What do i miss about old school games?

1. Dungeons that aren't instanced.
2. Zones that aren't instanced.
3. Gameplay that didn't begin at endgame but rather began as one played.
4. Trains across the zone!!
5. Games with no LFG tool, had to know the people ya grouped with.
6. No quest hubs and giant exclamation points.
7. Worlds that felt like worlds.
8. Slower leveling.

Originally posted by Bathnor

What do i miss about old school games?

1. Dungeons that aren't instanced.
2. Zones that aren't instanced.
3. Gameplay that didn't begin at endgame but rather began as one played.
4. Trains across the zone!!
5. Games with no LFG tool, had to know the people ya grouped with.
6. No quest hubs and giant exclamation points.
7. Worlds that felt like worlds.
8. Slower leveling.

*Waves cane in the air* Give me a MMO with an old school feel for the old school gamers!!

Have you tried AC2 since it relaunched? It seems to fit that list pretty well, for example there are no instances in AC1 or AC2. There is no LFG tool (although some people have been asking for one). There are no marks over NPC heads, there are no quest hubs although there is an NPC here and there in different towns that give quests along with other ways of getting quests. It has a good leveling curve to get all the way up there.

Might be worth checking out. I'm having fun with it and am heading home soon to jump back in.

Originally posted by Bathnor

What do i miss about old school games?

1. Dungeons that aren't instanced. And groups lined up 10 deep to tag and kill the one mob you were really after that only spawned once every 90 minutes....much bickering and name-calling ensued...
2. Zones that aren't instanced. Easy to do with flat barren landscapes with the occasional brown rectangle + green triangle tree.
3. Gameplay that didn't begin at endgame but rather began as one played. AKA... mothing to do at level 50 other than grief
4. Trains across the zone!! Yeah! Griefing! Right up there with food-fights and streaking
5. Games with no LFG tool, had to know the people ya grouped with. Noobs need not apply.
6. No quest hubs and giant exclamation points. And very little to do.. (see trains and end-game above)
7. Worlds that felt like worlds. They never did, although we do communicate mostly in chat-boxes now IN RL...it's getting closer?
8. Slower leveling. Three cheers for player-retention through forced grinding! Hip, hip...

*Waves cane in the air* Give me a MMO with an old school feel for the old school gamers!!

 Someone had to be the  advocate. I nominated myself.

Originally posted by nukempro

Old mmo's are inferior in every way to new mmo's. The reason people call it "the golden age of mmo's" is because the mmo was new to people back then. Your sense of awe and wonderment simply don't reoccur after your first couple mmos. At least not as strongly. This leads people to believe its the mmos fault..they blame the mechanics...the presentation...the story..the community..they blame other mmos for make simple tasks more convienient. They blame everything except the actual culprit..their own feelings.

 

I use to know some guys that where E-heads? I dunno what you would call people who do ecstasy so E-heads will do for now...but they never stopped going on about how awesome the first couple times was...they spent a couple years chasing that old feeling...taking all sorts of E hoping desperately to once again feel the way they did the first couple times. They would always blame the drug itself, claiming it wasn't potent enough or some such garbage. It never happened and they eventually wised up and stopped doing drugs. It kinda reminds me of the way these people clamoring for the "golden age" act. I will eat my hat if an mmo is released that ever satisfies them.

 

What do I miss in old MMO's? The feeling I got playing an mmo for the first time..thats it. Everything else is just people scapegoating for the reasons I mentioned!

^ Hahahahahaha

k now that that's out of the way those of us who were actually around for it and took part in "the golden age of mmo's" know that it actually DID exist and like the op pointed out has since died out.  Here are my top 3 features i miss:

1) The incentive to form LONG-LASTING relationships not just a group to accomplish goal A (The reason why people claim poor community vibes is because like our society, people are forming groups because they need to at the time and dump them just as easily because this is how new mmo's consider group play, optional).  This created that positive community vibe when you knew John Doe as a buddy you played with from launch and his crafting abilities complemented you excessive need to obliterate all mobs and explore random high level areas, so when you returned to town you could make some $ john could continue his quest to cornering some part of a real market.

