• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

What was your first experience with MMORPGs?

Cyberpunkd

Member
World of Warcraft, played it almost exclusively (as in, I barely played anything else) from mid-2005 till 2013-2014. Looking back it was a massive waste of time, but I have so many incredible memories of locations, etc. that will stay forever with me. Truly an incredibly memorable experience.
 

Sunkrest

Neo Member
I walked around aimlessly in private servers of Lineage 2 and Ultima Online. I was fascinated by the idea of MMO but couldn't understand the progression. I gave up in few hours.
First true MMO I really played was Guild Wars 1, and if you don't consider GW1 to be an MMO, then later I played Guild Wars 2. I tried so many different MMOs along the way, including World of Warcraft, but they all bore me so much...
The only true MMO outside of GW that grabbed me for hundreds of hours was Archeage. Housing, trading and crafting were amazing. I can't wait to play Archeage Chronicles. It's probably my most anticipated game.
 
Last edited:

cireza

Member
phstdc0f.jpg
psv2dc0f.jpg


Remains the best online game I played to this day. Actual collisions and action gameplay on a 33k modem.
 
Last edited:
Asheron's Call from 1999 to 2017 when it shut down. I did have some breaks throughout those years. I'd consider it one of the best games ever made.

For a game that came out in the 90s, it was more complex then MMOs out today.
Facts. IMO still the best "level/skill" system. I still like to play and tinker with AC on a player run shard set in Dark Majesty expansion before they made so many crazy changes.

But I loooove the skill and Stat system, allegiance system. Gain skills by a)using b) direct xp pump, c) indirectly by pumping stats! Asherons Call is my other favorite MMO. Amazing game, especially for the time.

Take ESO for example - I think that would be far better suited having a skill system like AC where you can pick and choose what you want... instead of these weird "classes" that have preset skills only the devs let you choose.

And yeah, AC2 was... so disappointing. 😔
 
Last edited:

Khyle

Neo Member
My interest in the genre came from finding out about the development of LOTRO, since I was and still am a big LOTR fan. I signed up in some fansite for fellow Spanish-speaking players and became an active part of its community even 2 years before its actual launch. Made some friends there and tried some games with them while we waited for the launch. My first taste of the genre was a free weekend in World of Warcraft (Steamwheedle Cartel server, I remember that), but the one I really played extensively for many months and actually bought was Guild Wars (not really a MMO but whatever).

After that, came LOTRO itself, my one true love. Then SWTOR during three intense years, but I ended up developing a very complicated and toxic love/hate relationship with that one and I haven't even touched it since 4.0. and that was ten years ago. Can't stand level scaling.

I bought GW2 with great expectations after the first game but it just never clicked with me. It's just too different.

Ever since the launch of WoW Classic that's basically all I play, especially after Hardcore mode became a thing. I've played classic far more than I ever played the actual game at its different expansions and iterations when they were new. I'll eventually return to LOTRO, but I always seem to be busy with other stuff when Legendary Servers start and I don't want to feel left behind.
 
Last edited:

Laptop1991

Member
I tried The Elder Scrolls Online when it first came out for a little while, i didn't like it in the end, i was trying to get that TES feel and experience like the SP games, Oblivion and Skyrim and got nowhere near it, it was just a way to make money online with far inferior gameplay and i've never played it since, and won't, i get that a lot of gamer's really like WOW from way back, but that's different to me, it's not about just being an online shop to generate money.
 

Aion002

Member
Mu Online in 2002 or something.

At first it was cool playing it after school with friends... But I got bored quite fast, while my friends kept playing for a long time. After I tried some other mmorpgs, but they were definitely not for me.

The only mmorpg that I played quite a bit was FFXIV up to Heavensward, but I mostly played it as a single player game. I finished the story and never played it again.
 

Kurotri

Member
Oh gosh. Back then I knew about WoW, but since it wasn't free, it was a no go to lil' old me. My cousins introduced me to a game that they were were absolutely loving and it was free to boot! That game was Silkroad Online.
silkroad-online-10-silk-15339911-sw700sh700.webp
I fell in LOVE with this game. I was utterly obsessed with it, every waking hour my kid brain was thinking about it. The locations, the skins and weapons, the music and general vibe/atmosphere, just pure bliss. Going from location to location after grinding quests, having my own wolf pet accompany me, the boss fights and the pvp. It even had completey different maps that were seperate as you could basically choose between starting out in what was basically China or Europe, and you could travel between them. It had a job system where you could be a trader, meaning you make bank ofc, a hunter that is paid by the trader to protect him on the road and a thief that seeks to steal from the trader and survive dealing with the hunter. If you were unlucky you could have two thieves show up in bumfuck nowhere in the woods and you and your hunter would be screwed.

Shit was cash. It had a huge botting problem but I didn't mind it. It was pretty big and popular. I wish it stayed that way for much longer, unfortunately as I grew the game faded into obscurity and eventually "died". I still look back on it fondly.



Throws me back immediately.
 

NahaNago

Member
I tried a bit of maplestory and runescape. I played guild wars 2 for a bit and I did play Tera but didn't get far in that game either. Mostly just played ff14 up to the point where they rebooted it and then I quit.
 

Fbh

Member
hq720.jpg


I spent soooooo many hours slowly grinding for Levels in Tibia Online. It was pretty huge back in the day in many south american countries, probably because it ran on a potato and had an official free version.

There is still something really appealing about the way the game is designed IMO, the general lack of guidance and unique setup of the world gave it a true sense of exploration.
Lots of cool locations weren't really marked and you weren't guided there, sometimes you'd just find some inconspicuous spot in the middle of nowhere where you could use your shovel to dig a hole and it would take you to this cave with unique enemies that dropped valuable loot. Or you'd have a fried who knew a good farming spot, but getting there was dangerous and involved avoiding high level enemies, so it wasn't just about knowing where to go, but also how to get there safely.

I've always thought that if I ever were to make a videogame I'd make something with a world design inspired by Tibia.
 
Last edited:

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Listening to a coworker talk about how he spent the weekend grinding for some minuscule shit in World of Warcraft. His wife was bitching that he didn’t do anything but that all weekend.
To shut her up he gets her to start playing. Then he’s bitching that he comes home and the housework isn’t getting done, and all she talks about is what she’s doing in the game.
 

radiant_ch

Member
I actually never was into MMORPG's - this was up until the release of Final Fantasy XIV on PS4. I put like 500 hours into it and had a lot of fun - since I could play it with friends. Then I moved on and looked back only once during christmas 2 years ago.. sank in another 30 hours or so and moved along again.

Great times.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
Technically I played Phantasy Star Online on dreamcast but I only played it as a single player offline game because I didn't have high speed internet back then.
The first MMO that I actually played online was FF14, which I still play to this day.

edit: updated PSO title
 
Last edited:

xrnzaaas

Member
Guild Wars probably? I've spent probably 20-30 hours playing it and it was enough for me to continue ignoring this genre up to this today, even more SP friendly titles like Fallout 76 or TESO.
 

Ceadeus

Member
Technically I played PSO2 on dreamcast but I only played it as a single player offline game because I didn't have high speed internet back then.
The first MMO that I actually played online was FF14, which I still play to this day.
Episode 2 you mean?


My first was The burning Crusade and I could never figure out what to do because how new the genre was to me.

I like mmorpg but the new standard seems to be that most expect you to play daily. I could never figure out how to find and healthy way to play these game continuously for the long term.
 
Top Bottom