The “Good” Old Days

Screenshot from my time in Underlight https://underlight.com/

Preface

I am an old-timer, literally a grandma. Aside from dabbling in MUDs, my first graphical MMORPG experience was Ultima Online in 1997, which I just messed around in. Then came EverQuest in 1999, which my (late ex-) husband and I played so much our dial-up ISP called to complain that we were abusing our unlimited access. I spent at least a decade there, with a few short breaks in the last few of those years. Do I have nostalgia glasses? Yes. I wear them on a chain around my neck like the old lady I am. I am giving you this as background so that you know that the following comes out of first-hand experience.

Hypothesis

The difference between the personal social experience of playing in MMORPGs before the 2010s and after is a matter of the desires and expectations of the majority of players.

Utterly Unscientific Commentary

Once upon a time, there was a worldwide web without social media sites as we know them today and there was an internet beyond the worldwide web. Back in those days, your grandma wasn’t online. Your grandma probably didn’t even have an email address. The people who were online were just jazzed to be a part of this new frontier of infinite possibilities. The social aspect of Internet Relay Chat (IRC), forums, email lists (listservs), MUDs, and all the other weird little special interest platforms that popped up was the main draw of those things.

When MMORPGs emerged in that primordial digital soup, it was the prospect of existing in a virtual world with hundreds or thousands (and eventually hundreds of thousands) of other people that was so exciting. Yes, these were games and the structure and mechanics of gameplay did matter, but there were plenty of great games you could play over a LAN with your friends, on a local BBS, or by yourself. The main draw of this new genre was the massively multiplayer aspect; people showed up specifically to play with other people all over the world.

Time went on like time does. The rest of the world discovered the internet. It became increasingly centralized. Your grandma got an email address and joined Facebook. It wasn’t an amazing adventure to be online meeting strangers on the other side of the world anymore. It had become ordinary.

Since then, there have been endless debates about what happened to the social environment in MMORPGs. I am guilty of involving myself in arguments about “forced” grouping, open vs. instanced dungeons, guild tools, and all the other game mechanics that may support more social gameplay. Those debates are worth having, but that is sidestepping the main issue: the internet gaming landscape has changed drastically. We’ve changed. We’ve been joined by a lot of people who take the connectivity of the internet for granted and just want to play a game.

I know. I am restating the obvious.

But here’s my question: Is there something that might come along to reignite some of the passion for playing with strangers? I feel like the whole genre has been stuck in a bit of a rut, while less-massively multiplayer co-op games have exploded onto the scene in a kaleidoscope of variations, from wilderness survival games to ghost hunting. Many people playing those kinds of games are playing with real-life friends or friends-of-friends, or people they met on Discord. This hearkens back to the day of LAN parties, without the stains on the carpet afterward. I am not sure what MMOs can take from that except that people really do want to play together cooperatively. What could make the massively part matter again?

Perhaps more large-scale server quests? Maybe some sort of meaningful territory control? Maybe something that instills a sense of really belonging in a faction? I am sure smarter people than me have better answers. I just don’t think that the incremental innovations being made are going to inspire the longevity that the older games had, much less build a sustainable community.

TBT? Back to EQ2

EverQuest 2 and WoW both came out at a weird time for me. I had finally gotten into regular raiding in original recipe EverQuest, and that game was still healthy and full of players, so my motivation to jump ship was at an all-time low. I tried both and was thoroughly “meh” on both. I had played WoW in closed beta and knew it would be the juggernaut it quickly became at release. I didn’t get to preview EQ2, but it turned out to have higher specs needed for good performance; WoW would run well and look good (for the time) on a toaster, while EQ2 was a little more demanding. Unfortunately, I had entered that phase of adulthood where you don’t upgrade your PC for the next new game because there are kids to feed, bills to pay, and less time than ever to devote to fun and games.

So here we are in 2023. I have a Razer laptop that is an absolute beast. Far more advanced games than EverQuest 2 are trivial for this monster. I have dropped into and out of both WoW and EQ2 many times, but I haven’t stepped foot in either in a long time. Today, I am returning to EQ2. In a fit of insanity, I created yet another Daybreak account for this. I mean, I only have access to something like 15 other EQ/EQ2 accounts. (*insert your own mental image of eyes rolling like dice*)

Let’s do this thing!