2)  Difficult content.  Yes i said it not content designed for you to just get a group of the flavor of the month classes together, but required knowledge of the game, perhaps background of the monster types, and a healer with reflexes to save your a$$ when the tank lost control.

3) This brings me to my third and final point, ROLE IDENTITY!  I laugh at these games where you can easily attain every class or play any position with very little time or effort invested into the class.  That may be the easy way that carebares ask the devs for but thats not the formula for a MMORPG which is supposed to be a long-term investment.  A good healer, dps, tank, should require significant investment and time learning the mechanics to be able to endure that difficult content without failure.  There is a great sense in pride players find in being good at a role, and knowing that they are not a dime in a dozen and when you log on people whisper you for a group invite because they've been waiting for a dps who knows wtf he's doing to help them defeat this difficult boss, roaming mob, or (not my preference) instanced dungeon.

Originally posted by WellzyC

 

 

 

    That’s all I can remember right now, anyone else have anything they miss about the MMO Glory days?

this is the most redundant topic on this site.

it gets old looking at the topics when I come here and more than half of them are by people who have yet to realize that they are growing up and the same old things just are not as awesome anymore. it's fine to not play video games. i have several other hobbies, video games just happens to be the easiest and most relaxing on my mind.

what do i miss about MMO's? nothing. they NEVER really were very well designed for fun, but intead timesinks. you say modern MMO's are bad games, I say they all are, however, they can be fun to play with close friends. but that does not somehow make the game designs good, because they are not. they are just monotanous and dull and always have been. MMO's are watered down RPG's and that is all they ever will be because of what it would require to truly make a thriving virtual world. fact is, they make enough bank off of the current design and have no need to change it for the better, when ppl already eat it up. i'm not saying the tech isn't there, but that they have no need to innovate when they already sell their product as is.

EVERY company just wants your money, not to live up to your personal expectations of what a 'good' MMO is (or product in general, outside of the mmo industry). the fact that grown people don't seem to realize this is mind-boggling. for instance, so many gamers get jaded by the hype of games pre-release. even as a teenager, I knew better than to listen to marketers and hype, whose JOB is to overhype everything they sell. marketers don't get paid to tell the truth, plain and simple. that is something you just have to KNOW and ignore.

base things on experience, not marketing. its AMAZING that ANYONE would EVER have to say that to an adult.

that said. I will never quit playing video games because I have enough common sense to only devote my time to things that I enjoy. because of this, I have never felt the need to make a  'the good ole days' thread. (I am 31. i was here when pong was still popular and Mario was amazing)

ahhh then again, all I have to do is think about all the brain-dead fucks I encountered in MMO's and all of the sudden your threads make sense, or at least your motivation to make them. 

The only thing I really miss is the sense of immersion that came with EQ1's accelerated 3D graphics. 

The tech was so new that you really got drawn into the world and connected with it in a way that no videogame had ever allowed before.  You were truly in that world and savored every opportunity to see what was on the other side of the next hallway or mountain in the distance.

Unfortunately, Verant/SOE didn't exactly have Shigeru Miyamoto's sensibilities when it came to game design.  Alot of quality game design was left on the table and justified by gamers as "weeding out the casuals".  2004 and the launch of WoW was a case study in superior design v.s a developer who sat on their laurels and took their audience for granted.

Originally posted by Hrimnir

Originally posted by Quirhid

Reply to the topic: Less whine about the "good ol' days".

 

1. Need to form a group? Huge inconvenience. Probably one of the biggest hinderances of the genre.
2. Buffing. Stupid mechanic, imo. Needlessly creates dependencies. Long term buffs should be permanent (meaning no long term buffs) and buffs more tactical in general. All removable by offensive abilites ofcourse.
3. See number 1.
4. Meaningful is entirely subjective. I don't find any meaning in fighting over a virtual castle. It is pointless. I'd much rather play for ladder rankings and tournaments.

 

Why not just get rid of actually having to click ability buttons.  I mean, thats clearly too much effort.  We should just have to walk up to a mob and our character should know how to kill it himself.  You know, even that seems like too much.  Why should we have to actually walk up to the mobs, we should just be able to click a point on the ground and the mobs start spawning in front of us only as fast as our character can kill them.

