There hasn’t been a MMO like EverQuest since EverQuest.  Let’s not get lost in the semantics by saying that WoW is like EQ because they’re all “diku” or whatever.  EQ2 comes close, mind you, but even the developers acknowledged that they are two quite different games.

The discussions here over the past few days have been aimed at the new EverQuest Next project.  We already know that the developers want to rekindle the familiar EQ feel (which itself encompasses art direction, world, lore, etc) but as a relaunch.

SoE devs have also stated quite clearly that they know players talk at great length about what made EQ so great.  Everything from how wonderful the world was to the death penalty — but then a statement was made about EQ Next.  They want the memories of EQ Next to be about positives, not negatives.

My understanding of that statement leads me to believe that they want to do away with the harshness of the original EQ.   The death penalty where you lose experience and must recover your body is probably out.  The harsh leveling curve is also probably out.  I’m not sure if they’re planning to change the group-centric nature, but EQ was also very solo friendly for certain classes… so I’m torn on that.

Let’s not even bother with the negatives or a discussion about how they may or may not have been good for the game.  I want to focus solely on the positives of EQ and how they alone have still not been duplicated.

These positives are truly just the beginning.  There are a lot more specific mechanics that we could talk about, but why bother going any deeper when developers aren’t even paying attention to the basics?

The World – “You’re in our world now.”
Hands down the most important feature of EverQuest. The world was big, open, and more powerful as an entity than the individual player. You just felt the natural need to group with people, even if you found a place that you could solo. It was also dangerous, unrelenting in some areas (that you didn’t have to go to if you didn’t want), and begging you to adventure off the beaten path.

It would be wonderful to play in a big world again. Vanguard did quite well with this, but it simply wasn’t finished (the zones were empty or useless). A dangerous world and a diverse world (not just in looks but in feel and purpose) would also be welcome.

Factions – A subset of the world
I’ve chosen to include this as a subset of the world. The faction system in EQ created geographic domains for certain races. The humans of one city, the elves of another, etc. allowed players to create sub-communities that they could interact with. This gave players the opportunity to explore beyond them and created diversity and choice. Dark Elves may have been evil and KoS in the human city, but they could work on being eventually liked and tolerated enough to enter.

Classes
Fewer classes are better. For a long time I, along with many others, would look at a game with more classes and drool because “woah, they have 16 classes!” It didn’t take long to realize that this brought more trouble than it was worth. Less is more. Fewer classes means that each class has a defined role. The classes have identities and you’re not struggling to figure out which classes you need and don’t need, or what classes are supposed to fill what roles. A mage is a mage, a bard is a bard, etc.

Fewer classes also makes balancing easier for PvP and allows each class a much broader array of abilities so that the individual feels like there is more available to customize, strive for, specialize, etc.

Open Dungeons
This concept is gone completely now’days. EQ, DAOC, and Vanguard had them and they were wonderful. Open-world dungeons create a sense of community and local player interaction. The problem with instances is that it encourages your community to shrink and stop interacting beyond the group level.

By having all groups and all players within a dungeon have to coordinate, share, work together, and simply exist at the same time in the world is so beneficial. Why doesn’t this happen anymore? Throw in a few cinematic instanced experiences in the game if necessary and I don’t think that it would hurt anything either.

Grouping is beneficial
I’m not saying that one should be forced to group. I was never forced to group in EQ. I chose to group because it benefited me. Just like you’re forced to group in WoW to do an instance, you were forced to group in EQ to go into dungeons. No difference.

Imagine what a game would be like though if grouping for other things became beneficial. Since the world could offer more dangerous perils and adventures if it were like an EQ world, so too could it offer the opportunity to take advantage of them with others. Group exp bonuses and fun content is really all people need as incentive. Groups create community, and groups were everywhere in EQ.

Here’s world outside dungeon-like regions work really well. Imagine you’re on the path and see a really dark forest. It’s dense and you really can’t see what’s on the other side. You start to venture forth and you see monsters too tough to solo. You grab some friends and kill your way in deeper. Soon the forest opens up and reveals a vast chasm or tear in the world. Gnolls have infested the area and you can see their platforms and ladders leading down into the depths. Do you dare work your way in?

