If only that game came with a damn instruction book! I think I spent most of the first several months I played that game doing nothing but mining, because I didnt know crap else to do or how to do it lol.
Ahh the memories...
You thought clicking on a rock again and again, and again was fun?
Not the clicking so much as trying to get your ore smelted and in the bank before some creature or player killed you and took it!
My first time in UO. Some dudes opened a portal, told me to go through and join thier guild. I went through the portal, they told me to click on the guild stone. I did this out of blind trust and believed in the goodness of people. Soon as I touched the guild stone they repeatedly raped me and stole all my items. This was my intro to UO.
"The King and the Pawn return to the same box at the end of the game"
Yeah I remember getting killed by some little rabbit or something. Asking around how the heck I'm supposed to be able to slay a bunny rabbit I was told I needed to chop wood to get strong enough to kill a rabbit.
I thought that was ridiculous so I quit. A year or two later Everquest came out. There I struggled to kill a big rat... but I DID kill the big rat. And without having to chop wood for hours first! I was sold at that point. Never looked back at UO.
I understand your point, but in my opinion UO was "realistic" in its own special way. The chopping wood part would raise the skill "Lumberjacking" which in turn would raise its defaul Stat "Strength" which would make you character stronger with each point of strength you had. Lumberjacking would also make you hit harder with Axes or was it miss less, i dont remember. :P
So what if it is "realistic". It wasn't fun. EQ was a much better game. I don't play games to be realistic. The real world is realistic enough.
I think what you are missing was the fact that it was all new and exciting back then. Now it is certainly seen as, clicking on a rock over and over... back then it was EPIC to be able to even do that with other people running all around you doing the same. Trying to watch people for staeling your ore pile or snooping your bags.. It was always edge-of-your-seat-OMG-im-gonna-die. Back then PvP actually made my hands shake and was a HUGE adrenaline rush. It was an absolutely amazing experience to have had. Nothing has come close since =(
Yeah, because the words "all aspects" of a game escape you. I have repeatedly said I enjoy ALL aspects, that means pve/pvp/crafting etc... Sorry that some of us leave the shallow end of the pool.
Yeah .. so you enjoy "clicking a rock" again and again, as much as in-depth complex combat mechanics?
I don't know how "clicking a rock" again and again is deep .. but hey .. if you like it .. it is your time to waste.
Yeah, just like clicking on a mob again and again is deep and exciting! bam bam pow!
At least i have to think about which skill to use .. and look at what the mob is doing. So yeah .. 1000x more exciting than clicking on a rock.
At least i have to think about which skill to use .. and look at what the mob is doing. So yeah .. 1000x more exciting than clicking on a rock.
I never played Ultima Online although i played all of the single player games. I wish that I had though and I find it interesting to read about how it was. No need to de-rail people's threads. You can always go make a separate topic about how moronic the games you don't like are.
At least i have to think about which skill to use .. and look at what the mob is doing. So yeah .. 1000x more exciting than clicking on a rock.
I never played Ultima Online although i played all of the single player games. I wish that I had though and I find it interesting to read about how it was. No need to de-rail people's threads. You can always go make a separate topic about how moronic the games you don't like are.
wait .. it is allowed to have a negative opinion on WOW (or whatever modern MMO you pick), but not a negative opinion on UO?
I didn't start, or played at all, UO but I do remember my first foray into EQ... killed by a rat in town lol. Eventually I made it outside the town to fight Fire Beetles.
I had always been a "fantasy nerd" with pewter figures and books. It was great to be in a virtual world actively doing things like those stories. It's really not much different today other than the "mold" MMOs have. It's too restrictive IMO.
Btw at some point can we coin the term "Michael Bay MMOs"? Seems fitting somehow
Yeah, because the words "all aspects" of a game escape you. I have repeatedly said I enjoy ALL aspects, that means pve/pvp/crafting etc... Sorry that some of us leave the shallow end of the pool.
Yeah .. so you enjoy "clicking a rock" again and again, as much as in-depth complex combat mechanics?
I don't know how "clicking a rock" again and again is deep .. but hey .. if you like it .. it is your time to waste.
Yeah, just like clicking on a mob again and again is deep and exciting! bam bam pow!
