Masters of the Universe

Expanding on what I posted yesterday, what was the turning point of the mentality of gamers to want to be the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE? Were the 90′s that much of a different time? I seem to remember the 90′s were pretty selfish in terms of humanity. Humans are a shit storm taking over everything with no care or thought of what is the consequence, and it has always been that way…so why was Ultima Online so different?

Everyone I knew from antis, to townies, to player killers, to explorers, to collectors, to crafters, were not interested in being “king shit” in the gaming community. Sure people wanted to be famous and be recognized, but the same people enjoyed challenges, work, and striving to better their character(s) everyday. People wanted to have a community, besides a select few of morons that were shunned from it, they wanted to create a virtual world. “Origins: We Create Worlds,” was the motto and they did an amazing job of providing us (the players) with the sandbox filled with toys.

Was it purely the mentality of the players in the MMORPG genre? I know most of my friends came from D&D/MUDs where our imagination, social skills (lol), and community feelings were a large part of who we were in these games. We were interested in being with other players, having adventures, and telling of our stories. (Yes, I am a giant nerd but my wife loves me) We loved the lore, and spent so much time creating our own. Even to start playing you had to create your own character from imagination down to every last detail. People spent hours with illustrations and ways to convey what their character was to them. It was a character, but it had a part of them (the creator) in it. You were attached to your “avatar.”

Nowadays everyone has to be He-Man. If they are not the best at everything, nor have the best stuff they do not even want to play. It is boring to them and they will cry on the forums all day long, and sadly some of the dev’s listen to them (this is an entirely long post in itself). Where was the turning point where the genre became overrun with selfish little bastards that only wanted the best for themselves? I know a lot of people will say World of Warcraft, but WoW was not like that at the start of the game, at the birth it was still an MMORPG.

Give me the days where if someone saw someone dying to an ettin the woods they would stop and help, if a player killer was attacking a blue another blue came to his defense, if a player killer was being overrun another player killer came to his aid, an age camaraderie and brotherhood still existed. Where I could count on my fellow adventurer to be at my side fighting off evil, or creating evil in the world. Does anyone remember things like the “Trinsic Militia” or the “Yew Militia?” Remember how amazing it was to be a part of a guild like that? Guild’s designed to protect cities in Ultima Online, that stood for honor and justice, and kept the town safe? Where did these amazing experiences go? It is no longer “all unite” it is now “all for me.” This saddens this old gamer’s soul.

I feel sorry for all the newcomers into the modern MMORPG genre. They will never get to experience the true feeling that was bastardized so long ago. They will never get to experience a true community. A community that worked together for the betterment of the world, and all that played the game. Each part of the community was required to function from the evil players to the good players…we were all together, no matter how great the distance of play styles our ideals were all the same.