Midgen wrote:
Raltar wrote:
Yeah. You only look back fondly because it was the first. I
I disagree with this. That might be a small part of it, but it's not entirely it.
I think it's partly because I valued different things then than I don't now. There were other games out at the time (and even prior). DAoC, etc... they just weren't even close to the same thing.
If EQ then looked like WoW does now, I wouldn't have liked it as much. If it had started out with the SoL Moon/Martian crap, I wouldn't have liked it as much. I think part of the fondness looking back is that the game was fscking HARD.. or at least it took a LOT of work to obtain even small amounts of progress. And almost nothing was soloable. You had to find people to work with. People who were dependable, and weren't complete asshats/duchebags . When you did manage to acquire some upgrade, or ding a level, or finish some hellacious quest, you felt like you had accomplished something. Jump-up-out-of-the-chair-and-dance-around-the-room type stuff... There were no 'rails', especially early on when there wasn't even a lot of (reliable) info on the spoiler sites like Allah's etc..
My expectations have certainly changed. If I were to encounter a game like that now, I would probably not get too involved with it. I'm older, I don't have the time or the energy, and I don't think a game like that would be very popular, so the chances of finding a decent community would be extremely low. So, I'm content to play whats out there, try things that are fresh and new, complain about it, and reminisce about the 'good old days'.
Games today are prettier (graphics wise), probably less buggy, and are certainly a LOT easier in every way than EQ was, but no one will ever convince me that they are 'better' in any way other than the technology.
There is probably a name for such nostalgic fondness. I know my Father would never agree that modern cars are better than the old cars he used to drive in his youth. Even though every single thing about them (except probably ease of maintenance) is 'better' (comfort, safety, reliability, etc..) you couldn't convince him of that. It's the same kind of thing...
It's really just the MMO version of "I'm Getting Old", or 'GET OFF MY LAWN!!' :p
Pretty much all of this, yes.
Would I play original EQ again if it came out exactly as it did at launch? Probably not; as Midgen touched on, I'm in a different place in my life and have different priorities.
That said, the design decisions behind it were not "bad." Or even "worse than the current models."
They emphasized different things; things that I feel have value.
The sparcity of upgrades and dings made them feel like accomplishments, rather than fade into a haze of sameness. I have memories of doing things in EQ in a way that things since just don't create.
The slow creep of the xp bar was maddening at the time, yes. As was the "camp 5 spawns with a group for hours" model of gameplay. And would probably be maddening again. But it did something important; it created community. Modest variations in playtime and schedules didn't preclude lasting relationships in-game. If I played an hour a day more than some guy I met; the fact that each level took 10 hours or more /played means that I might gain a level on him every two weeks, so we've got a month and a half or more (because a given area wouldn't have a super-tight level range; you'd stay someplace for 3 or more levels, often, and even have bigger ranges within one group) of grouping and playing in similar areas. Today, an hour extra of playtime a night would mean that you outlevelled him significantly in a week or two; and the quest-hopping gameplay model means that after the first night of extra playtime, you're no longer playing on similar content -- you've finished the quests he's working on even if you haven't moved onto the next hub entirely. And the fact that you sat in one place all night meant that even if you and your friend were in different time zones and log in at different times, you can get your group, and get him an invite when a slot opens up, and then he can a) easily get to you (without having to backtrack and repeat content for him), and b) stay after you have to log; without either affecting whether you'll be able to group again tomorrow night.
Were there things that could have been improved upon? Hell yes. Static camps and pulling in dungeons could have been made more dynamic, encouraging groups to crawl through them more by incentivizing progressing through the dungeon in some way. Melees could have been given a few more interactive things to do during a fight than kick and taunt, without moving to a model where they're mashing buttons on a 2 second global cooldown, and don't have time to talk. Downtime could have been reduced (promoting more dynamic movement, again) without reducing it to zero for the ADD mass market.
So, no. It's not rose colored glasses. It's recognizing how some of the things we railed against were beneficial in ways we never expected in time. It's hindsight. And, yes, a little nostalgia.
Frankly, I'd like to take a step or two back in that direction. I have no illusions that I want to be hardcore, but I want to have a game that doesn't feel like it needs to hold my hand and create a constant dog and pony show to amuse me every step of the way; getting out of my way and letting me and the people I meet create enjoyment is something I miss.
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