Personally, I stopped playing, I found my simplicity in just watching the youtube vids, when I get bored of one I jump to another one, they are all free to play too.

Originally posted by Iselin

Originally posted by Bathnor

What do i miss about old school games?

1. Dungeons that aren't instanced. And groups lined up 10 deep to tag and kill the one mob you were really after that only spawned once every 90 minutes....much bickering and name-calling ensued...
2. Zones that aren't instanced. Easy to do with flat barren landscapes with the occasional brown rectangle + green triangle tree.
3. Gameplay that didn't begin at endgame but rather began as one played. AKA... mothing to do at level 50 other than grief
4. Trains across the zone!! Yeah! Griefing! Right up there with food-fights and streaking
5. Games with no LFG tool, had to know the people ya grouped with. Noobs need not apply.
6. No quest hubs and giant exclamation points. And very little to do.. (see trains and end-game above)
7. Worlds that felt like worlds. They never did, although we do communicate mostly in chat-boxes now IN RL...it's getting closer?
8. Slower leveling. Three cheers for player-retention through forced grinding! Hip, hip...

*Waves cane in the air* Give me a MMO with an old school feel for the old school gamers!!

 Someone had to be the  advocate. I nominated myself.

+1

Originally posted by Bathnor

What do i miss about old school games?

1. Dungeons that aren't instanced.
2. Zones that aren't instanced.
3. Gameplay that didn't begin at endgame but rather began as one played.
4. Trains across the zone!!
5. Games with no LFG tool, had to know the people ya grouped with.
6. No quest hubs and giant exclamation points.
7. Worlds that felt like worlds.
8. Slower leveling.

*Waves cane in the air* Give me a MMO with an old school feel for the old school gamers!!

yes. because it would be so easy to please all the old school gamers in ONE single game. I mean, if a game company gave YOU everything you wanted, ALL of the old gamers would auto-join, because you and only you have the insight that it requires to create a good game, and you obviously are the voice of your generation. everyone else is just wasting our time and money.

oh wait, I looked at your profile. please stop speaking for me.

Originally posted by ObiClownobi

Originally posted by Hrimnir

Why not just get rid of actually having to click ability buttons.  I mean, thats clearly too much effort.  We should just have to walk up to a mob and our character should know how to kill it himself.  You know, even that seems like too much.  Why should we have to actually walk up to the mobs, we should just be able to click a point on the ground and the mobs start spawning in front of us only as fast as our character can kill them.

Personally, I stopped playing, I found my simplicity in just watching the youtube vids, when I get bored of one I jump to another one, they are all free to play too.

LOL.

Ah, the ultimate evolution of the modern MMO player. What a fascinating creature to behold. You make some of the specimens 'round here seem like ancient fossils. Now, back to your true F2P youtube gaming

Originally posted by Iselin

Originally posted by Bathnor

What do i miss about old school games?

1. Dungeons that aren't instanced. And groups lined up 10 deep to tag and kill the one mob you were really after that only spawned once every 90 minutes....much bickering and name-calling ensued...
2. Zones that aren't instanced. Easy to do with flat barren landscapes with the occasional brown rectangle + green triangle tree.
3. Gameplay that didn't begin at endgame but rather began as one played. AKA... mothing to do at level 50 other than grief
4. Trains across the zone!! Yeah! Griefing! Right up there with food-fights and streaking
5. Games with no LFG tool, had to know the people ya grouped with. Noobs need not apply.
6. No quest hubs and giant exclamation points. And very little to do.. (see trains and end-game above)
7. Worlds that felt like worlds. They never did, although we do communicate mostly in chat-boxes now IN RL...it's getting closer?
8. Slower leveling. Three cheers for player-retention through forced grinding! Hip, hip...

*Waves cane in the air* Give me a MMO with an old school feel for the old school gamers!!

 Someone had to be the  advocate. I nominated myself.

Ding ding ding ding!  We have a winner!

Originally posted by ObiClownobi

Originally posted by Hrimnir

Originally posted by Quirhid

Reply to the topic: Less whine about the "good ol' days".

