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MMO Trailblazers

June 10, 2013 by 8 Comments

MMO TrailblazersI mentioned in an earlier post about the “guys who knew the dungeons” and how I wanted to talk about it later. Well this is it. I wanted to call them MMO Rangers, but that would probably just confuse people and make them think of the class and not the type of guy I was going for. So anyways, let’s get into it.

Do you remember back in school that one kid who seemed to know EVERYTHING game related? Of course this was all pre-internet (Or maybe not, depending on your age) so the only info we got was spread around. If you needed to know how to get to a secret world in Mario or how to perform a fatality in Mortal Kombat then this was your guy. Or maybe it was the dude at the arcade who had this seemingly arcane knowledge of everything about the game and could give you mind-blowing tips. Regardless, these sages of early gaming wisdom guided us and imparted sacred knowledge unto us and had a huge impact on our gaming lives. In reality these were the kids with the right magazine subscriptions but still… I try not to look behind the curtain.

Back in the days of early and more difficult MMOs we had similar players. These guys were digital missionaries who spread their gospel of world geography, dungeon pathways, and so on. Keen has recounted his tale about his first experience in EQ and migrating from the frigid north to the scorching deserts of Freeport. The player who took him there was one such person, whom to my recollection appeared out of the mists with out-streched hand and whispered, “Lo, let me safely guide you unto the promised land of North Ro.” Or something like that at least. I was 10-year-old kid who gnawed on wooden countertops; maybe I don’t have the best memory. Continue reading “MMO Trailblazers” »

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My Night in EQ: EXP Loss & Corpse Runs

April 8, 2013 by 33 Comments

Sorry for the delay between posts. This is the craziest time of the year for me.  I was thinking about what to write tonight when Graev reminded me about a tweet I made the other night describing an experience I had in EverQuest.

A friend and I went into Upper Guk with a group to hunker down and pull lots of frogloks.  The ZEM (zone experience modifier) for Guk is pretty dang good compared to outdoor dungeons, and Unrest was overflowing with people.  One of the great thing about the original EverQuest was the option to go so many different places to gain experience solo, and with a group.

We got to Guk and had decent success. I gained almost an entire level, and after about two hours we were moving locations to set ourselves up for an even better spot in the zone.  One thing lead to another, and we wiped.  It was frustrating since I was bound across the world. Most of you probably don’t know what it means when I say I was bound; there aren’t graveyard in EverQuest.  Players bind themselves to a location with a spell.  Only certain classes get bind, and only those who have it can bind outside dungeons.  As a paladin, I not only don’t get bind but I have to have someone bind me in a major city. As a Dwarf Paladin, that means I’m still  a good 20 minute run away from Guk.

Well I wasn’t bound before going to Guk, so I had to run from Kelethin to Butcherblock, take a boat to Freeport, run to EC to get a sow, cut through the tunnel to NRO, cross the Oasis, get through SRO, and just as I’m about to roll up on Innothule swamp (the zone with the entrance to Guk), a very high level cleric Resurrects me — teleporting me to my body.  The trip only took a little over an hour…

While trying to retrieve his body, a friend of mine died 2-3 additional times losing all the experience he gained in the dungeon those 2-3 hours we were hunting.  He was willing to die though because for all he knew no one was going to come along to help get his body back.  In EQ when you die you leave a corpse with your stuff on it, and you’re not getting it back unless you and your corpse reunite.  2-3 hours of experience loss for your possessions is worth it.

The whole ordeal got me thinking about the various mechanics at play that night.

  • Group experiencing in a dungeon for hours pulling mobs
  • Exp loss
  • Potential gear loss
  • Binding
  • ‘Corpse runs’
  • Corpse recovery
  • Massive world

Out of all the mechanics above, I have to say that I love all of them but one: potential gear loss.  I think that EverQuest is extremely hardcore by today’s standards.  So much so that it almost broke me that night.  Losing experience is brutal, but it’s a penalty that terrifies me enough that I will do whatever it takes not to die.  A long corpse recovery, binding, and a huge world to travel give the game depth. Dungeon camping is just plain fun.  I don’t like the idea of losing my gear though, and for me personally I wouldn’t be averse to never playing a game with that fear again.

