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Asheron's Call, deserves more than this.
Spector88
Member UncommonPosts: 112
I started playing MMO's when I was 9. If you want to call "The Realm" (AOL/SIERRA 1996 or so) an MMO, which is still around today much like Asheron's Call is. I've seen what I (Feeling as though I am a pioneer in MMOs) consider tiers in MMO history. Asheron's Call I would consider the second major tier along with Dark Age of Camelot (RvRvR) and EQ (Raid) those being the biggest contributions that stick out, along with more complex crafting systems etc.
What bothers me is this. Asheron's Call never really got a fair shake at the market. It was always in the shadows to EQ and DAoC even, although it has been beloved, and respected especially by the way of Darktide by true MMORPG fans. The fact that in 2012 the game still has a dedicated solid following willing to pay 12.95 a month, is a testiment alone. Considering flop after flop with newer graphics and way less to offer come out.
Turbine or whomever was in control of Asherons Call 2, ruined Asheron's Call the franchise (for now). Asheron's Call 2 had nothing to do with AC1 in many ways, and was way way before its time in many departments. My dad worked in IT, I always had relatively decent PC's, and my PC could barely play AC2 when it came out, I bet a staggering amount of the market could barely play AC2, it was ahead of its time in many ways, but also like many games pushed out too soon and ruined by bugs and lack of content.
Asheron's Call is the best MMORPG/game to ever be released in my mind period. I've played them all, see the game list above? I've played relatively good amounst of atleast 60-75% of the games on that list, I've pre-ordered most of the new tier games, (Tera, Aion, Rift, Guild Wars 2) and they all seem to fall below what they could achieve.
What I do know about Asheron's Call is this, Asheron's Call for whatever reason out of the second tier games, had ideas that World of Warcraft didnt take. See, World of Warcraft wasn't the greatest MMO, when it first came out, it actually sucked. Like the Omega Yo-Yo or JNCO jeans, World of Warcraft was the MMORPG "fad" or what made it more mainsteam, it wasn't really because it was a great game, it became greater and better over time, but originally, vanilla WoW? Yeah. It really wasn't that good. Only people who only ever played WoW would think it was.
Allegiance Monarchies, Vassal Passup, Trophies/Ground Litter, Elemental Weapons, More sophisticated quests/Rolling balls of death/Puzzle flooring. So much of what is in A.C. is lacking in MOST modern MMORPGs.
Could you imagine a modern Dereth? Updated graphics, freedom to build your character as you wish, new monarchies on the rise, a more complex mansion building system. Territory/new darktide battles over dungeons. Mysterious randomly spawning portals to dungeons with great loot. Shiny elemental weapons?
All the story line is there, the creatures are there, what happened? Turbine was bought up, gutted out, and became a business model. But the greatest game and a game I THINK could solve a lot of MMORPG unrest, would be a new sandbox re-done Asheron's Call.
I pray one day Turbine comes to its senses, realization that it has a game that could be hyped, and if loyal to its roots. Out-shine any current to date MMORPG. This is coming from someone who has played-em-all. Seen-em-all. A Asheron's Call sequel, marketed successfully, could over time easily become the #1 MMORPG in the U.S. with a updated crafting system and player housing crafting system.
The exploration, monarchy system, grind system/attribute system, etc. Is all still different enough for most gamers to come off and completely innovative in 2013.
I'm so passionate about this that while in college, I tried contacting many turbine executives to ask or plead with them to look more into the A.C. series. But for now, it appears they will allow the original to quietly calm down and burn out.
Comments
I agree with you.
I played AC from 1999 till about 2010, and still think that game is so ahead of the other graphicly advanced games that have come out since.
The Random loot and tinker system alone is light years ahead of the rest of these themepark games.
The melee combat could use some work because i know most gamers today would think its to boring, but the magic and missle system in the game is 2nd to none as far as skill is involved.
yeah i wish they would make AC3 and make it alot like part 1 was, but in the end i know they would screw it up and make it another clone of all the crap we have out now because thats the so called " safe " way to make thier money back.
Turbine isnt that group of gamers makeing a awsome game out of sombodys garage anymore.
http://www.mit.edu/~jonmon/Business/Turbine/
It comes down to if Turbine will ever revive the IP. What worries me is that most of the original AC developers are no longer with the company. Some are actually part of an old school style mmo that has recently kick started.
