DAoC. It was my first mmo. I left a piece of myself there in Albion, outside Caer Gothwaite. Sort of wish I never played the damn game. It just torments me that I can never recapture the mystery and excitement I felt then. Lineage 2 was a close second.
Old FFXI. Depending on what kind of player you were trying to be, whether it be just leveling, farming for money, camping monsters for gear, whatever, time could fade like nothing, especially if you were in a flow. I miss all the meaningful progression that game had simply because things wouldn't happen unless you were actively doing stuff to make it so, not this whole wait for x amount of months for devs that move you along like we have in games now.
EQ at release. I'd come home every night from work and play it for hours. Also would play all weekend. It's the only game I've ever played that intensely.
FFXI pre-abysea by far. Endless content, always something to be doing, well made economy, extremely strong community in that game, strong guild focus. And best of all expansions did not replace the existing game they expanded it at all levels. Early, Mid, and End Game. Progression never got negated really rare gear at lvl 15 at launch was still rare and good gear 8ys later.
You could play 20hrs a week or 80hrs a week and never once get bored. Really wish devs would take this model and bring it to the new era... instead of just carbon copying the WoW model for every single AAA mmo.
As far as being sucked in for hours would have to be original D&D Online dungeons.
Several hours many times. One time like 8 straight hours until the sun came up. the group would not give up on a hard dungeon, even leaving and coming back. We had to spiral down the rock cave fighting in off rooms along the way until the bottom with pools of water and dripping condensation.
I had the feeling of being water logged as if I were swimming or floating in the ocean.
Games that drew me in: World of Warcraft D&D Online Vanguard
Later Everquest 2, but had to play it several times before liking the qurkey nature of how it was designed.......Lots of strange design decisions.
Honestly looking at this list, nothing else more than 30 days. but many on and off throughout the years.
Star Wars Galaxies. I was absolutely obsessed with it. Final Fantasy 11 was my second. I remember staying up until 4 in the morning playing on a week day and have PT formation at 0630. Good times.
First MUD (was a localised and slighly revamped Diku variant).
College, in the afternoon a few of us stayed to try it out ("they say it's like IRC but with an RPG on top"), and they almost closed us in at around 9pm... nobody noticed the time.
LotRO, Shire. On my first hobbit character I believe I did a 10-12 hours long session there, delivering pies and post bags, etc. It wasn't my first LotRO play, but that drew me into the game finally.
AoC, same as above just with Tortage. I still hold it the best starter gameplay in any MMORPGs out there.
TSW, NY beta. London was great too before that, but (like with the Shire above) the Illuminati side drew me into the game completely.
Funny, the pre-launch personality test said I'm a perfect templar material... yet it was my least played faction in TSW.
While not in the "log in" category, from the singleplayer side I'd give honorary mentions to Vice City and VtM: Bloodlines. Both of them glued me into the chair for hours at the first play.
Another for EQ, Ruins of Kunark expansion (that's when I joined in). It was my first MMORPG experience and there was so much that gave me extreme wonder about the game. I wanted to try/do everything possible
A lot of that was just my MMOVirginity, but I had fun and frustration and everything in between
- 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
Mine was not a mmorpg,.it was UnrealTournament. The reason was i am a competitor at heart,played sports my entire life and this game would make me look bad lol. I love the challenge of looking terrible and trying to prove i could overcome the odds.When i played i still only had 56k,imagine a 56k player versus DSL ,it is like lol.I was always frustrated until i watched the best player in the world play on 56k,i was like WOW ..just WOW is he good and smart.He could beat DSL players with 56k very impressive to say the least. I watched and learned and played a lot,hours would fly by until i hit a level where i could compete with anyone.So this game with all of it's design just lured me right in,i had to learn everything about pvp to be any good,every single skill known to mankind had to be used,yes memory,listening for sounds etc etc.
Even now a days i watch some Unreal and it blows me away,players are so frigging good i would get smashed.The reason i lost interest in shooter games is they are too much about spam and fast killing.I enjoyed the more strategic ideas behind shooters more so than the point and click aspect.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Too many to count and that includes single player games as well as MMOs. All it takes for me to lose track of time is to really engage with the game. That can be the story or the mechanics or anything else in between.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
EQ. That just sucked me in, they joking call EQ, Ever Crack and I was a crack whore as far as this game went.
DDO: This game felt like the everything that an MMO should have strived to be to start with, a MMO built on the AD&D rules. That beautiful fusion of AD&D with the MMO World, it was what I had always been looking for in an MMO, and quote well done, I could not but help to fall in love with this one.
GW2: Not sure why this hooked me so hard, just, it was just this game that I enjoyed playing, and would casually play for hours on end, just.... gonna be honest, a whole lot of nothing, and loving it.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
EQ1 and DAoC were my heart games. I lost myself in both games. At one point playing both up to 50-70 hours a week. I have enjoyed many games since but not to that degree. About 9 months ago I started playing ESO, a game I had dumped during beta. I have refallen in love with MMOing once again. Im having as much fun as I did with my first MMO loves. I feel very fortunate.
This is a tough question because the first experience plays such a strong role. I'm not sure that today's new MMORPGer can get that same feeling because of the solo-ability and lack of social interaction that modern games provide, plus the selfishness that that fosters.
The earlier games have a huge advantage because of the player interactions, separating them from SP games.
My answer, tainted by the above perhaps more so than any other, is UO.
The "social experiment" goes on even today. There's never been a conclusion to it. It's gone from very bad in one way (UO and rampant PKing) to very bad in another way (Modern MMOs and the solo-ism game play, "just forget about it" attitude towards social interaction).
A middle ground between there, in that journey, is probably very debatable and I don't think I want to get into that. But the sweet spot was never found.
