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MMORPG Wars - A New Hope

Hi all.

I've been a gamer all my life. In all honesty, probably too much of one. I sometimes wander if my passion for gaming has stopped me fulfilling more in my life but heck, the gaming has been gooood! :D

Anyhow, I'm far older than I'd care to admit but if I told you my first gaming machine was an Atari Video Computer System from the 1980's, you would be getting a good idea of my age.

My first MMORPG was Asheron's Call 2. Widely dismissed by the original Asheron's Call but as my first, I loved it. I moved onto Everquest far just a little while but loved the feel of that even more, before succumbing to Everquest 2 when released.

In all these games, I was never the most social of person and would often logon to see how far I could get solo but each of these games had such a community that there always seemed friendly groups available for to you to join up with. I don't remember any of these groups being unkind or unfriendly and very often to fail a particular quest would lead to much mirth before we would get together to try again.

The games also seemed much tougher too, I remember in EQ whether as part of a group or solo being in Blackburrow Den carefully picking our way through only for the dreaded "TRAIN!!!!" to be yelled by someone as some poor soul was being pursued to the exit by a long line of Gnolls who would turn on anyone in their vacinity (at least the way I remember it). Of course death meant more too with the loss of XP and trying to get your stuff back from your corpse.

Even EQ2 started off very similar but again it was never an issue to find a friendly patient group. I was never the best player but grouping was an enjoyable experience.

Then I went to World of Warcraft. At the time it was no more than a collection of good idea's from other MMORPG's but put together so well in what felt like such an open world. I really did enjoy vanilla WoW it took me a long while to get to level 60 and I never used any website to help me on my way and the map never gave you an indication of where you quest lay. You needed to read the Quest message to find out. Barren's Chat was an entity all of it's own too!

What WoW did do well was give enough solo content while still giving enough reason to group up with other players. Elite quests etc.

This felt like a breath of fresh air but lead to almost death of the MMORPG genre, at least, as we knew it. Blizzard realised quickly what content made the most of money and gradually changed their game so you hardly had reason to group anymore unless you got wrapped up in the gear war. This was never my thing, I enjoyed mmo's for their worlds not to have the biggest oversized sword with the best stats. They tried to make grouping more enticing by making multiple role classes (yawn) and queues for PUG's but these were often souless quick runs through instances were hardly anybody spoke and if they did it would be something like "You lot are so rubbish, I'm out of here" and that is the polite version.

It was so successful just about every mmo after it "cookie cuttered" it. Before we knew it the MMORPG games had become the arcade version of their originals.

Everquest Next had some interesting idea's but never materialised.

For me there are two interesting titles in development. Pantheon: Rise of the fallen which looks very similar to Everquest gameplay, maybe just a little too much like Everquest, I'm not sure if that will work in the modern day. I'd like to see it work but I'm not sure.

The other being Ashes of Creation, of course. Which seems to have some new really interesting idea's and a game looking to try, at least, to move the genre forward. I like the sound of it so far where you actions can impact the world around you. I'm hoping whatever class and path you choose is your choice and not easily altered. A long way too go yet but so far I'm liking the sound of it.

OMG! I've gone on far too much...apologies if you made it this far.

TL;DR

Old gamer.

Older MMORPG's (AC2, EQ, early EQ2, vanilla WoW) YAY!

Newer MMORPG's (later WoW and Wow clones) Booo!

Ashes of Creation... the new hope? 

Comments

  • Welcome @Dreadlock :) Firstly, love the name, secondly I remember the Atari too, so I have a fair idea how old you are, and lastly... I hope it's the new hope. We haven't had an innovative new MMORPG for a long time :) Looking forward to chatting with you more.
  • A very warm welcome to the Ashes Community. Glad to see another experienced gamer join us here =)
  • Welcome @Dreadlock!

    I too am hoping that Ashes will be the new hope. There's a few things to consider:

    We are not alone - I've never seen a community come together at such speed and in such a manner considering how far we are away from launch. The community seems generally older, apart from @Ketchup (I actually think I have older Ketchup in my fridge! :p) and everyone is drawn by the promises that Intrepid have made, and in general, they've promised something that's quite far far away from the saturated genre that we've come to expect over the last few years.

    As I've stated many times, I think Ashes will probably be the last chance saloon for me and if it doesn't work out then so be it. It's simply the best opportunity for a new hope that we have and it's up to us as backers/supporters to make it work and hold Intrepid to account for any deviation from their early goals, and not blindly believe and hope.  

    If Intrepid pull it off then Steven @ co will have achieved something special in my opinion and will possibly have rescued my favourite genre of gaming from itself. 

    Let's believe. :)   

  • Kratz said:

    Welcome @Dreadlock!

