The feeling is gone

[Zysoclaplem]

Does anyone else remember the feel of the first MMORPG they ever played and loved, and search for that feeling through an endless list of new mmorpgs only to find that that feeling is probably gone forever?

I remember when I first started playing EQ. It was amazing. I loved that game for years.
But now it's been changed so many times I cannot even play it anymore, and I have never really cared for a single mmorpg since I quit EQ.
I have tried them all, and it all just seems like the same thing over and over again.
It's a bit depressing.

 

[Genx87]

Sure do but nobody has made a game as immersive as UO since.

Maybe D&L will come close?

 

[skace]

I had that feeling in UO, EQ and WoW. It fades over time, but if you catch the MMORPG at just the right time, it is perfect. The exact time is by and large right when the game comes out.

 

[jdport]

This should be the I <3 UO board... this is the only forum I've ever read where good things were said about UO
I never played it so I can't comment.

I agree with your take on MMORPG's, Zyso. I too loved EQ when it was new... I continued to love it for several years, and played it for a couple of years longer even after I stopped "loving" it. It was amazing but every new MMORPG I see, even though it's a "new" game with different rules, better graphics, better everything, it just does not recapture that magic. Sad

-jd

 

[nweaver]

Miss the old EQ....logged on (got an email, free 30 days for old accounts) and it couldn't capture me like it used to.

 

[Super56K]

These posts are very similar to a drug addict after they've been using for long periods of time. No matter how much you do, that initial high you got from the first experience can't be achieved in the same capacity again.

 

[Vampirrella]

i have that same feeling with EQ.. tho i did play UO from day 1 as well, but UO didnt have that same feeling i got from EQ. In eq it was really the first time i got sucked into a game so hard.

Played it for 6 yrs through all the ups and downs. With each new eq expansion, i grew more and more distanced from it untill i finally canceled last spring '05. March 17th'99 thru april'05 was one hell of a long run for me, but it had to stop somewhere. All the other MMO's including WOW and a few others just dont do it for me anymore. They dont capture what i need for that first time thrilling experience. Its like all these new games do exactly what EQ has already done before, only now we have flashy graphics to go with it, but the overall experience is boring to me.

The best thrill i had was sitting in Butcherblock at the crossroads @ lv 6 huddled together around the guards with some 40 other players. We all didnt dare venture out past that guard outpost after witnessing one poor dwarf get mauled by a huge fattie creature named zarchoomi i think it was. lol Of course all my most memorable times was in the EQ original game. After Varant/sony started pushing out kunark, vellious ect, it started getting ho-hum boring IMO (yet i kept playing like the addict i was ha)

Still at times i long to fire it back up and do the free-for-30-days-thing, but i know i shouldnt..

 

[Bulldog13]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Sure do but nobody has made a game as immersive as UO since.

Maybe D&L will come close?

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem
Does anyone else remember the feel of the first MMORPG they ever played and loved

i think i know what you're talking about.

Btw. my first MMORPG experiences where in various MUDs, early 90s, and there was no graphics AT ALL. - Still, looking back, it was awesome.

Also...its kind of hard to get ANY good RPG feeling back.....eg. years and years ago i played good RPGs ranging from Baldur's Gate, Eye of the Beholder Series (Amiga), Black Crypt, AD&D series etc......i think one of teh LATEST where u got the "feel" was Lands of Lore series....but then even later, even with Morrowind and Daoc etc..they're good but i was just not THAT immersed and had the "RPG" feel

Daoc was "nice" for a while....but then somehow i went out of ideas what to do actually....

 

[Zysoclaplem]

Originally posted by: Vampirrella
i have that same feeling with EQ.. tho i did play UO from day 1 as well, but UO didnt have that same feeling i got from EQ. In eq it was really the first time i got sucked into a game so hard.

Played it for 6 yrs through all the ups and downs. With each new eq expansion, i grew more and more distanced from it untill i finally canceled last spring '05. March 17th'99 thru april'05 was one hell of a long run for me, but it had to stop somewhere. All the other MMO's including WOW and a few others just dont do it for me anymore. They dont capture what i need for that first time thrilling experience. Its like all these new games do exactly what EQ has already done before, only now we have flashy graphics to go with it, but the overall experience is boring to me.

