New to MMORPGS?

Do you new players to the MMORPG genre still get an amazing feeling when you first start out?  I don’t know if any of you new players have read about that “amazing feeling” that is just indescribable..maybe the first sexual experience you have as a teen?…may be a good way to describe it, but do you feel it when you first logged into your newly found game?  You think about the game at work, you hurry up as fast as you can to get home and log on,  you procrastinate just so you can get another hour in the game?  Does anyone experience this anymore?  I know I was 13 when I started my MMORPG career, and I had these feelings all the time.  Just the love, want, and desire for the game.  It gave me shakes when something was new and difficult (PvP) and a sense of accomplishment when I achieved my first whatever.

Some would probably call this addiction.  I call it a love for the genre, the game, and the ideals of the genre.  Games were meant to be adored and loved, but no one does that anymore it seems.  They feel it’s a right they should have to be able to log on, get whatever they want, and log off.  It shouldn’t work like that in this genre.  I know it does, but it shouldn’t.  It’s a bastardization of everything that our MMORPG forefathers created.  The games were meant to be a difficult adventure…full of danger, enjoyment, adventure, and achievement.  Sure you failed/died A LOT, but that was part of the fun and the challenge to succeed and do better.  This was the game.  Not an instance at level 80 to be farmed, but a world to explore and never know the full extent of this world.  There was always something new to be challenged, or item to obtain, or skill to master.  You were one with your character and you treated him/her as you.  You wanted the best for yourself in game, and you worked at getting it.  It was never handed to you, or bought with a micro transaction.  You devoted your time to the game, and the game rewarded your hard work and effort.

These ideals are lost, and I do not think they will ever return to the market of MMORPG gaming.  I think WoW proved this to us, unless Blizzard has a change of heart and returns to its 2004 roots, or makes us a skill based sandbox.  Companies will continue to send out crap level based grinds because “Simpsons(Blizzard) did it” and greedy investors see this as a quick dime.  All of my old brothers and sisters, I think our time has faded, we are no longer a niche.  The old gaming Gods have been buried under time by hardcore carebear casuals, and their incessant whining for reward.

Raise your glass to the Gaming Gods of Old, for they slumber for near eternity.

Mother F*cker

My best friend is a bastard.  “HEY BRO LET’S PLAY SOME WOW OK?”  I hate him obviously, because last night I reactivated WoW.  One of the main reasons we did this is because there’s not crap to play.  Every game is a garbage fest.  Every new game (Darkfall/Fallen Earth) is horrible because they are more like an offline RPG.  Yes, I have done all the large clan drama/warfare for months and after about 2 weeks it’s just boring.  I did not know this, but Blizzard made it so you could have Alliance/Horde characters on the same PVP realm, so that makes me feel ok doing the reactivation, and me and my buddy will actually have content that we can play together.  Of course there’s tons of solo content and it’s faster if you solo, but where’s the fun in that?  These are MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER online role playing games.  Darkfall and Fallen Earth give me the sense of “I don’t really need anyone but myself.”  Say me and my buddy want to go farm some mobs in Darkfall, with high archery you can pretty much do anything solo, so having him there totally gimps the money and skillgain.  Yes, he’s my buddy and I choose to have him there because it’s more fun for me, but why isn’t grouping rewarded with more bonus to skillgain?  I can understand this would be easily exploitable, but it’s just an idea.

World of Warcraft, at first, rewarded large groups of players (Raids) for epic gear/loot/items.  Difficult challenges for large groups of people, why did this go away?  Why would an MMORPG company reduce the MM part of the genre?  Since 2006 WoW it’s been on a downhill slide of easiness, laziness, and “screw everyone else” mentality.  Give me DAoC where it took an entire realm to bring down Sidi/TG/Galla, or the realm dragons.  I miss playing with my friends.  Sure we’ll be all online together, in the same guild, in the same ventrilo, but spread out all across the map because it’s better to work alone than together when it comes to leveling/gaining skill.  This separation will just get worse and worse as WoW continues the dumbing down of content.  I read a blog the other day that talked about 3 of their level 80 friends soloing MC.  This just stuns me, and the next expansion is adding 5 more levels.  Is there going to be anything left?

Can there really be that many people (I guess there is because of WoW’s US sub numbers…+1 thanks to me) that are interested in soloable content?  Where did this mentality come from?  (I won’t go into the selfishness of humanity) This feeling of “playing alone is better” was not really around back in early years.  Sure people soloed for a CHALLENGE.  Now it’s the only way to play it seems, and god forbid if there’s a mild challenge in a new game.  Then it is time to run to Google and find out the strategy to beat it. *shakes head*  I am almost ashamed to play MMORPG’s nowadays.  I feel like i’m disrespecting my forefathers by giving these companies my money, but I want to play with my FRIENDS in a GROUP, TOGETHER.  Weird I know, i’m sorry.

