl zillion character to join and required 26 hours a day commitment. It was great to find a group of like-minded folks about my age(42) who are tolerant of the fact that I don't know jack about the game yet.
BTW, New Guy here so HI to everyone. Sorry for the rant but I have been carrying that frustration around for years

Cheers,
Mal

[Veranna]

I'm a new member but I had met alot of TOG members in Lineage2 over the last four years. Unfortunately I havent had much luck finding older players in other RPGs I've tried lately. I didnt start playing games until about 2002... got tired of being the only one doing chores etc. around the house while the hubby and kids played so I decided to join them . Now I think I play more than they do. I started out with Dungeon Siege, went to Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, KOTOR and then Lineage 2. I really enjoyed playing in a clan/alliance with people on up to 60 years in age. Now that I have moved on to new games (free to play) I can't find any peers to play with . Can anyone give me any ideas what games people are playing? I'm into RPGs not FPS. I tried 2Moons and Cabal for NA but it seems only high school and college kids are playing those games... and I've had enough of lololz, OMGz and Pwnz. Give me a good rpg, ventrilo and a few people my age to play and chat with and I am a happy camper. Thanks for any input.

[Mal Fesince]

Originally Posted by Veranna

I'm a new member but I had met alot of TOG members in Lineage2 over the last four years. Unfortunately I havent had much luck finding older players in other RPGs I've tried lately. I didnt start playing games until about 2002... got tired of being the only one doing chores etc. around the house while the hubby and kids played so I decided to join them . Now I think I play more than they do. I started out with Dungeon Siege, went to Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, KOTOR and then Lineage 2. I really enjoyed playing in a clan/alliance with people on up to 60 years in age. Now that I have moved on to new games (free to play) I can't find any peers to play with . Can anyone give me any ideas what games people are playing? I'm into RPGs not FPS. I tried 2Moons and Cabal for NA but it seems only high school and college kids are playing those games... and I've had enough of lololz, OMGz and Pwnz. Give me a good rpg, ventrilo and a few people my age to play and chat with and I am a happy camper. Thanks for any input.

Howdy,
I know EXACTLY how you feel. I went through the same thing back in the '90's. I just started playing Guild Wars:Nightfall after swearing off online games for more than a decade. The TOG folks there are great. World of Warcraft seems to be the most popular but I don't thinks it's for me. That and I like the GW philosophy of 'buy the game play online for free'. Hope this helps some.

Cheers,
Mal