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Whats the single greatest thing you miss from the old school MMO's?
Zylaxx
Member Posts: 2,574
For me it has got to be near endless horizontal progression. Playing Asherons Call for years and never reaching the level cap. Having something to always strive for in character progression that didnt include gear or having to group with 80 other individuals is what I miss the most.
Ohh how I would love to have a classless based MMO which used a combination of Asherons Call experience based skill system with TSW's skill deck building system.
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
Comments
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
AC had a ton for great ideas and they updated every month twas a great game.
I think no max level with easier requirements one when you are capabable of being an asset was critical to that game being fun and that it was massive.
Couldn't agree more!
I played AC in beta(on the Red server) and I actually still play it because no game gives the challenge or sense of accomplishment I feel when playing AC. I also like having control of every aspect of my character development via the skill system in place in AC. Yes, I even like making my own missile ammo, and health pots/food.
The biggest thing though, the sense of being in a world and not an arcade leveling treadmill.
If I could have a new version of AC or UO(to be honest I'd still keep playing the old versions too, lol), I'd be there in a minute and I think many old school gamers would be too.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
A sense of danger.
EQ1, AC1, Shadowbane
All made it difficult to die. It was actually something you didn't want to do.
Today's mmo's - dieing means nothing.
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
Huge raids. Like 60 man raids. To me its the pinnacle of 'massively multiplayer' and MMO's just keep moving away from it.
Thing is I imagine people who never really played those think its just 20-24 man raids but with 3x the problems but it wasn't. Seems to me most of the distasteful things that people see in raiding now is from shrinking their size.
Being so incredibly elititst and partcular about who does what and how well just wasn't as needed when you could fit some 60-70 people in a raid. 'Sitting' or even swapping out players because they were different classes fo raid make ups was unheard of. Even high end raid guilds would still have 2-3 of what was the percieved as the worst class in the game in raids every night. With such huge raid sizes you actually got a bit of plus/minus play for those last two groups. 6 people not show up? No problem. 5-6 people don't show up for one raid with these small sizes it's probable people will start leavng the guild outright, at the very least a bunch of drama will ensue.
Games are trying to make these 'pick up raid' mechanics for huge content like RIFT and GW2 but its more of a gimmick than a pillar of the games design. I'd love for these huge player events to be the top end, end all content dropping equal to or outright best gear. Instead they are treated like a little fun thing to do between the 'hardcore' small group runs.
Things I miss from DAoC (pre-ToA, 2001-2003):
No instances. Everything was open world.
No in-game maps. I actually had to memorize the lands to not get lost.
Death costed a good chunk of exp. You were forced to group up to exp at a good rate.
Long duration CC. It made PvP unpredictable and skill and timing mattered(even in PvE).
You couldn't button mash.
No global cooldown timer.
Open world PvP was the main focus of the game.
my review of GW2
A community. Needing others. Being needed.
Hold me.
_____________________________
"Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit"
Most memorable games: AoC(Tryanny PvP), RIFT, GW, GW2, Ragnarok Online, Aion, FFXI, FFXIV, Secret World, League of Legends (Silver II rank)
Honestly, it would be the anticipation of seeing what the next MMO is going to offer. The new experience feeling.
Most new games nowadays are so similar, and have such a huge amount of pressure put on them by both the publishers and the fans, that it ruins the experience a lot of the times. I miss when people would treat each game like a new experience, instead of debating to death how it stacks up to old ones.
From what I remember, some of the dungeons were instanced, just other players outside your group could enter and see you in there.
I think Darkness Falls was the coolest thing about DAoC. I have been wanting something like that in every game I play.
I stopped playing the game around the release of Shrouded Isles, so not sure what whent on after that.
I hate the CC in the game though. Maybe fun for the dudes with the CC, but damn annoying for everyone else.
PvP wasn't really open world either. More restricted to certain areas. I don't recall ever seeing an enemy player in my homeland.
The game was fun for it's time(better than EQ imo) but I try not to look at anything with rose tinted glasses.
DAoC RvR
Oh how i lived for my time as a Ranger/Scout/Hunter (yes i played on all 3 realms) I loved to stealth up and creap along the back of a keep take or zerg and try to take out the weak healers or soft casters. That was all before ToA made everyone so OP.