Reliving the past.

I’ve decided to quit playing Fallen Earth. The game is a good fundamentally, but there is no hook in the game. The crafting gets stale after awhile, the PvE became quite monotonous, and the questing was just the same old rehashing of every other boring questing model since questing was invented. The graphics are pretty, but run like crap on decent systems. It seems very clunky, even worse than Darkfall, and I just could not push through it. Honestly, it felt like I was playing a single player RPG in an online world. Kind of the same feeling I had with Darkfall. There did not seem to be any reason for me to talk to anyone, group up with anyone (other than a group quest, or be a part of anything. From what I read about Sector 4 the control point towns, and group PvP gets fun, but there is no way I can last that long. The same get 10 of whatever here, and deliver this for me bro cause the guy is on the other side of the city made my brain melt. It’s sad really, I so wanted to enjoy the game. I guess it’s not too bad because I played about 40 hours in game. That’s like 9 console games right?

I’ve decided to return to Neocron 2 with my best friend. It’s so horribly dated, but I logged into it today at work, and it felt “right.” Hopefully it’ll be a long honeymoon, and Neocron won’t decide to give me a shiner and rape me after the newness has worn off. I logged into the Pepper Park District, and was expecting to have the crap kicked out of me, even though I knew the server was only at 8%. It felt awesome to see the hookers dancing, and that I could kill them…if I had any weapons.

I went to make a new character, but I forgot it was no easy task. Having to pick a job, then class, then allocate your points how you want. I missed the specialization, new games just do not have this anymore. It makes me wish I could go back to 2002. There hasn’t been a game in a long while that just throws you into the world and makes you survive (sandbox). Even Darkfall holds your hand a little bit. I miss the brain power required to function in these older games, and feel the hook already sinking in again. Plus I get to play it at a huge resolution rather than 1280×1024! We’ll see how long this holds my interest, but running around a wastelands with my best friend sounds like a damn good time to me.

I’m not ** years old anymore.

I remember a time when I used to go to school in the mornings, after being up till 4am playing the MMO I was involved in at that time, and being able to function all day long. Only to come home…log into said MMO and game again till 4am. I honestly miss no responsibility and the ability to devote that much time to a video game. Of course the games, UO/DAoC/Neocron, allowed that type of commitment and you were rewarded for it. I remember one spring break, on Mordred (DAoC) in 03 or 04, I gained 1 million realm points over the 5 day period that the herald calculated on my druid. I would log on, small man in the towns, roam with a small man group in Cammy Hills, and bring out my 8man in the evenings and go bananas. There were so many other people devoting all the time they could to the same pursuit of constantly improving, tweaking out on a game, and I guess living the game. I wish I could do all this again, and I wish there was a game to do it in. Some people would call this addiction. I guess I would too, but did it really matter back when we were in high school? Sure I got tail, partied, and went out like all high school aged boys do, but any other spare minute I would be in game.

I can never truly explain why I was so deep inside the game. I again annoyed my wife about this last night, but I think it has to do with the fact that even though I lost (died) I still learned something, no matter how long I played. I learned why I died, dissected what I could do better, and what to do to combat that particular problem. I’ll give a DAoC example. On Mordred, the hib loop was “the top place” to bring your 8man, there were lots of inexperienced 8mans that died and never came back to it, but if you wanted tough action you went there. You knew who was who, who ran what, and every fight was different, you never knew what other group would come over said hill, or what would happen next. It was so exhilarating and thrilling I can’t even being to describe the feeling (maybe the UO PK shakes will ring a bell for some). There was a new guild that popped up on the server from one of the “blue” servers. It was Wrath, which I later became very good friends with and spent the next 4 or 5 years as a part of the guild, they ran 2 melee, casters, and support (and then later a full caster group). Everyone died to them, a lot. It was totally different, amazing, and exciting. My group spent so much time trying to figure out the best way to fight them, eventually we did and we learned how to fight them…of course we lost and we won…but the “figuring this crap out” is what made it so addictive to me. My brain went through every possible scenario, everything that could be done, and everything that I wanted to do to fight them, and we did our best to do it. Mentally it was challenging as well as reflex/being good at your class challenging. I miss it so much, having to use your brain, and knowing what to do and when to do it on the battlefield. 8v8 PvP was so amazing, I’ll never understand why Mythic didn’t just create DAoC 2.0, but that’s another post. (For anyone that played Mordred in the early years I was Syndicate in Torcan, then Wrath)

I know these times will never come again (as far as spending so much time in game), but why can’t we have a game that requires deep thought, practice, skill, and hardships. The only thing i’ve seen that makes me feel some of what I want is Fallen Earth (yes I played Darkfall), but I have only given Fallen Earth about 30 hours in the past 2 weeks. Maybe the MMO market is dead when it comes to those ideals…but i’ll always grasp onto my memories and wish for better days.

