There is a world, fully mapped, filled with all manner of characters, with ongoing events occuring all the time.  It has been beautifully produced by a friend who has seen some of her work published. 

Now we are deciding to put together a game, played either through the traditional postal system, or online, where you can become your own character in this world.  I have taken the reigns as Games Moderator, and we shal be using a form of rules loosley based on the D&D 3.5 system, but only as the shell.

As a player you have a multitude of classes you can choose from, and after learning of your background, and home area, you are then free to do as you please and make your mark within the land of Tharfold (this is the name of the continent where the bulk of the game will be set).  Along the way you are destined to met sttange and interesting characters, visit strange lands, met with kings and lords.  Adventure is never far away, and you are guarenteed to be gripped. 

You don't need to know or learn book loads of lore, or master vast amounts of rules before you play, but it is all there and you will pick it up gradually, and as you do, the game will become even more alive to you.  Your turns are gracefully written accounts of the actions you tell us what you want your character to do.  If you have a spouse or partner, you can begin adventuring with them, or with a group of friends.  Or of course you may make friends and enemies of other player characters in the game. 

There is never a dull moment, and we recommend that you keep your turn results as they will read like a book, that you have created.  Let me know if you are interested in creating a character, and making your mark, be it for good or evil, or both then e-mail me at         mrh5474@tiscali.co.uk

RPG fans will love this.  Fantasy fans will love this.  Heck, even if this is normally not your thing, why not give it a go?

PS. With every post a sneaky hint at something big within the world will be included.  This one is just to let you know that something major happens around turn 50, which may affect all players.

So I am a bit pissed off as my copy of The Witcher Enhanced will not work.  So I want to try something new on the MMO front.  My problem though is that i have a download capacity of only 1 gig.  Everything would run fine, if I could get enough space to download, or a game with a client small enough.

Anyway, I am clicking on these glossy ads - free, play instant acess, blah, de blah. 

You know what I am going to do folks?  Start a collective of talented people, who would not mind giving up some freetime, Everyone with their own area of expertese, and actaully create a decent, bloody MMO that people would want to play without all this corporate bullshit.

You heard it here first,

Having tried these, as I don't have the time, and with only one gig of download a day, it can be hard to find a decent MMO that does not require it.

Are any of these games good. They have glossy ads, but are they even true MMORPG's?  They are popping up all over the place and I would like to know what the deal is.  Some I have seen require you in invite people for coins, before you can advance, or a ftp system where eventually you have to pay to keep up.  How do they work, and are they any good?  Advice as usual would be welcome, seeing as I just bought The Witcher Enhanced and it is not working, looking for something good to play.

Thanks for the advice guys.  I'm quite happy now as I think I may be able to play this game afterall.  Once again cheers :)

Originally posted by coldandnumb

While I can definitely relate to the op's issues as I find myself in the same boat with ending up playing mmo's by myself most of the time. I have tried to join in on these "let's start a game together" projects from this site over half a dozen times now and not a single one ever lasted for more then a month. With some not even making it a week.

In my opinion trying to recruit a solid compatable group from a pool of players that are both located all around the world and invariably want far different things out of their gaming experience always ends in frustration.

I'm currently between mmo's myself at the moment I've been getting my gaming fix on single player stuff. I wish the op the best of luck and I would be open to a "start fresh" group if the game that you would choose interests me and if the players are basically from my time zone of east coast usa. Not much point of trying to group wih people from california or europe or asia due to the time differences.

I have experience in all the games listed on my profile page so I could offer some help in any of those. I'll watch this thread but I will retain my scepticism.

 I understand your scepticism bud, as I have tried to take part in something along these lines before as well.  However, I think it could work, if we all understand what everyone is joining for, and see if we can come up with a group that has like-minded ideals.

I suppose everyone plays MMO's in a different way, and as such folk would view 'teaming up' beforehand in different ways.  If we get to know each other a bit, and understand what we're wanting as a group, then it should not be too hard to accomodate everybodies needs - and also make some new pals and have a laugh doing so.

I'm quite a casual player, and like the social interaction element of these games.  As such, I am easygoing as to which game we start, and also what we want to do as a group. 

