Back in my day...

[gurugeorge]

I'm still there!

 

I really hope EQ3 harkens back to the EQ1 days rather than the current trend in ez-mode MMOs (including EQ2).

 

Sadly, it's never going to happen, for these reasons.

 

As I said upstream, the sense of "virtual world" in MMOs is almost vestigial these days. They're mostly heavily instanced single player games that give you the option of playing with other people.

 

That doesn't mean they can't be fun - for a while.

Edited January 9, 2012 by gurugeorge

[neillien]

UO was insane at launch. It was open world, full-PvP. The servers couldn't stay up long enough to do more than a couple saves which they actually announced in the beginning "The world is saving..." Because of the crush of people and the overload of item duping you could and would be stolen from in town while someone with an earthquake spell would lag crash and kill any and everyone on the screen, 1-hit.

 

My first night logging in after sitting through an hour of different individual buttons loading on the reg page so I could register, I log in and some half-naked guy is running around the Britain bank yelling "ALL MUST DIE". I freaked out and tried to run but the lag was crazy - then the server crashed. Later I logged back in and somehow managed to get outside of town and headed down a road when I run into some guy doing *hic* and wearing a deer mask. He and his buddies stopped me in the road and demanded tribute or they would kill me, which of course they did anyway and looted me dry, then carved up my corpse and spread the pieces around the road as a warning for others...

 

It was wildwest kind of stuff I haven't seen in a MMO since.

 

Ahhhh I was there at the start of UO, played it for over 9 years, it occupies a special place in my heart that not even the mighty WoW can reach... But then I was a multi-dragon tamer so I pretty much owned anything ;P

 

In those days, when you died, you could actually lose everything, equipment, even your pets! That was before the 'binding' nonsense. The hardcoreness gave it an exitement that I haven't found since... ahhhhhh (I'm away to cry again over unsubbing)...

Edited January 9, 2012 by neillien

[GeoLager]

Everquest was a terrible game only masked by the fact that it had literally zero competition.

 

It wasn't fun. In fact it was quite boring. I left everquest as soon as I realized the 6 month expac cycle was bull plop.

 

Best decision I ever made.

Edited January 9, 2012 by GeoLager

[TiberiusRings]

I never played EverQuest.

 

I did play Final Fantasy XI, which borrowed some elements from western MMOs. There was no solo questing, hell, the quests weren't even ranked by level. You just got something that told you to go to A and click something, which could be an alliance quest (18 people) or just getting three Rahab Tails. it depended.

 

I do miss the grouping elements of earlier MMORPGs. In FF XI had a LFG system and had key points all over the world where to go at a certain level. It was a great way to meet people. Of course there were terrible experiences but also amazing ones where you discovered a secret around the corner, or got into such a groove and had so much fun that leveling was almost a secondary bonus to just having fun playing the game well with equally good players.

 

I liked how gear wasn't colored and tiered and moddable; it was just what it was. There were items that had to be obtained from bosses or Notorious Monsters, and those items (some at least) could be sold on the Auction House, some could not. It meant something to have a Joyuse or Genbu's Shield.

 

There was a huge story in that game which I haven't seen since TOR. I will say that, for FF XI, the story wasn't as scripted as TOR is. In FF XI you were a vocieless every hero who was tasked with being your nation's champion and then solving the political riddles that had been plaguing it and the others. When you went to another nation the NPCs treated you like a foreigner, some with open arms and other cities with more Xenophobic tendencies were curt and quick to point out you weren't one of them (San d'Oria). The neutral city in the story was the main hub of commerce and trade, and a spoke outward to the rest of the world.

 

Chains of Promathia, the second expansion, expanded the story. While it drove some people away, those who persisted were treated some incredible story telling. It was an experience I enjoyed.

 

However, today MMORPGs are designed to be less of a time investment by the general population. Going back to these older models isn't practical, mostly because the companies that produce these games cater to the gamer who only wants to play a couple hours a night, not the PC gamer who has an epic rig and far too much time on their hands.

 

Oh well, I will look back on the past with rose colored glasses and move forward with what the industry has to offer.

[thomaspraill]

back in my day we took 40 people into LBRS and farmed the first UBRS key on our server.

 

back in my day i had to buff kings every five minutes on forty people for six hours while we cleared mc do the math

 

There are 12 5 minute periods in an hour.

 

12(5 minute periods) X 40(people) X 6(hours) = 2880 buffs i was casting in one mc clear, plus I was the OOC rezzer.

 

To this day I still wake up in a cold sweat due to the nightmares about constant whispers

 

KINGS!!!! KINGS!!!!! KINGS!!!!!!

 

Lol. Made my day.

"No i need wis not kings!!!"