AC2 was a travesty. It was a clear attempt to clone EQ style gaming. It was primarily made by devs who had nothing to do with the original AC. For the most part Trubine is not even recognizable as the company that created AC. When they parted ways with Microsoft and later bought back the rights to AC I had some hopes but their current direction and total lack of information about any new product leaves me disappointed in them.
There is only one thing they can do to revive AC and that is to copy what AOE is doing with EQNext. To remake the original game in the way it was meant to be with todays tech. It need to become the full action sandbox game they had originally wanted. I firmly believe that AC is a gem of an IP that the market absolutely needs right now. If all the feel of the old game was captured in a new mmo with the same lore and timeline but with a re-envisioning it would hold a solid market place with few competitors.
What made AC great, along with what the OP mentioned, was that it was an original fantasy setting. Anyone who played AC and loved it experienced some of the most iconic races and mobs never seen before in other games. Instead of elves, dwarves, random-short-race, you had Lugians, Shadows, Tumeroks and mobs like drudge, lugians, tuskers, mites, mattekars and the truly epoc olthoi. The usual creatures and animals were simply different than most fantasy worlds and it gave it a completely unique feel. Crafting which was an after throught and a change to a pretty much failed non-combat skills originally put in game evolved into perhaps the most unique for of crafting in mmos (granted was still tied to standard progression requiring combat). It was used to modify any random generated loot (AC had similar random loot as with Diablo) and required social interaction and rare drops from around the world giving reasons for exploration and challenging encounters. The game also had hundreds of dungeons which were all shared.
I wished I had played it longer (only about 3 years). I would have played it more over the years but I have lost my original account and cannot recover it (oh I've tried many times) so starting over isn't an option for me.
You stay sassy!
Bottom line is COD Unreal Quake Wow EQ2 were too much competition and with little marketing,it had little chance of succeeding.Heck i was an avid gamer and i never even heard of AC when it was released,so it was really badly markleted.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I loved AC as well. To this day, it's still chock full of features that I haven't seen in any other MMOs. It had the best quests, the best dungeons, and still has my favorite ranged combat in any MMO.
Also really wanted to say thanks for that link. What a great story and what a great visual record of AC's development.
You know it is still around right? I'd say it succeeded. It was popular enough to create a sequel (too soon of one too). It was never anywhere near as popular as EQ due to the type of game it was and for lack of marketing but it's future was determined more by the failure of AC2 than that of the original game. Turbine ruined themselves by jumping on the EQ/Wow clone bandwagon after releasing one of the most original mmos every made.
You stay sassy!
And AC was so much better than most of the crap ouf today because of when it came out. For me it was right after the mudd phase. I could see a world not yet completly mapped out. Does anyone remember when you got other information from other players? My patron told me about the matty coat. Not the internet. In ac there were non quest areas to look at, not a quest telling you to go there. A great example is phantos menace, there was something in that dungeon I am sure, but no quest told me to go there. Not in todays games. And no, gw2 doesnt count. No depth in that game.
Currently playing Real Life..
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For all your stalking needs..
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When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I'm in the same boat as you. It's a shame isn't it? I love mmo's, they get the majority of my gaming time, but i find myself just bouncing from one to the next and can never get into any post 2003 mmo for more than six months or so. Only Asherons Call and Anarchy Online have held me for more than year, and now I alternate between the two about every 4 months or so. I'm like the OP and give most new mmo's a chance, I even go to end game in many of them... though that's not saying much as it usually only takes a couple months. Let's not get all nastalgic, but how long does it take to end game in AC? A decade? lol.
Actually, now that I think about it... Eve online has held me for long periods, its complexity is delicious, but it's also more impersonal and colder than avatar based mmos. The story and lore of Eve is just... well I guess it's there, but you can travel a thousand star systems and not encounter it.
I think the only themepark mmo that I played for any amount of time, and actually returned to once or twice was lotro.
Anyway I jumped around a bit in my post, but I agree with you OP. And I'm probably going to fire up AC again within the next few months.
The lack of players is certainly disheartening. Although you can do almost everything alone in AC, you get to thinking that you're playing a single player rpg. That was especially true before the global chat channels. F2P would be interesting, actually it'd be incredible to see all the new players in the old newb grinding spots from 2000... lugian outpost anyone? I wonder how they would limit the froobs, maybe the original level cap (126)... no tinkered gear? shrug...
