Originally posted by WiccanCircle

 

I enjoyed Anarchy Online when it was first released. I actually cleared my study schedule for two days so that I could devote some time to THE (not A, but THE) new MMORPG that season. That is an indication of how far things have changed. It was the first, newest neatest thing to come out since the EverQuest and Asheron’s Call releases. People were drooling over the changes that would be made in the few years between. (If I remember correctly I spent those first two days watching a slide show of a ridiculously dark city while trying to get through the worst lag of any game I have ever seen… but it did get better eventually)

 

AO was new. It had ideas and concepts that were not seen in EQ or AC (yes I know I am ignoring UO, but that one was really not in the same evolutionary strata as EQ & AC) Anarchy Online was complex. The game was not completely intuitive. It had pitfalls in the game, character creation, choices, equipment, skills ad infinitum. You could make mistakes and suffer for them.

 

Anyhow, the idea of an Anarchy Online Two seems like a great idea… at first. However. Things have changed.

 

The gaming population has changed. For better or for worse is a personal opinion, but regardless, the fact is that the gaming population is different than it was almost a decade ago. I have my own theory behind this and it is fairly simple.

 

Those of us that started in EQ and AC and eventually AO… well, we didn’t actually start there did we? Most of us actually started in Eye of the Beholder, Black Crypt, Might and Magic, Daggerfall, and a dozen games that I can’t remember their names. We had notebooks in our laps jotting down clues; we had graph paper laying across the ottoman, spread across the library floor and out into the hallway. We mapped the dungeons. We were prepared for complex games with long lists of rules and huge pitfalls and potential errors in our choices.

 

That is simply not true with many of today’s gamers. For better or for worse, they grew up with cartridge games spoon feeding them the choices in little bite sized pieces so they didn’t choke. Granted, they had speed and action and a multitude of buttons to punch on their handheld joysticks… but no cartridge game had any depth and not a single one had the ability to have complexity of characters. Don’t blame the games; it simply isn’t possible, even today, to have cartridge games that are anything more than elaborate slot car tracks. Complex character choices and shooters don’t mix.

 

So what we have today are games that are fast paced and shallow. The spoon feeding was required so that today’s gamer can jump into a fast game quickly and not suffer ill effects from poor choices made early in their character’s career.

 

Long story longer – What was great about Anarchy Online was its complexity and that would be a tough sell to the people that have game controller calluses and dents in their hands.

Well said I agree with alot of it , if not all !

Originally posted by cwey

AO has one of the best character development system of any MMOG. I love it when I tried out the free client. The only gripe I have is the vast empty world that does not have any good mobs to kill to level on. Which forces ppl to get quests from terminals to do, and those can get repetitive after some time....

    Seems like alot of the players liked zones like the subway, ToTW, Foremans, SoM, etc........There jsut needs to be more of them available....The missions are fine they just get old after awhile and you need some interesting areas to give a break from them..........Like many of you I still havent found a better game for character customization or skill development........Implants are as fun of a twinking system as any I have found.......

Long story short – What was really good about Anarchy Online was its character development and trading complexity. What was really bad was its oversimplified combat (= Press 100 times tab-q, rebuff and repeat).

Originally posted by scuubeedoo

Long story short – What was really good about Anarchy Online was its character development and trading complexity. What was really bad was its oversimplified combat (= Press 100 times tab-q, rebuff and repeat).

I'm going to have to disagree with you about the combat. The tab+q, rebuff and repeat stopped working once you got to level 24ish. I actually believe it has one of the best combat systems for the simple fact that you can have multiple actions firing off at the same time (perks+specials+nanos) which made PVP (if it wasn't for the OP profs) extremely fun.