[Mercur]

Back in the days of EQ if you were grouped with a 15+ char there was a good chance they knew how to play their class. You didn't have level 60 hunters that just figured out they can train a pet (WoW).

 

Somewhere I read an article going over how the death penalty has changed in each MMO. Such as EQ where you lost XP and had to run to where you died naked to WoW where you basically just lose durability. If a new game came out with an EQ type death penalty, would it make it these days? Probably not. People want to play these games with little to no penalty for screwing up.

[Vorlia]

I remember, being human, having to switch out my shield for a lantern at night time so I could see where the hell I was going and what I was fighting. Without it, I'd literally be lost in the darkness. That is, of course, until I was high enough level to farm wisps!

 

I think most old-school mmo'ers really miss the hardcoreness of the early games. However, that doesn't mean at all that we don't love the new games too. That's like thinking people who love action movies cannot like comedies. But, having truly earned (the hard way) our memories from past game titles, we do miss those things.

 

Here's to hoping the entire MMO playerbase and community continues to grow, allowing more and more options for all player-types and game-types. ...if the mmo community doesn't scare the crap out of people coming to the forums to see what the buzz is all about, lol.

[dcgregorya]

I love how when we ask for a few things that made old school games fun people tend to regress all the way back to text based games.

 

All i see people asking for are games that don't hand us everything on a silver platter. We already have games out like that. WoW is a great example, even this game to an extent. Everyone says they want something new from WoW, but at the same time want a game just like it. Same thing happened with Everquest and Asheron's call. Personally i think the market could use an overhaul at this point. Gamers would be happy i think with more variety of games to choose from.

 

In today's gaming every game feel like the one before it, no game is really all that unique anymore. We can't even have a sense of feeling unique in a game. Oh that "Rare" mount you have, well a few hundred other people have it to. Oh, guess it isn't so rare.

 

I go back to text based games because I love to rub it in the 15 year old forum poster's faces that WoW and EQ were not in fact, the origin of all things MMO related . It feels good to mention that after reading a half million threads about how this game is such a WoW clone over the last week or so.

 

Btw there are many hard games still out there. Eve Online is nightmare mode compared to most other MMO's and you can always check out MUD's .

Edited January 9, 2012 by dcgregorya

[supertouch]

Everquest was a terrible game only masked by the fact that it had literally zero competition.

 

It wasn't fun. In fact it was quite boring. I left everquest as soon as I realized the 6 month expac cycle was bull plop.

 

Best decision I ever made.

 

it had a thriving community and stressed grouping with other players. every encounter was challenging and there was a sense of peril everywhere you went. it was the opposite of boring and games like everquest taught people to become better players.

 

people who thought it was "boring" just couldn't tolerate dying.

[LoL-K-Noob]

Sounds like Nostalgia talking, I for one never want to go back to the old days of heavy grind in MMOs and glad to see they will never be relived again. They were fun in the past, but times have changed.

[ishews]

Back in my day we sat around a table with eight or so RL friends (and the odd frenemy tbh), rolled die and used our imaginations amidst much laughter, arguments and general good times.

 

PvP was a party battle at the end of a two year stint playing the same chars through A-levels campaign

 

I know AD&D is not an MMO per se, however i'm pretty sure the first MUD's were programmed by tabletop gamers

 

Just sayin

 

 

BTW Darkfall /thread

[Manakar]

I came full circle in understanding the MMORPG.. I grew up on EQ and loved it all.. As I got older I had less time to play MMORPGs so I wanted the devs to cater the games to my play style.. I wanted them to make it easier and more casual.. I now understand that it was wrong to want that... I might not be able to play MMORPGs as much as I use to but now they are dumbed down casual consolized MMORPGs and I hate it.. I rather they play like EQ and it allows kids/teens/young adults to experience what MMORPGs should be, rather than what we have now.. I rather not have time to experience all of the cool challenging hard content that was in EQ then experience all of the dumbed down, casual, hold your hand content thats in MMORPGs now..

[kasanth]

Theres a reason why people are on here talking about how great it was back then, and playing todays MMORPGs, and not on those games that are still going today.

 

Because they quickly forget about the bad parts such as wasting 6 hours LFG and having to log off with nothing done that you logged on to do.

I cant do the quests again today because no one is on to help.

That same guy trained us again. Now I lost a level and cant use my wepons(s) I have.

 

Theres a reason why those that talk about "the good ol' days" no longer play that game.

[SiLiZ]

I never got to play UO. Wish I had.

 

I played EverQuest, loved it. Started here.

 

Moved to EQOA which was the PS2 EverQuest, I even loved that game. So much fun there. Was the first Werewolf on Diren Hold as well when the Lyncanthropy quests came out. The difficulty was toned down quite a bit. Felt kind of like an Action-MMORPG.

