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Does it sadden any of you when you return to an old mmorpg?
Varny
Member Posts: 765
I mean for me mmorpgs hold such special nostalgic memories of the past and how everything used to be better. Like returning to your home town when you were a child and how summers always seemed warmer and brighter when you were a kid. For me mmorpgs give me that same feeling from the ones I was fond of.
I play a SWG and at the time it launched I was 17 or 18 and going through that time in your life when you experience a lot of thing for the first time and have that first heart breaking G/F lol. So like a Song that you used to love and can't play anymore because of her, I also put games to parts of my life that were meaningful. When I try to go back to them, not only am I pissed off that the developer ruined them but I can never like them again due the nostalgia of my past making me wish I could go back.
I remember with Planetside coming out and dropping out of school just so I could play it 24/7 and spending the whole summer of 2003 in my room playing that game. Memories of giant battles amazing me and grouping up with friends and doing a kamikaze into the crowd of people waiting at the vehicle terms in my Reaver. I put that game to all the Music I loved back then and the relationships I had and loving my life as the new youth without responsibilities. It just makes me sad to go back to the game and I can never player properly ever again.
I remember Everquest 2 beta and how I got 2 invites so I gave one to my friend and we loved that game in beta. There was only one server so it was crowded with like 6 versions of laggy Antonica and just had amazing grouping experiences doing quests together. We couldn't wait to see what they added each patch and the developers doing special events all the time. The game just was so crowded and felt so much better because there was only the one server. Then they announced it was launching in two weeks and the game was nowhere near ready and didn't even have things like PVP or Mailboxes in yet when WoW did. They tried to make the Human females look better but ended up making them look like they were on drugs and launched with 20 odd servers. A few weeks later the game was dead and everyone left for WoW cause SOE launched the game unfinished. I still don't get why they needed so many servers because all they had to do was keep cloning zones.
So now where I go back to EQ2 I just get reminded of what coulda been and how crowded it was in beta and how dead the game is now, badly needing a server merge. I just remember my nostalgic feelings of going through all the old dungeons that wern't instanced and I loved that experience. Much better than having them isntanced and being in small groups. Like in CL you had the wailing caves and the other one which were fun and in Antonica you had that upside down castle thing.
In Star Wars Galaxies I always have the memories of when the game had mounts and being in the cities and seeing all the creatures animate and making sounds. They gave the city so much life and I love that and how people were selling mounts. i loved how people would stand outside starter cities and help out new players and I just loved the community back then as they were all so friendly. Now it's a shadow of it's former self and just saddens me.
This makes me wonder if anyone else has these same feelings?
Comments
I did this when I went back to DAOC for a small times with the classic servers. However I wasnt sad at all. It felt good to fight in DAOC once more. I feel more sad I have to move on.
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
I wouldn't know, I don't go back to MMOs. If I leave, I do so for a good reason. Either I've grown to dislike the game, I've gotten bored with it or some other reason. If I have a good reason to leave, I have no good reason to ever go back. The only exception I might make is a major overhaul that fixed the issues that made me leave in the first place, at which point it's really a different game with the same name.
What's the point in leaving if you're just going to go back?
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
I agree with the above poster, when i quit a game im gone for good. Up until this point i've never gone back to a game i quit, the only game i see myself making an exception to this would be wow with the new expansion plus i wouldn't say i really quit the game, just got bored of themeparks.
Yeah, I played SWG on Tempest back in 2004... I played for hours upon hours upon hours. There was such an awesome community there and everyone knew everyone else. I was one of those that stood outside of towns helping the newcomers; it was a lot of fun.
Unfortunately Sony royally FUBAR'd that game. What a shame, as it had so much potential. I went back to take a look a few months ago. Servers are mostly empty, but running around brought back some fond memories, but ultimately sadness at the emptiness of it all.
I agree with the above poster, when i quit a game im gone for good. Up until this point i've never gone back to a game i quit, the only game i see myself making an exception to this would be wow with the new expansion plus i wouldn't say i really quit the game, just got bored of themeparks.
Ditto. When I go I go. WOW was the only MMO that made me want to buy an expansion pack.
I go back to an older game to see how things are and see some familiar names and after getting bored a week later wonder how these wack jobs have continued to waste their time in said game, then uninstall and move on with life.
