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A life spent online: a brief history of online games.

darkblightdarkblight Member UncommonPosts: 55

I am currently 24, and I have played online computer games for a majority of my life. Not sure why, but I feel a need to start at the beggining and go through the games I have played with my opinons on each... I feel it may be helpfull because I think I know what I am talking about when it comes to MMO's.

I will post this starting with the first game I played (i was around 14) and end it with my most recent game... any ones at are unfamiliar you can do a quick google search for if you have any intrest in playing.

SUBSPACE AKA CONINUUM

The first online game i ever played, and in my opinon still a great game. I got it from one of those demo disks that comes with PC gamer around 1994. The game simply put is arena based online PVP only asteroids. The games graphics, which are 2d and rather simple are not what made the game great, rather it was the physics engine and the way the game kept stats and posted bi-weekly score "reset" winners. The game was originaly programmed by Jeff P working for V.I.E who was later bought. Jeff P went onto Sony Online and made a clone for them, Cosmic Rift, and a 2d army men shooter type game called Infantry. I will explain infantry a lil better but Cosmic Rift was simply a re-release of Subspace with new graphics and a few tweeks. Subspace/Continuum is currently free to download and play , and I would recomend playing the Chaos Zone server, it has the classic ship settings.

Ultima Online

In my opinon the first, and one of the greatest online-only games every made. At the time I got this I was still using the old chuggy dial up, and sitting on the shelf in Babbages oposite to UO was Meridian 59. UO looked a lil cooler, so I never picked up Meridian... I think i made a good choice.
Ultima Online was a amazing game.. it was truely a world where you had alot of freedom to do what you wanted to (IN THE BEGGING, GAME HAS BEEN MAJORLY CHANGED SINCE THEN). One of the things I loved about UO was that you could do what you wanted.... if you were willing to accept the consequences. Dont like someone? You could lead them out of town and murder them, hell its even possible to murder someone in town... just have to make sure they dont call guards or anyone else does, BUT it is possible.
I loved the skill system... instead of levels the more you actually "used" a skill, the more it went up. This just made more sense to me. Loved the fact that the game has real estate and that space was limited, making larger house's almost impossible to ever have. The games PVP was also pretty cool, in that you had many spells, a few you would use alot, and a bunch more that could be very usefull in the right situation... like making a lil brick wall for 30 seconds... seems useless untill you got 5 guys chasing you down a hallway with a door, you block them off and escape to freedom...
This game also had GREAT roleplaying.. player run towns, people who role played orcs or city officals.. and the l33t speak crowd even role played in their own way... they were all murders, kept away from the towns and thus could only play with their l33t speak friends. Very cool game but I would not recomend it to anyone now, its too differnt and its a dieing game.

Ever Quest

Played it for a week. Came out around same time UO was out, was a lil prettier graphics wise but no where near as deep. Was all about leveling.. no real estate... no bands of murders taking over a area of the game... just kinda sucked in general imo

Lineage

I actually kinda liked this... played it for only couple weeks while in Beta, was created to mirror UO in alot of ways. Loved the idea but was mostly a Korean player base so i never felt that it was worth spending money to play.

Asherons Call 1

Traded some uo gold (75k) for a pre paid 2 month account with a level 15 something something... liked the idea of the game, liked how it had pvp... seemed pretty cool but I never really got into it. Did not run great on the computer I had at the time and seemed like you would be in town and some uber high level guy would run in and kill every person in it. Kinda like the idea of getting to that point eventually but never really wanted to invest the time to do it, maybe if i had of had a friend to play with would of liked it a lil bit more. Beta tested the sequel.. awfull awfull game.

Eve Online

Never paid to play it which is a plus. I was really interested in it because of my love of SupSpace/ Contiuum ( cool a SUBSPACE MMO!!) but to be honest the game is really confusing to me and I am a MMO vet... just couldnt grasp how to get around what to do... and the tutorial went on FOREVER... just didnt seem very new player friendly but the graphics were pretty good and i hear good things about it, but I have moved onto bigger and better things now.

Diablo 1 and 2

Diablo 1 was a ok single player game, online was ruined by Cheats/Dupes/Hacks. It was more of a hacker vs hacker than pvp.. who had the better hacks would win lol.

Diablo 2 was a very addictive fun game, and no one bitched about "instancing" like they do now.. if im not wrong wasnt this the first instanced game? Only differnce being that instead of going to a town to find a team you used the BNET chat client. I loved going through cow runs and trying forever to get that SOJ, and other cool items. But it seemed that as soon as i started getting to point where I could finally get some cool items they released the expansion and it was just too much for my brain. Runes and other new items etc etc, I had a pretty good grasp on what was good in classic D2 but the expansion was just too much for me to catch up on.

Dark Ages of Camelot

Pretty solid game. Liked it, still have a account with some high level characters. Logged in for a trial recently and my account is still there. If anyone wants to maybe trade accounts for something diffent would consider it. email: chrisgtmbg@yahoo.com
Daoc was alot of fun. I liked the gameplay system, i liked how the pvp worked too, espically when they released the PVP server. I remember those damn lil lurien wizard guys who have the pet wizard always ganking me while i was swimming. But fun times. I loved Darkness Falls and getting to those huge guys at the end. I had a shadowblade and i had the guy who turned into a bear on the pvp server.. big mistake making that one, he had no way of stopping people from running, so when u became a bear everyone just ran away untill you morphed back into a below average warrior type :(

ShadowBane

Actually beta tested this one. Main problem with this game was they kept changing around the characters too much. Id level one guy up because it was the new "good" type to make, and by the time I did they had nerf'd that and made something else the new flavor of month. Now I will stick with a character but not if they make something else kinda better to point where it just owns you over and over no matter how much skill you have with your current guy. Also ran into alot times where my teams base would be under attack at some gay ass time like 3 am.. I work full time so kinda thought it was lame of kids who didnt have jobs to pull that kinda junk:( Graphics were outdated as soon as it was released and had some bugs but other than that pretty solid game with great ideas but so-so execution of them.

