Eq was an still is my main mmorpg.Tho as some have pointed out in this thread its grafics can be awful.In 2006 the serpents spine was suposed to be the start of new character models .With the burning sea expansion helping bring human models next on the new draklin models .No clue why its not been done other than every time eq1 is suposed to get a improvemtn eq2 gets it instead.Becasue eq2 got new models an eq1 did not.
Some modern day mmo things would fit eq. A auction house besides the bazaar would be nice an bring back some old players to.The ui every time they change it the old crowd roars an hates the new version. I used to mod the ui http://www.eqinterface.com/downloads/fileinfo.php?id=3861 but the ui is now way out of date.Maybe one day can get it up to new ui core /sigh.
In game item in the mail would be fine to.Fit right with a acution house. which if rumors are true may tie into player houseing we have now.Which would make sence.
Devs realy need to look at buffing classes an stop listing to holier than thou hard core raider epeen strokers who rule the forums with a iron fist.Same kind of ass hats who think if you dont have the best raid gear in the game you cant coment on how to play a class or what the game needs.Thier side game is geting other classes nerfed so their epeen looks bigger.. tho its not near as bad as it used to be.
Good luck to those who try the progression server. It will not be old eq keep that in mind, but it should be fun none the less.It realy is a shame most mmorpgs now forget their rpg roots.The game has tons of end game progression ,Alternate character advancment.Tons of quests,Raids an zones.An for the most part a great comunity
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
Ok, the level of sarcasm pushed me to re-read our posts (yours and mine) -- I do apologize for the tone and seemingly attacking you. For the record, I was wrong to be so contentious.
Also, I agree that business is business, and people get into high profit industries for that exact reason. High profit ratio.
All I'm saying is, MMORPGs were not part of that disgusting corperate playground until ONE game brought in stellar amounts of sales, subscriptions, and hype to the foreground. High profit industry was not what many developers were concerned with when they started creating virtual emersive worlds for us. It was more of a "hey that would be a pretty cool job. I could do that. I could make a living doing this and be happy" approach back before 2003-2004. Now, MMO's are for sure a High Profit industry, and we see by the products coming out that the approach is clearly about making huge amounts of money as fast as possible.
There's a big difference between "oh I don't want to eat undercooked ramen under a leaky roof so I can make my dream come to life in this videogame" and "that company made a crapload of money by doing this ___. Let's do that too so we can all drive a Ferrari."
It's cool. Actually I mistook you for Sorrow, so a lot of what I just said was aimed at his views and not necessarily yours. I was mostly upset about him taking a shot at programmers and implying that bad programming was the reason that MMOs have changed so drastically.
If anything, though, it was probably EQ that kicked off the High Profit mentality even more than WOW. I mean, in the time of MUDs, you were wildly successful if you had a couple hundred people playing your game, and a lot of those were free. EQ set the bar at hundreds of thousands of people playing the game and paying a subscription in addition to the upfront box price.
I think everyone had a game that made them fall in love with the MMO genre and everyone's main focus with new games is to find that same experience again. I think it will always lead to disappointment.
It's hard for me to say that I agree or disagree with this. It makes sense, though. The thing is, I tested this theory by returning to my first MMO just to see if it still holds the same magic and sense of adventure for me. The truth is, most of the magic was still there, and the community was a big part of that. Even though most of the people I knew had moved on to other games by now, the new crowd didn't leave anything to want. Everyone was just as friendly, helpful, interested and excited about the game world as they always were, and it made for a very very pleasant return...
What I did not expect is that after a few weeks back in the world that addicted me to MMORPG's in the first place, I began to start yearning for things not offered. At first, I thought I was just spoiled from all the other titles I had played since leaving the first time, but then I thought real hard and even started to write down the things I was paying attention to, and came to the realization that what I yearned for wasn't something I'd experienced from another game. I wanted something I never experienced at all. This is what made me realize how intangable that 'certain something' is that makes us mmovets smile instead of frown. The pure newness of it all. The mystery, danger, excitement, and freedom to explore and learn it all however you see fit. This is why "sand box" is so important to mmovets... because thats how all our games were. 'themepark' was NEVER the intention or the path for MMORPGs. Not saying that themeparks can't be fun. Themepark design just is not how you provide the feeling of emersion we got from these older titles. That's why the graphics didn't bother us. MMORPGs were always low-par in graphic comparison to most console titles... that didn't matter because our MMO's offered much more forms of gratification than sparkle effects and increased gear scores. We built our characters. We built our worlds. We built our communities. All this stuff is created by the development now, or is completely disregarded all together.
Console players played console games, and mmorpg players played theirs. Now everyone's trying to mix the two crowds together and what we got instead of a bunch of interestingly NEW types of games is a few dumbed down graphically intensive watered down clones of games that were so much more before the im[patient, low attention span, illiterate playerbase opened their mouths and decided it was smart to completely reface the entire genre for their sake instead of just making a new genre. (by the way, that's not an insult.. if you think it is, than you just pegged yourself as one of the new mmo players that literally does not have the attention span or the reading capability to play an RPG in the first place.)
Sorry, kinda morphed into a rant. Back to my wall, and my point.
So, years have passed since I first started PC gaming. Years have passed since I first started playing MMO's. I've changed. My life has changed. My freetime has changed. This is all relavent in terms of figuring out what I want from a game. So, if you go back to EQ and find yourself not enjoying it, don't be too quick to blame the game. Try and consider that maybe you have changed over the years, and the game is still everything you loved about it when you left.
This is not a troll, flame, or anything else worth banning me over. It is simply my pure opinion, and I have a right to share it.
And yes, in hindsight it looks as if older MMO's like UO, EQ, DAoC, AO and AC managed to hit a lot of things right when it comes to creating a MMO world that feels more like a world than newer MMO's, where newer MMO's often feel more like (just) a game. It almost seems as if the people developing these first MMO's were a different breed than the people that developed and designed later MMO's.
Anyway, hf in EQ!
They very much were. The original MMO developers were in it for money sure, but not shooting for 200 million subscribers. They knew the genre was niche and they catered to the players interested. The developers made the games because they wanted to fully realize a pen and paper roleplay experience in an online virtual world.
So, a work of passion, they made the early MMOs, full of depth, some amazing innovation and good ideas (and some bad ones too, spawn camping in EQ (fixed in games like DAoC with better game design, NOT instances) and the Jedi system in SWG) and the people who played at the time (primary nerds and RPG enthusiasts) loved it.
The genre since then, has been watered down to the point where you can't even recognize it, and it's made by bigger companies, funded by CEO's who only want massive gains with little effort.