Purple EverQuest 2 Sarnak Beastlord with reptile pet.
Who’s a pretty sarnak beastlord? I’m a pretty sarnak beastlord.

Letter to my Readers

Dear Reader,

2023 has been hard on me. I’ve been going from frying pan to fire to another frying pan to yet another fire, almost continuously. I am not going to do the old person thing where I describe all my ailments in great detail, but I will say that my body has not been the best partner this year. It’s like my healer when AFK and never came back. Damned XP sponge!

Things are starting to look up, knock on all the wood, so I am slowly climbing back onto my internet perch to restart my observations of things going on. With everything else going on, gaming has largely fallen off the radar for me, except for a few single-player games I indulge in after hours when I am too tired to do anything else. I need to get caught up on all the MMO(RPG) news.

What are the important stories I have missed this year?

Love,

Mia

P.S. Don’t worry. My actual signature for real-life purposes is not that legible.

2023. A look ahead.

Photo by Jess Bailey Designs on Pexels.com

2022 was a weird year for me. I faced a number of health challenges, which really put a damper on my gaming. Also, when I did have the time to play, I played an absolute boatload of RimWorld, which cut into my MMO time. Nonetheless, Elyon did come up as one of my most played games on my Steam Replay. You can see how I felt about that over on MassivelyOP.

It was not a great year for my MMO gaming. That’s what I am trying to say.

So what is on my plate for 2023? I am going to play a whole bunch of tiny F2P MMORPGs on Steam to write about on MassivelyOP. I also intend to revisit some older games and write about them here and there. Likely candidates for the old game tour are EQ2, LoTRO, DDO, and Ryzom. Maybe Istaria as well.

Yes. Ryzom and Istaria are still out there.

I hope to get on a schedule of weekly (plus) posts on this blog. I am also going to work on some other blogs and possibly a podcast about my other hobbies, as well as working full-time at my new job starting in February. I may have overfilled my plate, but I seem to do better with a full plate, at least in terms of mental health, so that’s what I am going to do.

Not MMO: RimWorld is the worst best game ever

Or is it the best worst game ever? Really, it could be either. All I know is that it has mercilessly consumed over 1200 hours of my life, and I still haven’t completed any of the potential “end game” conditions. Not even the somewhat easier ones I added through mods. I have gotten damned close but the horrors of the Rim are always one step behind. And one step ahead.

I said it is not MMO, but like everything else with RimWorld, there’s a mod for that:

As with Skyrim, it is the modding community that lifts the game to glorious new heights, even though I enjoyed hundreds upon hundreds of hours playing each of those games in their plain vanilla state.

So, why am I writing about RimWorld again on my MMO blog? Friends, I was so close to getting to the crashed ship. I sent my rather large colony there in waves. That was my mistake this time. I had one caravan wait for another that was struggling, and then both caravans starved instead of one. I tried settling down to scrape some food together. That did not help. Some colonists starved anyway, and that triggered others to go into a murderous rage. It was a spectacular failure.

That is all.

Over a year away? Already?

I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle waking up after a hundred years. I’m back, but I am really out of touch. I have spent most of the last year working from home on a contract basis, dealing with my son’s first year of school with his severe ADHD, and playing RimWorld with whatever time I had left. That wasn’t a lot of time either.

But now I am getting back into the MMO scene. I recently got ELYON (does it have to be in all caps? Is that a thing?) and downloaded Lost Ark.

I had been debating getting a founder’s pack for Lost Ark, but then time got away from me. Now I am contemplating a starter pack. I will probably give it a try first as I still haven’t even logged in and ARPGs are really hit-or-miss for me.

Elyon doesn’t seem to be doing too well. Ten or fifteen years ago, it would have done fine. Maybe not great, but fine. With the new range and scope of online multiplayer options, a run-of-the-mill MMORPG just doesn’t cut it, especially if it gives you the distinct feeling that you need to keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times and remain seated until the ride comes to a full stop. That’s not a dealbreaker for me, but I totally get why other people would not dig it.

