Definitely envisioned larger and more intricate virtual worlds to live in and before the end of my life expected to jack my head into one and live off a feeding tube until the end of my days. (oh yeah, and where's my flying cars and jet packs?)
More seriously, my first 4 MMO's were Lineage 1, DAOC, Shadowbane, Lineage 2. I thought all MMO's had end games which involved territory/resource control and denial, imagine my surprise when after playing WOW its focus was on PVE raiding (WTF)
I remembered raiding; they added it to my DAOC and it largely killed it off, but hey, I was game, I jumped into 40 mans and spent far too much time getting my top end gear to only watch it all wash away with the BC expansion. (again, WTF?)
Where were my alternate rules servers (every title before that had one) and focus on PVP end game?
I learned a sad lesson, that my early history was going to forever doom me to an endless quest for more titles like them, and I would end up branded as a burnt out, BitterVet ™ forever cursed to buying new games but never finding what I'm looking for. (thank heavens I found EVE, at least that kept me busy for 3.5 years)
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I'm curious to know what direction everyone thought MMO's would head when they first started playing MMO's.
In general, I didn't spend any time worrrying about the "direction of the future". It was just a game.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
When I first played WoW, there were these big battles where horde and alliance would try and kill a city leader from the major cities. I thought they would go in the direction of territory control over the various villages and cities. Instead they released this Molten Core crap. I wasted a few weekends on that and then decided that it sucked. The final straw was when some alliance guy was trying to get back into the raid instance while my guild was sitting outside. My guild leader told us to not attack him so he could get back to his raid, as apparently the guy had asked permission to pass on our ventrilo server. I simply couldn't get my head around not killing an ENEMY in our midst and I engaged him. My own guild mind controlled and healed him over and over. In protest called them all a bunch of cowards (using much harsher language) went to the various low level areas and ganked lowbies with my wand for two months and then quit.
Are you a Pavlovian Fish Biscuit Addict? Get Help Now! I will play no more MMORPGs until somethign good comes out!
When I first got into MMOs I really thought they were going to become more like the .hack animes. They are slowly getting there, but not as fast as I hoped.
My first MMO was UO, then EQ, AO, DAOC and on. I invisioned them becoming Dynamic, Living, Evolving, Seemless Virtual Worlds. Instead they became Static, Linear, Redundant, Instanced Action Games
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT Playing: Skyrim Following: The Repopulation I want a Virtual World, not just a Game. ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
I wanted Everquest with Asheron's Call's massive world (Norrath pre-Kunark was pretty tiny compared to AC"s world) and lack of "Loading: Please Wait". I played Everquest off and on for over a decade but the small zones and the "boxey" feel the zones had (square shaped mountains blocking passage with a little path leading to a connected zone) always drove me crazy, and I loved how in AC you could just pick a direction and run that way until you ran into the edge of the continent.
by the time I got into the MMO world I was already jaded so I will just say how I felt gaming in general would evolve. I thought it would go more the direction of virtual worlds, instead of a kinetic version of twister.
instead the 'progress' has gone toward more gaming restrictions instead of more player options, 3rd person view and casual gaming.
dont like it.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Of the people that replied on this forum, the majority thought larger and larger virtual worlds would be the evolution.
But of the people that replied on this forum, the majority started playing mmo's in the 1998-2003 era (before wow). I wonder what the people who started playing during and after WoW thought.
Freedom, I expected virtual worlds to be developed and populated. Lore and history buried deep into its base. NPCs which you interacted with and spoke to naturally using more and more sophisticated AI allgorithms.
A game where there was no beaten track and exporing the wilds could nring up sites of breathtaking beauty. Disovering an old fogotten monument and gleaming a few keys details when back in town sicussing my find and from the discussion start on a epic quest.
What I wanted what I expected was EQ just further refined more advanced and continuing to grow. As technology improved I wanted the worlds to grow bigger.
I didn't want developers dictating how I played I wanted them to create the world populate it put in the hidden lore. Hide the comple quest chains which you had to work to even get started. Solo, Group raid I wanted these to be MY choice.
