I played AC for a little over 2 years starting with the shadow wars. Some things I either haven't seen at all  or very little in other MMO's that I loved about AC:

• The devs weren't afraid to destroy a town or change content because "someone new might miss out on that content." And it made the invasions and threat of the story that much more real.
• The storyline and lore were absolutely amazing, and even if they had the upcoming story preplanned out, they made you feel like you were part of it.
• The monthly updates kept me interested a lot longer than most games. Sure I like CoX, but waiting 6-12 months after you've finished nearly everything kind of burns you out.
• You could dodge an arrow/spell by moving out of the way. It wasn't always easy, and yes, the pvp side was a different story. But I always hated seeing that shadow bolt follow me around a corner in WoW, it just seemed cheesy.
• They really could do this because of having very few servers: the devs actively played roles in the storyline. Seeing epic battles that weren't scripted helped the immersion even more (and being teleported 10,000 ft into the air by the big badguy for smacking his toe was...interesting)

Originally posted by warzer

 Wow i have not seen an Astral Dragons Guildie in a Long time.  one of the reasons i played Ac so long was because of our guild the astral dragons.  the community was the best i have ever experanced in any game.  I miss that family feeling.  I Think the game mechanics helped make guilds in AC 100's of times better then they are in any other games.  In wow its just a group of people i don't know.  In ac they were like actual friends and some even family.  we were there for eachother in game and out.

I miss you guys!!

Warzer/Technomage Old member of Astral Dragons

I was Huntress - the Black Dragon archer!

And when daggers became the flavor or the season I made Occam's Razor and loooooved my dagger poking - spell casting - fire ball dodging melee priestess!

Dragonspawn was the best monarch we could ever have asked for.  That poor guy gave organ donations daily to keep us happy.  I love that man and never even knew his name.

I will turn 60 in November. AC was my all-time favorite game. I played an axe-slinger named Yggdrasil , in Thistledown. Here's how my AC gaming came to a screeching halt. In mid-December of the year 1999, I sat for several hours with my legs crossed, totally engrossed in AC. Unbeknownst to me, a thrombosis (clot) formed in a vein in my right leg, at the knee level, because of my prolonged immobility. When I finally stretched out my leg, that clot broke off and was released into my venous circulation, subsequently lodging in my lungs. This condition is called pulmonary embolism. I almost died. While I was in the local hospital's ICU, I tried to talk my wife into bringing my computer to the hospital so I could play AC! She put her foot down, and I haven't played my favorite game since then. I still miss it! The only silver lining to this very dark cloud was that the hematologist discovered that I was born with an "elevated homocysteine level," a genetic defect that predisposes to the formation of thromboses. Ever since, I've taken folic acid every day, to keep the evil homocysteine monster at bay. If anybody can top that game addiction story, I'd be interested in hearing their tale.

Hands down AC1 is the best game ever. I have tried many others and none had the community at all. i remeber asking total strangers to help me retrieve a corpse and 99% of the time they would and not only that they would gladly give you back your items!!  The trust was great. The game play was great. The people that played were even better. I can not believe that a game could restore your faith in mankind. I have not experienced anything even remotely close to the fun of AC1. I am hoping that TCoS could fill that void and I will probably try AoC.

Once you have dodged a ranged attack/spell it seems retarded to not be able to do that.

I think I will have fun in AoC and mainly I want the sense of community. I really do think TCoS will be niche and that could make for a great game despite the negativity as far as it being a "twitch" fps. TCoS will take more than twitch from what I have read. Time will tell on that tho.

So far for me AC1 is king but I hope something will come along that will keep me around for more than 6-9 months.

Originally posted by Deweycat23

The trust was great...The people that played were even better. I can not believe that a game could restore your faith in mankind...

Heh I can't agree here.  Someone me and my vassals played with regularly and trusted stole my PPGSA as well as two suits of my vassals'  PPSA.  I quit shortly after.  My girlfriend at the time was really happy about that.

Burtzum, You are quite correct. I am lucky that I never got scammed in 6+ years. We seemed to learn about the scams like the trade window trick and tell everyone in the guild to not show strangers your gear in a trade window. I also knew most of the people I played with and could go knock on there door in person.

There were griefers for sure. and thieves. Sorry your PPGSA was ripped. I can only imagine your anger.

I loved the small little guild of MUG's. Most Unorganized Group. We ended up being a tight knit bunch and everyone in the guild really gave and helped with what ever was needed. sadly tho I do remember the spam and grief of thefts. also, there was some manipulation for vassals in the beginning that made for some uncomfortable relationships. That passed by in time though.

Hopefully other games realized this and made better trade windows as that seemed to be the main way to steal. Also had a few FFA players that got a rep in game and we just let them bull in a china shop till they got there drop or we moved on to other areas. I still see peolpe loosing alot of sleep over others actions. Even last night on Skype my friend spent a good 30 minutes in game explaining the frustration of the hunters in her guild being asked to NEVER have pet on any other raid again. Oh the drama. I laughed at her and wondered if they would just get rid of hunters in that guild? I will hear more tonight.

Thanks for the reminder that all was not perfect and pleasant. There was some A**holes that still did not ruin (for me) the best mmo so far.  Forgive my sentimental nonsense as I really miss and made some great friends in AC1. My Ex-wife (wife at the time) could not stand AC and I got her son hooked on it too :)

I hope TCoS comes close. I might not even bother with anything else until maybe I can get in on a EU server.