I would definately want f2p limited and not be like a mall where you can purchase expansions and new zones using "turbine points". No item mall in AC!
Edit.. when you were back in game did you go to any t'thun summonings? On Morningthaw, which is middle of the road population wise, iirc, there were nearly 100 people on weekend summonings. Had portal storms even.. this was Q1 2012 when i was ingame last.
There's more people in the game than you may think. With general chat, mansions, etc. there simply isn't a reason for people to waste time in towns. This means when you show up as a new person you won't see 100 people run past you, they're all off doing high level quests/hunting areas and/or hanging out at their allegiance's mansion.
Also there are a lot of groups that don't spend too much time using general chat. Allegiances have their own chat channels so members tend to talk there instead.
Letting everyone know you're new/returning in the chat a couple of times and you will see there is more out there than you think. However, the server populations do vary quite a bit so it also depends on where you end up.
I will say though, that over the years I've heard a lot of people say they didn't want to come back because of the smaller population. If all of those people did come back, the servers wouldn't be able to handle it because it is really that many people. It is just funny/odd to watch so many people say the same reason when they could all together solve their own issue.
I said it once and I'll say it again:
AC was and still is, lightyears ahead of any game that has come to the market, period.
AC was my first MMO and looking back, I was spoiled to death. It was really something special.
It had everything:
A unique, original world
Deep character customization and development system
Randomized Diablo-esque loot system (no stupid green-purple's here!)
Epic Quest system (where "QUEST" meant something)
Involved developers
Great combat - no homing arrows! Gasp!
Fantastic, epic dungeons
Meaningful death penalty, but not too harsh
Player housing
Darktide, the greatest PvP server ever created
Allegiance system
AC was and still is, the best. At the rate the genre is going, we probably will have to wait another 10-20 years before we see a game remotely close to AC, which is really sad and pathetic.
I know I would try it if it was f2p but have no interest in paying 13 bucks a month for a 10+ year old game.
I'll never understand why anyone would think age should have some relevance to a price of subscription. What the hell difference does it make? This game has faaaaarrrr more content than just about any modern day mmo out there; even many others made in the same era don't come close to matching it. Then there's the plethora of interesting and unique gameplay and progression elements to it that no other mmorpg sports in their entirety (to my knowledge anyway).
So, all that said, what makes that $13 so steep compared to modern mmos exactly? The graphics? Is that what you're basing that argument on? You can decide that the game isn't worth the price to you for whatever reason, but at least give a legitimate reason instead of eluding to some vague, irrelevant generality like, "It's 10+ years old, therefore it's not worth a measly $13 a month." That's a weak assertion just about any way you look at it.
Have looked at AC now and again, would definitely give it a try but for the sub price.
If they dropped the price to $4.99 they would have to more than double the number of subscribers to make up for the price cut. Some people may not play due to the fee, but it's not a significant number.
People don't play AC because it's old. The only thing that would attract large numbers of people is making the game free to play. Making it 100% free isn't feasible since maintaining and updating the game isn't free. Maybe they could make an item shop, but AC was not designed with an item shop in mind.
I figured Turbine would let AC shut down and then announce AC3 shortly after. They just relaunched AC2 however, which is bizarre. Games don't get better or more popular with age. AC2 failed 10 years ago. It's not going to be successful now.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
Just a note about your AC2 comments. Yes, it was not even close to being ready when Microsoft forced it out-the-door however by the time they pulled-the-plug many of the problems had been fixed. Sadly though, it was never able to over-come all the hate that surrounded it at the time. I am back playing AC1 since last month and loving it. I also dropped in to look around AC2, as it is free with the AC1 sub and have to say it isnt bad at all. I still prefer AC1 but in all honesty I have to say AC2 isn't exactly a train-wreck,lol.
Arakane
You can say that about Ultima online but the thing is, is that non asain markets have a totaly differnt opinion on pvp and asian markets dont mind it , it's a deal with it attitude. Us non asian market is like " well i hate my stuff being taken and this dude over here is way stronger then me in the places i hunt and kills me i dont want to do to a different spot. so sand boxes never really make it to far. an open world full loot pvp system will never make it since wow came out. we would have to have our hand held till end game then most ppl quit anyways. just wish ppl would stop being pixel hoarders and pussiesabout a computer game
You make me like charity