You don’t get that kind of experience solo or without the OPPORTUNITY to benefit from grouping.

Focus on the Journey, not just the Destination
In EverQuest it was all about your character and his/her progression through the world as you undertake one adventure after another. You were working on improving your character and becoming higher level, but there was (at least for the first few years) little emphasis on reading the max level.

With so many places to go, so many neat dungeons or zones to see, and so much to discover that could benefit your character, it never felt to me like I was racing to the end-game for anything. Games are not designed anymore where they treat level 20 with just as much importance as level 50.

Why should the low level content be any less important to the development and impact on the player as the highest level raid? That’s just it, they shouldn’t.

Do you know why I have so many fond memories of EQ? It’s because real memories were created every day, in every zone, with every new group of people I met. If you ask me today what my memories of WoW are it’s probably raiding that first comes to my mind.

It’s not all about the Quest
Questing is great. I’d love if it were more about big epic quests than kill ten rats but let’s not lose sight of keeping it positive. In addition to questing, why not allow for the outside dungeon experiences, open-world dungeons, and simply killing mobs in groups to be just as beneficial? No reason it can’t be. No reason to make the entire questing experience forgettable by just having it be WoW’s style of questing. Also no reason to get rid of the WoW type quests if people want them.

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That’s plenty for now.

Can anyone tell me what it is about the above features or mechanics that would be classified as old-school or unwanted by today’s generation of players? What would make the above so terrible that one would dismiss them as “niche” and not something that developers could pitch to their investors who want big subscription numbers?

I think they could be mainstream selling points and features. Nothing that I’ve just shared is a negative feature. These are all features or mechanics from the EQ generation (many in DAOC too) that have not been adopted by today’s MMO developers.

Modernize these roots and add to them, but don’t sacrifice them. I can’t think of a single good reason to leave these out and I’m beginning to think it’s a lack of vision, talent, or a case of laziness that is steering developers towards the McMMO.

These would be the roots and foundation of my ideal EverQuest Next.  This fundamental foundation creates a strong community, a world that feels huge but connects the players to each other and the geography, and a diverse game that can attract and satisfy the needs of a much larger demographic.

I’m reading this more and more about how certain mechanics in a MMO won’t work or how a certain type of game wouldn’t work today because it wouldn’t attract large number of players.  “That would be a niche game and just wouldn’t work”.

In yesterday’s entry smthin comments exactly how I feel.

“It is hilarious that people still think that making big $$ WoW clones is good business. This formula failed and failed and failed and.. 10000 fail. Last few years are filled with corpses of MMOs that thought they could copy Blizzard and make quick buck.

I also think there is a lot of ignorance about economics and investment in such projects. Audience you expect to attract with 5 mil investment is not same as with 80 mil.. Stupidity comes from people not gettign that you can make great cash from cheap projects and smaller audience. That is how original DAOC and EQ worked both were dirt cheap(especially DAOC that was purely ghetto) and made investors good return.”

Anyone want to contest that the past couple years have been full of developers trying to make mass-appeal non-niche MMO’s that are each failing?  Even the Asian market attempted to mimic a WoW feel and release in NA and failed.

I hate analogies, but I gotta do it.

There’s this amazing Mexican food chain where I live that is only present in the three surrounding cities.  It’s a restaurant that started locally and has decided to stay local.  Every day their lines are long and there isn’t a single resident in these cities that doesn’t know this awesome food.

They’ve been successful and started their own ‘finer’ dining experience.  However, they’ve still decided to keep it local and keep the quality high.

Then there’s the major fast food chains like McDonalds, Burger King, etc.  Their food isn’t terrible (although I don’t care for it) and millions of people eat it, it’s worldwide, it’s cheaper, etc.  However, there’s a big difference in quality.

No question about it, McDonalds makes more money and has more customers.  Does that mean this local place shouldn’t bother anymore?  Does that mean they shouldn’t have expanded or that they should stop opening new locations?

See what I’m getting at?  MMO’s don’t need a million subs to be a success.  MMO’s don’t need mechanics that will attract a million subs.   It’s no different from my analogy.  There can be the smaller businesses that do just fine with amazing quality and exactly what people want.  I’ve never eaten food anywhere that tastes like this local mexican food — their burritos are 100% unique.