At least i have to think about which skill to use .. and look at what the mob is doing. So yeah .. 1000x more exciting than clicking on a rock.
ahhh boom boom pow 1...2...1...2...3...1...1...The ground is lighting up, that means I need to move, or an AE is going to hit here.....move, because the dummy light lit up.....1....2...1...2..
The majority of mmos include crafting, so, by your often stated arguements, the numbers mean it is important (even if many of them have crappy, shallow crafting)....
If you had no excitment in UO mining, you must of never encountered PKs, monsters, used gargoyals pick axes that could spawn elementals...So yeah, the randomness of it was so much more boring than a scripted monster that you can fall asleep and kill in most modern mmos.
At least i have to think about which skill to use .. and look at what the mob is doing. So yeah .. 1000x more exciting than clicking on a rock.
I never played Ultima Online although i played all of the single player games. I wish that I had though and I find it interesting to read about how it was. No need to de-rail people's threads. You can always go make a separate topic about how moronic the games you don't like are.
wait .. it is allowed to have a negative opinion on WOW (or whatever modern MMO you pick), but not a negative opinion on UO?
Originally posted by Betaguy My first time in UO. Some dudes opened a portal, told me to go through and join thier guild. I went through the portal, they told me to click on the guild stone. I did this out of blind trust and believed in the goodness of people. Soon as I touched the guild stone they repeatedly raped me and stole all my items. This was my intro to UO.
Hehe ,we all been there .It was new and fresh and hey the guy with the big hat knows best!
Yeah I remember getting killed by some little rabbit or something. Asking around how the heck I'm supposed to be able to slay a bunny rabbit I was told I needed to chop wood to get strong enough to kill a rabbit.
I thought that was ridiculous so I quit. A year or two later Everquest came out. There I struggled to kill a big rat... but I DID kill the big rat. And without having to chop wood for hours first! I was sold at that point. Never looked back at UO.
These Knights didn't lumberjack or mine enough to get their strength up. Some of their parrying skills are pretty decent, though. Swordmanship is probably at 30% for most of them.
Due to frequent travel in my youth, English isn't something I consider my primary language (and thus I obtained quirky ways of writing). German and French were always easier for me despite my family being U.S. citizens for over a century. Spanish I learned as a requirement in school, Japanese and Korean I acquired for my youthful desire of anime and gaming (and also work now). I only debate in English to help me work with it (and limit things). In addition, I'm not smart enough to remain fluent in everything and typically need exposure to get in the groove of things again if I haven't heard it in a while. If you understand Mandarin, I know a little, but it has actually been a challenge and could use some help.
Also, I thoroughly enjoy debates and have accounts on over a dozen sites for this. If you wish to engage in such, please put effort in a post and provide sources -- I will then do the same with what I already wrote (if I didn't) as well as with my responses to your own. Expanding my information on a subject makes my stance either change or strengthen the next time I speak of it or write a thesis. Allow me to thank you sincerely for your time.
This actually brought back quite a few memories. The sound of those animals when you hit them or they hit you. The hinds actually beat me up pretty bad the first time I tried to fight them. Then carving their meat and leather when you finally triumphed and putting it in your bag. Luckily I didn't get tricked into getting PK'd and met a nice couple who shared a castle that hooked me up with some heavy leather, chain armor, potions, bandages and a small check before sending me to a bank to put them all in.
They could've just PK'd me right then and there, but they didn't. Thenceforth I pretty much dedicated 9 months to mining all night long and then smelting the ore and blacksmithing for a 00.1 gain a night. It took a long time, but after reaching Grandmaster status I was able to make hundreds of millions of gold selling whole valorite sets and armor sets in general. Also tended to give away quite a bit of iron chain/plate armor to people and free repairs.
During the day I just worked on my Swordsmanship by attacking things or sparing with a friend. We also got to grand master anatomy and healing through those means. GM'd swords by attacking rock elementals at Shame (it think it was) and just cross healed each other for quicker heals. Though at this time Trammel was released and we just did that there and brought a pack horse to carry the gold and gems that dropped.