This is why is "old timers" are upset. Our favorite genre of game literally isn't being made anymore. We have nowhere to be happy. We can't play the old games, they're gone. Patched beyond recognition, or bereft of players. We keep looking for real MMORPGs, the ones we cut our teeth on, and only get them from passionate under funded indie developers. Not because there aren't a lot of us. (There's a least a million, based on just two of the successful old MMOs) But instead because no developer seems to want to settle for niche. Instead, they shoot for millions from WoW, and end up going bankrupt (Age of Conan) or having to go FTP (LotRO).
3 days running around Nerriak just trying to find my way out.. getting a group in Karrana and realizing there was no way I could run there in less than an hour.. Invis at druid rings cause blue skin was a very very bad thing.. And haveing to rely on the community to help you if you got stuck.. We had no asshats back then shouting out how dumb someone was who asked a question.. People were different and helpful.. And the world was about as open and vast as you could imagine..
I miss it.. alot and EQ2 was not the sequel I had hoped it would be.. Its not bad and I play it.. But it could have been so much more..
developers of the golden age of mmos made the games because they had a passion for them.. they were young geeks who grew up playing rpgs, dnd, all that stuff. the learned programming and created their own virtual worlds that mirrored all the glory of the youth in fantasy.
which created living breathing worlds like uo and eq1 and daoc.
then came greed.
these little ideas for their games became popular, hundreds of thousands of other people had the same desire to live in these worlds so they payed the fee to get the chance.
the dev's started making money and lots of it. the studios they worked at or for forgot all about the original vision and all they saw was $ signs.
all passion and creativity went out the window, greedy whore companies like sony, ea, activision, etc. saw the promise and wanted their cut
passion and creativity died and now the hunt for the biggest pay day is all that matters, we went from like minded brothers and sisters to sheep
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
And yes, in hindsight it looks as if older MMO's like UO, EQ, DAoC, AO and AC managed to hit a lot of things right when it comes to creating a MMO world that feels more like a world than newer MMO's, where newer MMO's often feel more like (just) a game. It almost seems as if the people developing these first MMO's were a different breed than the people that developed and designed later MMO's.
Anyway, hf in EQ!
They very much were. The original MMO developers were in it for money sure, but not shooting for 200 million subscribers. They knew the genre was niche and they catered to the players interested. The developers made the games because they wanted to fully realize a pen and paper roleplay experience in an online virtual world.
So, a work of passion, they made the early MMOs, full of depth, some amazing innovation and good ideas (and some bad ones too, spawn camping in EQ (fixed in games like DAoC with better game design, NOT instances) and the Jedi system in SWG) and the people who played at the time (primary nerds and RPG enthusiasts) loved it.
The genre since then, has been watered down to the point where you can't even recognize it, and it's made by bigger companies, funded by CEO's who only want massive gains with little effort.
This is why is "old timers" are upset. Our favorite genre of game literally isn't being made anymore. We have nowhere to be happy. We can't play the old games, they're gone. Patched beyond recognition, or bereft of players. We keep looking for real MMORPGs, the ones we cut our teeth on, and only get them from passionate under funded indie developers. Not because there aren't a lot of us. (There's a least a million, based on just two of the successful old MMOs) But instead because no developer seems to want to settle for niche. Instead, they shoot for millions from WoW, and end up going bankrupt (Age of Conan) or having to go FTP (LotRO).
You know there plenty of genres of game I love that ar ento being made anymore for instance Laser Squad type turn based strategy games,Traditional CRPGs liek Wizardy,fallout 1/2 and the original Might and magic Series with party based tactical turn based combat,Space combat sims liek Wing Commander/Independance War 1/2,Freespace 1/2 and point and click Adventure games have been relegated to the indies.
Difference is I can still enjoy games as they are today..I love the action based RPGs of today,I can appreciate and enjoy RTS games and the more overreaching turn based strategy games like the Civ series.Simiralarly I liked old school MMORPGs as they were bakc in the day but can still enjoy what we have today.I guess I'm not a niche gamer but a gamer period...if a game is enjoyable I'll play it for what it is nto what I wish it was.
Do i wish they'd make a Wizardry/MnM game with modern production values or Freespace 3 or an udated Laser Squad/Jagged Alliance 2 game that stayed true to the originals and jsut modernised the graphics and UIs???Sure that woudl be awesome and I ahve stated a wish for such things in various forums...but I do not dwell on it and I certianly don't enter every game that isn't those things and lambast thme for not being so.
That being said your free to feel as you do and be as niche as you want in tastes but temember not all of us old gamers feel like you do.
You know there plenty of genres of game I love that ar ento being made anymore for instance Laser Squad type turn based strategy games,Traditional CRPGs liek Wizardy,fallout 1/2 and the original Might and magic Series with party based tactical turn based combat,Space combat sims liek Wing Commander/Independance War 1/2,Freespace 1/2 and point and click Adventure games have been relegated to the indies.
Difference is I can still enjoy games as they are today..I love the action based RPGs of today,I can appreciate and enjoy RTS games and the more overreaching turn based strategy games like the Civ series.Simiralarly I liked old school MMORPGs as they were bakc in the day but can still enjoy what we have today.I guess I'm not a niche gamer but a gamer period...if a game is enjoyable I'll play it for what it is nto what I wish it was.
Do i wish they'd make a Wizardry/MnM game with modern production values or Freespace 3 or an udated Laser Squad/Jagged Alliance 2 game that stayed true to the originals and jsut modernised the graphics and UIs???Sure that woudl be awesome and I ahve stated a wish for such things in various forums...but I do not dwell on it and I certianly don't enter every game that isn't those things and lambast thme for not being so.
That being said your free to feel as you do and be as niche as you want in tastes but temember not all of us old gamers feel like you do.
Cheers to doing as we wish.
But I do think, however, that within the niche of mmovets, there's an even smaller niche of mmovets that swallow everything being fed to them by greedy corporations posing as videogame companies and then telling the rest of the mmovets to 'chill out and smell the roses' - No offense to you sir, I'm very envious that you can call yourself an oldschool gamer and claim to have been in love with what MMORPGs were then and still be satisfied with what our choices are today. That being said, remember that there's probably a much smaller niche of players like you, who are willing to sit down, shut up and swallow without demanding retrobution for our stolen and mutated genre.
And let's not forget that none of us can simply choose what to like or dislike... we like what we like and dislike what we don't. If i could choose to like the low-thought-process arcade style child-friendly story-on-rails MMORPG's we have today, I simply would. Rhetorical question: Can you choose to like a food that you never liked before, just for the sake of not causing a fuss?