So when someone tells me that I’m out of touch when I say that a company can bring back what worked in EQ and have a successful MMO today, I say it’s they who are out of touch.

You can make a MMO using the exact same model as EQ and it would be a success today if it was polished and finished.  Vanguard is proof of that.  Look at the following that game had before launch and the initial response it had.  It was only because the game was half finished and lacked polish that it failed.

Designing games to be the next big thing or designing them with the mindset that you want 10 million subs is destroying them.  It’s not helping the games or the industry to only allow McMMO’s the right to exist.

You do not make a 10 million subscriptions game.  You make a great game and 10 million people subscribe.  This is why EQ and DAOC did so well.

My next blog entry is going to look at what type of game we would have if EQ was modernized for today’s audience and lacked some of the harsher penalties.

Lots of additional information coming in from the SoE Fan Faire about EverQuest ‘Next’!

These EQ fans are astonishing! They’re amazing! I might actually have to go to the next SoE Fan Faire if it’s going to be attended by players like these. The questions they asked steered the developers to speak directly to the following points.

- Next Generation
- EQ players to feel at home
- Original EverQuest flavor and charm for art direction
- Want our feedback on what we liked from EQ1 and EQ2 (and you shall get it)
- Developer agrees that individual character strengths can not overshadow the “You’re in our world now” sense that the world is more powerful than you and you need to rely on others.
- EQ Next is a “re-imagining” of EQ and not taking place before or after.
- More engaging combat, more immersive, more cinematic, and story emphasis.

- Classes representative of what they’re doing in look, effect, what they do, animations
- Less classes. Closer to the original EverQuest (HECK YES). Smedley acknowledges issues with the classes. “What is a Dirge?”

- Realized they got way ahead of themselves announcing EQ2 when they did. Better planning this time + continued support of EQ’s 1 and 2.
- Better transitioning from other EQ’s to ‘Next’ for players. Not trying to migrate players to this new title.
- EQNext more scalable with technology whereas EQ2 wasn’t. Want everything from lower-end

- “People think that because we made Free Realms that this game is somehow going to be like Free Realms — going to be for kids. It’s not. This game is in no way being made for kids…” – John Smedley

- Devs want there to be the same fond memories for ‘Next’ that people reminisce about over the old EQ.
- After mentioning that a lot of people talked about corpse runs and other memories of EQ1, a dev mentioned that they want memories of ‘Next’ to be fond memories. (Some concern here for me that there won’t be any of the more ‘hardcore’ aka oldschool mechanics. We’ll see).

Pretty fantastic questions that allowed the developers to divulge at least a lot of general theory and thinking behind where they’re going with the game.  I was quite pleased to hear a lot about what they’re planning to do different with ‘Next’ where they may have errored with EQ2.

I’m getting the sense that this really will be a ‘AAA’ title with the intentions of being a real modernization of what worked well in EQ1. I was really, really concerned that SoE would botch the whole idea of a new EQ game and make it a Free Realms style game.  I’m happy to be re leaved of that fear.  I’m also very pleased with this sense of respect and acknowledgement toward the EQ1 community.  In my opinion, you will not find a group of players that better understands MMORPG’s than the original EverQuest community.

The developers seem to understand this and I got the sense, from watching the panel videos, that they’re not going to jerk us around and change what worked.  It almost feels like something tangible to hold onto and helps further alleviate that fear that SoE will screw things up again.  I’m hoping praying at this point that SoE learned and that they know their core MMORPG players — theirs and the ones have strayed far and are ready to return — will back them and their new game.

SoE has a chance to lure in their original audience again and to expand that original audience to include this newer generation.  It’s definitely time for another solid AAA title that attempts to do what Vanguard did… but not be a completely unpolished and unfinished mess.

Nothing would give me greater joy than to be a loyal SoE customer again supporting the EverQuest franchise . I want EQ ‘Next’ to work and I want to champion this idea of it being a game that returns MMO’s to their former glory while still keeping things modern.  I’m on board and EQ ‘Next’ is on the top of my list until I hear that SoE is going to mess it up.