Then I remember my first neighbors after buying my first Tower. Nice chap who opened a restaurant (that he opened every night for an hour or two... using the books you could make in game as menus and setting 1-25 gold prices for cooked food... which wasn't a lot, but it was just for fun) and asked if he could have access to my kitchen to level his cooking skill since he didn't have room in his log cabin at that time. Made him a friend to the house and gave him a key. Also became neighbors with someone I bought leather from a while back and had a nice conversation with; we apparently moved into new areas at around the same time and it was a nice coincidence. Was great having good neighbors.
I remember leaving for a time, and my friend saved my house by placing a new one there once he saw it was deteriorated. He then gave it back to me years later when he saw me log back in. Was a great little surprise and makes me miss the community of people I knew there. Also the guild that had annual BBQ events and tournaments and treasure hunts. Just things no other game could possibly do due to how UO was set up. Being able to play anything on top of anything at any point in the world (we even had diners in the castle with huge tables... plates on tables, food on plates, utensils on table, mugs with ale in them, etc). No such things as "nodes", just chopping a tree or mining any part of a mountain.
Then all the museums and libraries that I visited, the malls and the player towns and kingdoms, plus the player events and the GM events and the Seer events, and even seeing Lord British walk about towns at times. Farming for cotton and food, using sewing machines and then cutting up cloth for bandages, going through the wilderness and foraging for alchemic or cooking ingredients. The game was just amazing in every way possible back in the day.
Due to frequent travel in my youth, English isn't something I consider my primary language (and thus I obtained quirky ways of writing). German and French were always easier for me despite my family being U.S. citizens for over a century. Spanish I learned as a requirement in school, Japanese and Korean I acquired for my youthful desire of anime and gaming (and also work now). I only debate in English to help me work with it (and limit things). In addition, I'm not smart enough to remain fluent in everything and typically need exposure to get in the groove of things again if I haven't heard it in a while. If you understand Mandarin, I know a little, but it has actually been a challenge and could use some help.
Also, I thoroughly enjoy debates and have accounts on over a dozen sites for this. If you wish to engage in such, please put effort in a post and provide sources -- I will then do the same with what I already wrote (if I didn't) as well as with my responses to your own. Expanding my information on a subject makes my stance either change or strengthen the next time I speak of it or write a thesis. Allow me to thank you sincerely for your time.
If only that game came with a damn instruction book! I think I spent most of the first several months I played that game doing nothing but mining, because I didnt know crap else to do or how to do it lol.
Ahh the memories...
No but i do remember the first time i got laid.
Ahh the memories......
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.' -Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid." -Luke McKinney
If only that game came with a damn instruction book! I think I spent most of the first several months I played that game doing nothing but mining, because I didnt know crap else to do or how to do it lol.
Ahh the memories...
Wait, didn't UO originally come with a huge instruction book? Like three hundred pages huge?
Or was this a joke to play on that? xD
Due to frequent travel in my youth, English isn't something I consider my primary language (and thus I obtained quirky ways of writing). German and French were always easier for me despite my family being U.S. citizens for over a century. Spanish I learned as a requirement in school, Japanese and Korean I acquired for my youthful desire of anime and gaming (and also work now). I only debate in English to help me work with it (and limit things). In addition, I'm not smart enough to remain fluent in everything and typically need exposure to get in the groove of things again if I haven't heard it in a while. If you understand Mandarin, I know a little, but it has actually been a challenge and could use some help.
Also, I thoroughly enjoy debates and have accounts on over a dozen sites for this. If you wish to engage in such, please put effort in a post and provide sources -- I will then do the same with what I already wrote (if I didn't) as well as with my responses to your own. Expanding my information on a subject makes my stance either change or strengthen the next time I speak of it or write a thesis. Allow me to thank you sincerely for your time.
If only that game came with a damn instruction book! I think I spent most of the first several months I played that game doing nothing but mining, because I didnt know crap else to do or how to do it lol.
Ahh the memories...
You thought clicking on a rock again and again, and again was fun?
Nostalgia can be a sweet intoxicant but as they say, rose tinted glasses make the games we played yesterday the more fun. I remember my own first foray into online gaming with Asheron's Call. Loved the game but man there is so many thing I would change about the game to make it more fun and less time consuming.