The things that really holds this game back are:

1.) Professions- Some professions are obviously over powered, and theres nothing done to balance it out, instead they just further the gap of OP. (Example: Latest update-> Adventurers getting pistol perks that check 80% against evades with one of the largest alphas in the game [if they do it right])

2.) Borked Skills- anyone who has played AO will know exactly what im talking about when i say Evades+NR=need fixed

3.) Skills that do nothing- In development atm for making them work (somewhat), but they havent had them work for about 5+ years...thats right, parry and riposte...only useful for getting weapons on and using MA attacks

4.) Raids- everything that's awesome to get...is now instanced...and if you know how to...you can just keep doing it back to back until everyone has it

5.) Kiting- Anyone who has expansions and has played AO knows this to be true...the grind from 110-150 is painfully boring and takes a long time unless your willing to hire a NT to kite Elysium hecks for you...

6.) Content- the early content is fun, but the newer stuff is just boring...you cant just open up new playfields with 120389123098123 hour long quests and expect people to enjoy it...especially when most of the community has 2+ max level characters and has to do these quests on every one of them just to be decent.

7.) Past sploiters- That's right, anyone who has played AO recently knows that not too long ago there was a bad problem with exploiters who had redic stuff on (level 24's with ql 200 imps in and a howlet is just not possible). They fixed the sploit, but the problem still remains that there are still some toons with stuff on that is just impossible.

Overall though, this game is by far the best imo. The skill system and the character customization (even though a lot of things are limited by the nanos that you get as far as weapon types) as well as the twinking and community are amazing.

I made the AO2 suggestion many years ago after hearing the announcement of Funcom's AOC project.  I was very unhappy when AOC was launched because I felt like it was a backhand to all of us oldschool AO people.  I've come and gone over the years but I do.. every 3-6 months check in on these forums or visit the main page.

IF AO2 ever came out, I'd pay big bucks to try it out!

Originally posted by psymon15

Originally posted by scuubeedoo

Long story short – What was really good about Anarchy Online was its character development and trading complexity. What was really bad was its oversimplified combat (= Press 100 times tab-q, rebuff and repeat).

I'm going to have to disagree with you about the combat. The tab+q, rebuff and repeat stopped working once you got to level 24ish. I actually believe it has one of the best combat systems for the simple fact that you can have multiple actions firing off at the same time (perks+specials+nanos) which made PVP (if it wasn't for the OP profs) extremely fun.

 

The things that really holds this game back are:

1.) Professions- Some professions are obviously over powered, and theres nothing done to balance it out, instead they just further the gap of OP. (Example: Latest update-> Adventurers getting pistol perks that check 80% against evades with one of the largest alphas in the game [if they do it right])

2.) Borked Skills- anyone who has played AO will know exactly what im talking about when i say Evades+NR=need fixed

3.) Skills that do nothing- In development atm for making them work (somewhat), but they havent had them work for about 5+ years...thats right, parry and riposte...only useful for getting weapons on and using MA attacks

4.) Raids- everything that's awesome to get...is now instanced...and if you know how to...you can just keep doing it back to back until everyone has it

5.) Kiting- Anyone who has expansions and has played AO knows this to be true...the grind from 110-150 is painfully boring and takes a long time unless your willing to hire a NT to kite Elysium hecks for you...

6.) Content- the early content is fun, but the newer stuff is just boring...you cant just open up new playfields with 120389123098123 hour long quests and expect people to enjoy it...especially when most of the community has 2+ max level characters and has to do these quests on every one of them just to be decent.

7.) Past sploiters- That's right, anyone who has played AO recently knows that not too long ago there was a bad problem with exploiters who had redic stuff on (level 24's with ql 200 imps in and a howlet is just not possible). They fixed the sploit, but the problem still remains that there are still some toons with stuff on that is just impossible.

Overall though, this game is by far the best imo. The skill system and the character customization (even though a lot of things are limited by the nanos that you get as far as weapon types) as well as the twinking and community are amazing.

Are you  sure 200's on a  24 is  a exploit? I've laddered a few 127's on  a lvl 11 the rest 100+.  It's been awhile since I  played.  200's on a 24 got to be dam near do-able if not. I could of had 140's - 150's (again at lvl 11) had I 1. The Pioneer Backpack. 2.  AI pillows or halloween pistols.  I didn't even consider that character a twink since most other people had  far better gear and implants on theirs. Was just something to mess around with at lowbie towers. I wasn't to far from being able to use a SPS .