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Do You Ever Do A Fresh Start On An MMO You've Played For Years? | MMORPG.com
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Do You Ever Do A Fresh Start On An MMO You've Played For Years? | MMORPG.com
Bradford has been thinking about his MMO history, and one aspect of his time with MMOs that doesn't mirror his time with single player games came to mind this week: starting over from scratch. While RPGs themselves aren't persistent, the idea of an MMO is that things continue for years. Do you ever feel the urge to start fresh, and if so do you follow up that urge by doing so?
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Then I quit playing LOTRO for a few years and when I went back when Mordor was announced, I started on Arkenstone to see what playing fresh would feel like since I had lost touch with all of my Landy characters. I still think of Landy as my home, even though I stopped playing a year and half ago after their server fiasco and terrible communicating not to mention their overpriced "expansion" model which for a game it's age has never been done well. Even with their giveaways of their older content the last couple of years I still feel like their pricing is not good for what you get so I have not returned. Will I return one day? Perhaps, maybe if they head south into new territory and also fix their severely laggy systems.
In LoTRO I've done it multiple times. I just started a new Captain on a new server, although I played a Captain back in closed beta. I'm amazed at how much more powerful my pet seems.
In ESO, my first character was a Nightblade, started in beta. I played him to max level, and then accidentally deleted him. Oooops. Instead of trying to get the GM's to restore him, I just started a new one over again.
I even tried it in Ryzom, but couldn't do it. I've spent a loooong time getting my forest digging to level 250, and the thought of spending literally years to get a new character to that is just too much.
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2024: 47 years on the Net.
This is one game where even after playing it since launch and even right now on the EMU, I have not obtained a 275 character. I never got into the UCM, so all my levels were earned, but I would always see some shiny weapon or something else that would make me roll a new toon.
Gaming community: IRONFIST
New World: Lilith - US East
WoW Guild: IRONFIST <Burning Legion> Alliance(We transferred to Illidan)
WoW Guild: IRONFIST <Illidan> Horde
SWOTR: IRONFIST <Satele Shan> Empire/Republic
There's also a long time ago with Pirates of the Burning Seas and SWtoR.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. If you do decide to bite the bullet and start again on a new account, you find that the levelling experience has been dumbed down since first time around so that alts can catch up more quickly. Sometimes, in BDO and ESO for instance, you can't even start in the original starting area. Most of the time, you can never recapture the original game experience.
There have been many times that I would have liked to start a game over, usually because I never got far in the game in the first place and would like to try again. There is only one way, though, to truly start again and that is with Classic versions of games, and even then, half the time they are not really a true return to the original game.
I wish it were possible to start again in more games.
Especially Heitbolt! And sadly Helm's deep. Something that is supposed to be an exciting event turns into one of the most dull gaming experiences I've ever had.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
A typical MMORPG is 400-2000 hours for me, I weep if I have to restart that progress
To those who do... let me send you $5 so you can get a new game off Steam
That said, like some others I enjoy the leveling journey more than endgame, so I've "thrown it all away" by restarting on new servers or new providers (i.e. free shards) on multiple occasions.
Switched from PVE to PVP servers, and back to different PVE servers in the same game.
Switched to different factions, actually given away my WOW accounts to my son and his friends, only to start fresh again back when Cataclysm released. (Mistake that, not the fresh start, just coming back to WOW.)
One time after a short break from EVE I wanted to see what the "new player experience" (3rd or 4th take) was like, so I set up a new account, bought and sold a PLEX and played for 3 months or so on it without transferring any assets from or to my other accounts.
Actually caught the attention of a dev, CCP Falcon who corresponded with me for a bit on my experience.
Backfired though, I told the Corp I had been trying to join with just the new character (they did not do any sort of API check beforehand, nor ask for one) when they offered me to become a full member, their recruiters suddenly ghosted me, probably shouldn't have mentioned the CCP dev conversations.
Would be tougher to do in ESO, though I've thought of playing on the EU server as one of my guild mates does, but probably not, better to just try a new game this year.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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As far as I can remember, I've only run into this issue with Eve Online and SWTOR.
Leveling process has some fun spots but it's one of the few games I don't do a lot of side activities on and it just leaves me feeling irritated.
I think that even if the absolute awe and happiness you feel when you walk into the world cannot be exactly duplicated but if it is a very good world and quite immersive then yes I would say it is quite euphoric. The time just passes so fast as you plan and play and you just enjoy the game even if you have done it all before. Who is to say that you need to only experience something just once. It is quite difficult to find good games that I truly enjoy these days so I while my time on the old ones playing them from beginning.
Recently I had that experience with Everquest 2 and quite recently with WoW.
How I could account for the hours on hours I've sacrificed to this genre, I could not even begin.
I think of them as people that have had their own experiences and grown as I played the game.
A true fresh start for me is usually out the question because I invest so much time into 1 or 2 characters max per MMO usually.
Also I don't believe you can relive magic ever. Things are only really magical one time and that's the beauty of magic. Its amazing the first time you experience it. If you keep doing that experience over and over again, its no longer magical because you used up all the mana.
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New Server, No Iconic, No Fast Leveling, No Transfers to the HC server, Fresh Start, and exactly 1 Life per character, to stay alive as long as you can.
I play it every season.
I suck at it, but I still give it a go.
Restarts on a new platform is fun though and can completely change a game for you. I had that experience with Diablo 3 and ESO. Although I thought both were OK games upon launch but never got into them when playing on PC. But the console port somehow had a lot of appeal and longevity.
I think you should get a PS5, eventually. It is so much better to take off your prejudice and join the party. There are a few things that Sony has done extremely well. The heptic feedback on controllers and the 3D headphone. PSVR 2 is rather amazing too. And to be fair, all of which are much affordable and green.
I am really done with these stupid hardware prices. Doesn't matter if I can afford it, it's the principle. Yes you would lose options, especially when it comes down to MMORPGs, but you have been playing FO76 and ESO for the past few years ago, and there isn't that much going on in the MMO without console ports anyways.
Now let's hear from @scot as he's always been a fierce advocate for consoles.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Same here. Not only does it allow me to get a feel for the character again (plus any new/rebalanced mechanics), it also helps me answer that question of what all this crap in my bag and bank is/was for.
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