My recounting this one experience alone has highlighted more depth in MMORPGs than many of you have likely ever experienced if you started playing MMOs post-WoW era and never dabbled in the old school.  Despite the horrific ordeals, this memory will stay with me a very, very long time.  MMOs don’t need scripted stories.  Players should be able to create their own.  After that night, I certainly have a story to tell.

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Adventuring in Old School EverQuest

April 5, 2013 by 15 Comments

EC Tunnel P99

I love when I’m actually playing games.  I feel like I can truly blog about what’s going on with my characters instead of struggling to find something to comment on.  EverQuest Project 1999 has been my focus this past week.  A few members of the KGC Guild decided we wanted to venture back to the lands of Norrath and see how far we could progress before a new game comes out and sweeps us away.

We made a nice group: Paladin tank (me), Enchanter, Cleric, Necro, and Druid.  We’re still missing one, but it’s not hard to pick up a DPS class.  Our little group began by adventuring in Crushbone.  We slaughtered orcs for days, camping everything from Centurions at the entrance to the Trainer on the plateau.  We even pulled Legionnaires when a high level Druid was nice enough to buff us.

Dorph the PaladinWhen we reached level 20 we went to Unrest. Oh the memories I have of that wretched mansion.  Many were rekindled as we pulled mobs and were barked at for taking a mob close to a room another group was camping.  That sparked a pulling war to see who would hog the most mobs in the mansion.

Now we’re in East Commonlands buying  things to raise our gear to a point where we can devote our entire play sessions toward finding camps out in the middle of nowhere and gaining fast levels.  We’re contemplating Aviaks in the Karanas, or something in High Hold Keep. Oh to have options!

Pulling is a mechanic I have missed most.  I love sitting in a location and setting up a camp.  I like hunkering down and killing monsters instead of constantly being on the move always running, always ‘progressing’ down a linear path.  I forgot how good it feels to just take in a zone for all it has to offer and to become so familiar that when the time comes to move on you almost … miss the zone in a weird way like you’re leaving your home.

More adventures hopefully await our little band of adventurers.  I’d love to get into the higher level dungeons that I remember from Kunark, camp for items to make our characters better, and dare I say it even enter the Planes and do Velious content when they release that expansion.

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I want MMOs to feel like an investment

April 2, 2013 by 23 Comments

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, there’s something about EverQuest that I find irresistible.  I love many of the mechanics, and you all know I’m a fan of group-play, difficulty, and social gameplay.  I started to think harder, and during a discussion with some friends one key component was brought up: EverQuest is an investment. The more time I spend, the more I see my character transform, and my abilities grow.  EQ is slow and almost methodical at times. Nothing happens overnight. I thought about it this for a while, and realized I love building something up over time, and that this feeling isn’t limited to EverQuest.  I love putting in effort and seeing results.  I love watching the payoff after weeks, months, years of effort.  That’s why it’s an investment!

I think back on all the MMOs I’ve played these past five years, and almost every single new release hasn’t yielded a return on my investment.  For example, in GW2 I was able to burn through all of the content, max out a character, etc., etc.  While I played something like 250 hours and monetarily felt entirely satisfied ($60 for 250 hours of enjoyment is well worth it), I never felt like the game required any significant investment from me.  As a result, I never felt like I was able to get anything out of the game in return.  Quitting was easy, I was unattached, and I wasn’t leaving any part of me behind when I left.  This lack of investment has been present in many games for me, and I believe it’s directly related to why I can never seem to get hooked.

Dark Age of Camelot’s RvR was a huge investment; I wanted those higher RAs and I loved fighting to get them.  In SWG the drive to invest my time into becoming a billionaire and renown crafter — the best crafter — pushed me to keep bettering my character and investing myself into each day I played.  In UOForever I currently have one of the best vendors on the server.  Even if I wanted to stop playing I wouldn’t let myself because I have invested too much to get this far.  It’s like a weird addiction formula or something.

Bottom line, I feel like a game has to really hook me somehow into investing mental energy, time, emotion, care — and like any good investment I have to see a return on all of that.  It can’t all be done quickly either, because no matter how good a game is there just isn’t any sort of meaningful investment for me if I know I’m done in a couple of weeks.  I want to know the MMO I’m getting into has a really, really high level of involvement.

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