Post by Morreion on Jul 30, 2010 9:28:21 GMT -5
OK. You all know I have a tendency to miss the Good Old Days of MMOs. I think many of us do. This can sometimes manifest itself by crabbing about the Sad State of Things Today, which can be both true and tiring. So I thought I'd talk about something positive from the past that I'm going to try to apply to the future.
Back when I started to play MMOs, I didn't really quite know what was going on. Case in point- in the early days of DAoC, I remember entering the Campacorentin Forest in Albion. This forest was a vast area of gloomy shadows, spiders, hidden goblin camps among ruins, the mysterious Keltoi dungeon. It also held the occasional tower of friendly NPCs. Veering off the path could put you in real peril.
I remember one day running along the path and trying to figure out where everything was, to get my bearings in this great perilous wood. I knew that there was a river I could cross somewhere. The path branched in unexpected places; I thought I was heading towards the Avalon Marsh, but I was sidetracked to another remote tower. I had a difficult time enough keeping my bearings on the path, given the absence of landmarks; when I wandered off through the trees, it got worse. Many a time I ran from a goblin patrol, or those hostile trees. Or I'd slay a spider and check my pack to see what loot I'd gained.
It was fantastic!
You see, back then, in the beginning, I didn't keep my browser window up behind the game to look up whatever information I wanted. In today's MMO scene, you can pretty much, after a few clicks of your mouse, find out anything you want to know about the MMO landscape.
This takes away some of the fun. I'd rather have an adventure, not a walk in a park. Sure, this will mean taking longer to do things. But I thought that the whole point of MMOs was the journey, anyway.
So, in the future, I'm going to experiment with going back to stumbling my way through the dark woods. I may get lost. I may die. I may find interesting things. I may have more fun that way. I'll see, anyway. I'll let you know how it goes.
Back when I started to play MMOs, I didn't really quite know what was going on. Case in point- in the early days of DAoC, I remember entering the Campacorentin Forest in Albion. This forest was a vast area of gloomy shadows, spiders, hidden goblin camps among ruins, the mysterious Keltoi dungeon. It also held the occasional tower of friendly NPCs. Veering off the path could put you in real peril.
I remember one day running along the path and trying to figure out where everything was, to get my bearings in this great perilous wood. I knew that there was a river I could cross somewhere. The path branched in unexpected places; I thought I was heading towards the Avalon Marsh, but I was sidetracked to another remote tower. I had a difficult time enough keeping my bearings on the path, given the absence of landmarks; when I wandered off through the trees, it got worse. Many a time I ran from a goblin patrol, or those hostile trees. Or I'd slay a spider and check my pack to see what loot I'd gained.
It was fantastic!
You see, back then, in the beginning, I didn't keep my browser window up behind the game to look up whatever information I wanted. In today's MMO scene, you can pretty much, after a few clicks of your mouse, find out anything you want to know about the MMO landscape.
This takes away some of the fun. I'd rather have an adventure, not a walk in a park. Sure, this will mean taking longer to do things. But I thought that the whole point of MMOs was the journey, anyway.
So, in the future, I'm going to experiment with going back to stumbling my way through the dark woods. I may get lost. I may die. I may find interesting things. I may have more fun that way. I'll see, anyway. I'll let you know how it goes.
