I hope someday, after WoW runs its course and they no longer develop new expansions, Blizzard (Or who ever owns it by then) will open up lagacy servers and allow players to play the game in its original format.

Obviously asking Blizzard to do that now is like putting a nail in current  WoW's coffin and Blizzard would be insane to do it. But down the road, it might make sense.

OP needs  to know that GW2 isn't really a leveling type of game, leveling in this game is only 5 percent of the game, so it isnt everything, just to point that out.....

However I do see your point, I do want the old mmos back but devs seem to not want to take that step again or just don't know how to.....

Originally posted by Gravarg

I guess you could call me old school, or a grumpy old man, but I truly miss the old days when it took at least 6 months to level to max level.  In today's games it takes maybe a week, if you're slow, to get to max level.  I truly believe that in MMOs, unlike other games, the "end" should never be there.  Yes, today's developers add in content for capped characters to do, but it's just not the same as leveling up.  Take Guild Wars 2 for instance, I heard that a player leveled from level 1-80 in 2 days...really?  That couldn't be fun at all, and it misses the whole point of MMOs.  I think alot of developers (and players) have forgotten that in MMOs the "endgame" isn't what MMOs are about.  It's about exploration, discovery, learning new things, and yes killing.  Old MMOs had more to do with learning than today's MMOs.  Today's MMOs you can log in day one, and never have to go find some spreadsheet telling you which weapon is best for your level.  Today's MMOs you never have to go to a wiki, or heaven-forbid, buy an actual book with a map and how-tos, just so you don't get lost.

 

I know there will probably never be a game like old EQ or old DAoC or old Ultima Online or really old Neverwinter Nights, back when it took a minimum of 6 months to get to the end.  Heck, in the original DAoC it took longer to get the last 2 levels than it does to get to cap in today's games.  Alas, there is no real reason for developers to make games like this anymore.  The majority of players aren't like me.  They want thier rewards upfront and as soon as possible.  They don't want to spend hours on end killing things or doing quests just to get a single level.  They want 20 levels in that time.

 

Just my two cents from an old dinosaur lol.

I play Vanguard it takes months to level just adveturing,you also have to level crafting and diplomacy.

http://wiki.silkyvenom.com/index.php/Crafting

http://wiki.silkyvenom.com/index.php/Diplomacy

It would take months if not a year to level all three,that's without all the other stuff goinmg on.

You don't need to go back to the old days,you just need to play the right MMO.

Originally posted by Damage99
I'm with you.  I miss the days of feeling attached to a character.

This is it, right here. With the leveling speed in most MMOs you don't get that sense of attachment or accomplishment. That is the reason I still play Final Fantasy XI... you have ONE character. Everything is on one character, and even though leveling is so much faster now, everyone knows eachother because there's no such thing as "alts". 

I doubt there will be many games in the future targetted towards players like me, but I'll either adapt or quit MMOs altogether.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

have you tried Vanguard? Not only is a really good MMO with old school styling and modern graphics (I didnt say cutting edge, trolls) but it even has a skill that lets you adjust skil gain. I forget if that skill turns off gain completely or just reduces it.

Played at launch for a few months.  I plan on giving it another go after they have padded out the F2P rollout.

As opposed to extreme hand-holding for the NAO generation.

Yep, I miss it.

I agree. Anyone remember the good old days in Lineage II?

Where leveling took forever? But that was good... There was always something to do, always some point to reach. I was so excited every time I hit another Item grade, or was able to change my class. It was a real milestone.

I liked and enjoyed the grinding. Good old fashioned grinding...... *sigh*

On one hand, I miss the old days you described. On the other hand, I have a very demanding job, so that it would be almost impossible for me to progress in this type of game. Back in times when I enjoyed these games, I was able to play 20 hours per day :).

Despite all that, I would still want the levelling to take that long.

Slow leveling makes way more sense to me...

What better way to fully enjoy all areas of the game? It makes it possible to make low level dungeons playgrounds for loot hunting. As it is now, you can do a dungeon twice and then by then the loot drops and mobs become trivial.

Now you have people rushing through all of the low level content and then end up grinding the endgame over and over until they get bored or an expansion comes out.  Its almost a waste of the developer's time to create all that low level content that is barely used.

Age of Conan was fun but they gave too much experience out.  They had great low level dungeons but you leveled so quickly it wasn't worth the time to farm the dungeons for good gear.  Which is probably why you always just asked a couple of level 50 friends to clear the dungeons for you -- you didn;t need the experience, just the loot.

Originally posted by tank017
You most certainly aren't alone.I think game companies shoot themselves in the foot by not using a long leveling arc

Where's the instant profit in that?

Originally posted by Sovrath  i'm from the generation where we still walked to school up hill both ways. And I'm older than you.

Was it in two feet of snow?  Were you barefoot?

Originally posted by Cephus404
I would prefer a very long leveling arc and absolutely no end game.  Personally, I'd rather leveling never ended, there was no max level, it just went on and on forever.  All content scales so you can go into the same dungeon at any level and it will always be challenging.

Sign me up.

Quick question because of some earlier comments: When someone discusses leveling, do you think "grind mobs"?

I ask because I don't. I think of questing, exploring, and running lower level dungons. I guess the older games relied on pure mob grinding to level. I would NOT be in favor of that. For me, I'd need the grind to be hidden better via quests, etc.