Dear Community (A message from an ex-pro)

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Exile009 wrote:

^You missed players virtually prostituting themselves and humping each other in towns. I'll let you decide if you missed out on a lot of fun now...

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

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vio wrote:

daoc and everquest, avoided them both alongside wow and don't know if i missed alot of fun.

did i?

You did, but obviously it wasn't without its hassles and dramas. I ran roleplay guilds in both Dark Age of Camelot and Everquest, since both had very active RP scenes -- especially DAoC, which had strict in-character servers, so strict even I was reported once or twice for pushing the boundaries with my...looser RP style (you'll notice Oni-Goroshi doesn't quite talketh like she is from ye olde Englande). In Everquest, we'd occasionally be drawn into fairly elaborate roleplay events run by the devs that were a lot of fun. They'd reward our characters with decent gear for our effort, which is always a nice bonus.

But the games themselves? Eh, grindy as hell, buggy, extremely hostile (DAoC's entire conceit was three realms fighting each other in a contested frontier area and *not being able to communicate in game*, something I believe WoW copied wholesale), plagued with the usual MMO problems. Lag. Crashes. Spawn-camping. Kill-stealing. But damn, they were fun when they were hot. DAoC's combat was genuinely great fun too. Lots of tactical engagement: certain skills did more damage from behind, in front of or beside the enemy, and they'd create chains with other skills...that sort of thing is a blast in PvP.

I used to like sitting in EC Tunnel (Eastern Commons) in Everquest, which was the unofficial trade centre for any given server, and just hawk my wares in creative ways. Most people would just WTS and WTB, but I found when we'd do it in-character, others would follow suit.


Entrance to EC Tunnel on a busy day.

Or we'd do something similar in a zone called Lake of Ill Omen (LOIO), which was known as a sort of chat hub (I hear WoW had something similar in The Barrens, and wouldn't be surprised if some LOIO veterans ended up there). The fun thing about LOIO was that it also contained the final step for an Epic quest for the Monk weapon, and whenever a Monk obtained their Epic weapon, the entire zone would be alerted, and everyone would celebrate. Epic Quests back then took months of extremely convoluted questing that dragged your arse all over Norrath. They were, at the time, the only way to get glowing/animated weapons, and when you saw someone with one, you knew they were Hot Shit. They were character-bound, and thus immune to RMT and trading. There was simply no easy way to get one. I sure as fuck never did, but that's probably because I was happy goofing around in LOIO. Heh.

As for WoW, eh. I beta-tested it and thought it was a lot of fun, sort of like EQ+DAoC for dummies. But I knew from my years of experience on Battle.net what sort of unpleasant gamer Blizzard attracted, and that my enjoyment of WoW would be ruined once other people came along, so didn't ever actually play the game once it went live. I heard there was RP and whatnot, but by then I'd sort of outgrown it anyway. Not long after WoW came out there was Guild Wars 1, and that game changed everything for me. It really drove home how you could blend MMO scale with ARPG tactical play all based around a strategic MTG deck style skill setup. Pretty sure PoE would exist without Guild Wars 1, but it wouldn't be quite the same game.

edit: and while I was at it, I googled 'S-Tier Everquest'. Not a single hit. What a surprise.

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SadDropUser wrote:

https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Tiers

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vio wrote:

at the time our nerds went full ultima online, everquest and dark age of camelot i've had my "first person shooter" period, only found out later about my love to rpgs and arpgs.

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SadDropUser wrote:

Now, before you get up in arms like a citizen hunting Frankenstein

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

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SadDropUser wrote:

Now, before you get up in arms like a citizen hunting Frankenstein

It was Dr Frankenstein's monster citizens got up in arms hunting. Frankenstein's Monster was extremely empathetic, socially conscious and well-mannered despite his grotesque appearance, and is very confused and hurt when the citizens shun him for his physical status. He takes that confusion and hurt out on his creator, since it was Dr. Frankenstein who made him that way.

There's probably something to be learned from that. It's a literary classic for a reason.

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Exile009 wrote:

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

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SadDropUser wrote:

Now, before you get up in arms like a citizen hunting Frankenstein

It was Dr Frankenstein's monster citizens got up in arms hunting. Frankenstein's Monster was extremely empathetic, socially conscious and well-mannered despite his grotesque appearance, and is very confused and hurt when the citizens shun him for his physical status. He takes that confusion and hurt out on his creator, since it was Dr. Frankenstein who made him that way.

There's probably something to be learned from that. It's a literary classic for a reason.

I find it funny that you find it funny that other people keep feeding him, and then you go on to seriously engage with him yourself like so. ;)

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KalHirol wrote:

As long as your not getting paid and have to pay income tax you are not a fucking pro, stop using this word just to make you feel better that you spent WAAAAYYY to much time playing a videogame for kids.