If only that game came with a damn instruction book! I think I spent most of the first several months I played that game doing nothing but mining, because I didnt know crap else to do or how to do it lol.
Ahh the memories...
You thought clicking on a rock again and again, and again was fun?
Nostalgia can be a sweet intoxicant but as they say, rose tinted glasses make the games we played yesterday the more fun. I remember my own first foray into online gaming with Asheron's Call. Loved the game but man there is so many thing I would change about the game to make it more fun and less time consuming.
I played again, not long ago, and I mined, made my own stuff and such....Seemed to work and was just how I remembered it. I find these rose tinted glasses arguements do not hold much water imo. I even played with the 2d client, and it didn't bother me at all....Not a big fan of the new skill system/combos though, but that has nothing to do with nostalgia.
Nostalgia is a glorious thing and for years I have been waiting for an MMO to give me that feeling I once had long ago, firstly with UO, then EQ and I must confess, briefly with WOW since most of us did get hooked on it for at least the first 60 levels anyway.
The sad thing about UO is I know it's like can never really happen again. It was a game of that era, the dawn of something completely new and fresh and the people you played with were on the whole, nothing like the average gamer playing today. Back in 97, MMO players were mainly nerds, often totally inexperienced at multiplayer gaming and acted more maturely. It was almost expected that you role-play your character and the notion of power gaming and using online guides to get ahead was pretty much non-existent, you simply explored and learned by word of mouth from other players in-game, many aspects of UO were mysterious waiting to be solved.
I still remember the awe when I first saw a Great Lord in full-plate ride into Britain on horseback. The first time I saw a strong warrior playfully toying with multiple fire elementals before slaying them when I could barely manage one. Another time my friend had his boat stolen with me still on board (thief was stealthed) and me furiously chasing him around the deck in circles. Mining on Ice Island in a shared house, constantly fearing the local Dread Lord that frequently tormented the neighborhood.
All these things seem unspectacular now with hindsight, but back then they were amazing and they stuck with me. Don't get me wrong, there were sure times I was incredibly pissed at being killed and losing all my items (I specifically remember losing a brand new suit of shadow plate), but we all take things for granted at the time. One things for sure, if I had known then 15 years ago that NOTHING, no other MMO would replicate many of the gameplay features UO had that I loved, or capture me the same way, I would never have taken the breaks I did and spend so much time on counter-strike. I don't thing any of us fully appreciated just how good we had it.
I sucked at PvP, I rarely intentionally engaged in it, but I loved the game for the crafting, the people, the authentic living-breathing world and the unpredictable emergent gameplay that often swept you into new adventure or peril whenever you logged in. The population was a balance of sheep and wolves that we'll never see the like of again because of the number of alternative games now available offering the full safe carebear experience. I think it's true that when an MMO can maintain a healthy mix of sheep:wolves (carebear:PK) that something magical happens to the atmosphere of the game, and it becomes almost life-like. I think this is a big reason games like Darkfall and Mortal Online failed, because they are crammed only with the PK's and power gamers and it feels more like a PvP arena then a living world like UO did.
I crave for that MMO where you can just login to relax, not worry about "being the best" or performing a role in PvE, but just wander, potter around, craft, gather and listen to nearby players chatting like they did around the banks, observing the hilarity of the thieves or rogues that trapped boxes to prey on the noobs around the streets. As many here, I'm sure I could write a book on experiences from UO, and its strange because rose-tinted spectacles or not, I cannot think of another MMO where I have anything like a similar number/variety of memorable moments. I think that speaks for itself, but at least I can treasure the awesome time I remember, back in the UO golden age.
I started on the first day of release. Had it in mind to be an archer, little did I know that archers were really weak. Made arrows and went out hunting. I spotted about 8 chickens and figured they'd be easy. Shot at one and the whole flock surrounded me, heh. Charged me like a pack of wolves.
I wasn't able to do enough damage and they'd heal back up too quickly, and blocking was in so I couldn't run. It was a slow and painfull death as they slowly pecked me to death.
So funny lol! I miss mmorpgs. What we have now are action fighting games.
Comments
Not the clicking so much as trying to get your ore smelted and in the bank before some creature or player killed you and took it!