This artwork just begs to be a sandbox world, doesn't it?

The Future of EverQuest:  EverQuest Next.

The announcement from Smedley at SoE’s fan faire that the EverQuest universe would be expanding is amazing news.  It’s nothing but an announcement right now with a followup coming this weekend though.

Time for some speculation.  SoE has defined a very clear trend for their games over the past two years.  They’re going for a casual, low entry barriers, cash shop model that results in rather shallow MMO’s.  Will this be the fate of EQ Next? Unfortunately, it’s likely that EQ Next will be the Free Realms style of game but I’m not giving up all hope.

If it’s the game that I want it to be, EQ Next will be a serious MMO for SoE and one that reflects a different or additional direction for SoE.   They can show people that they’re able to trend towards the popular free gaming as well being capable of providing the hardcore MMO enthusiasts a reason to be SoE customers.

EQ Next could be the next step of MMO innovation or the next stage of what the original EverQuest started.  Afterall, EQ pioneered much of what started the industry.  Having the original universe be the one to move us forward seems appropriate.

I’m wanting a sandbox or more open game.  I’m wanting a lot of group-centric gameplay and traditional MMO mechanics, but updated for this generation.  There hasn’t been a real attempt since Vanguard and I really, really think it’s time.

Will it happen?  Probably not, but I’m crossing my fingers and praying that this weekend will be full of awesome and upbeat blog entries about how great EQ Next will be instead of why it’ll be a step backward.

Another one bites the dust… sorta.  It’s the snowball effect in action.  One company takes their game “Free to play” (cough BS cough) and others follow because they don’t want to miss out.  We’re seeing that here with SoE creating a “Free to play” option for EQ2 called “Everquest II Extended”.   You know that I hate this F2P garbage, so overall my opinion on this decision will be negative.  However, there are a few things to point out which SoE does differently from Turbine.

SoE is opening up entirely new servers for this “experiment”.

“Think of it as a completely separate product offering. If you had a Station Pass… EQII Extended is another game in our portfolio, kind of. Even though it’s the same content, for all intents and purposes you play one or the other (or you could play both if you wanted to).” – Dave Georgeson [Source]

This is absolutely the biggest difference.  Turbine turned their entire game upside down in order to bring their game to a new market.  SoE is at least respecting their players somewhat by leaving them be with what they’ve spent 6 years working on.  I’ll tip my hat to the idea that they’re wanting to make this come off as an entirely different game.

Looking at their Membership Matrix, it’s clearly outlined what you do and do not have access to.  Where they’ve confused me though is with the gold membership.  It’s the same price as a subscription to the regular game yet you have to pay for more races and a level cap increase.  Maybe they’re thinking that you save some money not buying the software or something?  Still doesn’t make sense to me because if you’re willing to pay $14.99 per month then why not just play the regular game?  It’s cheaper to play the normal game!

Clearly the “Extended” servers will be ones where the rich get richer.  I don’t expect their communities to be anything like the normal EQ2 community either because of how fragmented the players will be.  Yet, at the same time, this is a “new” server and that brings with it popularity. I really do expect this “experiment”, as Dave Georgeson calls it, to fail over time and it all comes down to that membership matrix.

It needs to be “more free”.  If you’re going to cash shop people, and they are since they say “You can’t buy the best items, but you can buy good items…” and even mention “self-rez potions”, then you might as well open the flood gates.  As it stands, players get to buy power.  They’ll dance around saying it in their FAQ and interviews but it’s there for anyone who knows the game to see.

Bad idea.  Decent execution of a bad idea though.  I don’t like F2P because 1) it’s a scam and 2) it’s bad for the ‘game’ part of the game but if there were ever a more widely acceptable way of creating “Free to play” games it would be to release a F2P option alongside the real thing.  Yeah, it’ll fragment the crap out of your community but oh well.  That’s the price you pay to  keep the dogs and bay and still have a game.

One of the key questions to ask right now is just how much that Bronze membership for “Free” will get you.  If it’s like LotRo you’ll get about an hour of play time before you have to start paying.   It already looks like a rip off to me since you’ll be paying more to play for “Free” than if you actually played the real game.