RYL

Played this for some trial thing.. kinda reminded me of a MMO of morrow wind. Was actually kinda fun tho, i think I leveld my warrior to around 30 and then quit. Just knew I would never win that million dollars, and now I know I was right because it doesnt seem like anyone will:)

WOW

I played the orignal war craft games, the RTS ones... they were ok. Pretty fun i suppose. I played wow for like a week... just seemed like a kids game to me. Seemed like a major time sink with lil rewards... never really liked the games were you had to pvp with a HUGE group to have any kind of chance, just made it totally awfull for any casual type gamer.

Guild Wars

instaced... everyone seems to bitch about that on these forums... but to be honest i had alot of FUN playing guild wars, and i will ALWAYS have my accounts unlike all these other games that i will not pay for. I had fun going through the game with multiple characters, do not really like the pvp tho. The game is kinda like Magic the Gathering... and building a pvp team is like building a magic card deck.. you need a theme and you need combo's or people who have combo's will just whore you. Not sure why everyone seems to hate this game so much... i mean i was so thrilled when i learned of sorrows furnance and had fun going around trying to get green items, doing the quests etc. Game has alot of updates, pathces.. nice support for a non pay to play game. ALSO is a very PRETTY game. Looks great on my systems, great backgrounds and it just has a pretty look to the landscapes. People who say Guild Wars is not a mmo are right and wrong. They are right in that ya you cant just randomly find people, but you know I played Diablo II, and if im not wrong that was instaced too.. was pretty fun if i remember correctly.. thats kinda what I compare guild wars to.

that leads me up to currently playing: COV

City of Villans

Was deciding to treat myself so I said fuck it and went to store with the intent of getting a online game, my choice boiled down to either the new SWG for 19.99 of COV for 49.99

I had played the trial for starwars, and while it seemed cool seemed like it would be laggy and buggy, plus I do not trust sony online, notorious for putting out crap. Guild Wars team made COV so i figured hey why not.. So far I love it. Even tho I am confused about alot of the rules and cannot figure out what is good in it yet. I love the game play and the special abilities make it fun. I loved the first time I could fly... never had that ability in a MMO before. I like how the missions are instanced but they also have areas that are standard MMO type material. I am currently on the Virtue Server under handle DarkByte if you wana play with me send me a in game email and we can do some villany!:)


So thats pretty much the majority of the games I have played with my opinons on them, maybe a long winded post but hey I am at work and borred, probuably my first and last post but hey who knows. Might see me around.::::39::

Comments

  • theanimedudetheanimedude Member UncommonPosts: 1,610

    well... I took the time to read your post... and other than DAoC and UO you seem to pass up good games too quickly. AC is good, yes you have to work, but theres so many dungeons that its amazingly fun once you get higher... and im not going to rant.

    So lets just leave it at this. I have no idea why youre playing CoV (And im not saying that because I hate the CoH games, im saying that because of the games you have liked) but I would say that if you dont mind instanced areas, you should REALLY check out D&D Online when it comes out. Towns are instanced, kinda like EQ2, and theres tons of instanced dungeons. But it actually works out, since you just meet in the taverns, and you only travel in small groups (like the tabletop)

    Anyways, good luck with your CoV (I sadly would have taken SWG even with the crappy NGE ::::35::)

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  • woofay11woofay11 Member Posts: 13

    Man, it's like looking into a mirror. I've played 90% of the games you have and perhaps many more. But one thing is for sure, i started with UO and never had more fun with any game i've ever played, EVER. There was just something about UO that was magical, i can't explain it, but it seems that every ex-uo player puts UO on the top of their favorite list. Maybe it was because i was around 12 years old when i played, i don't know, it was just fun.

    Some game makers should take of page from UO's book, we dont need flashy graphics, gameplay is the key. UO was like the world, there were so many things to do at end game. battling over a falling house, or on a boat or out fo a house, god i just want UO to come back =[

  • theanimedudetheanimedude Member UncommonPosts: 1,610


    Originally posted by woofay11
    Man, it's like looking into a mirror. I've played 90% of the games you have and perhaps many more. But one thing is for sure, i started with UO and never had more fun with any game i've ever played, EVER. There was just something about UO that was magical, i can't explain it, but it seems that every ex-uo player puts UO on the top of their favorite list. Maybe it was because i was around 12 years old when i played, i don't know, it was just fun.Some game makers should take of page from UO's book, we dont need flashy graphics, gameplay is the key. UO was like the world, there were so many things to do at end game. battling over a falling house, or on a boat or out fo a house, god i just want UO to come back =[

    yes... and no.

    you see, the majority of the consumers these days look at graphics first. then they look more into the game. So, they strive to make you look, the trick you into buying (with false promises) and before you know it, theyre running away with your money and you didnt get what you were looking for. Happens a lot.

    check out The Chronicle, its perfect UO syndrome. Not the best graphics, but best gameplay ever ::::28::

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  • nokkosnokkos Member Posts: 5

    hello there!

    thanks for your post i quess meany ppl feel the same as you do! and it was good to read. only whoud like to say one GAME. if some ppl befour internet used to go to BOX:es to play L.O.R.D . then shoud defenedly try BATmud OR other MUD´s there meany diffrent variations. but i recommend the BATmud :) ppl still going on over there(15 years now) 100-200ppl allmost all the  time :)

    http://www.bat.org/bat.php

    ps. for me the godfather of UO where everything started .)

    have fun ppl!

    Join a Day Keep the Doctor Away,
    Ten Join a Day I dont say

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