Early, right after release, this game was very cool

Billius8

I remember when DAOC first released.  The low level zones were packed, grouping was easy, and the game world had a magical feel about it as if there were tons of content.  Weapon and armor graphics were, and still are, the best I've ever seen in a MMORPG.

This was a cool game.

When I reached level 20, I found that I didn't like the R vs R.  It was well-implemented, but I'm not a P vs P player, no matter how hard I try (I even tried Shadowbane a few times).

The introduction, through a patch, of a levelling command that allowed players who had reached level 50 to create new characters of level 20 or even level 30 on some servers, pretty much eliminated the low level game.  I have a belief that if the low level game in a MMORPG starts to die, then the whole game begins to die, because all that's left is holding on to a dwindling aging server population.

Whatever Mythic does to compete against the new MMORPG's coming out this year (i.e. EQ2 and WOW), I hope they do something to bring folks back to the newbie zones.  Let this game live again!

 

Cillasi

All games suffer from a lack of new players after a while.  There are several reasons for this. 

First, but not foremost, is the release of expansions.  When you see it's going to cost you $60+ just to be up-to-date, players will shy away from beginning a new game.  Unless and until games start releasing an all-inclusive version of the game at release of an expansion, the lack of newbies will continue to be a problem.  Look at EQ.  Even if you buy Evolutions, which includes the original and first 5 expansions, you're still 2-3 expansions behind the pack. 

Second, as newer games become available, people will tend  toward them for better graphics and game mechanics and engines. 

Third, and again related to expansions, it seems that less and less documentation is included with expansions, leaving new players befuddled and confused.  Game manuals that do exist are very outdated and online information too ill-organized to be of much help.  The learning curve for a new player is steeper than the original game's curve, and probably steeper than intended, so lots of newer players quit in frustration. 

 

Lunar_Knight

I don't think the new player population is as bad as people here make it out to be, but still it could use a boost.

I think one thing that would help bring new players in would be to give significance to the lower levels of RvR.

ex. What realm is in control of the BG keeps could determine who is in control of Darkness falls.

another one might be removing the instant lv 20 ability for lv 50s and instead give them xp bonuses to level faster though 1 -20. 

.....................................

but time flows like a river

and history repeats

-Leader of "The Fighting Irish" in DAoC on Hib/Kay-

panache

From a lancelot albion player perspective...

The newbie player base has been virtually destroyed. /level command was one cause, another being the widespread powerlevelling of alts via a second account.

Games as complex as a mmorpg need player interaction to ease newbies into the game. I remember when grped with a lowbie i would be in awe to hear he had an alt in the high 40's. These players would teach tricks of the game to newbies and show them to new dungeons and camp spots. This aspect of the game was also made difficult due to players powerlevelling alts instead of levelling new characters from scratch.

I can't see how Mythic can readdress these issues. I believe they did talk of removing /level command from sone servers. But this will not be enough.

Those chose to hang on to their current clientele and cater for the people who did not want to give up all they had gained over the years and keep them occupied with uber loot. They chose to prefer revenue from bot accounts instead of a new player base.

 

thats about it in a nutshell...

Getsome

Re-activated my old account with some low lvl alts and honestly I'm better off playing Morrowind. All the towns are empty minus the NPC's.

Mythic has been doing some good marketing to which I dug up my old cd's but once I loged in I was just floored. You'll be lonely and you get to pay a monthly fee for a MMORPG with single player mode till you get lvl 20.

I didn't come here to flame and I hope the best for Mythic but there is nothing to keep new players interested.

Short lived Noob of DAoC

InfEagle

I played DaOC since launch w/all the expansions, and once I hit my first 50 toon I /level on every server.  I personally don't think that the /level 20/30 feature ruined this game.  Just about everone is in a guild, to which if they don't have a 50 to /level, they'll either be pleveled to 50, or if they make a new toon they'll be pleveled by their guild again. So no matter what the "newbie" areas will be empty. As to new-comers to this game, yeah, ok, I can see how /level will hinder them from finding people to group with. But then again, just play as a Necro. You'll be lvl 40 in 8 days.

And to the fact that people left, as I did, I think the Atlantis Expansion was a large factor.  We were hoping for some rvr fixes (getting mezzed for 1min is ridiculous), and all we got were insane quests where each step took 5+hours to complete. For casual gamers that was a kick in the pants. Though I'm probably beating a dead horse and Atlantis was discussed on theses forums already. I'm new to this forum so I apologize if it was.