This is not a troll, flame, or anything else worth banning me over. It is simply my pure opinion, and I have a right to share it.
And yes, in hindsight it looks as if older MMO's like UO, EQ, DAoC, AO and AC managed to hit a lot of things right when it comes to creating a MMO world that feels more like a world than newer MMO's, where newer MMO's often feel more like (just) a game. It almost seems as if the people developing these first MMO's were a different breed than the people that developed and designed later MMO's.
Anyway, hf in EQ!
They very much were. The original MMO developers were in it for money sure, but not shooting for 200 million subscribers. They knew the genre was niche and they catered to the players interested. The developers made the games because they wanted to fully realize a pen and paper roleplay experience in an online virtual world.
So, a work of passion, they made the early MMOs, full of depth, some amazing innovation and good ideas (and some bad ones too, spawn camping in EQ (fixed in games like DAoC with better game design, NOT instances) and the Jedi system in SWG) and the people who played at the time (primary nerds and RPG enthusiasts) loved it.
The genre since then, has been watered down to the point where you can't even recognize it, and it's made by bigger companies, funded by CEO's who only want massive gains with little effort.
This is why is "old timers" are upset. Our favorite genre of game literally isn't being made anymore. We have nowhere to be happy. We can't play the old games, they're gone. Patched beyond recognition, or bereft of players. We keep looking for real MMORPGs, the ones we cut our teeth on, and only get them from passionate under funded indie developers. Not because there aren't a lot of us. (There's a least a million, based on just two of the successful old MMOs) But instead because no developer seems to want to settle for niche. Instead, they shoot for millions from WoW, and end up going bankrupt (Age of Conan) or having to go FTP (LotRO).
You know there plenty of genres of game I love that ar ento being made anymore for instance Laser Squad type turn based strategy games,Traditional CRPGs liek Wizardy,fallout 1/2 and the original Might and magic Series with party based tactical turn based combat,Space combat sims liek Wing Commander/Independance War 1/2,Freespace 1/2 and point and click Adventure games have been relegated to the indies.
Difference is I can still enjoy games as they are today..I love the action based RPGs of today,I can appreciate and enjoy RTS games and the more overreaching turn based strategy games like the Civ series.Simiralarly I liked old school MMORPGs as they were bakc in the day but can still enjoy what we have today.I guess I'm not a niche gamer but a gamer period...if a game is enjoyable I'll play it for what it is nto what I wish it was.
Do i wish they'd make a Wizardry/MnM game with modern production values or Freespace 3 or an udated Laser Squad/Jagged Alliance 2 game that stayed true to the originals and jsut modernised the graphics and UIs???Sure that woudl be awesome and I ahve stated a wish for such things in various forums...but I do not dwell on it and I certianly don't enter every game that isn't those things and lambast thme for not being so.
That being said your free to feel as you do and be as niche as you want in tastes but temember not all of us old gamers feel like you do.
You missed one big point.
All those games you listed... you can go back and play. Right now.
I can't play old MMORPGs right now. Or ever again. Unless I go to an underpopulated buggy EMU.
You know there plenty of genres of game I love that ar ento being made anymore for instance Laser Squad type turn based strategy games,Traditional CRPGs liek Wizardy,fallout 1/2 and the original Might and magic Series with party based tactical turn based combat,Space combat sims liek Wing Commander/Independance War 1/2,Freespace 1/2 and point and click Adventure games have been relegated to the indies.
Difference is I can still enjoy games as they are today..I love the action based RPGs of today,I can appreciate and enjoy RTS games and the more overreaching turn based strategy games like the Civ series.Simiralarly I liked old school MMORPGs as they were bakc in the day but can still enjoy what we have today.I guess I'm not a niche gamer but a gamer period...if a game is enjoyable I'll play it for what it is nto what I wish it was.
Do i wish they'd make a Wizardry/MnM game with modern production values or Freespace 3 or an udated Laser Squad/Jagged Alliance 2 game that stayed true to the originals and jsut modernised the graphics and UIs???Sure that woudl be awesome and I ahve stated a wish for such things in various forums...but I do not dwell on it and I certianly don't enter every game that isn't those things and lambast thme for not being so.
That being said your free to feel as you do and be as niche as you want in tastes but temember not all of us old gamers feel like you do.
Cheers to doing as we wish.
But I do think, however, that within the niche of mmovets, there's an even smaller niche of mmovets that swallow everything being fed to them by greedy corporations posing as videogame companies and then telling the rest of the mmovets to 'chill out and smell the roses' - No offense to you sir, I'm very envious that you can call yourself an oldschool gamer and claim to have been in love with what MMORPGs were then and still be satisfied with what our choices are today. That being said, remember that there's probably a much smaller niche of players like you, who are willing to sit down, shut up and swallow without demanding retrobution for our stolen and mutated genre.
And let's not forget that none of us can simply choose what to like or dislike... we like what we like and dislike what we don't. If i could choose to like the low-thought-process arcade style child-friendly story-on-rails MMORPG's we have today, I simply would. Rhetorical question: Can you choose to like a food that you never liked before, just for the sake of not causing a fuss?
First we do not know what percentage of old mmovets feel like I do ro feel like you and Garvon3 do.It could be that I'm a minority or you are in that minority.
Second I never said anything about keeping quiet and swallow anything but lambasting anyone who does nto feel like you do and spamming every new game that isn't to your liking with hate and vitirol isn't going to acheive anything but further alienate yourselves.Nothing wrong with letting your opinion being known but to hammer everyone over the head with it whilst throwing insults about is another story.
Third I am not fully satisfied with recent MMOs at all but it's more due to their rushed out status and bad after launch support more thna anything else.I will admit I do yearn for more freedom of choices too.Not freedom to gank everyone in sight mind you as some people equate freedom too but freedom to choose from many equally valid options to concetntrate on at any one time.But I realise that with todays production values and costs that doing so cna be prohibitively expensive in a AAA game.
To answer your rhetorical question though one shouldn't really answer such a question :You can state you do not liek the food thne choose to either leave or eat something else and can do so without raising a fuss and lashing out at those that do like the food being served.
All those games you listed... you can go back and play. Right now.
I can't play old MMORPGs right now. Or ever again. Unless I go to an underpopulated buggy EMU.