I think what you are missing was the fact that it was all new and exciting back then. Now it is certainly seen as, clicking on a rock over and over... back then it was EPIC to be able to even do that with other people running all around you doing the same. Trying to watch people for staeling your ore pile or snooping your bags.. It was always edge-of-your-seat-OMG-im-gonna-die. Back then PvP actually made my hands shake and was a HUGE adrenaline rush. It was an absolutely amazing experience to have had. Nothing has come close since =(
OMG I used to follow that site way back when I was actually playing. Lot of awsome-sauce on that site
Troll much?
At least i have to think about which skill to use .. and look at what the mob is doing. So yeah .. 1000x more exciting than clicking on a rock.
I never played Ultima Online although i played all of the single player games. I wish that I had though and I find it interesting to read about how it was. No need to de-rail people's threads. You can always go make a separate topic about how moronic the games you don't like are.
wait .. it is allowed to have a negative opinion on WOW (or whatever modern MMO you pick), but not a negative opinion on UO?
I had always been a "fantasy nerd" with pewter figures and books. It was great to be in a virtual world actively doing things like those stories. It's really not much different today other than the "mold" MMOs have. It's too restrictive IMO.
Btw at some point can we coin the term "Michael Bay MMOs"? Seems fitting somehow
ahhh boom boom pow 1...2...1...2...3...1...1...The ground is lighting up, that means I need to move, or an AE is going to hit here.....move, because the dummy light lit up.....1....2...1...2..
The majority of mmos include crafting, so, by your often stated arguements, the numbers mean it is important (even if many of them have crappy, shallow crafting)....
If you had no excitment in UO mining, you must of never encountered PKs, monsters, used gargoyals pick axes that could spawn elementals...So yeah, the randomness of it was so much more boring than a scripted monster that you can fall asleep and kill in most modern mmos.
If you are smart....yes.
Hehe ,we all been there .It was new and fresh and hey the guy with the big hat knows best!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg
These Knights didn't lumberjack or mine enough to get their strength up. Some of their parrying skills are pretty decent, though. Swordmanship is probably at 30% for most of them.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
This actually brought back quite a few memories. The sound of those animals when you hit them or they hit you. The hinds actually beat me up pretty bad the first time I tried to fight them. Then carving their meat and leather when you finally triumphed and putting it in your bag. Luckily I didn't get tricked into getting PK'd and met a nice couple who shared a castle that hooked me up with some heavy leather, chain armor, potions, bandages and a small check before sending me to a bank to put them all in.
They could've just PK'd me right then and there, but they didn't. Thenceforth I pretty much dedicated 9 months to mining all night long and then smelting the ore and blacksmithing for a 00.1 gain a night. It took a long time, but after reaching Grandmaster status I was able to make hundreds of millions of gold selling whole valorite sets and armor sets in general. Also tended to give away quite a bit of iron chain/plate armor to people and free repairs.
During the day I just worked on my Swordsmanship by attacking things or sparing with a friend. We also got to grand master anatomy and healing through those means. GM'd swords by attacking rock elementals at Shame (it think it was) and just cross healed each other for quicker heals. Though at this time Trammel was released and we just did that there and brought a pack horse to carry the gold and gems that dropped.
Then I remember my first neighbors after buying my first Tower. Nice chap who opened a restaurant (that he opened every night for an hour or two... using the books you could make in game as menus and setting 1-25 gold prices for cooked food... which wasn't a lot, but it was just for fun) and asked if he could have access to my kitchen to level his cooking skill since he didn't have room in his log cabin at that time. Made him a friend to the house and gave him a key. Also became neighbors with someone I bought leather from a while back and had a nice conversation with; we apparently moved into new areas at around the same time and it was a nice coincidence. Was great having good neighbors.
I remember leaving for a time, and my friend saved my house by placing a new one there once he saw it was deteriorated. He then gave it back to me years later when he saw me log back in. Was a great little surprise and makes me miss the community of people I knew there. Also the guild that had annual BBQ events and tournaments and treasure hunts. Just things no other game could possibly do due to how UO was set up. Being able to play anything on top of anything at any point in the world (we even had diners in the castle with huge tables... plates on tables, food on plates, utensils on table, mugs with ale in them, etc). No such things as "nodes", just chopping a tree or mining any part of a mountain.
