101
Why the original, 1999 version of EverQuest is still one of the best MMOs to play today
(www.pcgamer.com)
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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For me it's Asheron's Call. Loved that game.
Old mmos had adventure and discovery. The current state of the internet doesn't allow for adventure and discovery in an online multi-player game.
With Asheron's Call we had Maggie The Jackcat and the VN boards, and that was it. You couldn't just look up the best path across the obsidian wastes to Ayan Baqur and find a youtube video explaining all of the danger points and farming areas. You had to just do it yourself or communicate with real people in real time to figure things out.
That magic is gone and it's never coming back... and it sucks 😕
AC was clearly better than EQ though 👍
I have the impression that being "good" at the game wasn't even a concern back then. I remember a lot of players being completely unbothered about their own character levels and wealth. Players were busy building communities and driven by small and personal achievements. Sometime I wish gaming had remained niche and never reached the masses. The early 00s was such a sweet spot.
or communicate with real people
You lost me.
Standing in Arwic spamming "plz help get 2 crater" until someone made you a vassal in exchange for running you past monouga cottage to the Bandit castle area portal and escort to and through crater pathway...
Darktide forever.
...and also Morningthaw because carebear experience with my brother.
Anarchy Online was my first broadband MMO (playing Ultima on dialup doesn't really count), and it will always be amazing to me.
But I also fully recognize it was jumbled mess of poorly balanced characters, PvP that was completely stuck in the status quo, incredibly unclear and obscure mechanics that aren't explained anywhere, and random grindwalls.
But damn if it wasn't fun getting a group of newbies and figuring stuff out.
I played this game in beta and while it was mindblowing to have a 3D mmorpg, this game took a certain person to like. I played and bailed on it a few times, always because a friend of mine promised it had "gotten better" and he promised to power level me and SoW me when I needed. One time that happened because I was so low level playing some nights for an hour or so and he was spoiled by his mom and jobless so he played all day everyday.
That being said, the most fun with EQ Ive had was doing race war PvP with a college frisnd and as gnome wizards killing all the other gnomes
Old-School RuneScape is still the best designed MMO:
It doesn't require you to choose a class and miss on content, you never have to "reset" or "prestige" an account and restart, the skills, the world and the quest are deeply intertwined, you're not forced to follow one specific order or way of doing things - but there are natural entry points into quest lines for those that want some direction. As hard as levelling some skills are, once you conquer even 1 exp your effort is never lost or reduced.
Perfect MMO design, IMHO.
I wish I could enjoy it that way, it really does sound amazing, just as a consequence of its age and engine... It's feckin ugly and the combat doesn't feel like much of anything is happening.
The combat is by far the weakest point of the game, that I agree with. It fits well with the idea of keeping it in a second monitor while you watch something else, but it's not engaging alone.
But as for the graphics, using RuneLite plugins you can get a really interesting look where the game still uses the old school models, but a modern lighting system, improved textures and smoother animations. It actually looks super good.
Perfect MMO design, IMHO.
Everyone has their own opinion. I could never stand RuneScape because literally every single activity was a boring grind fest with little to no fidelity or depth. Nothing about it is exciting or engaging.
The fact that most people recommend the game as an afk game or something to do on the side is evidence to me that the game is boring and not worth the grind.
You're not wrong, it's your opinion after all.
But keep in mind I said "perfect MMO design" and MMOs where purposely designed like this: you're supposed to be talking to people around you, making friends, stumbling around the same players in your next mining trip.
Today we talk via Discord, WhatsApp, talking via a game is... Irrelevant. Finding another player? Of course, that's trivial. The Wiki is almost complete. So people only focus on the RPG part of MMORPG. RuneScape gives you the incentive, time and space for the MMO part too - this forces skills to be somewhat idle.
Agreed. Which is why I think EQ is the best of the old mmos because the world, quests, combat, adventure, etc, have a bit more depth and challenge to them, and the game is still slow enough where socializing is a thing. The game was designed to be that way. There is a lot of down time involved between waiting for mobs to respawn, so there was a lot of opportunity to chat with your group/guild mates.
RuneScape is all essentially the same thing, but feels watered down.
Hey, I'll take every oldschool MMO friend - doesn't matter if we come from different tribes.
It's way too grindy, but then again, that's why I don't play MMOs generally. It is the one I put the most time into, so I guess there's that.
Project1999.com. You're welcome.
this was a staple between my dad, my 2 uncles, and my grandpa. my grandpa still has a few super high level characters