Describe the old school MMO experience before WOW was a thing anon.
>>12763046it was WOW but more obtuse
>>12763046it was WOW but worse
Ultima Online still exists to me as another world I can pop into at any time. No other game has captured this feeling for me. Actually, I should probably go check on my house.
>>12763046All MMOs are shit, sacrificing gameplay to see other retards run around the game world is fucking stupid
>>12763046you forgot Tibia and Maple Story. and Adventure Quest.
Im still amazed FFXI is still running after 24 years.
>>12763080This. Diablo 2 was fun but really hard to get along with others or trust anyone. Probably better than RS though
>>12763046Unforgiven.WoW introduced the baby-mode, Disney theme park garbage
>>12763080Nah, learning to use your class abilities to cooperate with other players to defeat dangerous monsters was great gameplay. There was an addictive component that compelled people to keep playing long after any genuine fun and excitement was left. But by that point, most players had been playing the game longer than any single-player games.
>>12763046MAN I CAN'T WAIT TO PLAY WITH PEOPLE!OH YEAH! PEOPLE ARE ASSHOLES!
>>12763243I played it a bit recently since I wanted to finish the main quest (I never did back in the day) and heard the game was super casualized and soloable now. And, indeed, it was. It's almost sad to see the game in that state, but also I'm glad I got to just finish the damn game without spending 10000 hours grinding crabs.
Ultima Online was the best. The feeling of being lost and poor. Fear of getting mugged and killed. The need for interaction with other players...ahhh
Dogshit. Endless fucking grinding in empty worlds
>>12763362>heard the game was super casualized and soloable nowno, the real game is as sweaty as ever, the casualized content you're referring to is just legacy shit you have to wade through before you get to the actual gameplay
>>12763638>Endless fucking grindingThe grind was the game. The "endgame" barely existed. You were a white nerd socializing with other white nerds. Everyone was happy. I'm sorry you are incapable of understanding this.
>>12763243I mean, they're pretty much all still running (in some barely recognizable form) except the ones that were DOA from the start.
typical everquest gameplay, circa 1999>log in>spend 45 minutes walking to freeport>see the boat leave just as you arrive>wait 1 hour for the boat to come back>get on the boat>wait 1 hour for the boat to reach butcherblock>spend 45 minutes walking to unrest>die on the way to a random level 50 paladin npc that's racist against dark elves>repeat the entire process>finally get to unrest>shout that you're lfg>send tells to every group in the zone asking if you can be put on a waiting list>wait 5 hours>finally get an invite>your mom tells you to get off the internet because she needs to use the phone
>>12763892>Everyone was happy.Eh, not always. People would still get pissed off at each other taking the game too seriously and because the game was not always designed for fun. Very few people actually enjoyed grinding and people were always looking for ways to not have to grind so much.I ended up having more fun on some private servers that removed the grind but had things to do just because they were fun or you'd get minor rewards like cosmetics. I think it's possible to design a game that's just fun to play and keeps people playing without having to include grind but that also likely results in less people willing to pay for things. Pretty much every MMO I played had people paying for things to skip the grind either officially or unofficially, and even private servers all mostly seem to be doing that now too.