Elyon does have a small furry race. If you know anything about me, you know I am a sucker for the small and the furry. (I am not a furry in real life, but I play one in MMORPGs.) I feel like my Chua in Wildstar was about as close to a character that represents (graphically) who I am on the inside that I have ever had.

I will be writing more about that elsewhere soon, I am sure.

Anyway… HELLO! What are you playing? What should I be playing?

The Black Desert Transfer is NOW.

As of February 24th, 2021, Black Desert Online will be published by Pearl Abyss instead of Kakao, so if you want to continue your account, you’ll need to do a transfer. You can do that HERE. There are instructions for Steam users HERE. The transfer period runs January 27th, 2021–May 31, 2021.

Kakao Cash will not be transferred, so get in there and get it spent before February 24.

I have done it. Just follow the directions and you’ll be fine. Happy Transfer!

2021 Gaming Plans

It’s coming up on that time of the year when people do their retrospectives and set new goals. I am going to skip the retrospective and get on with the goal setting.

  1. Play more, write more. If I am going to write about games, it would be helpful for me to play them. If I am going to play games, I might as well write about them.
  2. Try something new every month. A new game, a new class, whatever it takes to keep things fresh and moving along.
  3. Give DC Universe Online and Champions Online a fair shake. I have started both, but they are both just sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to come back to my little newblets.
  4. Persuade my husband and mother to give video games a try. I have been trying to do this for a few years now, but maybe this will be the year.

I hate to commit to anything more than that, given the unpredictability of life, the universe, and everything.

What’s up? (Personal stuff, mainly)

I am going to spare you the “2020 sucks” opener here. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a whole lot of suckage going on. But everyone knows that.

So, moving on. I haven’t been playing MMORPGs much lately. That’s pretty out-of-character for me. I just haven’t been feeling it. It might be burn out, it might just be a mood swing. Who knows? I’ll undoubtedly be back in MMOs eventually. In the meantime, I’ve been playing just a little bit of a bunch of other games.

I have been playing Oblivion and Skyrim. (Yes. Oblivion.) And even though I finished the main story and many other quest lines in a playthrough long ago, I feel like somehow I have a better grasp on the game now. After countless hours in Skyrim, I have a better feel for The Elder Scrolls games in general. I definitely prefer the Skyrim controls, but it took me no longer than 15 minutes to adapt.

I have played a little bit of Among Us and some Phasmophobia as well. It’s not like me to be so close to “on trend.” I usually come around 2 or 3 years late. You can play Among Us on mobile for free. I bought it for PC after trying it on mobile. Both games are definitely worth the money and the download.

Rimworld is still occupying some of my late night playtime, but I am not playing it quite as much as I had been. I think when I get a new day job, I will get the Royalty expansion and start again. (I shouldn’t have spent the money on the previously mentioned games either, but I just wanted to play with my friends and family, so there are no regrets about that at all.)

No Man’s Sky has pulled me back in. I loved the game from day one, while other people were hating on it because it didn’t meet their expectations. Not having expectations, I loved it for what it was. The updates since then have been stellar, if you’ll forgive the pun. It was an ugly duckling but has turned into a beautiful and much more popular swan. And all of those updates were free. It is truly a completely different game. And I still love it. I just wish I could devote more time to it– longer play sessions, a little more frequently. That’s just not what my life allows right now.

And that’s about it. I have been feeling the urge to play more city/colony building games, so I may yet drop into Tropico 5, Frostpunk, Banished, and/or Dawn of Man. I already own all those and a few others that may yet be called up from the minors. I am in no position to shell out money for anything new.

Late at night when I am too tired to play anything, I check out other games on YouTube. Godhood looks like it might be up my alley. But first, I need to scramble around and find money to live on.

Re: YouTube — I also watch a lot of house building and renovation videos. I love some of the art channels. I like those channels where people make stuff out of resin. Watching ribbons of resin shoot off while they are spinning something on a lathe is just soothing to me. I almost feel like I want to shout out some of my favorite channels here, but then I would want to link them, and I am too tired to do that right now. I feel like one of my other blogs might be a better fit for that, though. My favorite game channels ought to be here, though. Some other time.

I am off to bed so that I can jump into the upcoming week with both feet. I would promise you that I’d post more often, but we both know that my good intentions aren’t worth much when chaos reigns in my home.