Part 3 of this little series concludes what I think has been a pleasurable look back at mechanics from older MMO’s that I love and the majority of today’s MMO players would probably hate.  Some of them remain as mere shadows of what they once were and some have disappeared entirely.

Classes that filled Unique Roles

Anyone remember Bards from EverQuest?  There are many examples of classes that were really quite original and have disappeared almost entirely.  Certain roles needed to be filled for certain dungeons or adventure groups.  Sometimes you would need a Monk to pull and that’s really all the Monk did.  The CC of an Enchanter was what that class did and no one could compare.  Yeah, some classes were a little worthless and I certainly don’t miss that but I really do miss how unique people felt when in a party compared to the cluster(….) of AoE DPS classes (very apparent in WoW).

Weapons with More Delay than Damage (Itemization)

I had to just throw this one in there.  I remember using a Wurmslayer on my Gnome Warrior (which was bigger than him) but it had more delay than damage or at least felt that way.  I’ll tie this one into itemization and just say that I enjoyed how itemization worked in older games.  There were fewer options and gear was simpler.  Using a sword was sometimes just a sword instead of “Sword of Tiger Swiftness of the Monkey’s Paw” and this whole convoluted itemization in more current games.  This is where Dark Age of Camelot shined most of all in that you really could just use the weapons a vendor sold.  I could buy an Iron Sword of the vendor and it would be really nice but then a crafter could make me one that had been refined and had more damage or something like that.

Pulling and Group Spots

Definitely one of the things that I miss most is the group-centric experience gain from killing mobs.  This mechanic existed as early as level 1 in a game like EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot; even SWG featured the same feel.   Groups would go out into the wilderness and find a nice centralized location with lots of mob traffic or a spot near a camp of mobs or anywhere that was just a nice spot to sit and pull to and then they would start pulling.  The act of pulling meant that it was one person’s job to go out and find a mob and bring it back to the group.  I remember being in North Ro somewhere just north of the platform and pulling tarantulas, madmen, scarabs, mummies, and other neat creatures to my group.  This was the absolute best way to EXP back then (in my opinion) and the most fun because it allowed me to socialize with people and form a connection with others playing the game.  This was a catalyst for a very, very close-knit community later.  The same stories can be told about DAOC and SWG — especially SWG when we would set up a Ranger camp and pull Krayt Dragons.

Rare Spawn bosses in open-world dungeons.

Rare Spawn Camping

While there were times it made me really angsty, there were also times when I had the most fun ever just hanging out with friends and socializing with other people while waiting on a spawn.  I remember waiting on the Cyclops to spawn for the Jboots ring (in multiple spots) and while it was often an exercise in futility, there is still something about it that I enjoyed while doing it.  I think it definitely worked better when the population was smaller (500k or less) and then compounded by the fact that the game worlds were larger and harder to traverse.  When you killed your rare spawn it gave a feeling of unmatched accomplishment.

Dungeon Crawling

This ties in to rare spawns as well as ‘pulling’ and is a mechanic/feature that is no longer present.  Dungeons were open to everyone at the same time.  It was not something that you instanced into where just your group was there.  Groups would enter a dungeon and attempt to find an uncamped location from which to begin pulling mobs and gaining experience.  Most of the time these dungeons had certain locations that were compartmentalized or where a boss would spawn.  The bosses were the big prize and groups would often form and camp the boss for dozens of hours at a time.  People would come and go from the group if they could not stay but that same group that started could even last for days with a waiting list to get in.  Crawling through dungeons and hunkering down was very similar to the group spots and pulling stories that I told above.

And lastly…

CHOO CHOO!  Train to Zone!

Monsters used to follow you forever until you either zoned, ran them to guards, or died.  This is what sparked kiting, created a big sense of danger as you had to escape a monster that could surely kill you, and also one that created a really dynamic multi-group experience in dungeons and crowded areas.  There was one dungeon in particular called Unrest where a lot of undead monsters could quickly overwhelm a group because of a bad pull.  The group would then have to ‘train’ them to the zone (the word came from a long line of monsters following someone like a train).  People would shout “TRAIN TO ZONE!” because this train wouldn’t just go back to its spawn right away… it would attack anyone unfortunate enough to be near it.

