MMO Urge

[maniacalpha1-1]

I'm sure a lot of people would rebel, but a lot of others would become more attached to the game as well. Those looking for a solo experience in an MMO will stop playing it, but I doubt those people play the game very long to begin with. Eventually they have to realize that these games aren't very good single player games.

People used to whine about being forced to group, before they all went to solo play. They got what they wanted, but unfortunately it killed the genre for players like us.

There was a time when I came back to EQ in the Secrets of Faydwer era where I realized that with mercs, I could solo (or molo as they call it) in certain less difficult areas, enough to keep a minimum flow of XP/AA flowing in. So if I couldn't find a group, I could still get progress done, but it was sufficiently slow that it would be very beneficial to go places in full groups of 6, and you'd never be able to accumulate the best gear that way (unless you put so much time into it that you built up enough in-game platinum to buy it somewhere, which brings up another issue, most good stuff was not tradeable unless you were on Firiona Vie). I think that's the right mix, myself, even if it's not accomplished with mercenaries/companions.

 

[TeknoBug]

Is City of Heroes' shutdown by NCSoft the biggest MMO publisher crime? Perhaps.

Curious, have you checked out Rift? But need to spend a bit of time to get to know it.

Yes tried Rift a couple years ago and already had someone try and steal my account (dunno how). lol

I think NCsoft forging Richard Garriot's name on a fake letter saying that he wanted out from the company giving them a reason to shut down Tabula Rasa while Garriot was out in space on vacation being a bigger crime than shutting down CoH, however it was bad of NCsoft on both.

 

[pontifex]

I've been playing WoW again under a trial account. Playing as Pandaren monk thinking a new starting area and new class would make it easier to come back instead of playing something I already played before.

A lot has changed since I last played. I tried starting some other classes too and they changed them a good bit as well. Seems like they really dumbed it down too.

Seems kind of boring because it seems like there's less skills. Monk seems pretty boring. I'm only at level 14 though so not sure if it changes later on. Although I don't think I am going to continue to play.

 

[clok1966]

I've been playing WoW again under a trial account. Playing as Pandaren monk thinking a new starting area and new class would make it easier to come back instead of playing something I already played before.

A lot has changed since I last played. I tried starting some other classes too and they changed them a good bit as well. Seems like they really dumbed it down too.

Seems kind of boring because it seems like there's less skills. Monk seems pretty boring. I'm only at level 14 though so not sure if it changes later on. Although I don't think I am going to continue to play.

I did the same, 2 years away and went back. This "all classes can do all things" mentality is nice for group building, but has made the game so generic its sad. Almost all the time sinks while grindy where the "badges" you wore to show your commitment (or lack of a life)I ground Knight commander in BG, no more titles, I did all the Factions, when some where damn hard, no worries now- days, I vanity pet hunted, now you just buy um. Those things that meant nothing to game play and where vanity only, why make them simple now? While I hated quest bottlenecks (hogger was damn hard without a group in the old days) now its trivial, Barrens (or Duskwood) travel and quest decisions could make minutes turn into hours if you didn't plan, flight paths at every corner now. I do see making the low level grind much faster is a good idea (very good in some spots, those drop 10 quests where it was a 2% drop rate with 20 mobs that dropped it and 6 people farming where BAD!!!!) as most players have done it many times, it has cheapened the game in a big way. Blizz want to monetize the game, why not just make it $5 to level to 60 or something, or even doing the DK thing for people who have leveled a warrior to 80, do some hour quest and you 80, for old players, That means those who enjoyed it could do it, those who didn't could just skip it, and new people had to learn. Making the early game exp trivial is not a way to train the few new players coming it. It just makes the seasoned players hate um more in Instances.

I lasted about 3 months, leveled 2 player to new expansion level ( haven't bought it yet, was going to, but lost interest).. man is it just me or is the water expansion a crap one?

WoW is still the best of them, unlimited stuff to do, even if its way faster to do it now.

 

[Tequila]

For the old school EQers who want to relive classic there is http://www.project1999.com/ which is free but it does require getting a hold of EQ Titanium pack. They are currently on the Kunark expansion with Velious coming out later this year.