It seems that there has been some positive feedback from the OP's idea, and I think we could start something here.  So I for one am interested.  What do you think yourselves?

I've always liked the idea of starting a new MMO with some online buddies so that we could go through the game together.  I think it would make the game less daunting to get into, which a lot of MMO's can seem like when you first join.  Quests would be more fun, and we would not need to rely on PUGS.  Also the 'newb' learning-curve would not be so steep as we would share aquired knowledge amongst ourselves as we played.

Perhaps we could use this thread to set up a small, informal group and join forces in a new game?  Maybe leading in time to our own guild?  What do you think?

I'm just returning to the gaming scene after a long sabbatical.  One of the games I have been looking forward to playing for a while now is Diablo 3.  I'm not the wisest when it comes to computer scpecifications and so I am looking for some advice.

This computer is different to my old one, and it does not have the best specs.  Like I say, I'm really keen to play D3 having been a huge fan of the first two games, but I am worried in case this pc will not be able to run them.  My specs are a dual-core, 2.8ghz processor, with 2 meg of ram.  Not sure what kind of graphic card there is.  Hard drive space is not a concern.

I've tried to find out from the D3 web-site what the miniumum specifications will be, but I've not been able to find out any info.

Any advice on this would be welcome.

Thanks for the advice Castille.  Yes, it would appear that downloading the client, plus patching is my major concern.  I'll just have to see what I can do. :)

Originally posted by Creslin321

Originally posted by Majestico

I agree wholeheartedly with most of the posters on this thread.  I'm only now returning to the MMORPG scene after an abdsence of almost two years.  It is quite saddening to see that this aspect of the genre is still neglected. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy MMORPG's, but it can be frustrating when I think of the gaming possibilties that creative developers could give us.

I'm an old pen and paper rpg'er.  Then when I got older, and both myself and my fellow players 'grew up', I still wanted the pen and paper experience, and found it, albeit at a much lesser extent, in crpgs.  Whilst playing these, I used to wonder what it would be like if game's designers could develope a vibrant, living world where the pen & paper, old-style rpg was recreated.

Then I discovered the term MMORPG and saw clips of EQ2.  I was completely new to the genre, and watching these trailors, I thought I had discovered my 'Holy Grail' of gaming.  A few months later, and I realised that MMORPG's had actually very little to do with old-style rpg's.  Instead I found that nearly all of these games followed a standarised pattern.  Everything was based mostly on stats, and the eternal grind to better them.  Rather than taking part in a virtual reality style game where each and every player had a genuine, player based society, with proper stories and quests that meant something, I found that the genre had resorted to a cosy formula.  Where the rpg meant taking part in a seemingly endless string of banal quests aimed at merely killing x amount of mobs, or finding a certain target.  No matter how much they were dressed up in the game, every quest amounted to about one in five type of things. 

Of course I could use my imagination and with like-minded players I could try to immerse myself in something I wish the game was, it was still irritating that the full possiblities of this genre were not being realised.  With some imagination, and application, true MMORPG's could exist.  I think Bioware have been the closest to realise this, although I have not followed how they have been doing with their SKOTOR game.

When I've mentioned this in the past, people have refered me to old-skool games such as OU.  I've still not tried that out, and I've heard bad things about Darkfall (which was another game that I thought moght cater for me).  Maybe there has been something released in the past two years that I am not aware about. (If so, could you please tell me about it?).

BTW, I am not saying that MMORPG's should be like this.  However, surely one day there shall be one that caters towards this end of the market.  It would mean a financial gambit on the part of the developers though, which nobody seems to want to take, especially as the standard format seems to pay-off.

 I feel your pain brother.

I think the original UO would have catered to you, even post trammel probably.  But alas, UO today is a shade of its former self, the magic is gone.  As for Darkfall, I would not recommend it.  It's basically a gankfest/grindfest. 

To give you an idea of what it's like, mosts posts on the Darkfall boards concern more experienced players discussing how to make the game just slightly less painful to newer players so that they have "sheep" to kill.

