I feel the same way about my first MMO, Asheron’s Call.
My first MMO was the arguably terrible Clan Lord, and I even got fond memories of that, compared to any of the other ones I played since. There really was a sense of wonder in that first time, but I guess it’s something we may have felt as a whole toward the internet.
My first taste of an MMO might have been Neverwinter Nights (AOL) and then Gemstone. I didn’t pick those because the lasting impression was as big but the text games were quite impressive for some time. I think Gemstone is still around.
If I had to pick just one, it would be Skyrim on PC with mods.
That’s interesting, because I played a couple of MUDs (on Minitel, har har!) before, but they didn’t leave me the strong impression my first “internet MMO” did. So much I had forgotten about them until @Nesrie mentionned text games just now. I think I may have doubted there were really other people playing, for some reason, while I wouldn’t if they were sprite? Not much logic in all this :/
I think my first MMO was Star Trek Online. I can be a late adopter sometimes.
I think I’d have to go with Thief: The Dark Project. I love The Metal Age but I much preferred the uncertainty of missions and the creepiness of The Dark Project. I was obsessed with Thief through school and it got under my skin and into my head unlike any other game. The lighting, the cutscenes, the sound and music, the unusual world, the gameplay, maps, difficulty levels, story and level design. It all just clicked. I even designed and created a good chunk of a fan mission with a friend before university got in the way and we fell out of touch.
I never did play the Gold missions, and fan missions are still being created today. I’d love to check them out at some point.
I had to think about this…I do have a relatively deep history in playing PC games starting from the mid-80’s. Although apparently not as deep as many of you. A lot of nostalgia and remembering many QT3 nights.
But I’ll take an unpopular stance and say LOTRO. I’ve been playing for 11 years, with a 2-or-so year break in the middle. Actions speak louder than nostalgia. I’m not re-playing Ultimas or Darklands or Gold Box Games.
LOTRO sure has its issues (especially lately), but it’s a huge world that is mainly consistent with the first fantasy universe I became aware of when young other than Chronicles of Narnia. It’s solo-friendly for someone like me who just wants a basically never-ending ongoing story. I don’t need PvMP or raids or whatnot, and I never had to deal with them. I never gave a crap about end-game and I’m still 2 years behind the latest content. That serves me just fine and to the game’s credit it leaves me alone to do that.
I’ve been on a LOTR kick lately (which usually happens when the weather turns cold) and really wish there was a good open world RPG set in Middle Earth, but it seems like LOTRO is my only choice, and it looks like there’s just so much F2P and MMO crap I’d have to put up with that I doubt I would even enjoy it. It’s unbelievable that a world as rich as Tolkien’s has such limited RPG offerings.
Unpopular? :) LOTRO is a fantastic game. I am literally logged in right now, on one of the new Legendary servers. This game has aged really, really well :)
I just ignore it. When you play casually, far behind the curve like I do, I’ve found it’s not needed.
The Dark Project absolutely wins for story and atmosphere, but I prefer The Metal Age for mission design and gameplay. And as much as I enjoy the undead stuff (Return to the Haunted Cathedral being a personal favourite), I think for me the ratio of undead to normal leans a little too far towards the former in the first game. Overall I just prefer robbing mansions and banks than creeping through caverns and tombs. But as I said, I go back and forth on which is my favourite!
Ahh the eternal Thief vs Thief II.
I think Thief: The Dark Project is the better game. There aren’t as many pointless “throwaway” missions (Casing the Joint) and Garrett never has to trade being a thief to become a blacksmith: The last mission in Thief II is tedious garbage.
Thief: The Dark Project feels like a much tighter game with every level a new gear shift from what came before. While it does have more supernatural/undead stuff going on, I found the robots in The Metal Age to be much more annoying.
As much as I agree about hating it, it created tension, and actual fear. Yes, it was absolutely a middle finger to the player in terms of freedom to play when you want…you HAD to recover that corpse if you had any decent gear on it. But…that dynamic, led to the most exciting, terrifying, and memorable experiences I’ve ever had in a video game. There were multiple examples for me, of either needing to enlist the help of people I didn’t know, or helping people I didn’t know. I’m actually friends with a few of those people to this day, and that’s what made that kind of difficulty special and important.
EQ is the only game I’ve experience actual fear in. It’s one of the only games in which I actually cared about my character and it’s belongings, even though the gear I had was laughable in the min/max scope of things. This to me, is the fundamental misunderstanding when it comes to the ‘I want it to be easier’ mindset of players. I’m not trying to be derogatory, and I completely understand why people hate these systems, especially if you lead a busy life…but as far as “gaming” systems go, and the impact they can have on you as a player, you can only really get to that kind of reward via investment. To me, this is the fundamental reason why “casual” gameplay will never be able to reward players on anything but a superficial level.
In essence, I agree more or less completely with your post. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to go back and play “real” base EQ at this point, but I wouldn’t trade having gone through it for the world.
I feel as if I have seriously violated the “That’s all” instructions in the title of this thread :P
Ultima Online had all that nasty shit and more.
Hell, stealing items from other players was a skill. By design. I stole this guys hand-crafted arrows outside Britannia bank one time and he got sooo pissed. He raged bloody murder. I simply hid in plain sight, and sneaked away. Giving him the laugh.
Then I used my Thieve’s guild supplied disguise kit to change both my physical appearance and player name. Threw on some new clothes and came back to the same guy acting all helpful and empathetic to his plight while I stole more of his gold.
But that was small time petty theft. I would steal expensive boat keys from people, then hijack their high value boats and sail off into the great sea never to be found again.
I would have to stick with my Top 100 games list choice of Everquest also.
That was a magical few years of gaming which started with Diablo in 1996, continued with Ultima Online the next year and then Everquest in 1999. I had a couple close buddies I played Diablo and UO with and had a great time, but while it was globally online, we only played with a select few. Everquest really opened up the social game there along with advancing the immersion and experience.
All three of those games were punishing, or could be. I remember my old boss calling me at 2 am to log on and help him go to hell to help him get his equipment back in Diablo! We would do the same thing in UO and was glad we stuck with it and fought it out after a fairly miserable start. When we quit just before Everquest came out, we had our own houses and could generally manage ourselves quite well and avoid most of the troubles that others could cause. It definitely created many experiences to remember!
Asheron’s Call. It wasn’t my first MMO (UO, played WOW from launch which was pretty magical too). There was something about spending 10 minutes to put 100 buffs on everything from my underwear to my bow and the next 50 minutes you were a god. Run like a freight train jump down cliffs with impunity and battle critters that were 100s of levels above you.
For many years it would have Starflight, then Planescape Torment, then Civ IV,
But in the present… Minecraft. Minecraft - I just can’t quit you - its the most organic RPG experience I’ve ever had, and the closest to the promised virtual worlds of my youth. MMOs promise immersive experience, but its just a million beggars with terrible names trying to scam you out of gear, and canned quests where people line up like an amusement park ride for their chance to take a shot at an instanced Dragon. In Minecraft I’m the only one delving into this cave to get lapis lazuli, so I can enchant this pick axe, so I can mine glowstone, so I can setup nice lights in the new cliff side lair I’m setting up in this cliff… and um… what was I doing again? Anyway - its the most organic RPG experience I’ve ever had, And certainly by far the most hours put in of any game I’ve played stretching a LONG way back now.
For me it would be a tie between Fallout 1, Jagged Alliance 2 and Final Fantasy VI. Or maybe Ocarina of Time. Dunno.
my man