Ramion's Journal: DAOC, SWG, DIABLO and mmorpg in general..

I have played mmorpg since 1997. I started with diablo 1. While it can't really be called a mmorpg it was my first mmorpg where I meet alot of people. I got really really hocked on it and got alot of friends. But I also got a huge phone bill.. Since there was no broadband of anykind in my area it was over a 33.6 (later 56.6) modem. I had been online at a 9600 baud modem. But that was very little and I connected to fidonet...and dont really matter..

Anyway. Diablo 1 was the first game online game that, after what I know, really got to the masses. What was really good about that game was that it had a huge amount of items. Lots and lots of levels and that it was fairly easy to lvl in.

After that I tried Ultima Online. While I found the concept cool, I newer really got into it. Mainly because I dident have 24/7 connection and because that game, while it had the best pvp system ever, was hard for the noobie to get started with. Lots and lots of pvp deaths. You couldent go anywhere. But that was not what primarily stopped me from really getting anywhere in it. It just took to much of my time and I wastent ready for that kind of a online world.

Next I tried Everquest. This game was SOOO cool. And huge..and in 3D!! oh man. This had to be the best game ever. I had friends playing it and everything. Well... I newer really got into it because of the time it required. After a few weeks I gave up. I kinda miss it today. Since I have lots of friends playing it.

Diablo II was and is the best game I ever played online. Easy to get started with and easy to level. While there have been a hell of alot of hacks in this game, they really havent bothered me. Why? Well. I rarely traid (?) and dont really mind that people run around with grandfathers and windforce. And imho Blizzard have done pretty well in patching the game. Maphack which is the most common hack dont really hurt the game that much. Everyone knows what they risk meeting now anyway. So how cares? Yeah..well the people that just want clean games with no cheaters and just wanna lvl their character to 30 and start over. I have played d2 since it game out. And still play it. Gonna start over when 1.10 comes out. I think that patch is gonna be pretty cool.

My next online game was Dark age of camelot.
This is my first real mmorpg I really gotten far in. Why? Because daoc dont got extreme lvl times as eq, it got fun rvr (realm vs realm). While it suck that the classes newer really got balanced and still arent this game got everything. Good pve that everyone can enjoy. PVP that is fairly cool. There is a purpose with it. While it dont satify the hardcore pvp'ers it makes for some fun pvp agains players. Pre defined areas and you can take keeps and attack relics..( relics are some items that give bonus to a realm..and is hard to get.) The most anyoing thing about the rvr, is that you have to zerg to really be certain to win...and you have to be 50 to really do good. That could use to rework. Wont happen in this game...but need to be done in other games. the concept is good. Just need to work on the characters and balance.

After that I have tried several games. Like Neocron. While this game is cool it still lack something. I tried to be a fps, but at the same time a pure old faction mmorpg. It just dont work. And I think thats why you newer really see more then 300 people on a server. The game it inself is cool. But no... The game came out to late. People got expentations for games. And this just dont deliver. After that I tried Anarchy online. I had tried it before, but really newer took a notice of it since I was more into DAOC. But since I stopped I thought I would give it a try. Cool gfx and stuff.. But god.. The lag..everything lagged..and wtf was up with the way you controled that game. Looked cool on paper but just dont deliever..
I also tried a few other that I cant really remember.. But onto my latest mmorpg.

Star Wars Galaxies.
This game promised to be the biggest thing ever. While it might be the biggest ever in physical playing area, this game just dont deliver. However in no doubt this is the best looking online game ever. The graphics is amazing. And do require a heavy machine to watch. But its worth it.
The skills system is also ok and its fun to play and see areas from SW.
However this game suffer from many problems, which might be fixed later. But overall it shouldent have been released when it was.
PVP sucks bigtime. VERY unbalansed. Dont look like they even done any testing in it.
Some classes just dont work. Like the commando. They cant get xp in half the weapons they need for master and droid engineer which just plainly sux. There is no use for them. And then there is the areas.. While they might look cool, when you get abit out of a town, the content will start to get less and less. There might seem to be lots of mobs around a city but out in the border lands there is way to way to far between the mobs. Another problem is the lack of highlvl content. When you get to master you got nothing to expect meaningless and unbalanced pvp.
This game could be cool. But its just not.

So what about the futher.

Well us games wanna have more and more. And as I see it the developers just dont deliever. And the games is way to often pushed out way to early to get as many as possible sold copies before they have to compete with another game. But I think it might hurt them more then do good in the long run. I think we will see alot of mmorpg go crash and run in the next few years due to the lack of content, users and foresight. But what do I know.
I'm just rambling here..

Phusion is out.