The lack of instancing was nice as that is how you meet (people good and bad) if you did not know how to handle something in the game you could actually stand aside and see it done.
So wish they would just bring DAoC up to date and turn down the ToA crap :-(
Well two things I miss, one that was a artifact of the times, one that could be repeated. The one that could be repeated, like EQ, was to have "factions" which weren't locking. A dark elf adventurer could still group with a high elf adventurer. Sure they generally could never visit the same cities(besides freeport usually), but when it came to killing random monsters, who cares who you were. Personally I am a tad sick of welp you're an Orc, therefor you're enemies with the human, or whatever example you want from something outside of WoW.
The other thing, which was a product of the times, was the unknown in EQ. Sure there were some fansites like EQatlas, Alakazam, and one other which name escapes me, but the game still had mystery. Maybe it was because I was 13, but things like rumors of a kraken or something like it in Lake Rathe, the lack of a map and learning land marks and all that stuff was just cool. Don't get me wrong, I still happily use Mr. Map, but still, back then it still gave mystery. Not every location had to be used for some kill x amount of mobs quest, click x amount of items etc. Some stuff just had some mobs, no quests tying lore, just a bandit/dervish/skeleton/etc camp. It sort of left it up to me to come to my own conclusion on why it existed.
Heck despite the convince of instances and getting the item I want sooner, I actually liked public dungeons in a way. Gave a sense of several other players in the world, danger(from trains....which is more of a love/hate thing...or just nostalgeia.)
But since you said one thing....guess I would go with the first thing I gave since its something they could actually implement and isn't greatly linked to nostalgeia.
This, even though i wouldnt say its my personal ONE thing (that would be more just the feeling of a "world" that EQ gave, i'll explain later.
But what Kendane said is so true, one of the best things about EQ was the faction system, none of this 2 faction crap where you cant group with each other. Even history has shown the worlds biggest enemies could in fact work together against a common enemy, etc.
The other INSANELY awesome thing i miss from EQ's faction system was that YOU COULD CHANGE IT. If you wanted to spend 100 hours slaughtering the dark elves most hated enemy as a human, you could build your faction up enough to where they wouldnt kill you on the spot, an instead just be eyeballing you. If you kept at it you could even make them like you.
The faction system used to allow for great things. Even though as a human paladin i could group with a dark elf necromancer, I as a paladin used to go and kill newbie guards in neriak (dark elf newbie area) for experience and generally just to annoy the new players who now have no guards to save them. But it was in line with the lore of the game which is what made it great.
Now my person thing would be the feeling of a world EQ gave. Unfortunately people have become so lazy they would never tolerate things like EQ did. For example Kithicor Forest, if you werent high enough level and you got there when it was night time, you had to sit and wait until day to run through it, or you could try and do it at night but you would probably die since all the nasty mobs came out at night.
But in todays games with portals every 200meters, and mounts that make you run 250% faster, can fly, and have butterflies shoot out of their ass, you simply have no feeling of a world. None whatsoever.
I actually miss having to run for 5 minutes to get to the dungeon entrance. That wasnt a grind to me. All this porting and insta this and insta that makes me friggin sick.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
It's a tie between GM controlled Bael' Zharon wreaking havoc around the world, and fizzling away comps trying to figure out the correct taper combinations on a new spell. "Damnit, not my last scarab."
You don't know what an instance is. google it
Also there were PvP servers where you could PvP everywhere except the 3 cities.
Only people who were bad at PvP hated the CC.
my review of GW2
I went back to AC 2 months after my Rift experience ended in my disdain for all things WoW clone, Rift was the first game that opened my eyes to the way developers copy and emulate something till its a pitiful excuse for its original implementation. I continued to play AC again, religiously till last November when my Patron decided to call it a career and I had no one left to duo with. I would still be there if AC actually had a thriving popualtion but the lack of a playerbase made the game impossible to continue. Ohh the good ole times!
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
Actually dieing means alot in typical linear threadmill themepark games, it means fast travel! HAHA but thats not what you mean so I agree.
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.