 

Moved to FFXI loved that game. Except when some guy trained the entire zone to the exit and then the mobs decimated the zone as they ran back. Pretty sure there is a boss is FFXI that still hasn't been defeated after years of attempts. The classes here were all awesome as was their gear. I remember seeing Dragoon Artifact gear and almost crapping my pants. This honestly for me was my favorite class system. Not sure why, but having a job and sub-job was quite fun.

 

SWG I miss. Only because of the playerbase, crafting, and economy.

 

WoW... what can I say, it was probably the most fun I had in an MMO, and by far the one that spoiled me. The game was easy at first, so easy. I was having myself a breeze playing it. Then around MC it got hard. And I don't think it was actually hard, it was the fact I had been spoiled by the easiness leading up to that point.

 

Now we are here at SWToR. Enjoying it, able to deal with bugs, design, etc... as I have before. Will stick around. Got Diablo 3 on the way if this gets stale. Hoping it blooms into something far more grand. And I swear if EA/Bioware is just profiteering on the Star Wars brand, I will forever hate them.

[supertouch]

uh people stop playing when they find something new that piques their interest and even more people leave once a population dwindles and the major element such as a thriving community is no longer present.

 

the guy who wrote that soapbox article years ago was completely right about instances and lack of death penalties ruining MMOs. newcomers dictate a game's design and the changes are almost always bad.

Edited January 9, 2012 by supertouch

[Kavell]

.

 

I hear an alarm clock ringing somewhere. Everything is not exactly dark but its too fuzzy to see...

 

Command me ->

 

Pirate Isle? that's an oldie

I remember James Bond: a view to a kill text adventure... now that is a bit esoteric.

 

and yes I played pong, D&D with 1 quest taking at least a year to complete, Vic-20's, Trash 80's, Ti-44a, and my beloved Amiga 500 (yeah I have the emulator for that one!)

[LearnIIBurn]

Final Fantasy XI made me break a few keyboards over the back of my chair. There were keys all over my room when I moved out.

[Kaellyni]

My parents always give me stories like this and while I admit that I hate the homogenization direction that Blizzard decided to take WoW in I am going to give you the same answer that I always give my Pop (god bless him) when he tells be about walking 5 miles back in forth in the snow...

 

Times have changed. Get used to it. Go feel like a bad a** because you are just that hardcore and let the people who enjoy having lives live there's. No, boss encounters and raids should not be the same old easy tank- and -spank and yes, classes should be difficult yet rewarding to master, however, game design has advanced (thank god) since the days of ye olde archaic, time-sink mmo. Let us leave it behind in the dust.

 

Sincerely,

A realist

[SnoggyMack]

To everyone who pretends to have played Everquest, this OP really did. I don't know him, I can tell since he's talking truth.

 

He's mixing WoW with EQ. EQ had no purple or orange color code for loot, let alone epic loot. My lightsabers (Warrior epic) were not purple at all.

[Juntts]

If an MMO was released like that today it would fail.

[Scandana]

To everyone who pretends to have played Everquest, this OP really did. I don't know him, I can tell since he's talking truth.

 

Here are my two:

 

1 -- If you died you had to run and loot your corpse, no matter what hostiles were around it, and how easily they may kill you since you got lost and went somewhere you shouldn't. (Damn you Butcherblock Chessboard and my lowbie ranger...) In addition you could give someone permission to drag your corpse to somewhere safe, but that also meant they could just loot it and take your stuff.

 

2 -- When you died you lost experience, you could lose levels.

 

TRUTH!!!

 

If you did not play your cards right, you could die to a lvl 5 mob (or several of them), and then do that infamous and embarrassing corpse run. Have fun explaining that one to your peers.

[Nightspirit]

I think the people in this thread will enjoy this article, especially #5.

 

 

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-biggest-dick-moves-in-history-online-gaming/

[supertouch]

He's mixing WoW with EQ. EQ had no purple or orange color code for loot, let alone epic loot. My lightsabers (Warrior epic) were not purple at all.

 

he's probably referring to everquest's equivalent, not a literal color category.

[blackcerberus]

back in my day games didnt release with a completly fubar'ed combat system, skill delay nor impossibility to join a wz without being kicked to the character selection screen 8/10 times...

 

back in my day companies werent so absolutly greedy to release a game they fully knew was broken beyond belief just to meet an important date, risking the long term business for a quick cash grab

 

 

back in my day games were games, not half baked crapware made to cheat people out of their money

Edited January 9, 2012 by blackcerberus

[Nightspirit]

double post Edited January 9, 2012 by Nightspirit