MMO Rant
It's been forever since I updated. Let's talk about something that's been a big part of my life: MMOs.
Back in 1999 I believe, Asheron's Call and EverQuest came out and the idea of exploring expansive 3D fantasy worlds with other people fascinated me. They were why I decided to get a credit card. I'm not what pushed me towards it but I ended up getting EverQuest. Right away I felt the fun and challenge I felt in console RPGs. I recall my first real character was a half-elf ranger that was be the protoform of what would become the character Azymyth.
I was a trusting player, falling victim to things like consent griefing, where someone would ask for your consent to "move your corpse to a safe location" then proceed to just loot it and take everything for themselves. This was something that was quickly patched out.
As a ranger, one of your "class questslines" was to perform a series of tasks in order to get the coveted Trueshot Longbow. With a bit of wile and perseverance, it was fairly possible to get it done at a relatively low level. The one catch was, as I found out when I got to it, that after you go through all the trouble of gathering the special materials for the Bow you are expected to make it yourself using the Fletching skill. Now, this is a rather key ability for rangers but I had never bothered to keep it leveled since in groups I found myself in melee a lot anyway. I managed to find a high level ranger who was kind enough to craft the bow for me. He also gave me several pieces of the mid-30s ranger Ivy-etched quest armor. Now, back then there wasn't level restrictions so I was perfectly capable of wearing it even though I was probably half the level you needed to be in order to do the quests. Equipment that gave stats besides armor where very few and far between, especially at my level so they were huge boosts. Oddly, I refused to wear them, feeling I hadn't earned them yet. By today's standards that's incredibly silly but that's just the sort of player I was back then.
At some point, I stumbled upon EverCrest, a fanbased EQ message board. I made several friends and eventually settled in a guild on the Luclin server. I played a Wizard and Bard to great enjoyment.
As hype about newer MMOs sprang up on EverCrest, I gave many of them a try. Ultima Online, Final Fantasy XI, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes. Of those, only Camelot really held my attention for a significant time. I probably would have played it longer if I had not made the mistake of playing on Galahad, the Co-Op server. The thing about Camelot was that it had three different factions each with its own set of races and classes, and each faction was basically hostile to the other two. Galahad allowed all three factions to play with each other. The problem with this was that each faction's classes were built to work off of other classes within that faction. Thus, there was always an element of cherrypicking when it came to choosing what class would fill what role and with over 20 classes, there were inevitably some that were a last pick for guild activities and if you were playing one of those classes welp it was time to reroll or pray one of the "better" classes didn't show up.
Regardless of what MMO I tried though, I always went back to EQ. There was this relaxed, social atmosphere that I loved. Quests were sparing but usually useful and sometimes repeatable to help with the experience and gold grind. I suppose it also helped that I was in a guild with friends I associated with outside of the game even if it was still all strictly online.
In 2003 or 2004, I was forced to quit EverQuest and MMOs entirely due to being jobless. It would be several months before I found work and had a stable income again. Even with money again, I stayed MMO-free for at least a year as I worked and saved up money, though for what I'm not sure.
In mid 2005, World of Warcraft was all the rage. My only experience with the Warcraft universe was attempting story mode of Warcraft III and failing pretty badly so my interest wasn't that high. Still, through peer pressure I ended up giving it a try.
At the time, I was rather blown away. The graphic were pretty (compared to EQ), the quest system was innovative, the ability to solo was incredibly high and the experience for doing so wasn't abysmal. I played for a couple years and got up to level 70 midway through the first expansion before my interest waned due to my computer's inability to handle raid content on dial up.
I took a break to dabble in other MMOs like EverQuest II, City of Villains, and much later, Champions Onine. They didn't hold my interest for long.
A short time after the second expansion came out as I had access to wireless now so I decided to come back to WoW. The guild I had been in had suffered several splinterings and newest "core" was now focused on hardcore raiding which didn't interest me. So I rerolled on a new server and joined a casual guild with many of the people I had guilded with in EQ. With all the changes that had happened, I was able to get to max level without too much difficulty. For awhile I was content to work through quests for the achievements and do random dungeon runs in hopes of getting the latest Neat Thing but raiding was still out of my grasps since as a guild we didn't have the numbers to do anything and equipment usually wasn't up to snuff for Pick Up Groups. Not to mention most of my guild stopped playing for awhile shortly after the security breech fiasco in 2009.
I am a lurker member of Something Awful and as the latest expansion, Cataclysm, drew near, there was talk of making a reroll guild. Given the large numbers SA brings to games, I came on board. I wanted to restart as a goblin anyway because goblins sounded awesome. Cata hits and somewhat split focus between doing the new high level zones on my old character and leveling my goblin in the Goon guild. Once I hit level 70 with my goblin, I realized I had long since past my peak of interest in the game. I was along in my old guild and just a number in the new one. The only interest in raiding I had was in far older content for items that would only be obtained for vanity reasons by today's standards.
In January of this year, I quit WoW and haven't had the urge to return to it or any of the other ones I have tried.
Earlier this month I decided to give Rift a try. I hit the level cap in the trial and that was it for me. I just didn't care. When I got quests, I usually only skimmed the logs for the objectives and only focused on that. I would quietly kill X goblins here and gather Y skins there. While there was conversations in general chats, it just didn't feel as engaging as the old days. I was playing a game with several hundreds of people and still felt like I was by myself.
I often hear about how people keep playing because they invested so much time and money into it via subscription fees and what not. Those people don't realize that in the end it's still just a game. It's meant to be -entertainment-. So for the amount of money I put into the various MMOs I have played over the years, I think I have gotten most of my money's worth but now it's time for me to move on.