Originally posted by vaidyanath

I will turn 60 in November. AC was my all-time favorite game. I played an axe-slinger named Yggdrasil , in Thistledown. Here's how my AC gaming came to a screeching halt. In mid-December of the year 1999, I sat for several hours with my legs crossed, totally engrossed in AC. Unbeknownst to me, a thrombosis (clot) formed in a vein in my right leg, at the knee level, because of my prolonged immobility. When I finally stretched out my leg, that clot broke off and was released into my venous circulation, subsequently lodging in my lungs. This condition is called pulmonary embolism. I almost died. While I was in the local hospital's ICU, I tried to talk my wife into bringing my computer to the hospital so I could play AC! She put her foot down, and I haven't played my favorite game since then. I still miss it! The only silver lining to this very dark cloud was that the hematologist discovered that I was born with an "elevated homocysteine level," a genetic defect that predisposes to the formation of thromboses. Ever since, I've taken folic acid every day, to keep the evil homocysteine monster at bay. If anybody can top that game addiction story, I'd be interested in hearing their tale.

  I also played on Thistledown, best server there is!

I think I loved this game so much, wait this may have been said already but I'm sayin it anyways.  Ya bein able to run around EVERYWHERE was awesome, and seein cool veiws and jumping off cliffs and what not...ya I did love that when I first discovered the game.  This was the first mmo I every found out about actually, I got good luck like that.  Back to my point though...this game was so freakin awesome to me cause on DT everywhere you went you had to constanty be ready to fight.  Like remember in the old days when everyone was like 'peace' this and wonderin if you were gonna kill them, and it was sorta like a wild west kinda trip.   Of course it changed alot but that's what I'm really looking for in a game.  Besides the EXCELLENT PvP manuevering system.

LoL I remember the anticipation of having to go sell or restock comps, on DT of course...You had to make sure you had enough time on your buffs, and you always tried to find a way to talk to the npcs without actually going inside(since you couldn't see people outside on the radar ).  The jolt of adreniline you got from when there was no choice but to go inside and seeing the words " So and so tried and failed to asses you." was great.

LoL remember the scam about typing "Victory" because v made u drop whatever item you had selected.

Good times

*atoyot*

DUDE thats exactly what I'm talking about.  I think it's revolutionary that we can produce adrenaline via multimedia.  It's basically peaked at AC1 DT PvP but I guess my roots came from shining force 2, ff7, and then AC!, and then of course DT 2 months after I found AC!.  I guess it boils down to when will there be another game to produce an adrenaline rush, because, let's face it, it's like a drug.

Imo, there is no and has never been any mmog that comes close to AC1 in the matter of fun factor and even the loot system is the best ever.You do not have to join the same raid 68 times and hope that the boss will drop the item you need(and that item is never unic) but you can find something unic every time you fight a mob grouped or solo. Asherons Call is a unic game and I'm afraid we will never see anything like it ever again.

okeh so lets all pool our moneys together...then we buys the turdbine...then we deletes all the servers except dt...and then reset it!  okeh I'll start taking donations after I put out this blunt...

This is a trick question there has been no better MMO than AC, now or previously.

is there any plan to upgrade the graphics at all for this game?

I used to play WOW and recently are looking for a new game. Maybe AC cannot be called new, but to me, it is!

Like many other here, AC was my first MMO.
Many years and good times were spent playing AC. Very few bad experiences.
I remember the first time we tried to take on Hoary Mattekars . Our Patron thought it would be a good idea at the time.
Needless to say we all died, and died again trying to retrieve our corpses.
More and more people came along to lend a hand in the progressive retrievals and joined the list of dead.
We spent over 4 hours trying to get everything back and my lungs hurt from all the laughing I had done.
The only other game that came close to the level of excitement I had in AC, was SWG .. pre CU.
 I revisit SWG at times but never for very long.  
I have to disagree with some comments about the 3rd party programs though. I went back to AC once after they had been abolished.
As a mage.. trying to buff yourself and then 2 others without the help of a 3rd party program was more than a pain and took so much time that you only had about 20 mins left to do anything.
Admittedly... the bot programs were another story.
I have to say though, that if it was updated, I would definitely resub.

Ah I remember the Hoary.  Fun fight.  I camped that thing for a month.  Made over 50 matty robes.  I think I was in my 20s or maybe near lvl 30 at that time.  All those robes allowed me to trade for anything my vassals and I wanted for the next few months after the Hoary "went extinct".  Then after they filtered out among the population I charged 2 motes every time someone wanted me to erase my inscription I put on them.  Atlan weapons for all my vassals

If you find a matty robe on Frostfell inscribed by Locrian, I made it!

UO (pre:trammel) in my opinion beats AC1

Just my opinion

AC1 was my first MMO as well. One thing that I think really distinguishes it from other MMOs is that there were no transportation methods aside from the portals, and those were limited in how they were used. Exploring really felt like exploring due to not having a mount and having to run everywhere on foot. Yeah, it was slow, but when you got the portal spell, that really meant something. Looking at the map, I remember wondering if I'd ever see some of the far off places simply because they were so far away.

Dumping points in to Jump and Run were fun as well. I may not have been able to kill things very well, but by God, I could jump on buildings. :)

My 1st experience with an mmo, was AC1. And I have been searchin eversince.