Thoughts from a MMORPG late bloomer

[ctmason]

Sorry to post this on a Sunday, it seems sacreligious to post something other than bitching about officiating. :D

I think this was the best place to pose this question, and I really hope it doesn't sound like whining...

About a month or so ago, a friend and I bought Anarchy Online together. It was my first MMORPG experience. I felt the game was moderately fun to play, was impressed with graphics and interface, and liked the amount of diversity of characters, missions and NPCs in the game. I was disappointed in a few things, notably the lack of roleplaying, and another disturbing trend...

It seemed like, as a new player I was surrounded by players on missions continually reminding me "dude, your gun sucks," "Dude, your armor sucks." Everytime I inquired about how they had got THEIR great weapons are armor, the answer seemed to come back the same every time.

Hmm, well you're lower lvl than me...how'd you get that great shotgun?

"My main."

Well what about that armor?

"My main."

Well how about those neat-looking sunglasses?

"My main."

Well how can you even use that weapon at that level.

"Nanos and buff from my main."

Yeah well I found AO Shadowlands on sale at CompUSA for $25.99

"My main got it for me for free." :p

Now, I'm sure that isn't the case for everyone, but it sure did seem prevalent over the month I played, particularly among the other 1-25 lvl players I grouped with.

I then moved on to Everquest, on the request of my friend who had his own disagreements with AO. I bought EQ: Evolution yesterday and after loading it on my PC was extremely disappointed with the UI and graphics compared to AO.

The first thing being camera angles, can you not change camera angles, or am I just really stupid? That first person view has always made me nauseous, and kept me from playing games like Doom, Quake, etc.

I guess overall my problems stem from comparing these games to straight pen-and-paper roleplaying. As a "live" roleplayer (I played AD&D, Rifts, and a number of forgettable games back in "the day"), I was always more interested in solving mysteries, setting up avenues of commerce, producing wealth, interacting with other players and getting involved in political battles (I guess you could call it that). Missions and combat always took 2nd place. It would seem, that I'm mostly going to be disappointed with the nature of MMORPG's, and that's fine, just need to change my expectations.

So I guess my only real question is, for a newbie player like me, and given the info I've provided, what kind of situation should I put myself in? Is there a game that tops both AO and EQ? What should I look for and what should I avoid?

Any advice, commiserating, etc. appreciated.

[Peregrine]

Personally I have played both the games you mention, but am now playing Dark Age of Camelot. I like AO a lot, but I feel it has a long way to go to foster a real feeling of player teamwork and community feeling, which I get in spades from DAOC. Everquest was my first MMORPG but honestly I feel it's fallen behind a bit in terms of ease of play and some game features, I'm very glad to put corpse runs behind me!

Unfortunately what you're looking for probably doesn't exist in MMORPGs. Most people are out to play the games to make their characters powerful and (in the case of PVP games) be able to kill other players. I'd give DAOC a look. I really enjoy the game, and think it has been really improving over the last year, especially as a couple of expansions come out. I won't spam the board with a big long description of it, but you can PM me for more info, I'll just mention the basics:

The PVE part of the game, where you group with other players to kill monsters, is broken up into three realms, Albion (Arthurian Britain basically,) Hibernia (Irish influences) and Midgard (Norse/Scandinavian.) You can only have characters from one realm on each server because the realms fight each other in the frontier lands. You're free to play in the PVP (players grouping to fight other groups of enemy players) if you like, or not as you like. It won't really kick in till higher levels anyway. There's not a lot of "griefing" in PVP because you can't see names of the enemy players, or hear what they say, you just see them described as their race (Briton, Dwarf, Shar, whatever.)

The content level isn't as advanced as Everquest, but there's still a lot to do, and there are two expansions, one which just recently came out. There is twinking but it's not as pronounced since the game has a level restricted equipment system, i.e. if you equip that level 50 sword at level 1, it will really work just about as well as a level 1 sword.

Let me know if you want to hear more, or check the game out on the web.

[Ben E Lou]

What does "my main" mean?

[Vince]

I'm assuming their main character they play with, which is already maxed out, and they are just running weaker characters with really sweet weapons/items/etc that they have already found with that character.

People would do that in Diablo II, back when I used to play that game, and I never understood it...what's the fun in building a new character if you're going to 'cheat' like that...

[Ben E Lou]

Ahhh..I get it. I agree that it doesn't make much sense...

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally posted by SkyDog
What does "my main" mean?