It actually has been around for 6 years but I only found out about it about two months ago. I played EQ from 1999 to 2002 and loved it because it was so harsh. You grouped, made friends, helped people out you barely knew and got help on harsh CR deep in a dungeon from high levels you barely knew. To me it was a grand adventure, incredible sprawling multi-level dungeons and meeting people a long the way because you grouped with them so much. I was in no rush to get to the end game. MMOs these days are just endless solo quests to get to top level in a few weeks, blow your way through easy instanced dungeons then raid till you burnout. I think it was a year before I got my first toon to 50 in EQ and more months to get to 57 when I finally quit in 2002.

Project1999 despite being 6 years old has a good amount of peeps in almost every starter zone. Yes you might see 30-50 peeps in Gfay at prime time and CB being overcamped and Unrest and Mistmoore and upper guk being overcamped. But during off hours it is about perfect as the population drops in half and finding groups/camps gets much easier. Current main is only 22 so I don't know what the population is like in higher level dungeons but man I'm loving reliving EQ again and can't wait to relive Dalnir, SolA/B, lower guk, HS and Seb! EQ still has the best dungeons in any MMO I've played.

 

[pontifex]

yeah i agree, everything is about leveling up as fast as possible and focused on raiding these days. I enjoy the leveling up period, experiencing new content, etc.

My raiding experience has been very poor. takes forever to get one set up, then takes so long to do, and after all that frustration and headache, you get nothing for it.

 

[MeldarthX]

LOL I got into EQ just before plains; as I got free month with the first 3 expansions; that got me hooked on my crazy paladin. I got luclin free with gold set I bought; funny part is for about first 50 levels I soloed most of it which let me learn the ins and outs of what I could and couldn't do as a tank....

once I started grouping I had so many wanting me as their MT LOL....I miss that game; adventures.....tanking in fear...and hate LOL being told cause I was a paladin I couldn't tank certain things and turnining around and proving them all wrong

ESO hasn't been too bad; liked the questing and some of the dungeons; reminded me of some of the same vein of EQ......

EQN is one I'm really waiting for; though skyforge looks interesting

 

[Craig234]

"EQ still has the best dungeons in any MMO I've played. "

I agree.

 

[Newbian]

"EQ still has the best dungeons in any MMO I've played. "

I agree.

Except for the ability for people to shut it down by trains or corpse runs before your gear vanished.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

EQ is looking to come out with a new progression server, i.e. it starts with Classic or Classic/Kunark/Velious or something like that (and then new expansions are opened up based on triggers or time), this summer.

Anyone planning to play? Right now on the EQ forums they have discussions going, a lot of players are disputing whether or not they should instance raid mobs (back in the day, 1999, there were not enough raid mobs for the number of hardcore guilds capable of killing them).

 

[xantub]

EQ is looking to come out with a new progression server, i.e. it starts with Classic or Classic/Kunark/Velious or something like that (and then new expansions are opened up based on triggers or time), this summer.

Anyone planning to play? Right now on the EQ forums they have discussions going, a lot of players are disputing whether or not they should instance raid mobs (back in the day, 1999, there were not enough raid mobs for the number of hardcore guilds capable of killing them).

They already did that a year or two ago. I played it then after like 10 years since I abandoned EQ and loved it. Played for a few months, in the first 2 days alone made more friends than in the previous 6 years of playing other MMOs.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

They already did that a year or two ago. I played it then after like 10 years since I abandoned EQ and loved it. Played for a few months, in the first 2 days alone made more friends than in the previous 6 years of playing other MMOs.

They've actually had these kinds of servers opening up for years. I can't remember when the first one was but I'm thinking somewhere in the 2005-2007 era?

It's sad that to get this kind of gameplay, a player is limited to this kind of classic revisitation; someone who wants this has to deal with old graphics and other ancient systems because anything new is going to be hypercasualized, hyper-easy, quick completion, every class can do everything.

This "all classes can do all things" mentality is nice for group building, but has made the game so generic its sad.

Funny, I can go to forums far and wide on the internet and see people independently come to the same conclusion, that games are casualizing to the point "all classes can do all things". Sad the direction MMORPGs are going.