Everquest for sure had the most profound impact. Eve Online, my first pvp mmo was huge. Darkfall Onine was close due to it's open world fantasy first person view pvp.
Nothing ever drew me like Everquest. I literally lived inside that game. I almost ruined my marriage so that game definitely passes the litmus.
Now see.. my wife also played EQ, so, while one was at work, the other would farm for gear and items, so we were playing as a team literally 24/7.
When we finally broke the addition, it was like waking up from a daze..
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
Nothing ever drew me like Everquest. I literally lived inside that game. I almost ruined my marriage so that game definitely passes the litmus.
That's an endorsement line to put on the tin......"almost ruined my marriage"
It's the truth and something I am not proud of and thank heavens our marriage weathered that storm. My husband is a good man. Hell we have 30+ years so I can say that.
I'm sure UO and EQ would have drawn me in. Maybe Classic/Vanilla WoW, but it depends on if I had not played UO & EQ before playing WoW. (Note: I was old enough to play all those games when they were released but chose not do so. Though I very much enjoyed RPGs, I had other interests at the time and did not want to get addicted.) I even passed on FFXI even though my friends were playing it. WoW I actually bought near the end of 2006 but decided to return it (without opening) because I didn't want to become consumed with it.
Runes of Magic was the first MMORPG I played for any length of time and eventually to max level. I enjoyed EQ2 and Neverwinter. Yes, Neverwinter. For all its faults, I found the action combat to be fun for a time. And I also like the Forgotten Realms campaign world/theme. I've tried many other MMORPGs, but I haven't played any others as long as I played those. (Note: After trying both tab-target/hotbar combat and action combat, I prefer not to have action combat or hybrid action combat because it limits a game's potential as a true role-playing and the use of the non-combat skills. Hybrid action combat makes it more difficult to use skills. I only have so many fingers and so many things I can focus on at one time.)
"If everything was easy, nothing would be hard."
"Show me on the doll where PVP touched you."
(Note: If I type something in a thread that does not exactly pertain to the stated subject of the thread in every, way, shape, and form, please feel free to send me a response in a Private Message.)
I tried out the 'Lord of the Rings' mmo (iirc) and I had a ranger character (iirc), but I didn't like it.
As a ranger I thought maybe for the first time in my life, that I wanted to try some kind of role playing, and so I was disappointed shortly after, been given a quest to kill one or more wolves, and I killed the first wolves I saw, and it wasn't the right ones iirc (wrong area). That was disappointing. A few virtual wolves died for no good reason.
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Several hours many times. One time like 8 straight hours until the sun came up. the group would not give up on a hard dungeon, even leaving and coming back. We had to spiral down the rock cave fighting in off rooms along the way until the bottom with pools of water and dripping condensation.
I had the feeling of being water logged as if I were swimming or floating in the ocean.
Games that drew me in:
World of Warcraft
D&D Online
Vanguard
Later Everquest 2, but had to play it several times before liking the qurkey nature of how it was designed.......Lots of strange design decisions.
Honestly looking at this list, nothing else more than 30 days. but many on and off throughout the years.
A lot of that was just my MMOVirginity, but I had fun and frustration and everything in between
- 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
The reason was i am a competitor at heart,played sports my entire life and this game would make me look bad lol.
I love the challenge of looking terrible and trying to prove i could overcome the odds.When i played i still only had 56k,imagine a 56k player versus DSL ,it is like lol.I was always frustrated until i watched the best player in the world play on 56k,i was like WOW ..just WOW is he good and smart.He could beat DSL players with 56k very impressive to say the least.
I watched and learned and played a lot,hours would fly by until i hit a level where i could compete with anyone.So this game with all of it's design just lured me right in,i had to learn everything about pvp to be any good,every single skill known to mankind had to be used,yes memory,listening for sounds etc etc.
Even now a days i watch some Unreal and it blows me away,players are so frigging good i would get smashed.The reason i lost interest in shooter games is they are too much about spam and fast killing.I enjoyed the more strategic ideas behind shooters more so than the point and click aspect.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
EQ. That just sucked me in, they joking call EQ, Ever Crack and I was a crack whore as far as this game went.
DDO: This game felt like the everything that an MMO should have strived to be to start with, a MMO built on the AD&D rules. That beautiful fusion of AD&D with the MMO World, it was what I had always been looking for in an MMO, and quote well done, I could not but help to fall in love with this one.
GW2: Not sure why this hooked me so hard, just, it was just this game that I enjoyed playing, and would casually play for hours on end, just.... gonna be honest, a whole lot of nothing, and loving it.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
I'm not sure that today's new MMORPGer can get that same feeling because of the solo-ability and lack of social interaction that modern games provide, plus the selfishness that that fosters.
The earlier games have a huge advantage because of the player interactions, separating them from SP games.
My answer, tainted by the above perhaps more so than any other, is UO.
The "social experiment" goes on even today. There's never been a conclusion to it. It's gone from very bad in one way (UO and rampant PKing) to very bad in another way (Modern MMOs and the solo-ism game play, "just forget about it" attitude towards social interaction).
A middle ground between there, in that journey, is probably very debatable and I don't think I want to get into that.
But the sweet spot was never found.
Once upon a time....
Always something do to, always somebody doing something, often doing things in a group.
Eve Online, my first pvp mmo was huge.
Darkfall Onine was close due to it's open world fantasy first person view pvp.
When we finally broke the addition, it was like waking up from a daze..
As a ranger I thought maybe for the first time in my life, that I wanted to try some kind of role playing, and so I was disappointed shortly after, been given a quest to kill one or more wolves, and I killed the first wolves I saw, and it wasn't the right ones iirc (wrong area). That was disappointing. A few virtual wolves died for no good reason.