    I too am hoping that Ashes will be the new hope. There's a few things to consider:

    We are not alone - I've never seen a community come together at such speed and in such a manner considering how far we are away from launch. The community seems generally older, apart from @Ketchup (I actually think I have older Ketchup in my fridge! :p) and everyone is drawn by the promises that Intrepid have made, and in general, they've promised something that's quite far far away from the saturated genre that we've come to expect over the last few years.

    As I've stated many times, I think Ashes will probably be the last chance saloon for me and if it doesn't work out then so be it. It's simply the best opportunity for a new hope that we have and it's up to us as backers/supporters to make it work and hold Intrepid to account for any deviation from their early goals, and not blindly believe and hope.  

    If Intrepid pull it off then Steven @ co will have achieved something special in my opinion and will possibly have rescued my favourite genre of gaming from itself. 

    Let's believe. :)   

    Ketchup that's 15+ years old, that's properly not even considered ketchup any more, maybe a bottle of mold at that rate :astonished:
  • Ketchup said:
    Kratz said:

    Welcome @Dreadlock!

    I too am hoping that Ashes will be the new hope. There's a few things to consider:

    We are not alone - I've never seen a community come together at such speed and in such a manner considering how far we are away from launch. The community seems generally older, apart from @Ketchup (I actually think I have older Ketchup in my fridge! :p) and everyone is drawn by the promises that Intrepid have made, and in general, they've promised something that's quite far far away from the saturated genre that we've come to expect over the last few years.

    As I've stated many times, I think Ashes will probably be the last chance saloon for me and if it doesn't work out then so be it. It's simply the best opportunity for a new hope that we have and it's up to us as backers/supporters to make it work and hold Intrepid to account for any deviation from their early goals, and not blindly believe and hope.  

    If Intrepid pull it off then Steven @ co will have achieved something special in my opinion and will possibly have rescued my favourite genre of gaming from itself. 

    Let's believe. :)   

    Ketchup that's 15+ years old, that's properly not even considered ketchup any more, maybe a bottle of mold at that rate :astonished:
    Hey, damn it, I have an excellent fridge! :p
  • Hello and welcome.

    I like what you had to say about the open world and I think this is the core of where modern MMO design fails. WoW started as an open world game and slowly shifted to a linear game. Other games try to copy a WoW model which leads to a launch title with no reason to explore 90% of the map once you hit level cap.

    @Kratz @Ketchup
    If you were to introduce lactobacillus to a ketchup, it would last indefinitely without molding.
  • Welcome @Dreadlock ! AC2 was a game I played for a while, I was in a pretty good guild that had quite a bit of fun. The end game there was pretty bad, but I did like that beating dungeons got you lore and a short in game movie. It felt barren without NPCs and I think in the end it died being different for the sake of being different. 
  • Thanks guys and girls for making me feel so welcome. Just reading these few replies has given me great hope this could be the game that we have searched for. If many of the players are akin to you guys I think this game has a great chance and it's nice to see others out there who share similar feelings to me about what an mmorpg should be. You have rekindled my excitement, that I haven't had for many years, for the genre.

    I really look forward to chatting with you guys and further down the line, meeting many of you in game.
  • Welcome @Dreadlock, can't wait to see everyone in game and to see who is worthy of being the best (sorry I don't have no fancy picture as I am on mobile writing this :wink:)! 
  • Welcome! Many of us are hoping AoC will be the MMORPG to break free from the rollercoaster WoW clone template. I can enjoy those kind of games too but only when playing alone or with a group of friends and even then those feel like they lack something. Pantheon was on my watchlist but I pretty much lost interest in it after I found AoC and Chronicles of Elyria which are the first games I have actually put money into crowdfunding. Couldn't pass the chance of funding the games of my dreams :smiley:

    Anyway,  welcome and try not to get bored while waiting :smiley:
  • Welcome @Dreadlock! Very impressive background! 
  • Welcome to the shenanigans @Dreadlock

    You'll be a valuable asset with all of that experience! 
  • welcome @Dreadlock i think of it more a aged experience perspective you would be a greatly valued guild member in what ever guild you join  
  • Welcome to the community. Hope you have fun on the forum.
  • Welcome!!!  Now...GET OFF MY LAWN!!!   :)
  • Welcome @Dreadlock from one old time gamer to another!  It's great to have you  join our community.   Pull up a seat, have some ale and enjoy the ride!
  • psssst! wanna buy an amiga500 or a zxspectrum...only minor soldering required ;)

    There is now hope when all was lost. But hope is only a start. Welcome to Ashes.
  • Hello @Dreadlock o/ and welcome to the community smile
  • Welcome to you @Dreadlock. I can relate to your story.
  • Welcome to the forum! *throws confetti*
  • Welcome to the AoC Community @Dreadlock. No apologies needed :) 
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