Then all the museums and libraries that I visited, the malls and the player towns and kingdoms, plus the player events and the GM events and the Seer events, and even seeing Lord British walk about towns at times. Farming for cotton and food, using sewing machines and then cutting up cloth for bandages, going through the wilderness and foraging for alchemic or cooking ingredients. The game was just amazing in every way possible back in the day.
No but i do remember the first time i got laid.
Ahh the memories......
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'
-Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid."
-Luke McKinney
Wait, didn't UO originally come with a huge instruction book? Like three hundred pages huge?
Or was this a joke to play on that? xD
Nostalgia can be a sweet intoxicant but as they say, rose tinted glasses make the games we played yesterday the more fun. I remember my own first foray into online gaming with Asheron's Call. Loved the game but man there is so many thing I would change about the game to make it more fun and less time consuming.
SUP
I played again, not long ago, and I mined, made my own stuff and such....Seemed to work and was just how I remembered it. I find these rose tinted glasses arguements do not hold much water imo. I even played with the 2d client, and it didn't bother me at all....Not a big fan of the new skill system/combos though, but that has nothing to do with nostalgia.
Nostalgia is a glorious thing and for years I have been waiting for an MMO to give me that feeling I once had long ago, firstly with UO, then EQ and I must confess, briefly with WOW since most of us did get hooked on it for at least the first 60 levels anyway.
The sad thing about UO is I know it's like can never really happen again. It was a game of that era, the dawn of something completely new and fresh and the people you played with were on the whole, nothing like the average gamer playing today. Back in 97, MMO players were mainly nerds, often totally inexperienced at multiplayer gaming and acted more maturely. It was almost expected that you role-play your character and the notion of power gaming and using online guides to get ahead was pretty much non-existent, you simply explored and learned by word of mouth from other players in-game, many aspects of UO were mysterious waiting to be solved.
I still remember the awe when I first saw a Great Lord in full-plate ride into Britain on horseback. The first time I saw a strong warrior playfully toying with multiple fire elementals before slaying them when I could barely manage one. Another time my friend had his boat stolen with me still on board (thief was stealthed) and me furiously chasing him around the deck in circles. Mining on Ice Island in a shared house, constantly fearing the local Dread Lord that frequently tormented the neighborhood.
All these things seem unspectacular now with hindsight, but back then they were amazing and they stuck with me. Don't get me wrong, there were sure times I was incredibly pissed at being killed and losing all my items (I specifically remember losing a brand new suit of shadow plate), but we all take things for granted at the time. One things for sure, if I had known then 15 years ago that NOTHING, no other MMO would replicate many of the gameplay features UO had that I loved, or capture me the same way, I would never have taken the breaks I did and spend so much time on counter-strike. I don't thing any of us fully appreciated just how good we had it.
I sucked at PvP, I rarely intentionally engaged in it, but I loved the game for the crafting, the people, the authentic living-breathing world and the unpredictable emergent gameplay that often swept you into new adventure or peril whenever you logged in. The population was a balance of sheep and wolves that we'll never see the like of again because of the number of alternative games now available offering the full safe carebear experience. I think it's true that when an MMO can maintain a healthy mix of sheep:wolves (carebear:PK) that something magical happens to the atmosphere of the game, and it becomes almost life-like. I think this is a big reason games like Darkfall and Mortal Online failed, because they are crammed only with the PK's and power gamers and it feels more like a PvP arena then a living world like UO did.
I crave for that MMO where you can just login to relax, not worry about "being the best" or performing a role in PvE, but just wander, potter around, craft, gather and listen to nearby players chatting like they did around the banks, observing the hilarity of the thieves or rogues that trapped boxes to prey on the noobs around the streets. As many here, I'm sure I could write a book on experiences from UO, and its strange because rose-tinted spectacles or not, I cannot think of another MMO where I have anything like a similar number/variety of memorable moments. I think that speaks for itself, but at least I can treasure the awesome time I remember, back in the UO golden age.
So funny lol! I miss mmorpgs. What we have now are action fighting games.