A general gamer and DAOC Player Review:

Comaf

FEEL FREE TO SKIP TO THE WHITE PORTION BELOW TO GET THE IMMEDIATE POINT OF THIS POST

 

I was on the fence about this title but bought it after a few weeks of reading pros and cons.  I wanted to support this title.  But I feel I should warn like minded folks who don't have the $59.99 to drop on this vs say, paying for a utility bill. 

 

About me:  married, over 40, kids, etc.

Briefly, I am waiting for Camelot Unchained, and playing Dark Age of Camelot (free server).  I have been playing Dark Age since 2002 fairly regularly so a free server serves my purpose.  I will try any title that boasts grouping through content, in order to promote that ever elusive mmorpg feel. 

 

I have had a bit of fun on a few pvp servers in WoW since 2004, explored Lord of the Rings Online up to Moria, loved Vanguard, Saga of Heroes, Asheron's Call 1 and 2 (and even the return of AC 2 took a bit of my life for a while), Age of Conan, stumbled through Rift a while, and I wish Shadowbane was still up and running, along with a few other titles, and so forth.

 

I am a huge fan of organized PvP.  I love grouping with folks and attempting to out think other player groups.  I love grouping with folks in Pve and just leveling up with a huge amount of time spent just socializing and learning to work as a team in pve with said players.  I don't mind role playing, though you won't catch me sputtering broken Shakespearian to a Twilight theme at an in game tavern.

 

Finally, the point in an mmoRPG in my opinion, is the role playing element of the RPG part, and grouping with the MMO or massively multiplayer part.  Otherwise, why not just play Fable or Skyrim or such?

 

So enter ESO, a game where you will and can literally quest to the end.  Matt Firor (developer) stated this as intentional (feel free to google his interviews).  He wanted players to feel heroic and get a Skyrim feel in an mmorpg.  He succeeded at that, I do believe this.

 

Only a few dungeons are along the way and there is the option at level 10 to see your stats upped so you can go to the massive pvp zone they offer.  But here's the rub - there is no inspiration to group.  You get a 10% xp bonus, even if someone logs off and you are solo, but other than that, unless folks just happen to be on your exact same quest line, it's just soloing while chit chatting in guild to other soloers.

 

HOWEVER: this is NOT why I play mmorpgs.  I want folks showing up to my group and I want to be able to explore a world and take out packs of mobs while we get to know each other in this fantasy adventure world we might spend years in. 

 

I barely handled the quest only aspect in WoW - luckily dungeon finder, as piss poor as it is in regards to meeting folks, it a way to at least group through some form of content.  It's a bandaid for a game that lacks social infrastructure.  ESO has no bandaid other than the pvp zone which is just zerg v zerg or a ton of folks playing with the hide button and popping some flavor of the month combination of dps.

 

ESO has a group finder flagging option.  What's the point?  Meet me for X quest, part 4, volume 3?  Nonsense. 

 

If a title does not inspire socialization in actual groups, then it dies on the spot in my humble opinion.  What was the point of spending $200,000,000 on a title that turned into a solo adventure?  They would have been better off calling this a co-op game, but even that would have been far from the truth. 

 

However, if you want a title that is well made in regards to the closest thing you'll find to a personal adventure, but you still like to see folks running around soloing as well, then go for it.  The quests are well done in Age of Conan fashion with full voice overs.  But what I wanted was to see people in my group, not folks that have no way of exploring the world when I do.  What a shame.  What a waste of something that could have been amazing.

 

My thoughts.

prowesss

I'm PMing you a link to a Shadowbane server.

Comaf

Originally posted by prowesss
I'm PMing you a link to a Shadowbane server.

I appreciate it but if you are referring to the EMU, then I fear it might never be   ty though

prowesss

SBEmu is up and running but it's extremely buggy...  the link I sent you is fantastic.