(Anyone read this that would have any old Torcan 8man videos?)

Have a good weekend.

Most Modern MMOs Suck.

So last night after dinner I started thinking about what horrible genre MMO’s have become.  I will always and forever hold World of Warcraft accountable for destroying my niche community, and games like Warhammer for continuing the downward spiral.  (thanks Mythic)  I spent about an hour ranting to my wife about how my hobby since 97 is as tainted and diseased as the stripper pole after the dayshift finishes up.

Why, oh why can’t someone take a mild risk and release something that recreates the feeling of a “total world?”  I am referring to Ultima Online here.  I understand that the men that give the developers money to produce a game just want to make money with no risk, and they think copying World of Warcraft is the best thing possible to do this.  I really believe, and hope, that us older MMO’ers would FLOCK to a game that was a complete world.  Full of wonder, mysteries, dungeons, monsters, crafting, player driven economy, etc…etc… (I won’t make a list it’ll take up the whole blog) I want to log in and decide which clothes i’m going to wear for that day, what armor i’m going to put on, should I have a hat, or should I freeball?  A game where I can have a market stall and sell my tailored clothes, metal armor, and grand weapons.  A home to call my own, to decorate, and have people hang out, and of course possibly get robbed and the house be looted.  Then I could go out and PvP, and if I died i’d drop everything I had on me, and to the victor go the spoils.  Of course items would have to be cheaply made, and not extremely valuable (with exceptions to magic items), but if you choose to carry valuable items you have more to lose. A game where if someone came and stole whatever it was I had I could kill him and take my stuff back.  A game with consequences.

Games like these need communities to succeed.  I realize that Ultima Online was so amazing was because there wasn’t anything else out and you had Pkers/PvPers/Carebears/Roleplayers all thrown into a virtual world and told to “live.”  This can happen again if a game was created with someone for everyone like Ultima Online had.  Go to the tavern and listen to the stories while having a drink, going to a dungeon and exploring with friends, going into the wilderness to fight PKs, or having epic guild battles in and out of town.  (Trinsic/Yew Militia anyone?)

Why can’t we have a true sandbox?  Darkfall tried, and the world is a great world, but there’s none of those things I listed above…there is no fluff besides the “gear isn’t that valuable for full loot, and magic items.”  It is very boring after a couple of months.  Which is sad.  I could’ve had such great potential.  Are the even any developers/investors left that remember the old days?

I know i’ll never experience my MMO cherry pop again, chasing the dragon so to speak, but that’s no excuse for developers to copy/paste and put out the same garbage only to fail 6 months later.  I felt similar to that feeling in Dark Age of Camelot, Neocron 1 & 2, and am now feeling it vaguely in Fallen Earth.  So you can’t tell me it’s totally gone, and can’t be experienced again.  I believe the main culprit of this is the investors of these MMOs.  They don’t research the market, they only hear WORLD OF WARCRAFT, and tell some guy, like us trying to earn a paycheck, make it happen.

Hopefully with these two recent niche games (Darkfall/Fallen Earth) indie developers will start to gain a hold in the market and see that they can be successful by recreating the past, but modernizing it.  I know Dawntide and Earthrise are on the horizon and i’m excited for both of these.  I am signed up for Earthrise beta, and anxiously awaiting Dawntide to reopen applications.

I am feeling cheated in the current MMO market, and that my hobby is slipping away.  I have so many memories of the past games, and I know some people wouldn’t understand it, but they mean something to me.  All the friends I made, all the communities I was a part of, the names I made for myself.  I hope soon that we will see a rise in sandbox games, focusing on what the oldschool players want, and where we want to go, what we want to do, and how we want to be a part of the world (not the hero), but a body in the massive world.  I am not a developer by any means and I’ll never pretend to be one, but I have thousands of ideas to express, and if us oldtimers could get a company to listen then maybe we would all have a place to go.

“Get off my lawn you damn kids.”