I played the original EQ for about six months during the 2003-2004.  I quit around the time the Dragons of Norrath expansion was released to spend more time playing EQ2, which I was then spending most of my time on.

I played UO on a few free shards three years ago or so, expecting the game to play similarly to Baldur's Gate or any other point and click computer RPG.  Once I started playing it, the game felt like a clunky mess.  I guess I had been spoiled on MMORPGs with better graphics.

AC for 10 years (on and off)

EQ 1 for about 1 month. (I hate class based games)

UO for about a month.

I have 4 active accounts in AC to this very day.

Played UO on release as my first MMO, then after that NeverQuest, when I got bored of EQ camp I tried out AC and was the most bored with that, so I went back to EQ.

None, when those games came out I was against paying to play what was nothing more then a graphical MUD. All games mentioned were all fantasy based which also didn't grab my attention. Not until Anarchy Online came out did I play MMO, and it was perfect (not in a literal sense, game was made by Funcom). I've still not found a MMO with a character development system that was as indepth as AO Classic's (and while I wouldn't exactly call it indepth but moresomuch then what we get in today's MMOs). Nice mix of gameplay styles rolled into one. Open world grinding, instance grind, public instances for loot, raids for loot, solo for loot, pvp small skirmishes or massive blob on blob combat. It was a horribly made game with great concepts that could still be used today.

The vast majority of the people who have or who will respond to this poll will be the ones for whom those games hold some significant meaning, therefore it is skewed toward response fro the ones who probably will be checking yes.  I would suggest that the results are going to be very biased at best, and I predict the posted replies will be the same tired litany of "played XYZ at launch for five hundred years, was in closed alpha for ZYX months before they even knew they were developing it!" from the same folks who post their pedigree more than play game.

I did choose yes.  I recognize however that my gaming history is boring and irrelevant.  The takeaway here is you may as well have left the poll off and just made the question a thread topic.  The same people would have responded (including me).

Originally posted by UsedManatee

The vast majority of the people who have or who will respond to this poll will be the ones for whom those games hold some significant meaning, therefore it is skewed toward response fro the ones who probably will be checking yes.  I would suggest that the results are going to be very biased at best, and I predict the posted replies will be the same tired litany of "played XYZ at launch for five hundred years, was in closed alpha for ZYX months before they even knew they were developing it!" from the same folks who post their pedigree more than play game.

I did choose yes.  I recognize however that my gaming history is boring and irrelevant.  The takeaway here is you may as well have left the poll off and just made the question a thread topic.  The same people would have responded (including me).

I realize this may be the case, and that is unfortunate.

I was curious if the attitude of the majority of posters here is based on experience with these three classics, or lack of experience with these classic MMORPGs.

I would think that someone that has only ever played the newer free to play MMORPGs would have a different attitude towards game features than someone that played one of the three mentioned MMORPGs for at least 6 months.

Originally posted by dstar.

I played all three of those.  UO at release, EQ at release, AC for a brief time.  I hated every second of EQ that I played but I had friends that played.  Luckily after Kunark launched I was able to talk them into switching over to UO which I played for about 5 years off and on.  AC was brief, probably the only one I didn't really give much time on, maybe a month or two but I was really burnt out on MMOs and went to play FPS's for a while.

That was pretty much the only reason I ever played WoW.  I had no interest in it, I had really good friends who wanted to play so I got on and stayed for about 6 months, hating every minute of it but it was worthwhile to be able to hang out with and talk to friends.

That said, I don't know if I'd do that again, that was 6 months of my gaming life I can't get back.

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

MMORPGs for at least 6 months.

1 month is long enough to sincerely rate an MMORPG. But it's your post so suit yourself.

Originally posted by Plasmicredx

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

MMORPGs for at least 6 months.

1 month is long enough to sincerely rate an MMORPG. But it's your post so suit yourself.

Perhaps, but I wanted to distinguish between the people that actually played the game and put some time into it, versus people that may have tried a free trial for a month, or played a friends account for a couple of days.