If you like sci-fi, I've heard good things about EvE.  But I tried it and couldn't get into it...I hated the point and click interface.  I probably would have liked it if it played like Wing Commander.  EvE fans don't kill me, this is just my opinion.

 Aye mate - I have tried EVE Online a couple of times, but found the tutorial bit, too long-winded.  And didn't like the interface either.

Not a big sci-fi fan, and therefore did not have the patience to persevere, which is a shame really, as I think that once you get into it, EVE would be a great game.

Originally posted by ArcheAge

The series has got better as it goes along,it's worth the watch at the very least. Nothing can be like the books but as i have said before,the books are a good read but slightly overrated .

Their are better fantasy Authors IMO.

 To be honest, it was George RR Martin that restored my faith in the sci-fantasy genre.  To think that the first, three books of the series sat on my shelf gathering dust for over a year, before I finally got around to reading them - tsk!

Only fantasy author I have found to trump him has been Tolkien, who I'll always have a soft spot for.  However I have heard that Steven Erickson is a similiar type author and is meant to be very good as well.  Will have to check him out for myself.

Actually AngryBeaver, that is quite a good shout.  I hadn't thought about Guildwars until you mentioned it.  I know it is a lifetime account, so mine should still be there.  Unless they clear the data-base after a certain amount of inactivity.  Think I might still have the gameclient somewhere, so I'll need to rake it out and give it a try.

Anyone else have any suggestions?  I was thinking of trying UO, as it sounds like an old-skool type game that I might like.  However, my problem would be downloading the gameclient, as it would be in the giga-bytes and too much for my PAYG thingy!  Unless anyone knows if you can still get the game on DVD or something? 

I agree wholeheartedly with most of the posters on this thread.  I'm only now returning to the MMORPG scene after an abdsence of almost two years.  It is quite saddening to see that this aspect of the genre is still neglected. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy MMORPG's, but it can be frustrating when I think of the gaming possibilties that creative developers could give us.

I'm an old pen and paper rpg'er.  Then when I got older, and both myself and my fellow players 'grew up', I still wanted the pen and paper experience, and found it, albeit at a much lesser extent, in crpgs.  Whilst playing these, I used to wonder what it would be like if game's designers could develope a vibrant, living world where the pen & paper, old-style rpg was recreated.

Then I discovered the term MMORPG and saw clips of EQ2.  I was completely new to the genre, and watching these trailors, I thought I had discovered my 'Holy Grail' of gaming.  A few months later, and I realised that MMORPG's had actually very little to do with old-style rpg's.  Instead I found that nearly all of these games followed a standarised pattern.  Everything was based mostly on stats, and the eternal grind to better them.  Rather than taking part in a virtual reality style game where each and every player had a genuine, player based society, with proper stories and quests that meant something, I found that the genre had resorted to a cosy formula.  Where the rpg meant taking part in a seemingly endless string of banal quests aimed at merely killing x amount of mobs, or finding a certain target.  No matter how much they were dressed up in the game, every quest amounted to about one in five type of things. 

Of course I could use my imagination and with like-minded players I could try to immerse myself in something I wish the game was, it was still irritating that the full possiblities of this genre were not being realised.  With some imagination, and application, true MMORPG's could exist.  I think Bioware have been the closest to realise this, although I have not followed how they have been doing with their SKOTOR game.

When I've mentioned this in the past, people have refered me to old-skool games such as OU.  I've still not tried that out, and I've heard bad things about Darkfall (which was another game that I thought moght cater for me).  Maybe there has been something released in the past two years that I am not aware about. (If so, could you please tell me about it?).

BTW, I am not saying that MMORPG's should be like this.  However, surely one day there shall be one that caters towards this end of the market.  It would mean a financial gambit on the part of the developers though, which nobody seems to want to take, especially as the standard format seems to pay-off.

After a long absence, I am wanting to return to my favourite genre of game, the MMORPG.  However, as I am using a PAYG, wireless device, I only have around 1 gig of band-width, actually only half that during prime-time hours.

This forum has been one of the first places I've reuturned too after going back online, as I used to post here a lot and I value the community's opinions. 