OP, you really dropped out of school to play a MMO?
Really?
Katsma is Lithuanian for 'he who drinks used douche fluid'.
I've only really "gone back" like this twice, once in EQ, and once in UO. Fortunately, I haven't gone back to UO since they really started beating the hell out of it. The first time was pretty nice, I found the old guild hall and even found one of the old guild members as apparently it was still around although with drastically different membership. The 2nd time was much more sobering when I found the old guild house was gone )=
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
i know what you mean i used to raid molten core in wow when i was 10 with my dad im 15 now and id quit for the burning crusade then i playyed and raided wotlk and now ive quit for good. i know what you mean by holding ties i had good friends i just left and fond memories but i guess life moves on and i hope to find simillar experiences in swtor.
-Act
The problem with MMOs is they are all destroyed after being expanded on. It is almost like the creative awesome developers that make the game leave and hack of developers are left to run all MMOs in the ground. Sad really that so many great games are ruined. Everquest, World of Warcraft, LOTRO, etc etc .. all have been ruined with expansions.
Great single player hits can still be played but MMOs are ruined.
I would't say sad. Sad is a word I use for stronger more important emotions. However I know what you are talking about. There is a certain forlorn silence that is felt when you play an older game. The same feeling that you get when you entre an abandoned building, or when you finally finish a long series of books (eg: Song of Ice and Fire, or whatever). It's a muted sense of loss or a gentle haunting perse. For me this feeling is a classic trademark of a well realized story or environment. So no your not alone in this; you will find me and many others walking the lonely halls of the worlds of yesterday musing at things come to pass.
FINBAR
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As I understand it, that is exactly what happens. After launch, a different team of developers (the B team) will take over from the original team (the A team), to run the MMO and build the expansions. The team that takes over is generally less talented and less experienced, with the original devs moving on to work on the next (bigger and brighter) MMO. There are individual developers who are exceptions and for various reasons might elect to stay with expanding the game they designed.
A large gaming studio will have its best and brightest and most experienced devs working on the new MMO, where they are really needed, not the old, launched mmo.
Great question, Varny!
Lately I've been bouncing back and forth between City of Heroes/City of Villans and Lord of the Rings Online, wondering if it was possible to recapture some of the magic and wonder I felt playing these games for the first time. Sadly, it hasn't worked out that way. Even though you leave a MMO, in-game life goes on. The people you used to quest with go onto other games. Guilds dissolve. Real-life issues force players to cut back on game time or get out of MMO's completely.
When I resubbed to Lord of the RIngs Online a few months back the kinship I was in (never a large one to begin with) had become a ghost of its former self. It broke my heart to see that people I used to game with practically every night hadn't signed on in months. I managed to track down 3 kinmates and while we did do some active questing, we recently went our separate ways.
My City of Heroes experience was even sadder. You never forget your first MMO and CoH was mine. When the game went live the group of people I had PnP RPG'd with ("Champions" was the game of choice) jumped right in. This was 4 years ago. Like LOTRO, the group split up (some amicably, some very less so) and today the supergroup mainly consists of a few people with very many alts. I reactivated my account a few months ago to partake in the upcoming Winter Festival but chances are I'll probably cancel it once it's done. I'm hoping to get a new rig soon that will allow me to play more graphics-intensive MMO's, as my current PC is 4 years old and is sadly un-upgradable. I have a feeling that once the new pc is up and running, I'll be done with CoX and LOTRO for a long time, maybe for good.
So yeah, returning to an old mmorpg is like trying to rekindle an old romance - you want the magic to be there but in the end you're going to have to face the fact that it's never going to be as good as it was the first time around.
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. - Marie Curie
I won't go back to a MMO that I have left. If I stoped playing and quit, it was for a good reason. It's like if I break up with an annoying GF, I'm not going to take her back ... she's still annoying.
We all need priorities in life...
Sometimes, depends on the changes that have occurred. I think the only MMO that I have played and never tried again was FFXI, but I'm not sure why I haven't gotten around to going back to that one, yet. Game altering changes like SWG and the NGE as well as the fiasco that went with it is one of the few times I have never returned to a game.
I know I usually don't play an MMO for more than a month at most. The only exceptions have been EQ, EvE, and CoH. Even then the reasons I left those were because of other MMO launches.