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Feel free to share your favorites.  I definitely have not listed them all!  Most of these mechanics or design decisions I’ve gone through in these 3 entries could really be brought back with a little tuning for the current generation and I believe quite strongly that they would make a positive impact.

Continueing on from Part 1, this is a post about mechanics and features from old MMO’s that I love and wish would return in the future.  These are probably mechanics that, unless you were enjoying yourself back in the day, you probably hate.  Nevertheless, these are mechanics that I feel made the MMO’s like EQ special and unique.

Stay on the Path or Die!

The worlds were dangerous back in the day!  Staying on the path was not just a way to avoid getting lost (no maps) but it was a way to stay alive and a benefit to the game world and immersion.  If you didn’t stay on the path when adventuring or traveling then chances are you were either stupid, brave, or in a group and wanting to pick a fight.  Monsters were far more dangerous to players than they are now.  Even at lower levels, players would stick together in common resting areas where they could protect one another.  This type of mechanic was present from the start and could be seen with lowbies crowding together in Greater Faydark (EverQuest) while hunting orcs.

Sometimes the actual path itself was the dangerous part and players would actually benefit from hugging zone walls.  In fact, the higher level you got the more dangerous it was to go anywhere but on the outskirts.  This created a sense of depth to the zones and created this ‘the deeper you go inside the harder it gets’ concept.  You might be able to solo on the outskirts of a zone but if you wanted to go inside it meant finding a group or being very careful.

This sense of danger about the world increased the community’s interaction and fostered a very group-centric mindset.  Players benefited from grouping with others and benefited from being a type of player that attracted groups rather than scaring them away.  Even though the zones were quite large compared to the ones we play in today, the world was given an artificial sense that it was even bigger and more massive because of what players were unable to see.  If all that you could see was a scary forest all around you and you never left the path then you were always wondering what was just a few more feet in ‘that’ direction.

Fast and Dynamic Crowd Control

Really, really popular in EverQuest, DAoC, and even the very beginning of WoW to a lesser extent, crowd controlling is a mechanic that has disappeared very fast.  This goes back to monsters being very dangerous and games being about teamwork.  The original holy trinity was actually Tank, Healer, and CC.  Today it’s Tank, Heals, and DPS.  I preferred the CC.  Crowd Control was a really dynamic way of creating a challenge for groups to overcome.  One class’ role was entirely about making sure that the group was fighting only what it could handle.  A skilled enchanter could CC 4-5 monsters at once and control a fight like a conductor leading an orchestra.

Players were also forced to play better because of CC.  If you were not paying attention and just facerolling your keyboard like the current generation actually promotes then you were going to break mez and wipe your group.  It was harder and fights lasted longer, but it was a really unique way of fighting in groups.

Kiting

This little mechanic is now considered more of a negative than a positive.  There was a time when people envied a class’ ability to kite mobs around.  Druids from EQ were my favorite kiters with Necromancer reverse kiting coming in second.  Snaring, fearing, rooting, and DoT’s were usually the bread and butter kiting mechanics.   Now it’s considered an exploit if you kite and most games will code it so that mobs “leash” and prevent you from kiting them.  This also ties back in to the challenge that mobs presented and how you really could not let things hit you.  It was a legitimate technique to kill things and it was fun.

Those Pesky NPC’s that Ruined Your Day

There is no NPC/Mob that I love to hate more than Sergeant Slate!  Dorn comes in a close second.  *shakes fist*  You don’t see too many of these as developers have shied away from creating these dangerous and often frustrating mechanics.  Funny enough, these are the ones I remember with a smile on my face.

Part 3 will be coming this weekend and will conclude this little series.  Feel free to share any of your favorite old MMO mechanics that would probably be really unpopular in today’s MMO’s.

If you don’t know me as the guy who loved EverQuest just how it was then you probably haven’t been reading this blog very long.  Gordon over at We Fly Spitfires wrote a blog entry yesterday titled ‘Good Riddance To These Game Mechanics Of Yesterday’ in which he lists a few  things from older MMO’s that he does not miss (it happens that they’re all from EQ).  I would like to write a response of sorts to his entry and state why I feel the exact opposite about not only some of the things on his list, but several others as well.  In fact, I’m going to make this a multi-part blog entry and go through a few mechanics that I absolutely loved but would be willing to bet you can’t stand.