I am wondering if there are any good games that you can recommend that will not lag under this band-width (or at least not too much), and I also need a game that does not need too much downloading as I have a restriction on how much I can download.  These are the reasons why I cannot simply return to the games I used to play, like Lotro, WoW, and EQ2.

Any advice would be appreciated. 

Btw, I posted here instead of the LFG forum due to the specific restirctions on what I can play, and also because I've a better chance of getting help on this forum due to the volume of posters.

Thanks Clob.  I am thinking of going out and buying the season box set when it gets released.  Also cannot wait for July 12th when book 5 will FINALLY see print.  I was dismayed by the apparent death of Ser Gregor when he was poisoned in that duel.  I even said so to Martin himself when he visited Glasgow.  However, in book 4 there are several comments about Cersei having a 'champion' and I have a hopeful suspicion that it might be some zombiefied or rejuvenated version of Ser Gregor, who in my humble opinion is one of the most destructive and evil characters in fantasy fiction.

I am a massive George RR Martin fan, and I love the books.  So far I have not had a chance to see any of the series, as I stay in Scotland and it is on a SKY channel which I don't have.

Glad to hear that the general concensus is a thumbs up.  I was dreading that it would not do the books justice, mind you HBO do make some great dramas.

One question though - has Ser Gregor Clegane (the mountain that rides) been featured in the series yet?  He is my favourite character of the books, and I cannot imagine who they would cast as him.

In fact, one of the reasons why I thought no production company would touch this is (spoiler alert) how Martin has the unorthodox way of killing off his protagonists.  Especially in book 3 when must off the 'good guys' are massacred.  Do you think that HBO will stick to the script, as I imagine there will be a lot of bemused viewers when that particular event occurs?

Originally posted by Lansid

 “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one” ~Wilhelm Stekel

He has a lot of good quotes, but this one has always stuck with me... especially pertaining to the question. In a MMO, I don't mind being "A" hero (actually if I'm roleplaying I prefer to be a villain), but find it cheesy when a MMO depicts every toon as "THE" hero. I like to forge my own path in a game... not just be "the chosen one" and my destiny is to destroy the most ultimate of evils to save the town, because the other 99,999 people playing might just not fit the bill.

I could not agree with you more bud, 

Also the two previous posters were in my opinion spot on as well.  They don't want to be the grandiouse saviour.  It does not fit in with the epic scale of an MMO.  However, there are roles for these players.  My 'dream game' is for an MMORPG to mean quite literally that; a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.  What if instead of the standard hero and villian classes, you had support roles.  A herald who had to travel to enemy terrain.  He would face many dangers, but perhaps another class could be a mercenary, paid to protect him.  And what if the quests were dynamic and actually meant something to the game?  If the herald and mercanary succeeded to  get to the enemy, then they would have to perhaps deal with an enemy class, the diplomat.  Whose ultimate decision could result in a battle or skirmish.  There are loads of these scenerarios and it would make for a vibrant colourful world.  The dev's would instead of working on new emotes, or silly mounts, could provide contigincy clauses.  The herald scenerio would be one that could be done in several places, without having to actually have to change the entire game.   The introduction of subclasses, like kidnapper, or burglar for the rogues class would add further dimensions.  Imagine having to kidnap the said herald before he reached the diplomat in the first place?  A lot of this we could do in a slightly sandbox environment, whilst the devs kept the main story lines running.

You would still have your hardcore enthusiasts catered for.  Who is going to run the armies?  Clear the forests and lands of creatures so the lesser combat classes could progress freely?  Gear?  Each class would have it's own versions of how to better itself.  The assassain who managed to slay the Orc King and get the awesome drop of the century; the cloak of kings, so she could be invisble for a while, and also show off a unique piece of gear.

Gold farmers could be tax collecters, chasing the poor villagers around for their money.

DM's could enter the game with unannounced but worldwide events.  Or merely come through the promenade as the king, giving every top ranked assassain the chance for glory.

The ideas are endless, and with all of the revenue companies like Blizzard get, they could be created.  Forego graphics if it is going to demanding technically.  I am sure we would gladly sufffer a WoW or EQ2 that played like that.

