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Name one thing you miss from the "original" MMOs...
Alasti
Member UncommonPosts: 287
I have so many, I could fill up this page....but I'll start with one...and I know there will be MANY people who disagree with me on this, but thats the difference between what I'm looking for and what most of the "enjoyer's" of the current crop of MMOs are looking for....I like there to be consequences for your actions...to fear death.... to give people choices in games etc. Anyway...I digress...
In Ultima Online there were people who primarily (along with other things) played what we nowadays would call crafters. I remember standing around a Forge, waiting my turn to pay exorbitant amounts of money to the Master Blacksmith to repair my gear. There was always a crowd around him....he was a MASTER blacksmith and he was coveted! If you didn't get your gear repaired by a Master, then it would degrade...a LOT. If you let your gear break and didn't have another set (usually inferior), you had to either repair it yourself (unwise), get someone who was NOT a Master Blacksmith to repair your gear (degradation), or you did without.....DANG...I miss those days....It is situations like that that created impromptu quests....Not quests created by the game, but created because of the circumstances of the game! I LOVE that stuff!
What are some of the things YOU miss?
Comments
Uninstanced everything.
The community
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
That sense of exploration and wonder, the OHHHHH Shit ! thats a huge boss and i am gonna die. I guess its the lack of a serious death penalty, without one you dont fear for your in game life and dying is trivial.
Lolipops !
Couldn't agree more
The unknown. EVERYTHING is on websites now, usually even before a game is properly released, from NPC locations to complete loot lists. There is no discovery or surprise anymore.. the temptation and ease of using the online info is too great.
Even GW2's hidden locations will be common knowledge in less than a week. The one in the already seen Charr starter area video will especially be swarming with people from day one.. jumping around on those ledges. It'll be a sight to behold, all those people falling to their deaths.
Meaningful Death Penalty is right up there with me too. I love the fact that you had to retrieve your corpse and all its possession because it added sense of actual danger. the few times where you died and had to put together a corpse retrieval group was amazingly fun and a quest in and of itself.
My tops things all come from Asherons Call:
Spell research. Finding a high level spell through luck was awesome.
Exploration in a huge world
not having fed-ex style questing but an in depth quests that rewarded you with amazing items and tons of EXP but they might take you 2-3 hours to run through and require a full group.
An experience based skill system and beign able to aquire the skills I want instead of beign pigeon-holed into specific classes. 3-School Axe melee anyone.
Not having one cnetralized locale to hang out but many many towns and hamlets that certain guilds would call home.
A dynamic loot system that required a great deal of luck. its amazing that after 12+ years in AC I still have not built the ideal suit of armor.
those are many but I am missing alot.
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
Another thing I miss was the rarity of good items in the game....What I mean is...Not EVERYONE was able to get EVERY item in the game like they are now....
I agree with EVERYTHING you just said
Crafting. I really miss solid crafting. Even vanilla WoW had better crafting than most MMOs today and I never thought crafting was one of WoWs true strong points.
Incredibly good random loot drops in the open world... better yet, drops with randomized combinations of stats that occasionally were useful.
I miss my Mattekar Coat too
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
strong community, strong death penalties, maps that dont reveal so much information.
played a million mmo's
OOoops. Thought my post was eaten.
I agree with all of this, and would like to add a few.
8. the dynamic fighting system that allowed us to dodge magic and missle attacks.
9. no instances, in AC you could actually run into other people inside dungeons. and on the pvp server this made for awsome battles, fighting over dungeons.
10. Different weapons used for different monsters, in AC you had many different kinds of attacks from Acid, fire, Frost to Bludge, slash and so on. each mob was vulnerable to different kinds of attacks. a axe player for example would have a fire axe, frost axe, acid axe and so on and would use different ones for different mobs.
you had to actually know the weakness of the mobs you were fighting, you didnt just use you epic purple sword of doom on everything you fight.
Difficulty.
Sure it's been refined, readdressed, addressed, reinvented, interpreted, blah blah blah.
I just miss conquering a force that seemed bigger than me.
With the help of others, with the help of information, with help of earning rare gear, a lucky hit here and there.
Rather than a formula.
