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General: The Daily Quest: When Did You Know MMOs Were For You?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Every gamer has a pedigree, a background of games that "came before" the first MMO. Perhaps your gaming teeth were cut on Pong or Donkey Kong or the original Diablo. Wherever it is you came from originally, and whatever the path you took, you ended up in a unique niche within the game space: MMORPGs.
For gamers around when the first fledgling steps were taken in the "massively multiplayer online" portion merged with the RPG portion of gaming, perhaps it was the combination of the two that was hard to resist. For those who came to MMOs later, maybe it was for the same reasons, or maybe something completely different.
So the Quest for today is simply this: When did you come to a realization that MMOs were the next logical step in your gamer's evolution? What was it about your first MMO that attracted you to the genre for the very first time?
Please leave us your thoughts in the comments!
Comments
Star Wars Galaxies. When the professions list was revealed and I realized I could make custom droids and sell them to other players. It changed my perspective on what a video game can be. Always an exciting time when that happens. Like the first time I beat metroid and credits rolled. Most games I played before that were about high scores and never had an ending.
Sadly, most MMOs today focus so heavily on combat that they neglect the precious few features that truly make an mmorpg a unique experience.
I can do combat in any game and most genres do a much better job. I play mmorpgs for the things those other genres can't do.
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I learned from that day to never travel without a light source. It was like I was living my wildest fantasies.
When it became abundantly clear that they were crushing every pre-existing game.
Give up roleplay to go play Ultima Graphics?
Well, no, I didn't particularly want to do that.
>"Hello?"
You ask, "Hello?"
>"Where did everyone go?"
Crickets chirp. No answer.
But eventually, the reality of the evolving situation sets in.
Much like how "Old School" EQ players felt after WoW was up and running and EQ2 finished a distant second-best, I suppose.
The article makes it sound like MMO players don't play other types of games "once they realise MMO's are for them"...
Silly concept. I still spend more time on average playing non-MMORPG's. There's great entertainment to be had in many gaming genres other than purely MMO's.
Granted I started playing games when Pong and Space Invaders were all the rage. But you could never really "Win" that would have been Space Ace. Whoo Hooo
As far as MMo's Go .. Would have been SWG .. Just the feel of being in another world where I could move and interact .. Sweet
So I come hang out and the first 5 mins I was blown away by the 3d graphics, combat, classes, and world size. What really got me hooked was raiding, when I hit 60 I knew nothing of it. I was such an idiot that I came into molten core set up as a ret pally. After that found healing to be fun and raided nonstop till cata.
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2 minutes in Meridian 59 or so... The whole idea of taking pen and paper roleplaying and making it into a compter game was just so sweet.
Sadly I hoped that the games would move closer to pen and paper instead of further away as technology advanced. I still enjoy MMOs but I think I would enjoy them more if they moved more in the direction of games like Biowares "Neverwinter nights 2 (Cryptics Neverwinter is further away from this than many of you might think) instead of moving more for the Diablo thing.
That is indeed true, yesterday I played 25 minutes of Guildwars 2 and 5 hours of Age of Wonders 3...
I am not sure if I play MMOs or turned based strategy most, it changes on and off but I do play more games than just MMOs for sure.
I started playing DnD in the summer of 80 and played it till the early 90's when r/l got in the way.
Picked up EverQuest at launch because the cover art looked cool. As soon as I killed my first rat outside the Freeport gates I felt like I was home. Been playing MMO's ever since.
huh, not sure if they are for me as the latest crop of games doesn't really have me excited.
Still, I love the idea of them.
The first time I knew I really wanted to explore them was after I had played a lot of neverwinter nights and morrowind. I wanted to see what these "online worlds" were like and wanted to try my hand at pvp.
I kept picking up everquest but the graphics were just not for me. I ended up trying Shadowbane for about 15 minutes but I couldn't get a hang of the controls.
Still, I kept seeing advertisments for Lineage 2 which had just launched so that weekend, when my girlfriend was out of town, I bought a copy. I knew it was right from the very first moment I "pointed and clicked".
After meeting a few people in the game I realized it really was an amazing experience.
I loved that "things were going on" that people would be fighting in public, getting revenge, all of us going out into the fields to grind for xp and having each other's back if a red was around.
It was a good time.
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This. A game where you weren't the hero just a guy in the star wars universe making your way the best way you could.
I was intrigued when I watched a friend playing Ultima Online. But it seemed like just another MUD with graphics. Then along came Everquest. 3D graphics, huge world to explore, secrets and hidden things to find. That's when it really hit me what it would be like to live in a fantasy world with my friends.
Most people these days probably wouldn't understand just how awe inspiring that idea was at the time.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. - Douglas Adams
when i saw that i could play a a powerfull mage/warrior/ranger, in a persistent world with other players , and that the game never "end"
I played DND and other paper and pencil RPGs but Everquest was like a world you could see and "feel".
I agree, I think many MMO players today are more interested in the mechanics and not so much in the world you play in.
I didn't know it, honestly. I just happened to be playing WoW for almost 6 years without a drop of subscription. Compared to Counter Strike, Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3, this was all new to me. I never thought my Warrior was going to be a MT in raids either.
Runescape was the first one i played as well. Funny thing is, i still enjoy that more than playing ESO.
I basically played every major title from Super Mario to Final Fantasy 7, and then a handful of online shooters until I finally came across MUDs and Diablo in the late 90s. The idea of having a fantasy game with a world that hundreds, even thousands of people could play simultaneously was fascinating.
I really enjoyed Diablo even through dealing with all the dupes and hacks. That was about the time I heard about UO which had just launched. A guy at school explained it was like Diablo, except a huge world with hundreds of people. I looked into it and mentioned it to another friend who told me he was beta testing a similar game called EverQuest. I went over to his house, and that was it for me. I quite literally could not believe that muds were already taking a 3d graphical form. I was slack jawed. Then the fact that it had the same kick your ass type of gameplay as was found in most games before the turn of the century, left me completely addicted.
Still won't give up hope that another game like it will one day fill that fantasy void.
"When did you come to a realization that MMOs were the next logical step in your gamer's evolution?" - there was no such moment, I was too busy enjoying the games to think of abstract landmarks.
I came to MMOs without even knowing what is MMO. My path was quite typical, millions went that way: Warcraft 3 -> WoW, I remember being delighted that I can actually "move the camera down to the ground and play". No idea about chat, clicking on everything... good old times
Same.
Also, what did I liked about it? The "never ending" progression, but first, the Massive Multiplayer thing. I was so hooked at the fact that I can play online with lots of people from around the world. Made some good friends back in the days. And that was in 2001. Then I started playing MU Online . And then ........... the almighty Lineage 2, which is my still favorite game ( up until GOD Expansion ) .
Oh well, good old days. I hope Lineage Eternal will be a changer in MMO's and an end to the WoW "clones" era. I want the old days back!
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