NO END GAME. I never believed the game would end as the majority of people started reaching the limits I expected the developers to have new limits no horizons ready to go.
The direction I hoped they would go was largely the direction WOW took them in. The ~8 pre-WOW MMORPGs I tried were all pretty lousy as games, with massive timesinks involved for some really boring parts of the game (like travel or finding a group) and weak gameplay even in the good parts of the game (every one of my pre-WOW characters' combat rotations were super dull and repetitive.)
WOW wasn't some amazing savior of the MMORPG genre, but it certainly was the first game I feel took a solid step in the right direction towards Fun Gameplay.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Of the people that replied on this forum, the majority thought larger and larger virtual worlds would be the evolution.
But of the people that replied on this forum, the majority started playing mmo's in the 1998-2003 era (before wow). I wonder what the people who started playing during and after WoW thought.
I'm not from the "good old days" (hehe), but i too have to agree. I always looked at mmos has persitante worlds without an end, where players would build their stories together and against each other. I always wanted to play an mmorpg because i looked at it has the way to have this "virtual life" (not to extreme of course around other people.
I'm not sure i thougth of them in those terms. Heck, I just tried one 'just to try it" as I wanted to play against other players in pvp.
I had played the heck out of Morrowind and had played a lot Neverwinter nights. I was always playing a module in Neverwinter nights (player made) that allowed one to fight ni an arena. I really like it.
I thougth mmo's were going to be more akin to Morrowind but with 3rd person Neverwinter Night's avatars.
Sigh, boy was I wrong.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
My 1st real MMO was a Korean Grindfest named Ragnarok Online back in the 1st Beta Tests ( still in my top3 of all time ), back then I didn't realise there could be MMOs with heavy story elements etc. so all I hoped would be more Levels/Hats/Monsters/Bosses
The first few MMORPGs I dipped my toes in consisted of grinding mobs (at worst spawncamping them) until you run out of potions or your gear falls apart, visit town to repair and replenish - rinse and repeat. Very repetitive, very boring.
I was hoping I could someday have "why" to go over that hill and do something other than just looking for the best farm places or the best resource nodes.
First I didn't mind the diceroll and trinity-based combat but more and more I played them I tired of it. I prefer a more active combat without the holy trinity nowadays. I'm interested in every game that doesn't rely on the old tank 'n' spank formula.
Turned out good for me, eh?
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been-Wayne Gretzky
Originally posted by SEANMCAD I thought it would go more the direction of virtual worlds, instead of a kinetic version of twister
This has me laughing! Good description
I did not think about it when I started playing EQ. I was lost in the wonder of it all!
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
A bad one. My first experience with MMO's was "wtf is this shit?". They seemed very illogical and stupidly constructed to me. Everything ranging from the fact that mobs respawn to soulbound items. It took me a long time to begin to appreciate what MMO's accomplish, and then I found some more logical MMO's like EVE.
Of the people that replied on this forum, the majority thought larger and larger virtual worlds would be the evolution.
But of the people that replied on this forum, the majority started playing mmo's in the 1998-2003 era (before wow). I wonder what the people who started playing during and after WoW thought.
Here's another pre-WoW player, started in European beta of DAoC.
And yes, I had wished for a direction more towards a virtual world - after all that's why I play these games: to experience a world that I cannot experience in real life. Nothing against real life, it's a wonderful thing, I love it, but to have the opportunity to also experience something else is a wonderful thing too.
But already at that time it was clear that a number of players didn't care about a virtual world but played the game for other reasons: action, combat, getting powerful, "owning" other players, competition. With and especially in the years after WoW the industry realised that there are more of these players than of the people looking for a virtual world. Add in that many of the people that play fewer hours don't like slow level progression and the generic formula was born.
It's funny, I'm currently playing Wurm and so now and then we get new players, and some of them are just so confused entering a game world without a guy with an exclamation mark telling the player to kill 10 rats - people really don't know what to do in that case, they're practically helpless. And if you tell them that they should better not get into any fight at all before they have one day /played you can almost see their jaw dropping.