The OP has got a very good question.  Take all of the counter arguements so far.  Oh it is for the staff, maintence, game support, customer support.

Erm, I beg to differ.  I think these guys could run something like WoW on about 3 bucks a month.  Maybe with their sub base of 11 million plus, they could go free to play,

But that would be crazy right?

Have any of you guys played Lineage 2?  Actually it's a total nightmare, hardcore grindfest, but they have a huge player base, and it's a bloody expensive turn fee.  Somthing like £!5 a month in UK, and that is ridiculous, about $20-25 bucks.  That game does not have constant expansion packs, and loads of changes.  It has about a hundred quests in the whole game!   Then take a game called Shaiya.  It is, I kid you not, almost a carbon clone of Lineage2.  The exact same graphics (which are quite good actually) and even same monotonous gameplay and sound.  I think it is even cooler than L2 because it has permadeath.

Now how can they justify one over the other?  Okay Shaiya has the shop system, but when has ANY mmo never had some gold spammers, which is just the same thing. 

I love WoW, I truly do. But just think that if all those millions Blizzard scoop up every month went towards making new games, we would have had several classics by now.  Think of it.  We'd be on Starcraft 3, Diablo 4, heck, prob Warcraft 5, and we'd be getting ready for WoW2.  But they are greedy, like all major corporations.  Why do you think the banks ditched us into a global recession?   So yeah, WoW is a great game.  Looks and plays like shit, and has an arcane playing system.  But whilst those figures keep rising 12 million next month?  What would you do?  I think I would churn out some non-descript part of lore from an old Warcraft game, much to the developers' groans, and get them to make a new expansion.  Retail it at almost the same price as a contemporary game, and piss myself laughing all the way to the bank.

Btw - you guys should not that I am genuinely a hypocrite.  I do play and sometimes enjoy WoW, as well as other MMO's.  But just give us the day when we can have a fully fledged Mass Effect/ Dragon Age MMO that is like an actual world with proper dynamic stories. 

Originally posted by LynxJSA

I think there's a lot that feel the same way you do, so if you come across any MMOs that you feel break the mold and do it well, come back and post about it. Would be interesting to hear your take on them, and it might introduce some new MMOs or old diamonds in the rough to the rest of us!

Before I went on my sabbatical, ahem, there was talk of a couple of things, but I did now know enough, nor care really in some instances.  There was always the continuing squabble over Darkfall, and I still have not checked it out, so I cannot comment.  Don't even know who won the arguement between the flamers and the fanbois, although I suppose it is still going on to this day.

In fact, I would not be surprised if our great, great grandchildren are picking up weapons to fight about whether Tasos is a Greek twat.

I heard something atually quite good about an ISP that would never have inspired me.  Believe it or not it was Stargate, a film I hated (although a great Scottish actor Robert Caryle is in the new one, an' ez pure barry in it by the way, any wan say i isnae an' they'll get  malkied ootside, awright?) 

Seriously though, it was apparently going to be tackled in a completely novel way, taking the gameplay away from mundane combat-centric style, to more intruiging things like puzzles or some such.  I cannot remember at the moment, and I have to run because i think some baw bag is trying to knick my 360.

Originally posted by LynxJSA

 

Play something other than the EQ/WOW-style MMOs. WURM, ATITD, EVE... hell, even Puzzle Pirates.  I'm not saying that EQ and WOW are bad, in fact, I find them both to be very well made MMOs. What I'm saying is that if you want to find different gameplay you need to explore beyond the DIKU-based fantasy games.

The problem is that I've tried most everything out there.  But I do think you have a valid point of view, and the irony is that I am downloading EVE at this very moment, albbeit this will be my third attempt at it.  You know there is an awesome game waiting to be played, but it takes bloody forever to learn the ropes and get into it.

I suppose I want my cake and eat it.

Originally posted by gamer2171

I like birds with long necks and long legs....really cool, they just kind of strut around..*caw caw*.  But no, I would not like to transform or rp one.  (j/k)

I like birds with long necks and long legs too.. chickens which just strut around.. 'caw' caw'. But no, I would not like to eat chicken for the rest of my life!