The best thrill i had was sitting in Butcherblock at the crossroads @ lv 6 huddled together around the guards with some 40 other players. We all didnt dare venture out past that guard outpost after witnessing one poor dwarf get mauled by a huge fattie creature named zarchoomi i think it was. lol Of course all my most memorable times was in the EQ original game. After Varant/sony started pushing out kunark, vellious ect, it started getting ho-hum boring IMO (yet i kept playing like the addict i was ha)

Still at times i long to fire it back up and do the free-for-30-days-thing, but i know i shouldnt..

Oh man the thing I remember most was the first time I was on my way Orc Hill and someone yelled, "TRAIN!!!"
Of course I didn't know what that meant. I found out quickly though heh.
That was the first of many trains...
I also missed my very first character. A dark elf something, I wanna say wizard. All I remember is not being able to find my way back to the newbie log and getting lost in the forest and being attacked by those laughing skeletons.
Oh man I loved that game.

 

[Maetryx]

I have steered clear of all pay 2 play games all these years knowing that I could get seriously addicted. The only one I played was Runescape for $5 a month and only for a few months. I too played MUDs in the early 90's and remember that since of community and being part of something larger than myself and my workstation. I mean back then, it was BEFORE instant messaging and so forth, and so we would go onto the MUD to chat(!). A multiplayer text adventure, lol. And I still think MUD was the drop of rain that burst the dam on the flood of multiplayer gaming potential.

 

[Looney]

Yep, i remember my first MMOG experience. It was the second day of EQ release, and i had just gotten the game. I really didn't have ANY idea what kind of game it was, except that you played with others... i didn't realized you were in the same world with thousands of others. So i rolled up a Highelf wizard, and was roaming the Felwithe for like an hr, just wondering wtf to do. Then i accidentally zoned out of the city, and that's when it blew my mind. I saw literally hundreds of others running around killing bats, and knew this was something great. The next few hours after that, was filled of OOC chat, trying to zerg into Crushbone, and the GMs were even spawning orcs and having them run all the way to Felwithe gates in a sort of invasion.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

Originally posted by: Looney
Yep, i remember my first MMOG experience. It was the second day of EQ release, and i had just gotten the game. I really didn't have ANY idea what kind of game it was, except that you played with others... i didn't realized you were in the same world with thousands of others. So i rolled up a Highelf wizard, and was roaming the Felwithe for like an hr, just wondering wtf to do. Then i accidentally zoned out of the city, and that's when it blew my mind. I saw literally hundreds of others running around killing bats, and knew this was something great. The next few hours after that, was filled of OOC chat, trying to zerg into Crushbone, and the GMs were even spawning orcs and having them run all the way to Felwithe gates in a sort of invasion.

Yeah it was great. I remember one year they had a Halloween event and there were werewolves everywhere!
I got a badass belt with some great stats on it.
It was awesome.

 

[Crusty]

Necromium ftw!

 

[BespinReactorShaft]

Not the same genre, but after being totally absorbed in Dune 2 and Command & Conquer 1, despite all my efforts I gradually and completely lost all interest in RTS games afterward.

 

[BlueWeasel]

On a whim one night back in 2001, I bought Asheron's Call 1 and it's brand new expansion for $20. It was my first attempt (and pretty much only) at MMORPGs and man, I loved it. I found a great clan full of great people and that game was pretty much my life for almost a year. Prior to playing AC1, I never understood how someone could get so addicted.

After playing about a year, I moved to an area with no broadband and I pretty much had to quit cold turkey. I got cable access a little while later, but found the "magic" just wasn't there. Many of my online friends had quit and moved on to other games. I've played off and on the past few years, but always stopped after a month or two of playing.

AC1 still has a loyal following and they just released a new expansion for a game that is approaching 6 years old. But it's nothing like what it used to be.....Areas that were crowded with people back in 2001/2002 are now empty. It's kind of depressing.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

The only MMO game I really got into was called Mankind (it still exists). Back about 7 years ago it was ahead of its time. The scale of the game is still something that I have yet to see in any other games (figure 2-6 planets per star, 19-20 stars per sector, hundreds upon hundreds of sectors). Most everything at that time was done in space (though units for ground battles became feasable later on). The thing that ended up killing it was the complete lack of support by the original parent company, Vibes. The game has since been bought out, but isn't doing any better. I've caught glimpses of it now and then, and the magic is still there. Unfortunately, most everyone has moved on and the game is largely empty any more.