I concede that point to you sir...that is a valid concern thoguh I would point out to play many of those games I lsited does require dos or win95 emulation...but the under population thing is harder to remedy
You know there plenty of genres of game I love that ar ento being made anymore for instance Laser Squad type turn based strategy games,Traditional CRPGs liek Wizardy,fallout 1/2 and the original Might and magic Series with party based tactical turn based combat,Space combat sims liek Wing Commander/Independance War 1/2,Freespace 1/2 and point and click Adventure games have been relegated to the indies.
Difference is I can still enjoy games as they are today..I love the action based RPGs of today,I can appreciate and enjoy RTS games and the more overreaching turn based strategy games like the Civ series.Simiralarly I liked old school MMORPGs as they were bakc in the day but can still enjoy what we have today.I guess I'm not a niche gamer but a gamer period...if a game is enjoyable I'll play it for what it is nto what I wish it was.
Do i wish they'd make a Wizardry/MnM game with modern production values or Freespace 3 or an udated Laser Squad/Jagged Alliance 2 game that stayed true to the originals and jsut modernised the graphics and UIs???Sure that woudl be awesome and I ahve stated a wish for such things in various forums...but I do not dwell on it and I certianly don't enter every game that isn't those things and lambast thme for not being so.
That being said your free to feel as you do and be as niche as you want in tastes but temember not all of us old gamers feel like you do.
Cheers to doing as we wish.
But I do think, however, that within the niche of mmovets, there's an even smaller niche of mmovets that swallow everything being fed to them by greedy corporations posing as videogame companies and then telling the rest of the mmovets to 'chill out and smell the roses' - No offense to you sir, I'm very envious that you can call yourself an oldschool gamer and claim to have been in love with what MMORPGs were then and still be satisfied with what our choices are today. That being said, remember that there's probably a much smaller niche of players like you, who are willing to sit down, shut up and swallow without demanding retrobution for our stolen and mutated genre.
And let's not forget that none of us can simply choose what to like or dislike... we like what we like and dislike what we don't. If i could choose to like the low-thought-process arcade style child-friendly story-on-rails MMORPG's we have today, I simply would. Rhetorical question: Can you choose to like a food that you never liked before, just for the sake of not causing a fuss?
First we do not know what percentage of old mmovets feel like I do ro feel like you and Garvon3 do.It could be that I'm a minority or you are in that minority.
Second I never said anything about keeping quiet and swallow anything but lambasting anyone who does nto feel like you do and spamming every new game that isn't to your liking with hate and vitirol isn't going to acheive anything but further alienate yourselves.Nothing wrong with letting your opinion being known but to hammer everyone over the head with it whilst throwing insults about is another story.
To answer your rhetorical question though one shouldn't really answer such a question :You can state you do not liek the food thne choose to either leave or eat something else and can do so without raising a fuss and lashing out at those that do like the food being served.
K I just need you to point out where in my post do I lash out at you or insult you, or any gamers for that matter.
As I try to state in my posts, now that I'm used to people getting offended very very easily, If you take offense to anything I've said, you're doing the insulting by tagging yourself enough to react. Theres nothing insulting about any of my descriptions unless one takes them as a negative because of a feeling of guilt and affiliation. For instance: Someone can say "I don't like themepark games. They are too easy." and another person can be offended by that for no other reason than the fact that they themselves enjoy themeparks and feel that calling the game easy is an insult to the player's intellect and/or abilities. So ask yourself, 'why am I offended by this?'
Now, on the point of 'lashing out' - It's called freedom of expression. Trust me, I don't go to WoW forums just to belittle the players that enjoy the game. If I didn't like the food, I wouldn't eat it, but if the food I like was taken away, changed into something else, and still called the same thing, I would complain to the chef. You're damn right.
This is not a troll, flame, or anything else worth banning me over. It is simply my pure opinion, and I have a right to share it.
K I just need you to point out where in my post do I lash out at you or insult you, or any gamers for that matter.
As I try to state in my posts, now that I'm used to people getting offended very very easily, If you take offense to anything I've said, you're doing the insulting by tagging yourself enough to react. Theres nothing insulting about any of my descriptions unless one takes them as a negative because of a feeling of guilt and affiliation. For instance: Someone can say "I don't like themepark games. They are too easy." and another person can be offended by that for no other reason than the fact that they themselves enjoy themeparks and feel that calling the game easy is an insult to the player's intellect and/or abilities. So ask yourself, 'why am I offended by this?'
Now, on the point of 'lashing out' - It's called freedom of expression. Trust me, I don't go to WoW forums just to belittle the players that enjoy the game. If I didn't like the food, I wouldn't eat it, but if the food I like was taken away, changed into something else, and still called the same thing, I would complain to the chef. You're damn right.
I was speaking more in general about a lot of posters on these forums and others but since you asked you did inderectly insinuate that I am somehow not what I say "that you can call yourself an oldschool gamer and claim to have been in love with what MMORPGs were then and still be satisfied with what our choices are today",your wording casts doubt on my words and thus can be considered insulting.
Then there is this "there's probably a much smaller niche of players like you, who are willing to sit down, shut up and swallow without demanding retrobution for our stolen and mutated genre." a line which implies I am meek and unwillign to fight for what I beleive which is nto the truth at all...I wills tat emy lieks and dislikes liek others I just try to do so in a respectful manner and don't see the need to drive my point into the ground with constant repitition.
Then again there's this "If i could choose to like the low-thought-process arcade style child-friendly story-on-rails MMORPG's we have today, I simply would" which whilst not directed at myself specifically is implying tha anyone that does liek today's MMORPGs is childlike or of low intellect.
Now I really don't think you meant any such insult or maybe you did I can't know and wasn't gonna address thme but you did ask...
Guys, I am so drunk right now I actualy can not see any responses to my thread. I promise I will read every sitgle one in the morning. I just want to say thank you for keaping the tone of the thread really well and I love all of you, going to puke now, stay out of trouble. Also, please can somebody phone my mum?
Evercrack was my first MMO back in 2001. Wow I remembmer that crappy and clunky HUD. Nastalgic? Yes. Amazing? Not at all as far as polish and mechanics are concerned.
The game had a much different atmosphere compared to modern games however. It is something that I have never seen fully replicated in modern times. SWG is my favorite sandbox mmo of all time, and even SWG could not replicate some feelings that only the original evercrack could provide.
Though it's probably mostly nastalgia, I can say for certain that nastalgia aside, there was still a much deeper feeling to the game. I liked how it didn't really hold your hand through everything, and tutorials were equivilant to seeking help from other players or from trial by fire.
Even though I only got to about level 20 in it haha. That game took forever to level.
When you read a great book, you dont complain about the missing pictures or maps - This is made in your head.
Eq provides the environment for imagination, that many newer games doesnt. If you have low imaginative powers, you will get upset with the graphics, but if you do have you will put your own imagination into the game and making that bucket a real helmet.
As for the UI, yes it suck, and as many said instead of the umpteenth expansion they should have reinvented it. UI is one thing WoW did so well, not the default as that is as awful as eq is, but the mod possibilities.
Also eventually after so many expansions and experiments, and the comming of eq2 and wow, the game has slowly introduced game breakers amd dumbing down, bringing eq closer and closer to the modern MMO - Effectively "ruining" eq because it left its core philosophy to compete with the new, which is a hopeless attempt.
The progression server is a mix of good and bad, some important core features are ruined because they will stick with live data, but also alot of the old virtures are still there. In a perfect world they would roll everything back as it were, but that would likely cost way too much with the number players who would go.
So, join the progression server if you are a lover, and bitch about it not beeing 100% like you wanted it if you are a hater.
Originally posted by spookydom
Guys, I am so drunk right now I actualy can not see any responses to my thread. I promise I will read every sitgle one in the morning. I just want to say thank you for keaping the tone of the thread really well and I love all of you, going to puke now, stay out of trouble. Also, please can somebody phone my mum?
You mom said, you should stop playing games and become a coorperate executive - And something about police if I ever called again .. was blurred.
I don't see where the makers of themepark games deserve such outright hatred, though. I mean, you take Rift as an example. I played Rift for about 2 hours during one of the betas just to see what all the racket was about, and it was immediately clear to me that it is a game which I will never play. I just don't enjoy that style of game, and I wish that there were fewer games following that exact on-rails style of gameplay.
But I don't despise the people who are developing Rift. I don't think there's anything evil or greedy or underhanded about what Trion is doing. A lot of people want to play a WoW clone that's prettier than WoW with more customization than WoW, in a setting other than WoW's world. I don't think it's wrong for someone to make that game for those people! I don't think the developers working on it are interested in only money, and I don't think that they have any motivation beyond creating a game that many people will love. I think they will be very pleased to receive positive feedback regarding what they have worked hard to create.
Guys, I am so drunk right now I actualy can not see any responses to my thread. I promise I will read every sitgle one in the morning. I just want to say thank you for keaping the tone of the thread really well and I love all of you, going to puke now, stay out of trouble. Also, please can somebody phone my mum?
You mom said, you should stop playing games and become a coorperate executive - And something about police if I ever called again .. was blurred.
Lol! Yeah she told me about you. I think she is playing hard to get tbh.
In all seriounes I have sobrerd up a bit now. This has been a really good thread imo. Thank you to everybody who contributed:D
Many fond memories of my Enchanter and his life as a Traffic Cop......
You stop ..... You stop...... Tag that one tank, his turn to die..... reMezzin' on /t% and /t% ..... You spank it, You tank it.
At lower levels (20's) me and a friend would go outfit the Leatherfoot Halfling Camp in Nectulos with Weapons, Shields and then Buff them all to heck.
It was fun watching them equipe and use the items .......... all those poor Darkies come to level up on the 'poor' little Halflings and end up dead instead .... ahh the FUN!
Before the maps and such, going door to door in towns and zones looking for the people you were to 'talk' to further your quest.... only to find out you missed them 3 zones and a night cycle ago, because you forgot to 'phrase' your chat properly...
If you took EQ (just the way it is) and just updated the graphics to our current graphic standards, you would have a great game.
This game still is very immersive after so many years, however the gamers today wouldn't be able to stand the graphics, interface and controls. If your a player that can put these issues aside, you will have some fun.
Another game like EQ, but in a SciFi setting would be Anarchy Online.
Both of them were my favorites close to a decade ago. I just jumped back into EQ till Rifts comes out, however if Rifts bombs, I will be heading back to EQ for a fair shake.
If you took EQ (just the way it is) and just updated the graphics to our current graphic standards, you would have a great game.
This game still is very immersive after so many years, however the gamers today wouldn't be able to stand the graphics, interface and controls. If your a player that can put these issues aside, you will have some fun.
Another game like EQ, but in a SciFi setting would be Anarchy Online.
Both of them were my favorites close to a decade ago. I just jumped back into EQ till Rifts comes out, however if Rifts bombs, I will be heading back to EQ for a fair shake.
Don't forget Asheron's Call, my first MMORPG.
I'd argue that DAoC was the better game, against EQ. Simply because, in EQ you had only one objective, get loot and raid. Eventually people would grow bored and it'd become necessary to increase the level cap and add more raids.
While DAoC lacked the PvE depth of EQ, it had enough of it, and the PvP side of the game allowed for content to be spread out. Instances were never needed because there were plenty of distractions for players, and items were fairly balanced, making it so there wasn't one specific item everyone camped(the vast majority of the time).
If they could remake DAoC pre ToA and mix in EQ's amazing PvE depth, faction system and level design, I think you'd have the perfect theme park MMO.
All those games you listed... you can go back and play. Right now.
I can't play old MMORPGs right now. Or ever again. Unless I go to an underpopulated buggy EMU.
I concede that point to you sir...that is a valid concern thoguh I would point out to play many of those games I lsited does require dos or win95 emulation...but the under population thing is harder to remedy
Tis true. You do make some good points but, there's a reason nobody is in those old MMOs anymore. They're either not supported by the devs, or they've patched it to "keep up with the times", alienating their own fans. This just leaves the games empty of players, development, and it doesn't even resemble its old self, so you can't go back to it.
If you took EQ (just the way it is) and just updated the graphics to our current graphic standards, you would have a great game.
This game still is very immersive after so many years, however the gamers today wouldn't be able to stand the graphics, interface and controls. If your a player that can put these issues aside, you will have some fun.
Another game like EQ, but in a SciFi setting would be Anarchy Online.
Both of them were my favorites close to a decade ago. I just jumped back into EQ till Rifts comes out, however if Rifts bombs, I will be heading back to EQ for a fair shake.
Don't forget Asheron's Call, my first MMORPG.
I'd argue that DAoC was the better game, against EQ. Simply because, in EQ you had only one objective, get loot and raid. Eventually people would grow bored and it'd become necessary to increase the level cap and add more raids.
While DAoC lacked the PvE depth of EQ, it had enough of it, and the PvP side of the game allowed for content to be spread out. Instances were never needed because there were plenty of distractions for players, and items were fairly balanced, making it so there wasn't one specific item everyone camped(the vast majority of the time).
