Favorite Massively Multiplayer Online Game...

Pretty self explanatory...

I don't play anymore. I played from release till about 2001. It was an AWESOME game. The experience was incredible and I met so many people who are friends to this day.

I'm playing WW2OL now though.

But the PKer and haoxors just killed the experience for me. But the final straw was the crowds. Maybe its just me but when I play an RPG I look for the adventure aspect of the game. Exploration. The idea that I am the first person to explore a dungeon, etc. Hard to capture that feeling when the place is more crowded than Palm Springs during spring break. And the camping just bites. Everyone waiting around for one monster to spawn. This is not adventuring.

Playing FFXI right now and once you get used to the interface its pretty good. No PKing. Crowds are not horrible. Scenary is beautiful. Still not perfect but definately better.

PKing is what made UO great in the old days. I quit when they turned the place into a big padded room. Don't get me wrong, I only murdered in self-defense, and I didn't do the reactionary vigilante thang either. It gave the game a sense of necessity; people had to form clans and social fabric to ward off the l337 dreadlord barbarians at the gate. Once the game became an exercise in group camping, there was no tension, no reason to help anyone out, no consequences for mouthing off or being a thief.

On edit: I know they addressed one facet of the "thief" retribution angle, but I mean thieving in the larger sense: kill-stealing, embezzling, not returning stuff. Once everyone got the nerf bats, all we could do was call the UO cops and wait 30 minutes instead of exercising free will.

Add to that it wasn't just simple players attacking players. It was hacked character script kiddies walking up hitting a button and everyone around them died.

Sorry I did not plunk down my money to have to deal with that nonsense. If they want to include PKing then I will take my money elsewhere. I acknowledge that there are some out there that enjoy such things but there are those of us that have no interest in it as well. The trouble is that while the nonPKers were willing to give the PKers the right to coexist the PKers did not extend the same to those who were not interested in their way.

I never experienced a script kiddie armageddon, maybe a few suspicious one-shot halberds, but that's what admins were for.

PKing wasn't interesting in a Quake FPS sense, it was a fascinating (now obsolete) experiment in human cooperation and survival in a virtual game of evolution. The next best thing is living in New York City.

On edit: No, I don't like being mugged. But I prefer an existence of risks and passions to a gated Disney community where everyone is a beautiful snowflake. Of course living in Brooklyn is a choice just like living on a farm, I just wish there was an MMORPG with some culture and adrenaline. Of course, the very fact of living out your life in some virtual arena with virtual prizes skews towards "safety" over "passion".

How many times has this been hashed out on the Vault or Crossroads of Brittania? LOL!

For the record, I'm more of foo_bar's opinions.

but I've burnt quite a few candle ends playing "Return To Castle Wolfenstein" and "Quake II & III". Love those gibs. Anyone remember The Sierra Online Network? Red Barron ruled. Wasted a few hours with Falcon 3.0 over the modem as well.

Jay

Mostly Quake III and Mechwarrior.

Nothing like a fragging 3 with one rail shot.

Jay

21" upgraded from a 17". Maybe I should go back online and see if it makes a difference :evilgrin:

MMOL WWII combat fight sim. great ownership, great community, the best MMOL going.





http://www.hitechcreations.com/htcindex.html

...although I suppose in the fast-evolving world of online games UO is retro at this point.

Anyways, my two favorite online games are: Subspace and BatMUD. Subspace is a 2D space shooter, with ships sort of like in Asteroids, but able to attack each other. Don't be misled by that description, the differences in settings and playing style between different 'zones' makes for complex and interesting gaming. Subspace was originally sold years ago (1996? too lazy to look it up... well before I ever discovered it) but was since abandoned by the company that created it and now survives only due to the rabid dedication of its players.

BatMUD is a gigantic and very old MUD with a huge playerbase. But even though there're players that having been playing forever, and have accumulated much power, it's still quite friendly to newbies. Its another game with a very cool, international community. (The server is in Finland, and the bulk of the player base seems to hail from that nation. Luckily for me, the game itself is based in English.) Oh, did I mention it's a MUD? That means (among other things) NO GRAPHICS. Yes, that's right, all text.

Best part about both games? They're free! (And no, 'free' doesn't mean 'poorly programmed' or 'lame' or 'full of ads' or really anything bad at all, at least in the case of these two.)

Remember: Graphics mean little, gameplay rules over all.

-AA

I won't spam you with any urls. A little googling will set interested parties' browsers off in the right direction.