 

1. Need to form a group? Huge inconvenience. Probably one of the biggest hinderances of the genre.
2. Buffing. Stupid mechanic, imo. Needlessly creates dependencies. Long term buffs should be permanent (meaning no long term buffs) and buffs more tactical in general. All removable by offensive abilites ofcourse.
3. See number 1.
4. Meaningful is entirely subjective. I don't find any meaning in fighting over a virtual castle. It is pointless. I'd much rather play for ladder rankings and tournaments.

 

Why not just get rid of actually having to click ability buttons.  I mean, thats clearly too much effort.  We should just have to walk up to a mob and our character should know how to kill it himself.  You know, even that seems like too much.  Why should we have to actually walk up to the mobs, we should just be able to click a point on the ground and the mobs start spawning in front of us only as fast as our character can kill them.

Personally, I stopped playing, I found my simplicity in just watching the youtube vids, when I get bored of one I jump to another one, they are all free to play too.

Have you checked out ProgressQuest? :)

Originally posted by Quirhid

Reply to the topic: Less whine about the "good ol' days".

 

1. Need to form a group? Huge inconvenience. Probably one of the biggest hinderances of the genre.
2. Buffing. Stupid mechanic, imo. Needlessly creates dependencies. Long term buffs should be permanent (meaning no long term buffs) and buffs more tactical in general. All removable by offensive abilites ofcourse.
3. See number 1.
4. Meaningful is entirely subjective. I don't find any meaning in fighting over a virtual castle. It is pointless. I'd much rather play for ladder rankings and tournaments.

 

Come back after you do a relic raid or two and tell us that it didn't mean anything.... It may have been a video game, but doing something that effected your entire realm was very meaningful. Much more meaningful than bunny hopping in a circle until you kill someone.

Originally posted by Yukmarc

Originally posted by Quirhid
 

Come back after you do a relic raid or two and tell us that it didn't mean anything.... It may have been a video game, but doing something that effected your entire realm was very meaningful. Much more meaningful than bunny hopping in a circle until you kill someone.

I see your relic run and raise you this: Come back once you've won an all-expenses-paid trip to a international tournament with cash prizes.

The prize pool in competitive gaming is in millions of dollars.

Originally posted by Quirhid

Originally posted by Yukmarc

Originally posted by Quirhid
 

Come back after you do a relic raid or two and tell us that it didn't mean anything.... It may have been a video game, but doing something that effected your entire realm was very meaningful. Much more meaningful than bunny hopping in a circle until you kill someone.

I see your relic run and raise you this: Come back once you've won an all-expenses-paid trip to a international tournament with cash prizes.

The prize pool in competitive gaming is in millions of dollars.

Thank you for that last post. Explains a lot.

there was a golden age? really?

?_?

Originally posted by grimfall

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by grimfall

Originally posted by Quirhid

Reply to the topic: Less whine about the "good ol' days".

 Reply to Response: I never played these games, but I was 11 when they came out, so therefore an expert on everything.

1. Need to form a group? Huge inconvenience. Probably one of the biggest hinderances of the genre.

Yes, the genre was really hindered as it exploded 1000 fold in popularity with the addition of group and raid-centric games.

 

1. EQ had forced dependency.
2. MMOs as a whole got really popular.
3. Forming a group therefore wasn't a hindrance to popularity.

That's not only a ridiculous leap of logic but for the past ten years has proven historically false. The most notable example is the reduction in raid size from EQ 'golden age'  to present making content more accessible. Hell, even during those early years (2003 and earlier), most of the MMOs didn't require grouping.

Group or crawl

• EQ
• DAoC

 

Solo and Group content

• Furcadia
• Tibia
• Kesmia
• Graal
• Ultima Online
• Asheron's Call
• There
• Planet Entropia
• Runescape
• EVE Online
• Second Life
• Puzzle Pirates
• Neocron
• Anarchy Online

 

The EQers seem to think that EQ defined the way MMOs were at the time. Your 'golden age' encompassed a lot more than just the masochistic monotony of EQ, but acknowledging that would shatter your illusions of The Way It Was.