If they could remake DAoC pre ToA and mix in EQ's amazing PvE depth, faction system and level design, I think you'd have the perfect theme park MMO.
In all honesty, while many people like the aspect of PvP, i'm looking for a purely PvE centric game atm. everquest pvp was restricted to a couple servers and was sketchy at best. But with pvp comes class ability restrictions due to "overpoweredness" which leads to less creativity. I want classes to feel different, have different roles, and people to discover different ways to kill things. PvP just seems to mess a lot of stuff up in a fantasy rpg setting. Just my 2cents.
Just logged off of Fippy. doubt I'll ever go back. I just can't get over the antiquated mechanics from that era. Call me spoiled or what have you, but modern MMO's while not growing in depth, they sure have grown in ease of use/accessability and gotten rid of a TON of tedious sadistic mechanics.
Amazing too the amount of people who are playing EQ just to stay in the past and live in Nostalgic moments. To each their own I guess, but I couldn't really find enjoyment in the game today. I don't have any nostalgia for it , so that's probably a very large factor and playing it made having my teeth pulled seem more exciting.
It reminds me of the pre 2000 years when I was playing online card games while in a chat room. I'm so glad the genre has been improved from then to now. Amazing.
Comments
Eq was an still is my main mmorpg.Tho as some have pointed out in this thread its grafics can be awful.In 2006 the serpents spine was suposed to be the start of new character models .With the burning sea expansion helping bring human models next on the new draklin models .No clue why its not been done other than every time eq1 is suposed to get a improvemtn eq2 gets it instead.Becasue eq2 got new models an eq1 did not.
Some modern day mmo things would fit eq. A auction house besides the bazaar would be nice an bring back some old players to.The ui every time they change it the old crowd roars an hates the new version. I used to mod the ui http://www.eqinterface.com/downloads/fileinfo.php?id=3861 but the ui is now way out of date.Maybe one day can get it up to new ui core /sigh.
In game item in the mail would be fine to.Fit right with a acution house. which if rumors are true may tie into player houseing we have now.Which would make sence.
Devs realy need to look at buffing classes an stop listing to holier than thou hard core raider epeen strokers who rule the forums with a iron fist.Same kind of ass hats who think if you dont have the best raid gear in the game you cant coment on how to play a class or what the game needs.Thier side game is geting other classes nerfed so their epeen looks bigger.. tho its not near as bad as it used to be.
Good luck to those who try the progression server. It will not be old eq keep that in mind, but it should be fun none the less.It realy is a shame most mmorpgs now forget their rpg roots.The game has tons of end game progression ,Alternate character advancment.Tons of quests,Raids an zones.An for the most part a great comunity
"Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing." Robert E. Howard, The Tower of the Elephant (1933)
It's cool. Actually I mistook you for Sorrow, so a lot of what I just said was aimed at his views and not necessarily yours. I was mostly upset about him taking a shot at programmers and implying that bad programming was the reason that MMOs have changed so drastically.
If anything, though, it was probably EQ that kicked off the High Profit mentality even more than WOW. I mean, in the time of MUDs, you were wildly successful if you had a couple hundred people playing your game, and a lot of those were free. EQ set the bar at hundreds of thousands of people playing the game and paying a subscription in addition to the upfront box price.
It's hard for me to say that I agree or disagree with this. It makes sense, though. The thing is, I tested this theory by returning to my first MMO just to see if it still holds the same magic and sense of adventure for me. The truth is, most of the magic was still there, and the community was a big part of that. Even though most of the people I knew had moved on to other games by now, the new crowd didn't leave anything to want. Everyone was just as friendly, helpful, interested and excited about the game world as they always were, and it made for a very very pleasant return...
What I did not expect is that after a few weeks back in the world that addicted me to MMORPG's in the first place, I began to start yearning for things not offered. At first, I thought I was just spoiled from all the other titles I had played since leaving the first time, but then I thought real hard and even started to write down the things I was paying attention to, and came to the realization that what I yearned for wasn't something I'd experienced from another game. I wanted something I never experienced at all. This is what made me realize how intangable that 'certain something' is that makes us mmovets smile instead of frown. The pure newness of it all. The mystery, danger, excitement, and freedom to explore and learn it all however you see fit. This is why "sand box" is so important to mmovets... because thats how all our games were. 'themepark' was NEVER the intention or the path for MMORPGs. Not saying that themeparks can't be fun. Themepark design just is not how you provide the feeling of emersion we got from these older titles. That's why the graphics didn't bother us. MMORPGs were always low-par in graphic comparison to most console titles... that didn't matter because our MMO's offered much more forms of gratification than sparkle effects and increased gear scores. We built our characters. We built our worlds. We built our communities. All this stuff is created by the development now, or is completely disregarded all together.
Console players played console games, and mmorpg players played theirs. Now everyone's trying to mix the two crowds together and what we got instead of a bunch of interestingly NEW types of games is a few dumbed down graphically intensive watered down clones of games that were so much more before the im[patient, low attention span, illiterate playerbase opened their mouths and decided it was smart to completely reface the entire genre for their sake instead of just making a new genre. (by the way, that's not an insult.. if you think it is, than you just pegged yourself as one of the new mmo players that literally does not have the attention span or the reading capability to play an RPG in the first place.)
Sorry, kinda morphed into a rant. Back to my wall, and my point.
So, years have passed since I first started PC gaming. Years have passed since I first started playing MMO's. I've changed. My life has changed. My freetime has changed. This is all relavent in terms of figuring out what I want from a game. So, if you go back to EQ and find yourself not enjoying it, don't be too quick to blame the game. Try and consider that maybe you have changed over the years, and the game is still everything you loved about it when you left.
This is not a troll, flame, or anything else worth banning me over. It is simply my pure opinion, and I have a right to share it.
They very much were. The original MMO developers were in it for money sure, but not shooting for 200 million subscribers. They knew the genre was niche and they catered to the players interested. The developers made the games because they wanted to fully realize a pen and paper roleplay experience in an online virtual world.
So, a work of passion, they made the early MMOs, full of depth, some amazing innovation and good ideas (and some bad ones too, spawn camping in EQ (fixed in games like DAoC with better game design, NOT instances) and the Jedi system in SWG) and the people who played at the time (primary nerds and RPG enthusiasts) loved it.
The genre since then, has been watered down to the point where you can't even recognize it, and it's made by bigger companies, funded by CEO's who only want massive gains with little effort.