I had that same feeling for Planetside. I remember that when the first time I ever set eyes on it, I felt like it was the best thing I had ever witnessed and ever would see. Now, I try to look at it again and it feels like a there is a giant void in my heart. I want to love it again, and I want it to be the same as it was back in 2003. I yearn for that feeling everyday and have an obsession with the MMO genre because of it, hoping that one of these games someday will bring that feeling back. Unfortunately, the quest has been an unforgiving road of lies and torment.
I have come to accept and cope with it. In fact, I am petty sure that feeling is similar to what it feels like when you have your first hit of crack cocaine. Druggies always go back to it hoping to get that 1st time high again.
Sometimes I do go back to the games I played but just for about an hour or so, just visiting the personal shops and doing some window shopping, sometimes I go for a few rounds in PVP just to test if I still have the skills hehehe. I don't feel sad about it though because everytime I log in my character there is always a warm welcome from old friends who still play the game. I feel happy and still attached to the game.
As I understand it, that is exactly what happens. After launch, a different team of developers (the B team) will take over from the original team (the A team), to run the MMO and build the expansions. The team that takes over is generally less talented and less experienced, with the original devs moving on to work on the next (bigger and brighter) MMO. There are individual developers who are exceptions and for various reasons might elect to stay with expanding the game they designed.
A large gaming studio will have its best and brightest and most experienced devs working on the new MMO, where they are really needed, not the old, launched mmo.
Well I disagree that they are not needed working on the "old" launched mmo. These games are meant to last a long while, and with the past jobs of running all of them into the ground .. I say we need the experienced developers more than ever keeping them the same great game that launched.
How'd I know you were gonna be talking about SWG? :P
Every time I retry SWG(about every 6 months), it's a horribly sad experience. NO ONE I knew is still playing.
I think that experience you had with the game changes as time goes on because of numerous factors, partially people you know eventually leave, game content changes, the game becomes repetative, or you just eventually become bored. I know exactly what you mean by remembering the sensation/feeling of how it used to be and wanting to experience that again. The biggest thing about that though, is your not exactly the same person you were then.
I have played more MMO's then I can list. I remember playing WoW during the closed beta, and thought it was simply amazing how they seemed to take all the things I enjoyed about other MMO's and combined them into one game, It was very addicting and over time it lost that feeling. With expansions it would kinda stretch that out a bit keeping it from getting completely boring for a little bit longer, but then eventually I would cancel my sub, and look for something else. Trying other games out there, not being happy with them, I would go back, play for a while. It would seem like I was grasping at straws at that point, It would keep my interest for a very very short time and then I would quit again.
The one game that was probably more fun then any other game and held my interests longer then any other game was Diablo2. I remember calling in to work and telling them I was sick a few times because I was just having soo much fun playing that I didn't want to stop. I remember having a great time with friends on that game. I remember trading various weapons/armor and sojs for better gear, always working to improve my characters gear. Challenging or being challenged to duels. Running the secret cow level (which really wasn't all that secret.) Since then I have never found a game that was even close to being that fun. I do know that it would be of little to no interest now if I were to try and go back.
The quest to find a game that was truly that much fun continues....
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
I have to say i have had this experience with a number of games, most of all including diablo2 and myth of soma.
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Myth of soma has been dead for years now however there is always a private server of sorts around although they are awful and just create a sad experience of a game i loved and played pretty steadily for a while :P.
Diablo2, a game almost everyone has played and i personally played for years just seems too overpowered now and lacks the attention and updates blizzard needs to give it
Reply to me if any of you have had similary expierences with these 2 games inparticular
i dont necessarily get sad, but absolutely do get nostalgic. sometimes ill be sitting in class zoned out and get the old cotswald village song stuck in my head from DAOC. it is sad, however, as many posters have said, that we must move on. it is especially sad to me that we are moving on, it seems, in a dire direction for MMOs in general
The above statement is the part that i will never agree with and cannot logically put any support behind.
I have had the same experiences which is why i don't ususally go back to a game if ti's been more then 6 months.
I do the same thing every now and then when SOE sends out the free play time to entice veterans to return. The most enjoyable part is the nostalgia from installing the game again with the original discs. Once I get ingame and see what the dwindling community is like (if you can call a dozen or so players a community), I usually give up.