 

There are two reasons that MMORPG's are as popular as they are today.  The first is Everquest, and the second is World of Warcraft.  I didn't play all of those games you mentioned, but Ultima Online sure as hell had forced grouping...

I stopped there. I doubt anything after that would be any less ridiculous.

Originally posted by Yukmarc

Originally posted by Quirhid

Reply to the topic: Less whine about the "good ol' days".

 

1. Need to form a group? Huge inconvenience. Probably one of the biggest hinderances of the genre.
2. Buffing. Stupid mechanic, imo. Needlessly creates dependencies. Long term buffs should be permanent (meaning no long term buffs) and buffs more tactical in general. All removable by offensive abilites ofcourse.
3. See number 1.
4. Meaningful is entirely subjective. I don't find any meaning in fighting over a virtual castle. It is pointless. I'd much rather play for ladder rankings and tournaments.

 

Come back after you do a relic raid or two and tell us that it didn't mean anything.... It may have been a video game, but doing something that effected your entire realm was very meaningful. Much more meaningful than bunny hopping in a circle until you kill someone.

"very meaningful" .. you sound like you are curing cancer. It is just an illusion of an achievement. All you did was playing a game with a bunch of people .. and kill some monsters.

You find affected a make-belief world "very meaningful" ... well ... that is sad.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by grimfall

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by grimfall

Originally posted by Quirhid

Reply to the topic: Less whine about the "good ol' days".

 Reply to Response: I never played these games, but I was 11 when they came out, so therefore an expert on everything.

1. Need to form a group? Huge inconvenience. Probably one of the biggest hinderances of the genre.

Yes, the genre was really hindered as it exploded 1000 fold in popularity with the addition of group and raid-centric games.

 

1. EQ had forced dependency.
2. MMOs as a whole got really popular.
3. Forming a group therefore wasn't a hindrance to popularity.

That's not only a ridiculous leap of logic but for the past ten years has proven historically false. The most notable example is the reduction in raid size from EQ 'golden age'  to present making content more accessible. Hell, even during those early years (2003 and earlier), most of the MMOs didn't require grouping.

Group or crawl

• EQ
• DAoC

 

Solo and Group content

• Furcadia
• Tibia
• Kesmia
• Graal
• Ultima Online
• Asheron's Call
• There
• Planet Entropia
• Runescape
• EVE Online
• Second Life
• Puzzle Pirates
• Neocron
• Anarchy Online

 

The EQers seem to think that EQ defined the way MMOs were at the time. Your 'golden age' encompassed a lot more than just the masochistic monotony of EQ, but acknowledging that would shatter your illusions of The Way It Was.

 

There are two reasons that MMORPG's are as popular as they are today.  The first is Everquest, and the second is World of Warcraft.  I didn't play all of those games you mentioned, but Ultima Online sure as hell had forced grouping...

I stopped there. I doubt anything after that would be any less ridiculous.

I also did not see original SWG on that list, where player interdependency and group play were at the core of the game. And crafting even more so.

The first incarnation of SWG had the most need for other people, and by population metrics, was the version people enjoyed most.

Originally posted by Burntvet

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by grimfall

There are two reasons that MMORPG's are as popular as they are today.  The first is Everquest, and the second is World of Warcraft.  I didn't play all of those games you mentioned, but Ultima Online sure as hell had forced grouping...

I stopped there. I doubt anything after that would be any less ridiculous.

I also did not see original SWG on that list, where player interdependency and group play were at the core of the game. And crafting even more so.

The first incarnation of SWG had the most need for other people, and by population metrics, was the version people enjoyed most.

 

Early SWG is a great example of mechanics that promote collaboration vs the current state of necessary contrived groups to achieve a goal. In SWG there were reasons to work together. You did not need to be tethered to 5 other people in order to achieve an objective. The group activity was a tier beyond the individual activities, allowing people to work either together or solo to accomplish group goals.

The biggest advantage to that is it allows people to contribute within their comfort levels of interaction and socializing. It allows people to contribute within their personal time constraints and not mandatory raid hours or some other conflicting schedule.