It is my opinion that people that played one of these games for at least 6 months will have a different attitude towards gaming features than someone that's only played newer F2P games, or that played one of the three games for a month or less.

All 3 - AC being my first MMO, then EQ, then UO when some friends started playing.

Always liked AC the best.

My first MMO was Lineage 1, followed by DAOC.

Originally posted by Arglebargle

Watched friends play them.  That was sufficient to keep me away from MMOs for years....

Yeah, I know what you mean.

I had a friend who was an Ultima fanatic who begged me to play (this was a few months after it released) and so I rolled a toon.  After repeatedly getting ganked without getting to see a single monster, I told my friend that he, "could take his game and shove it!"  I never played it again.

EQ.  At first I hated this game without even playing it.  How?   Again, different friend, I had a buddy who lived and breathed the game.  I watched him play.  He would fight a mob for 30 seconds, and then sit.  He would sit for up to 3 minutes so he could fight one mob and sit again.  He would pan his camera and all you could see was a field of people sitting.  I dubbed EQ boring and refused to play.

AC.  This game looked pretty cool to me.  Again, I had a friend who wanted me to play.  I got the game and the damn game would not work on my machine no matter what I did.  That was my 3rd strike on MMO's, not that this last problem was AC's fault at all.

It wasn't until SWG (Pre-NGE) that I actually was inspired and had fun.   The game that really helped to cement my enjoyment of MMO's was WoW.  I liked WoW, which did lead to me playing Lineage and L2, EQ (a second try) and so on.  I still didn't like EQ on the second try.

It's not like I was a stranger to games, being pong was my first, and I have played 90% of all Sci-fi/fantasy based games released (Consol, PC, or arcade), but the original  MMO's just left me flat.  They were simply to group dependent, greifer infested and downtime ridden to be fun to me.

After gettin my feet wet on SWG and WoW, I revisited EQ and Ultima and played those off and on for a bout a year.  They were cool, but seemed to lack something to me.  I guess I am NOT a HARD CORE MMO player.... lol

So it looks like about 9% of the people that replied are retarded and probably don't even know it....

I played EQ for a few months. Not sure the exact amount of time, but it was several months at least. Can't say I particularly enjoyed it, but I had a nerdy friend that I worked with, that was into AD&D and he basically nagged me until I agreed to try it.

Don't understand the appeal of those older games...they struck me as tedious garbage for obsessive types of people that were into that sort of thing. 

I miss UO very much. I didn't play UO on the official servers, I actually was playing on a Private Shard, with a DnD ruleset and mandatory RP.

AC was my first in 2003. Excellent game and the clans/guilds meant SOMETHING in that game.  I played 4+ yrs on the Harvestgain server.

/waves to any Harvestgain folks!

Issianna - level 242 BattleMage w/melee+magic maxed:)

P.S.Sure do miss  jumping into a mob of Tuskers and dropping a dozen with 5 Ring Spells!  And the loot system was godly!! Those were the days:)

Stayed away from uo as i found all single player ultima games to be incredibly boring.

First mmo was eq beta.  Played for a few years.  Quite ahead of it's time when it first came out.

Did AC beta and release while still playing eq.  Gave up on that as I got sick of killing the same 3 mobs (of different difficulty) over and over...If that game didn't find a niche in it's pvp server, I doubt it'd have been nearly as popular.

Yeah, played UO 97-06 (BEST GAME EVER)

Played EQ for a year or so and same with AC.

I played all three"classic" games you mentioned in your poll. However I feel this gives no more credence to my opinion of mmorpgs than any one else, including those who cut their teeth on some of the newer generation of games. 

Originally posted by Sheista

It's kind of funny how the first Big Three represented all styles of MMO gameplay..

You had UO - The Sandbox

EQ - The Themepark

AC - The Hybrid

Yet it's unfortunate that only one of those types really caught on.

UO- the sandbox? Glad you know net geek terminology and not games or I would be worried about UO being called a sandbox game.