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
I still play WoW and enjoy the game with my friends...
Add EVE or UO to that list and you will have experienced pretty much everything MMOs have offered in the past fifteen years. This is not to say that other MMOs aren't good, only that those three plus one of the other two covers such a wide array of mechanics, content, interaction, and gameplay that almost any other MMO or combination of MMOs will feel incomplete in comparision.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Comments
Definitely envisioned larger and more intricate virtual worlds to live in and before the end of my life expected to jack my head into one and live off a feeding tube until the end of my days.
(oh yeah, and where's my flying cars and jet packs?)
More seriously, my first 4 MMO's were Lineage 1, DAOC, Shadowbane, Lineage 2. I thought all MMO's had end games which involved territory/resource control and denial, imagine my surprise when after playing WOW its focus was on PVE raiding (WTF)
I remembered raiding; they added it to my DAOC and it largely killed it off, but hey, I was game, I jumped into 40 mans and spent far too much time getting my top end gear to only watch it all wash away with the BC expansion. (again, WTF?)
Where were my alternate rules servers (every title before that had one) and focus on PVP end game?
I learned a sad lesson, that my early history was going to forever doom me to an endless quest for more titles like them, and I would end up branded as a burnt out, BitterVet ™ forever cursed to buying new games but never finding what I'm looking for. (thank heavens I found EVE, at least that kept me busy for 3.5 years)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
In general, I didn't spend any time worrrying about the "direction of the future". It was just a game.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
When I first played WoW, there were these big battles where horde and alliance would try and kill a city leader from the major cities. I thought they would go in the direction of territory control over the various villages and cities. Instead they released this Molten Core crap. I wasted a few weekends on that and then decided that it sucked. The final straw was when some alliance guy was trying to get back into the raid instance while my guild was sitting outside. My guild leader told us to not attack him so he could get back to his raid, as apparently the guy had asked permission to pass on our ventrilo server. I simply couldn't get my head around not killing an ENEMY in our midst and I engaged him. My own guild mind controlled and healed him over and over. In protest called them all a bunch of cowards (using much harsher language) went to the various low level areas and ganked lowbies with my wand for two months and then quit.
Are you a Pavlovian Fish Biscuit Addict? Get Help Now!
I will play no more MMORPGs until somethign good comes out!
When I first got into MMOs I really thought they were going to become more like the .hack animes. They are slowly getting there, but not as fast as I hoped.
My first MMO was UO, then EQ, AO, DAOC and on. I invisioned them becoming Dynamic, Living, Evolving, Seemless Virtual Worlds. Instead they became Static, Linear, Redundant, Instanced Action Games
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT
Playing: Skyrim
Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
I wanted Everquest with Asheron's Call's massive world (Norrath pre-Kunark was pretty tiny compared to AC"s world) and lack of "Loading: Please Wait". I played Everquest off and on for over a decade but the small zones and the "boxey" feel the zones had (square shaped mountains blocking passage with a little path leading to a connected zone) always drove me crazy, and I loved how in AC you could just pick a direction and run that way until you ran into the edge of the continent.
op:
by the time I got into the MMO world I was already jaded so I will just say how I felt gaming in general would evolve. I thought it would go more the direction of virtual worlds, instead of a kinetic version of twister.
instead the 'progress' has gone toward more gaming restrictions instead of more player options, 3rd person view and casual gaming.
dont like it.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
Interesting.
Of the people that replied on this forum, the majority thought larger and larger virtual worlds would be the evolution.
But of the people that replied on this forum, the majority started playing mmo's in the 1998-2003 era (before wow). I wonder what the people who started playing during and after WoW thought.
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
Freedom, I expected virtual worlds to be developed and populated. Lore and history buried deep into its base. NPCs which you interacted with and spoke to naturally using more and more sophisticated AI allgorithms.
A game where there was no beaten track and exporing the wilds could nring up sites of breathtaking beauty. Disovering an old fogotten monument and gleaming a few keys details when back in town sicussing my find and from the discussion start on a epic quest.