Billius8

Maybe it's a different gaming philosophy, but I think the main point of playing a MMORPG is to enjoy the journey, not rush to the end.  If a game requires you to PL to max level to really enjoy it, then perhaps something is wrong.

DAOC isn't a bad game, has a lot of great points, but I think the fun of the game ought to be in indulging in the early levels and gradual advancement.

Dulain

Looks like the next patch to go in will address this by letting players get XP just by RvR'ng. There will be no RP cap on battlegrounds, new battlegrounds for all levels, and more XP gained for RvR.

You don't have to camp mobs all day to level. This is of course unless the new battlegrounds will just be devoid enemies.

Scary_Pea

This was the best game when released...but now the graphics are to bad....I think it will have almost no player when World of Warvraft is released.

"All makt

Shagsbeard

Players of DAoC and many who quit playing DAoC are looking for the next game with similar structure to come out.  DAoC where seperate and isolated communities compete against other communities, has yet to be replicated.  Shadowbane was a contender, but fell way short of DAoC in terms of overall thought put into the game.  That and the fact that there were no communities imposed on you, left the game in a sence of anarchy.  L2 will be the same if not worse than Shadowbane on this issue.

We've been waiting for others to come out, but WoW doesn't look like it will fill that void.  A game where there is no community affecting objectives, will not have a community evolve.  Clan vs Hoard battles might be fun, but unless they are tied to real vicotories for the good of your team, it wont replace DAoC's RvR.  The key to DAoC's success is community.  WoW is going to have one of the worst in gaming history... it will be battlenet in your face.

Guildwars also has the problem of exclusion from the communities, rather than including everyone from character creation.  As soon as you create a character in Midgard, you know which side you are fighting for.

Jumpgate was like this... and it works.  I hope to see games in the near future coming out with features like DAoC had.  Why don't I just play DAoC?  Broken promises from Mythic primarily, but also the fact that the game is suffering from diseases of age.  I might start up again if they opened a fresh server, but there's been no word on that ever happening.  The old servers are simply too inflated right now, with too much power leveling, power farming, botting, and just plain old cheating going on.

InfEagle

I could not have put that better myself. In DAoC it is the community that decides which realm will be in possession of all the inter realm advantages, i.e. Darkness Falls and the various Relics.  Plain pvp without a sense of purpose may still and very well be fun, but the true satisfaction comes from combatting other players only to win something tangible that your character can use.

And I also believe that while WOW will most likely be a great game, its pvp aspect will not come close to the DAoC realm vs realm (though RVR has many faults I am referring to the overall concept, which was executed quite well).  I'm going to go on a limb and say that there won't be another MMORPG for quite some time that will be on par or supersede Camelot's RVR.

Also, I whole heartedly agree that the battle.net community will ( you know, the jerks and immature teens) try to act the same way in WOW as they do in B.NET.  Try as they might though, we pay to play a MMORPG, so the consequences against griefing will be just as strict as other MMORPGs, and after one or two complaints against them for griefing, they will be gone. So we win out in the end.

holycannoli

I agree 100% with shagsbeard. I played DAoC for almost 2 years from day 1. It was great in the beginning. I was on a roleplay server where everyone in my realm actually cared about roleplaying (to some extent at least) and the community was a lot of fun.

But it's gone SO downhill. I'm so happy I left when I did. Now it seems DAoC is all about buffbotting and 3rd party cheating, or even cheating with the client in windowed mode! It's not what it used to be. And the community is the worst part of it's downfall. Sad really.

We need something new. Something team-pvp based, but with more to offer. Sadly, WoW is not gonna be that game. Besides the simple fac that WoW is not designed around team pvp, if you think DAoC's current community is bad, you ain't seen nothing yet! WoW will have THE worst community of any big budget p2p mmorpg to date I promise you! Battlenet is known for it's plethora of hackers, cheaters and malcontents, and now they're sitting there licking their chops and grinning evilly waiting for WoW. I'm not sure people fully realize what that communtiy is gonna be like. You have been warned...

I think DnL may be the answer we DAoC refugees seek. DnL actually looks like what I envisioned DAoC to be before it was released. I think anyone that enjoyed what DAoC used to be should check it out. Don't worry about the lack of news or hype or anything (cuz we all know now that the games with the most hype are also the biggest disappointments right?). And if you do decide to play WoW, be prepared to deal with a battlenet-like community even though it's p2p!