This is why is "old timers" are upset. Our favorite genre of game literally isn't being made anymore. We have nowhere to be happy. We can't play the old games, they're gone. Patched beyond recognition, or bereft of players. We keep looking for real MMORPGs, the ones we cut our teeth on, and only get them from passionate under funded indie developers. Not because there aren't a lot of us. (There's a least a million, based on just two of the successful old MMOs) But instead because no developer seems to want to settle for niche. Instead, they shoot for millions from WoW, and end up going bankrupt (Age of Conan) or having to go FTP (LotRO).
3 days running around Nerriak just trying to find my way out.. getting a group in Karrana and realizing there was no way I could run there in less than an hour.. Invis at druid rings cause blue skin was a very very bad thing.. And haveing to rely on the community to help you if you got stuck.. We had no asshats back then shouting out how dumb someone was who asked a question.. People were different and helpful.. And the world was about as open and vast as you could imagine..
I miss it.. alot and EQ2 was not the sequel I had hoped it would be.. Its not bad and I play it.. But it could have been so much more..
Meh enough fantasizing LOL
developers of the golden age of mmos made the games because they had a passion for them.. they were young geeks who grew up playing rpgs, dnd, all that stuff. the learned programming and created their own virtual worlds that mirrored all the glory of the youth in fantasy.
which created living breathing worlds like uo and eq1 and daoc.
then came greed.
these little ideas for their games became popular, hundreds of thousands of other people had the same desire to live in these worlds so they payed the fee to get the chance.
the dev's started making money and lots of it. the studios they worked at or for forgot all about the original vision and all they saw was $ signs.
all passion and creativity went out the window, greedy whore companies like sony, ea, activision, etc. saw the promise and wanted their cut
passion and creativity died and now the hunt for the biggest pay day is all that matters, we went from like minded brothers and sisters to sheep
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
@OP:
If you are looking for a better UI, I highly recommend Vert Mod, which is fully compatible with the upcoming TLP Server and can be downloaded from:
http://www.theconcerthall.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=23
Easily my favorite EQ UI.
You know there plenty of genres of game I love that ar ento being made anymore for instance Laser Squad type turn based strategy games,Traditional CRPGs liek Wizardy,fallout 1/2 and the original Might and magic Series with party based tactical turn based combat,Space combat sims liek Wing Commander/Independance War 1/2,Freespace 1/2 and point and click Adventure games have been relegated to the indies.
Difference is I can still enjoy games as they are today..I love the action based RPGs of today,I can appreciate and enjoy RTS games and the more overreaching turn based strategy games like the Civ series.Simiralarly I liked old school MMORPGs as they were bakc in the day but can still enjoy what we have today.I guess I'm not a niche gamer but a gamer period...if a game is enjoyable I'll play it for what it is nto what I wish it was.
Do i wish they'd make a Wizardry/MnM game with modern production values or Freespace 3 or an udated Laser Squad/Jagged Alliance 2 game that stayed true to the originals and jsut modernised the graphics and UIs???Sure that woudl be awesome and I ahve stated a wish for such things in various forums...but I do not dwell on it and I certianly don't enter every game that isn't those things and lambast thme for not being so.
That being said your free to feel as you do and be as niche as you want in tastes but temember not all of us old gamers feel like you do.
Cheers to doing as we wish.
But I do think, however, that within the niche of mmovets, there's an even smaller niche of mmovets that swallow everything being fed to them by greedy corporations posing as videogame companies and then telling the rest of the mmovets to 'chill out and smell the roses' - No offense to you sir, I'm very envious that you can call yourself an oldschool gamer and claim to have been in love with what MMORPGs were then and still be satisfied with what our choices are today. That being said, remember that there's probably a much smaller niche of players like you, who are willing to sit down, shut up and swallow without demanding retrobution for our stolen and mutated genre.
And let's not forget that none of us can simply choose what to like or dislike... we like what we like and dislike what we don't. If i could choose to like the low-thought-process arcade style child-friendly story-on-rails MMORPG's we have today, I simply would. Rhetorical question: Can you choose to like a food that you never liked before, just for the sake of not causing a fuss?
This is not a troll, flame, or anything else worth banning me over. It is simply my pure opinion, and I have a right to share it.
You missed one big point.
All those games you listed... you can go back and play. Right now.
I can't play old MMORPGs right now. Or ever again. Unless I go to an underpopulated buggy EMU.
First we do not know what percentage of old mmovets feel like I do ro feel like you and Garvon3 do.It could be that I'm a minority or you are in that minority.
Second I never said anything about keeping quiet and swallow anything but lambasting anyone who does nto feel like you do and spamming every new game that isn't to your liking with hate and vitirol isn't going to acheive anything but further alienate yourselves.Nothing wrong with letting your opinion being known but to hammer everyone over the head with it whilst throwing insults about is another story.
Third I am not fully satisfied with recent MMOs at all but it's more due to their rushed out status and bad after launch support more thna anything else.I will admit I do yearn for more freedom of choices too.Not freedom to gank everyone in sight mind you as some people equate freedom too but freedom to choose from many equally valid options to concetntrate on at any one time.But I realise that with todays production values and costs that doing so cna be prohibitively expensive in a AAA game.
To answer your rhetorical question though one shouldn't really answer such a question :You can state you do not liek the food thne choose to either leave or eat something else and can do so without raising a fuss and lashing out at those that do like the food being served.
I concede that point to you sir...that is a valid concern thoguh I would point out to play many of those games I lsited does require dos or win95 emulation...but the under population thing is harder to remedy
K I just need you to point out where in my post do I lash out at you or insult you, or any gamers for that matter.
As I try to state in my posts, now that I'm used to people getting offended very very easily, If you take offense to anything I've said, you're doing the insulting by tagging yourself enough to react. Theres nothing insulting about any of my descriptions unless one takes them as a negative because of a feeling of guilt and affiliation. For instance: Someone can say "I don't like themepark games. They are too easy." and another person can be offended by that for no other reason than the fact that they themselves enjoy themeparks and feel that calling the game easy is an insult to the player's intellect and/or abilities. So ask yourself, 'why am I offended by this?'
Now, on the point of 'lashing out' - It's called freedom of expression. Trust me, I don't go to WoW forums just to belittle the players that enjoy the game. If I didn't like the food, I wouldn't eat it, but if the food I like was taken away, changed into something else, and still called the same thing, I would complain to the chef. You're damn right.
This is not a troll, flame, or anything else worth banning me over. It is simply my pure opinion, and I have a right to share it.
I was speaking more in general about a lot of posters on these forums and others but since you asked you did inderectly insinuate that I am somehow not what I say "that you can call yourself an oldschool gamer and claim to have been in love with what MMORPGs were then and still be satisfied with what our choices are today",your wording casts doubt on my words and thus can be considered insulting.
Then there is this "there's probably a much smaller niche of players like you, who are willing to sit down, shut up and swallow without demanding retrobution for our stolen and mutated genre." a line which implies I am meek and unwillign to fight for what I beleive which is nto the truth at all...I wills tat emy lieks and dislikes liek others I just try to do so in a respectful manner and don't see the need to drive my point into the ground with constant repitition.
Then again there's this "If i could choose to like the low-thought-process arcade style child-friendly story-on-rails MMORPG's we have today, I simply would" which whilst not directed at myself specifically is implying tha anyone that does liek today's MMORPGs is childlike or of low intellect.
Now I really don't think you meant any such insult or maybe you did I can't know and wasn't gonna address thme but you did ask...
Guys, I am so drunk right now I actualy can not see any responses to my thread. I promise I will read every sitgle one in the morning. I just want to say thank you for keaping the tone of the thread really well and I love all of you, going to puke now, stay out of trouble. Also, please can somebody phone my mum?
Evercrack was my first MMO back in 2001. Wow I remembmer that crappy and clunky HUD. Nastalgic? Yes. Amazing? Not at all as far as polish and mechanics are concerned.
The game had a much different atmosphere compared to modern games however. It is something that I have never seen fully replicated in modern times. SWG is my favorite sandbox mmo of all time, and even SWG could not replicate some feelings that only the original evercrack could provide.
Though it's probably mostly nastalgia, I can say for certain that nastalgia aside, there was still a much deeper feeling to the game. I liked how it didn't really hold your hand through everything, and tutorials were equivilant to seeking help from other players or from trial by fire.
Even though I only got to about level 20 in it haha. That game took forever to level.
When you read a great book, you dont complain about the missing pictures or maps - This is made in your head.
Eq provides the environment for imagination, that many newer games doesnt. If you have low imaginative powers, you will get upset with the graphics, but if you do have you will put your own imagination into the game and making that bucket a real helmet.
As for the UI, yes it suck, and as many said instead of the umpteenth expansion they should have reinvented it. UI is one thing WoW did so well, not the default as that is as awful as eq is, but the mod possibilities.
Also eventually after so many expansions and experiments, and the comming of eq2 and wow, the game has slowly introduced game breakers amd dumbing down, bringing eq closer and closer to the modern MMO - Effectively "ruining" eq because it left its core philosophy to compete with the new, which is a hopeless attempt.
The progression server is a mix of good and bad, some important core features are ruined because they will stick with live data, but also alot of the old virtures are still there. In a perfect world they would roll everything back as it were, but that would likely cost way too much with the number players who would go.
So, join the progression server if you are a lover, and bitch about it not beeing 100% like you wanted it if you are a hater.
You mom said, you should stop playing games and become a coorperate executive - And something about police if I ever called again .. was blurred.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
I don't see where the makers of themepark games deserve such outright hatred, though. I mean, you take Rift as an example. I played Rift for about 2 hours during one of the betas just to see what all the racket was about, and it was immediately clear to me that it is a game which I will never play. I just don't enjoy that style of game, and I wish that there were fewer games following that exact on-rails style of gameplay.
But I don't despise the people who are developing Rift. I don't think there's anything evil or greedy or underhanded about what Trion is doing. A lot of people want to play a WoW clone that's prettier than WoW with more customization than WoW, in a setting other than WoW's world. I don't think it's wrong for someone to make that game for those people! I don't think the developers working on it are interested in only money, and I don't think that they have any motivation beyond creating a game that many people will love. I think they will be very pleased to receive positive feedback regarding what they have worked hard to create.
Lol! Yeah she told me about you. I think she is playing hard to get tbh.
In all seriounes I have sobrerd up a bit now. This has been a really good thread imo. Thank you to everybody who contributed:D
Many fond memories of my Enchanter and his life as a Traffic Cop......
You stop ..... You stop...... Tag that one tank, his turn to die..... reMezzin' on /t% and /t% ..... You spank it, You tank it.
At lower levels (20's) me and a friend would go outfit the Leatherfoot Halfling Camp in Nectulos with Weapons, Shields and then Buff them all to heck.
It was fun watching them equipe and use the items .......... all those poor Darkies come to level up on the 'poor' little Halflings and end up dead instead .... ahh the FUN!
Before the maps and such, going door to door in towns and zones looking for the people you were to 'talk' to further your quest.... only to find out you missed them 3 zones and a night cycle ago, because you forgot to 'phrase' your chat properly...
Milamber Blackrobes Enchanter - Rodcet Nife ('99)
Don't forget Asheron's Call, my first MMORPG.
I'd argue that DAoC was the better game, against EQ. Simply because, in EQ you had only one objective, get loot and raid. Eventually people would grow bored and it'd become necessary to increase the level cap and add more raids.
While DAoC lacked the PvE depth of EQ, it had enough of it, and the PvP side of the game allowed for content to be spread out. Instances were never needed because there were plenty of distractions for players, and items were fairly balanced, making it so there wasn't one specific item everyone camped(the vast majority of the time).
If they could remake DAoC pre ToA and mix in EQ's amazing PvE depth, faction system and level design, I think you'd have the perfect theme park MMO.
Tis true. You do make some good points but, there's a reason nobody is in those old MMOs anymore. They're either not supported by the devs, or they've patched it to "keep up with the times", alienating their own fans. This just leaves the games empty of players, development, and it doesn't even resemble its old self, so you can't go back to it.
In all honesty, while many people like the aspect of PvP, i'm looking for a purely PvE centric game atm. everquest pvp was restricted to a couple servers and was sketchy at best. But with pvp comes class ability restrictions due to "overpoweredness" which leads to less creativity. I want classes to feel different, have different roles, and people to discover different ways to kill things. PvP just seems to mess a lot of stuff up in a fantasy rpg setting. Just my 2cents.
Just logged off of Fippy. doubt I'll ever go back. I just can't get over the antiquated mechanics from that era. Call me spoiled or what have you, but modern MMO's while not growing in depth, they sure have grown in ease of use/accessability and gotten rid of a TON of tedious sadistic mechanics.
Amazing too the amount of people who are playing EQ just to stay in the past and live in Nostalgic moments. To each their own I guess, but I couldn't really find enjoyment in the game today. I don't have any nostalgia for it , so that's probably a very large factor and playing it made having my teeth pulled seem more exciting.
It reminds me of the pre 2000 years when I was playing online card games while in a chat room. I'm so glad the genre has been improved from then to now. Amazing.