I used to play MMOs like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
VIRTUAL WORLD
Mmorpg's were build as virtual worlds ,that's why they had death penalty (since perma death would be too much) , that's why you had to ask BLACKSMITH to repair your armor (since in rl if you want to have medieval armor repaired you go to blacksmith - yes they do still exist). You had to have ARROWS for your bow / crossbow since you need arrow to shoot it. (when last time you played mmorpg that had AMMO?).
Games in which you actually LOST items sometimes , in some games just cause of logical natural durability and finite amount of times thing can be fixed before it is unfixable (SWG...) ,cause if you die in middle of nowhere well things get lost (many games) ,cause if you fight with someone then victor can take your weapon (UO).
Mostly I miss INTERDEPENDENCY.
You could not have billions of easy-to-make crafting / mules /etc alts that covered all of easy-to-master crafting. Hell frequently there was 1 character per server. Besides what was best you have to depend on others ,others had to depend on you. Your actions mattered and had an impact on game world that was SEPARATE and unique from other servers. No character transfers , no cross-server tools, no ultra-heavy instancing when ppl spend 99% in instances.
And still you could have fun solo ,group - short time or in long time. Many activities did not cared if you did then 3 x 1 hour or in 3 hours straight (ofc there were exceptions).
Ehh...
Difficulty, longevity, dipping into the brainpan to accomplish anything. Come on Devs!
I appreciate this, but to me it takes a backseat to the enjoyment of being able to play with friends when they're online.
I spend ... way too much time in zones waiting on bosses to pop with hundreds of other people in the same zone.
Gross.
I miss party play. FFXI set a standard in MMOs that nothing else bothers to match anymore. Modern FFXI is probably the most distant thing from it LOL
.
Spec'ing properly is a gateway drug.
12 Million People have been meter spammed in heroics.
sense of accomplishment.
Examples:
getting to cap use to mean something, now people get to cap in 1 week
getting a rare peice of gear use to mean something, now gear is handed out like candy on halloween.
Consequence for your actions, You use to fear dieing, now its just a free warp .
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore)
Now Playing: N/A
Worst MMO: FFXIV
Favorite MMO: FFXI
Deathpenelties that matterd... All MMOS these days are in Carebear mode there really isent a challenge. Games are to easy period..
Just to name a few...
A server wide community that wasn't contained within a guild or a small group of friends.
A true faction system that had real consequences. Every NPC (Mobs and humanoids) had one or more factions tied to it that could have far reaching consequences for killing any particular group.
Crafting that meant something. All craftable items had a use and the best items were all crafted.
Groups of mobs that required actual strategy to successfully defeat. Mobs would call for help or run to their friends for assistance.
A real sense of risk vs. reward. Death had meaning and kept you on your toes. Also when you risked all and succeeded the rewards really meant something and you were really proud of what you had accomplished.
PvP that meant more than just points on a leader board.
Truly expansive worlds with real danger around every corner. Zones were mixed so you never knew what you may run into. Also rare elite mobs would spawn which kept you on your gaurd. Remember the E. Commonlands Griffin? Or the Night Giant in the W. Commonlands? How about the Sand Giants in the Desert of Ro?
Down time. Yes I know it was a pain in the ass at times but it also helped nurture the community in older games into the great thing that it was.
Travel that took time and would force you to stop along the way to meet people and chat. Remember waiting for boats?
In game life before auction houses. Remember actually having to chat with people to buy stuff? Finding that crafter that made the best gear or weapons and remembering his/her name for future purchases? Remember the E. Commonlands Tunnel?
There are many more but I'll stop there. All of these things helped build some of the best in game communities I've ever experienced. MMO's are supposed to be about socializing. This is what older games were all about. Every aspect of game play had some social element tied to it. This was the original vision for what a MMO should be... A vision that has been totally lost in todays games.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
CORPSE RUNS!
FINBAR
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yes.
Currently bored with MMO's.
Caring about my character. The last few mmo (yes inculding SWTOR) I have tried, I just didn't care about my character, he was fighter 3094 or jedi knight 39 instead of Drakxi or Delo. Early WoW was the last MMO where I cared about my character and his rep.
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.
+1
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true...