You should know. It's how Georgians say "my man." ;)

No, really, people mean their "main" characters, usually a high-level character that they've been playing for a very long time. Most low-level characters in these older MMORPG games are established players who are just starting new characters to try out another race/class combination or just to do things they didn't do the first time around. I'm sure we're seeing a lot more true newbies now that these compilation packs like EQ: Evolution are coming out, but for the most part, you can expect to hear a lot of "my main."

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Pumpy Tudors
You should know. It's how Georgians say "my man." ;)What's REALLY funny about this is that as I was trying to figure out what it meant, "my man" was my first thought. :D

[sabotai]

ctmason, what you want will never exist, unfortunatly. Most people out there that are buying these games will simply refuse to role-play. So you see things like you have seen. Answers to questions like "my main" or shouts that say "lvl 14 mnk lfg" or people talking about the new Britney Spears video.

True Massivly-Multiplayer Roleplaying Games will never happen. They can make things like role-playing servers and try to enforce roleplaying, but it never works. I've played on the EQ role-playing server. They still shout looking for groups and auctions.

So I just stop expecting it and changed the way I play it. I don't bother trying to role-play anymore...it is just too frustrating when you get the 133t D00dz running all over the place, ruining it.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I'm surprised that, after all these years, people still expect to find roleplaying in these games.

[Peregrine]

There can be roleplaying in the games, but basically you have to expect to make it yourself. Tie yourself into one of the RP groups/guilds that exist in most of the games, and you can have fun RPing, get worked into some plotlines and stories, etc. But don't expect anyone else to RP, pretty much ignore them and do your own thing. I've done this in both EQ and DAOC and had good success with it, it's all in what you expect, really.

[QuikSand]

For what it's worth, there seems to be a pretty interesting set of servers running Neverwinter Nights that are trying their best to make something along these lines -- with an emphasis on role-playing, rather than treasure acquisition and level-jumping. It's hard to enforce, but they are creating multiple servers with low-experience development... meaning you have to do a number of things other than just kill stuff and take its gold.

Check out [url=http://www.avlis.org]Avlis[/url} if you're interested. Of course, the software creates some boundaries, but the latest information I got from them sounded pretty impressive...

(now, if I could only locate my NWN playdisk...)

[SirFozzie]

I'm trying www.darkages.com

It's free for 10 days, and it doesn't look to be a powergamer heaven. it's basically a graphical mud tho

[daedalus]

For what it's worth . . . According to the folks that are doing Dark Age of Camelot on GoneGold, the "roleplaying" server there has become their biggest server now and people who participate have really enjoyed it.

[Eagle]

You might want to try The Realm - www.realmserver.com - it's a sort of throwback type, 2-d graphics, but well done. I've played there since '97 and still enjoy it. It's not hard for a new player to start from scratch. Over the summer, the game was bought by some long time players (now known as Norseman Games), who are really dedicated to making the game all it can be. Only $4.95/mo or $49.95/yr - free download and free 30 day trial.

[Thomkal]

I've played all three of the games mentioned, and there really is little roleplaying in any of them unless you make the effort to find it yourself. Everquest as mentioned has a roleplaying server, Firiona Vie I believe. I've not played it so can't tell you what it is like. I'm currently playing mostly on the newbie server, Stromm, and like it because there are less "mains" and more people new to the game and thus more excited about quests, dungeons, etc.
You might check the various everquest message boards for guilds that "only" roleplay and see if they will take on a new player.

As for your camera angle question, The F9 key will cycle you through the various camera angles available, and the manual that came with Evolution has more info on how to change things there.

Your best bet might be to join a newly starting MMORPG. Everybody will be low level (well for a couple days at least) and exploring the new world, thus not quite as jaded as the Level 60's on Everquest. If you like superheroes, City of Heroes has just entered closed beta and likely will go live in the first quarter of next year. www.cityofheroes.com. Also check out http://www.mpogd.com/ a general site on MMORPG's.

Dan

[FloridaFringe]

Originally posted by daedalus
For what it's worth . . . According to the folks that are doing Dark Age of Camelot on GoneGold, the "roleplaying" server there has become their biggest server now and people who participate have really enjoyed it.

I have several characters on one of the role-playing servers and really enjoy my time spent there each week. It adds a nice change of pace as opposed to the leveling treadmill of the general servers. People need to remember that even when you are on a role-playing server the amount of role-playing that you get out of it is usually tied in with the amount of effort that you put in. There are many things a person can do on an individual level that will go a long way toward increasing their experiences for the better.