What I wanted what I expected was EQ just further refined more advanced and continuing to grow. As technology improved I wanted the worlds to grow bigger.
I didn't want developers dictating how I played I wanted them to create the world populate it put in the hidden lore. Hide the comple quest chains which you had to work to even get started. Solo, Group raid I wanted these to be MY choice.
NO END GAME. I never believed the game would end as the majority of people started reaching the limits I expected the developers to have new limits no horizons ready to go.
I had a dream...
what I got was a nightmare.
The direction I hoped they would go was largely the direction WOW took them in. The ~8 pre-WOW MMORPGs I tried were all pretty lousy as games, with massive timesinks involved for some really boring parts of the game (like travel or finding a group) and weak gameplay even in the good parts of the game (every one of my pre-WOW characters' combat rotations were super dull and repetitive.)
WOW wasn't some amazing savior of the MMORPG genre, but it certainly was the first game I feel took a solid step in the right direction towards Fun Gameplay.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I'm not from the "good old days" (hehe), but i too have to agree. I always looked at mmos has persitante worlds without an end, where players would build their stories together and against each other. I always wanted to play an mmorpg because i looked at it has the way to have this "virtual life" (not to extreme of course
around other people.
I'm not sure i thougth of them in those terms. Heck, I just tried one 'just to try it" as I wanted to play against other players in pvp.
I had played the heck out of Morrowind and had played a lot Neverwinter nights. I was always playing a module in Neverwinter nights (player made) that allowed one to fight ni an arena. I really like it.
I thougth mmo's were going to be more akin to Morrowind but with 3rd person Neverwinter Night's avatars.
Sigh, boy was I wrong.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
My 1st real MMO was a Korean Grindfest named Ragnarok Online back in the 1st Beta Tests ( still in my top3 of all time ), back then I didn't realise there could be MMOs with heavy story elements etc. so all I hoped would be more Levels/Hats/Monsters/Bosses
The first few MMORPGs I dipped my toes in consisted of grinding mobs (at worst spawncamping them) until you run out of potions or your gear falls apart, visit town to repair and replenish - rinse and repeat. Very repetitive, very boring.
I was hoping I could someday have "why" to go over that hill and do something other than just looking for the best farm places or the best resource nodes.
First I didn't mind the diceroll and trinity-based combat but more and more I played them I tired of it. I prefer a more active combat without the holy trinity nowadays. I'm interested in every game that doesn't rely on the old tank 'n' spank formula.
Turned out good for me, eh?
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
*looks suspiciously at Icewhite*
I did not think about it when I started playing EQ. I was lost in the wonder of it all!
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
A bad one. My first experience with MMO's was "wtf is this shit?". They seemed very illogical and stupidly constructed to me. Everything ranging from the fact that mobs respawn to soulbound items. It took me a long time to begin to appreciate what MMO's accomplish, and then I found some more logical MMO's like EVE.
Here's another pre-WoW player, started in European beta of DAoC.
And yes, I had wished for a direction more towards a virtual world - after all that's why I play these games: to experience a world that I cannot experience in real life. Nothing against real life, it's a wonderful thing, I love it, but to have the opportunity to also experience something else is a wonderful thing too.
But already at that time it was clear that a number of players didn't care about a virtual world but played the game for other reasons: action, combat, getting powerful, "owning" other players, competition. With and especially in the years after WoW the industry realised that there are more of these players than of the people looking for a virtual world. Add in that many of the people that play fewer hours don't like slow level progression and the generic formula was born.
It's funny, I'm currently playing Wurm and so now and then we get new players, and some of them are just so confused entering a game world without a guy with an exclamation mark telling the player to kill 10 rats - people really don't know what to do in that case, they're practically helpless. And if you tell them that they should better not get into any fight at all before they have one day /played you can almost see their jaw dropping.
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
Add EVE or UO to that list and you will have experienced pretty much everything MMOs have offered in the past fifteen years. This is not to say that other MMOs aren't good, only that those three plus one of the other two covers such a wide array of mechanics, content, interaction, and gameplay that almost any other MMO or combination of MMOs will feel incomplete in comparision.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre