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Any Regrets on missing an early MMORPG?
Kyleran
Member LegendaryPosts: 44,059
I got to thinking, one nice thing about early MMORPG's was you could easily spend a year or two in them, in my situation my pre-WOW MMO's were Lineage 1, DAOC, Shadowbane, Lineage 2 in that order.
As such, I really missed out on playing many of the classic titles during their heyday, and while I'd really have loved to try most of the other titles on my list, it would be real challenge between UO, AC1 and SWG as each had their own unique flavor to add to the genre.
I'll have to think about it some more to vote in my own poll for now, but I thought I'd find out what title they didn't really get to play (outside of a quick trial) but would have like to.
As always, 10 slots is never enough (I wanted to add Shadowbane) and I did try to keep the list to pre-WOW titles. (and yes, I know I missed EVE, but one might argue it's still in it's heyday so get out there and play) 
Bonus points if you are still playing any of them. (sorry SWG fans, you're out of luck on this one) 
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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Comments
I played them all so there's no regrets about that... there are a few I regret having wasted my time on though in that list.
Lineage 1 was a pure waste of time I didn't play long, so was FFXI.
But EQ1 and DAoC come close second as utterly boring and I played them way too long, a mistake I wouldn't repeat nowadays. I regret having wasted months playing those instead of playing the excellent UO or AC1.
My computer is better than yours.
Ocassionally a little curiosity, but no regrets.
EQ2 fan sites
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
I regret not trying DAOC the most; and to some extent, vanilla WoW. After all, I had been a fan of Blizzard since its earliest days (Orcs & Humans, Diablo I). Although I never played play SWG, I received daily updates from a coworker who played the sh!t out of it; so I felt like I was there, too.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Deeply regret not trying SWG also.
I had not gotten over how my first MMO, E and B, abruptly ended and I was leery of starting another one just for that reason. And of course SWG came out at almost precisely that time. In fact it was a long time before I did try another MMO. I guess what I mainly regret is that I let that incident keep me from playing for as long as it did.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
Oh big time.
The regret is mitigated because DAoC was an amazing MMO. But, I missed the boat on 3 great sandboxes.
Ultima Online I've read so many stories about, and played so many...versions..of it that I feel like I know what it must have been like and I'm truly sad I was too young to get in on that one.
Asheron's Call, again at the time it was out I was reading the lore, watching videos about it, reading player stories, it sounds like it is the only MMO to date that has really nailed how storyline should work in an MMO. The monthly storyline events that would evolve with the playerbase... That is how stories should be done. I'm sad I didn't play it.
And SWG I actually did play, 3-4 times, so I'm only a little upset there. The first time I left was for the horrible buggy launch. The second time was because, honestly, I didn't take the time to find a good group of players. I tried soloing and I tried a PUG once and didn't get hooked. The game was so complicated I really needed a community to show me the ropes and I never made the effort to seek those people out. The last time I left was because the Jedi system had been figured out and everyone was playing as one.
So in a way, I didn't miss SWG, but I never played Jump to Lightspeed, and it sounds like that's what I wanted from an MMO.
All the rest since then? I have plenty of regrets on how things turned out. How Middle Earth Online got a lobotomy and became LotRO in alpha, how AoC became WoW after WoW raiding guilds alpha tested it and said it was too hard. How Vanguard lost most of its unique features before launching because they were too deep for most people... Bah.
I would have liked to have played SW:G back in the day. I remember seeing it as it was being developed, but something just never caught my eye about it. I was also having a blast in EQ at the time and that was taking up most of my free time
I liked UO's game play ideas and mechanics, but the 2d view is unplayable for me, who likes to see as much of my surroundings as possible. I have the same trouble with the old Neverwinter Nights single player game.
Asheron's Call sounds interesting from what some posters have said. I am not sure about that one, though
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
I think that without actually playing an early pioneer game ,players won't know what they missed ,so probably have no worries about it.
IMO FFXI is a really big game that in it's vanilla stage was a game that would have changed everyone's thinking on PVE MMORPG's.Sadly it is no longer the same game,like all the other games,streamlined for speed leveling to make sure everyone is up to par to buy each new xpac.
I have tried pretty much every game that was anybody,i don't feel there was too much to miss there,with perhaps an exception to SWG but the graphics were so bad,i couldn't handle playing it.
Personally unless you were to go back and play vanilla FFXI,there is no reason to look back,newer games like FFXIV offer advanced graphics and the same type game play minus the pvp of course.Pvp does not make a game at all,unless of course that is all it offers ,example CCP's Eve.
I say move forward and don't look back,there was a lot of weak game design,weak graphics not much content outside of questing and leveling and crafting.
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People, people....
Hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20
Do people not remember all the PLENTITUDE of issues with SWG? Seriously? How downright buggy awful it was? No one? NGE was the best thing that could have ever happened to it as it spurred the masses into an ANTI-NGE storm. It was a reinvigoration.
I also remember UO and by today's standards people would be pissed. Open a chest in the woods? Dead. Open a chest in a harpy infested dungeon? Dead. Collecting mats to cast spells? People would be in an uproar.
EQ1... the boat trips were SOOOOOOOOOO long. TRAIIIIIINNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See, I remember lots of stuff about my many (unfortunately, as I'm getting older and realizing just how old I've become) games... I also remember how terrible or bad they were at the time. But that's with a perspective of TODAY. Does anyone remember how much time they spent getting some of the more badass items in EQ1? I spent HOURS and HOURS camping for a bow... to have the mob spawn and someone jump in and steal it... then sit through 10 garbage spawns waiting for it to pop again. Where the hell did I have that time? Exactly. I couldn't have worked and done that.
Let's not look through the rear-view mirror...
For me, on a certain level, it was Everquest 1. Which is what I voted.
I would always pick up the boxes as there was a large display at my local "Circuit City" but the graphics/art design were a huge turn off for me.
It wasn't until Lineage 2 that I was tempted to try and actually purchase an mmo.
Still, I love hearing the old Everquest stories and the "type" of game it was had an appeal.
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No. None since I played EQ1 from pretty early on and I have no real illusions on what the quality of the games that are listed were actually like since I tried a few of them in their heyday. The only thing I regret or miss about any of these games are not the games themselves, which for the most part were pretty unremarkable, but the communities that were built around them.
I selected SWG. I recall I passed on it at launch because I read about all the issues it had. Sometime later I watched a couple of friends play and was intrigued, By the time I actually got around to it though, it was already in the CU phase. I got some enjoyment out of it, but bailed when the NGE hit.
I did play both AC1 and AO from launch. AC1 was the first MMO I played and it was glorious for the time, back in 1999. I played for about 2 years and really enjoyed the storyline and the huge world. Then AO came out and I survived its horrible launch to when it became quite a good game. Back in those days I figured skill-based games were the norm (AC1 was skill-based, AO had classes but you could spend points to raise any stats and skill-groups, with cost based on class). When DAoC came out, it was the first truly class-based game I played. Had enormous fun there too. I tried EQ1 after I'd played DAoC and gave up after the free month.
Never played UO. Never played Lineage 1. Tried FFXI but it was not at all solo friendly. Jumped into EQ2 at launch and enjoyed it a lot, but they began to change it to try to capture the crowd that was swept up with the WOW juggernaut. I actually avoided WOW until about a year after its launch, then gave it a try with some friends. They chose a PvP server though, so I eventually got tired of the gankers and gave up.
As of now, by my count I've played or tried over 40 MMOs, but very few post-2007 really touch the ones that were out a decade ago for complexity and the communities that played them.
I often wish I had been in the MMO scene while UO was relevant. That would have been a cool initial perspective to have.
As it stands, FFXI was my first MMO, which I played from vanilla through COP, or about a year and a half. After that, I switched to WoW shortly after its release. There was some overlap between the two games for a while, but that was mostly because I was entrenched in the FFXI endgame at the time and was quite dedicated to my linkshell. I was unwilling to let it go. Otherwise, it rapidly became clear WoW was the game I found much more appealing. Compared to WoW, I ultimately decided FFXI sucked at pretty much everything.
Despite this, however, I still value my experience with FFXI. At the very least, it broadened my scope of MMO designs, provided me with insight to a different MMO era, and granted me perspective for how the genre was evolving. I assume having played games like UO or EQ would fill much the same role, which I can appreciate. I would hope, however, that if I had played those games for years prior, that I would still have been receptive to WoW when it came out because I had a really great time in that game for many years that I would have hated to miss out on. I know I see a lot of insanely jaded classic MMO gamers who seem to take an unhealthy primal pride in their degree of "old-school-ness," and, as a result, seem to not have enjoyed a single game over the last decade. That would suck.
You just contradicted yourself. You're saying we should be able to see clearer in hindsight.
In any case, I would love what you just described.
Sounds good to me, too. I'm not sure I would've liked the grindy parts of UO, but I sure would've liked to try it in its heyday. I did play it for a while and it was quite impressive, but dated and dying already.
I think I would of liked to have tried horizons back in its hayday ( if you could call it that ). People still list it as one of the best crafting mmos of all time. I would of liked to have seen that in action while the game was still alive.
Everything else I missed have have no regrets. I still have no interest in any of the ones I never played so I guess I made the right choice at the time.