Back in 1999 I believe, Asheron's Call and EverQuest came out and the idea of exploring expansive 3D fantasy worlds with other people fascinated me. They were why I decided to get a credit card. I'm not what pushed me towards it but I ended up getting EverQuest. Right away I felt the fun and challenge I felt in console RPGs. I recall my first real character was a half-elf ranger that was be the protoform of what would become the character Azymyth.
I was a trusting player, falling victim to things like consent griefing, where someone would ask for your consent to "move your corpse to a safe location" then proceed to just loot it and take everything for themselves. This was something that was quickly patched out.
As a ranger, one of your "class questslines" was to perform a series of tasks in order to get the coveted Trueshot Longbow. With a bit of wile and perseverance, it was fairly possible to get it done at a relatively low level. The one catch was, as I found out when I got to it, that after you go through all the trouble of gathering the special materials for the Bow you are expected to make it yourself using the Fletching skill. Now, this is a rather key ability for rangers but I had never bothered to keep it leveled since in groups I found myself in melee a lot anyway. I managed to find a high level ranger who was kind enough to craft the bow for me. He also gave me several pieces of the mid-30s ranger Ivy-etched quest armor. Now, back then there wasn't level restrictions so I was perfectly capable of wearing it even though I was probably half the level you needed to be in order to do the quests. Equipment that gave stats besides armor where very few and far between, especially at my level so they were huge boosts. Oddly, I refused to wear them, feeling I hadn't earned them yet. By today's standards that's incredibly silly but that's just the sort of player I was back then.
At some point, I stumbled upon EverCrest, a fanbased EQ message board. I made several friends and eventually settled in a guild on the Luclin server. I played a Wizard and Bard to great enjoyment.
As hype about newer MMOs sprang up on EverCrest, I gave many of them a try. Ultima Online, Final Fantasy XI, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes. Of those, only Camelot really held my attention for a significant time. I probably would have played it longer if I had not made the mistake of playing on Galahad, the Co-Op server. The thing about Camelot was that it had three different factions each with its own set of races and classes, and each faction was basically hostile to the other two. Galahad allowed all three factions to play with each other. The problem with this was that each faction's classes were built to work off of other classes within that faction. Thus, there was always an element of cherrypicking when it came to choosing what class would fill what role and with over 20 classes, there were inevitably some that were a last pick for guild activities and if you were playing one of those classes welp it was time to reroll or pray one of the "better" classes didn't show up.
Regardless of what MMO I tried though, I always went back to EQ. There was this relaxed, social atmosphere that I loved. Quests were sparing but usually useful and sometimes repeatable to help with the experience and gold grind. I suppose it also helped that I was in a guild with friends I associated with outside of the game even if it was still all strictly online.
In 2003 or 2004, I was forced to quit EverQuest and MMOs entirely due to being jobless. It would be several months before I found work and had a stable income again. Even with money again, I stayed MMO-free for at least a year as I worked and saved up money, though for what I'm not sure.
In mid 2005, World of Warcraft was all the rage. My only experience with the Warcraft universe was attempting story mode of Warcraft III and failing pretty badly so my interest wasn't that high. Still, through peer pressure I ended up giving it a try.
At the time, I was rather blown away. The graphic were pretty (compared to EQ), the quest system was innovative, the ability to solo was incredibly high and the experience for doing so wasn't abysmal. I played for a couple years and got up to level 70 midway through the first expansion before my interest waned due to my computer's inability to handle raid content on dial up.
I took a break to dabble in other MMOs like EverQuest II, City of Villains, and much later, Champions Onine. They didn't hold my interest for long.
A short time after the second expansion came out as I had access to wireless now so I decided to come back to WoW. The guild I had been in had suffered several splinterings and newest "core" was now focused on hardcore raiding which didn't interest me. So I rerolled on a new server and joined a casual guild with many of the people I had guilded with in EQ. With all the changes that had happened, I was able to get to max level without too much difficulty. For awhile I was content to work through quests for the achievements and do random dungeon runs in hopes of getting the latest Neat Thing but raiding was still out of my grasps since as a guild we didn't have the numbers to do anything and equipment usually wasn't up to snuff for Pick Up Groups. Not to mention most of my guild stopped playing for awhile shortly after the security breech fiasco in 2009.
I am a lurker member of Something Awful and as the latest expansion, Cataclysm, drew near, there was talk of making a reroll guild. Given the large numbers SA brings to games, I came on board. I wanted to restart as a goblin anyway because goblins sounded awesome. Cata hits and somewhat split focus between doing the new high level zones on my old character and leveling my goblin in the Goon guild. Once I hit level 70 with my goblin, I realized I had long since past my peak of interest in the game. I was along in my old guild and just a number in the new one. The only interest in raiding I had was in far older content for items that would only be obtained for vanity reasons by today's standards.
In January of this year, I quit WoW and haven't had the urge to return to it or any of the other ones I have tried.
Earlier this month I decided to give Rift a try. I hit the level cap in the trial and that was it for me. I just didn't care. When I got quests, I usually only skimmed the logs for the objectives and only focused on that. I would quietly kill X goblins here and gather Y skins there. While there was conversations in general chats, it just didn't feel as engaging as the old days. I was playing a game with several hundreds of people and still felt like I was by myself.
I often hear about how people keep playing because they invested so much time and money into it via subscription fees and what not. Those people don't realize that in the end it's still just a game. It's meant to be -entertainment-. So for the amount of money I put into the various MMOs I have played over the years, I think I have gotten most of my money's worth but now it's time for me to move on.