 

[Rip the Jacker]

Not an MMO, but an RPG... Diablo II controlled my life for 4 years. What else can I say?

I tried to get into Guild Wars, but for some reason... that "feeling" wasn't there. I still think Guild Wars is NOTHING, and I repeat: NOTHING compared to D2.

 

[Pocatello]

I've never tried one, so the feeling was never there in the first place.

 

[CKent]

It's not fully the newness that does it, though that does play a part... with EQ, it was the fact that SOE ruined the game in hopes of profit. Despite the awful financial failure EQ became once they took control of the game from Brad McQuaid, other companies still see it as the example to follow for the Holy Grail of Cash Cows. We'll never see another EQ; people who care only about money can't create a thing of such beauty, and now that Big Business has its eye turned toward MMORPGs, what little blood is left in the stone will be forever squeezed out.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: BespinReactorShaft
Not the same genre, but after being totally absorbed in Dune 2 and Command & Conquer 1, despite all my efforts I gradually and completely lost all interest in RTS games afterward.

I went from Dune 2 to Red Alert then C&C.

After that, everything else apart from the Homeworld series has been quite plain.

Dawn of War + Winter Assault has dragged me back in because of the identifiable Sci Fi universe and awesome graphics. Was always wanting to play WH40k but never had the money or desire to learn everything needed to have fun. Some fun units, some great humour, amazing FMV intro and some brutal hand ot hand combat finishing moves all add atmosphere and form a great playing experience.

WC3 TFT had that side game tacked on where you controlled 1 hero, played through gathering a group of heros and following an ok storyline. THAT WAS AMAZINGLY GOOD FUN and I wish someone would do something like that again... only much longer and more difficult.

 

[40Hands]

Man I was hooked on UO for the longest time... That game was just plain fun to play.

My home town was Trinsic and I had a house right up against the western city walls and next to the river.

I don't think you can place a house there anymore...

Sold my account on ebay a LONG time ago...

 

[zebano]

Yeah MUDs were great. But then I discovered Arena and standard console RPG's, those kept me busy untill my final years of college when Starcraft and D2 brought me back online. My first true MMORP was RO which was great, but bug ridden, and still in development (slow development). Eventually I turned back to D2 and finally to WoW. I quit WoW cold turkey after 3 months and still long to play.

 

[Yreka]

Originally posted by: Zysoclaplem

Originally posted by: Looney
Yep, i remember my first MMOG experience. It was the second day of EQ release, and i had just gotten the game. I really didn't have ANY idea what kind of game it was, except that you played with others... i didn't realized you were in the same world with thousands of others. So i rolled up a Highelf wizard, and was roaming the Felwithe for like an hr, just wondering wtf to do. Then i accidentally zoned out of the city, and that's when it blew my mind. I saw literally hundreds of others running around killing bats, and knew this was something great. The next few hours after that, was filled of OOC chat, trying to zerg into Crushbone, and the GMs were even spawning orcs and having them run all the way to Felwithe gates in a sort of invasion.

Yeah it was great. I remember one year they had a Halloween event and there were werewolves everywhere!
I got a badass belt with some great stats on it.
It was awesome.

That was fun, I remember that.

I got that feeling a little bit again playing EQ2. I actually looking forward to logging in and playing it like I used to with EQ1. I love doing the tradeskills etc.

I have been told that will wear off really soon though *Im still in my first month*.

I dunno, if I can find a guild like the one I was in EQ1 I think it will hold my interest for awhile. We had an 18 and older guild on drinal, it actually worked out really well.

I tried WoW for awhile, but I just couldnt get into it.

 

[Patt]

Still haven't played a MMORPG ... and really don't have much desire to. Don't play much internet multiplayer at all, save it primarily for small LAN gatherings. I really should check it one of them at some point I suppose.