Most all of these mechanics or features were present during a time when the community in-game was much better.  It was also a time when the game worlds were actually much more dynamic and created a sense of adventure and life.  You might be one of the people who hates these mechanics because they sound inconvenient, but I hate what has come from their absence.

Item Weight

"A tame forest in daylight; be wary when night falls.."

Most people will complain that this is an inconvenience and will actually cite the fact that it’s realistic and logical, but still do not want it in their games.  Item weight was a mechanic of depth.  Ogres, trolls, and bigger races could carry more and the smaller races were able to carry less.  It depended upon your strength which, back in these days, was used for more than determining your melee DPS.  It also created diversity in classes because, as Gordon points out, some classes were forced to carry under a certain amount or become penalized (ie: Monks because they needed to be unburdened which makes sense).

The depth of this mechanic also kept you aware of where in the world you were at and how you would have to actually plan what you were going to do.  Going out hunting became a much more planned event since you knew you could only carry so much.  If you went over that cap it meant you were going to have to find a place to sell.  Money and items back then were a lot more important to a character than today’s “junk loot”.  It felt like every penny was important to us and carrying copper coins and other currency actually added to that weight.  Add in the fear of death and having to get back to your corpse and this mechanic gets all that more deep.

Darkness

Heaven forbid it actually be dark at night. When it’s dark you can’t see — that’s the point!   This more than anything else shows how something so simple can add so much to immersion in a game.   Entering a dark forest was really scary.  You couldn’t see very far ahead and a monster could jump out at you from anywhere.  As a newbie human with poor eyesight it was really unnerving to not be able to see much past the safely lit entrance to the city.  Players would stick together and make sure that someone always had a torch out.  If we ventured far from the town’s torches we would kill something and quickly run back to the light to rest.  The darkness created a sense of danger and unknown while creating an atmosphere of reliance upon others and now lost interaction with the world.

This mechanic was also one that lent itself to character diversity.  Humans had poor eyesight but other races, like dwarves, had forms of vision that helped them see better in the dark.  The races that lived in caves could naturally see better.  This also created a really neat economic benefit.  Will-o-wisps dropped these stones that lit up which could be carried to let off light.  They were fairly common in parts of the world where races could see better and we used to take them on the long journey to the human lands and sell them for great profit.

Falling off the Boat

"The Boat" in Ocean of Tears

This sounds funny, but it’s really serious business. ‘Falling off a boat’ represents about a dozen mechanics in one that are no longer present — mechanics that you probably hate. Boats used to arrive once ever 15 minutes or so and would carry you from one continent to the next. One boat in particular would travel from the dwarf lands to the human lands. This isn’t like the boat from Booty Bay to Ratchet though… oh no… this boat actually takes you on a journey. Once you zoned out of the dwarf continent you were taken to an intermediate zone where the boat actually sailed out in the ocean for a long time. It made a stop or two at various islands but for the most part took you great distances that were actually represented in the game world.

So what was the big deal you ask?  The zone wasn’t named “Ocean of Tears” for nothing.  If you fell off this boat it could mean one of many things. First, you may be lost at sea for hours because there was no map and the world was enormous and confusing. You may find yourself swimming (which not everyone did well since a low swim skill meant you swim slow) a long time to get back to land in order to wait for the boat. Worst case scenario was that you died and your body sunk to the bottom of the ocean… the ocean is dangerous and full of sharks, islands with goblins, sirens, cyclops and other monsters.

Did this suck? Man, this sucked so much! At the same time, the existence of such a mechanic made the journey all that more enjoyable. Knowing that the distance I traveled was actually vast and dangerous gave meaning to the trip. The world itself was a dangerous place and the game made it feel like something as simple as not being stupid enough to fall off was important. This was such an immersive mechanic that today is taken for granted in MMO’s which are becoming increasingly transparent.

Part 2 coming tomorrow!
[UPDATE] Due to the LOTRO incident, I am delaying Part 2 until Saturday.