05-24-2005, 04:51 PM
Since I've played quite a few...
Game: Asheron's Call
Type: 1st-generation Fantasy Adventure
Plusses: Great story and writing. Interesting skills and character-creation as there are no defined 'classes'.
Minuses: Long level-grind. Choices made at character creation are vital and (until very late in the game's life) unchangeable. Little to no concept of aggro or crowd control. Vulnerable to overpowering min/maxing - just because there are no defined classes doesn't mean that there is not a best skill set that everyone has to have. Worthless all-or-nothing PvP system means you have no defined allies.
Favorite Memory: Portal to Teth. A little background here: Fort Tethena was an outpost in the middle of a good hunting ground; however, it was a long run from anywhere. You'd often see tons of beggars asking for a 'pORTAL to tetH?!!?!?', which got highly annoying. The Big Bad Guy, Bael'Zheron (a GM controlled encounter during one of the monthly events) came to a spot near Fort Teth. In combat, he'd often cast a spell called 'Portal to Teth' which, true to it's name, did transport the target to the Fort. Unfortunately, it put them at an altitude of about 20,000 feet. Free fall! On a side note, he also cast a spell called 'Rain of Cows'. Let your imagination run...
Game: JumpGate
Type: Sci-Fi - Spaceship Piloting
Plusses: A skill-based MMPOG!? You actually fly the spaceship with your joystick (OK so Crimson Skies was first, but it wasn't quite a persistant world). Physics-based flight system (with added artifical 'drag' to keep ships from reaching mind-numbing speeds) leads to involved piloting experience and exciting circle/joust/strafe dogfights.
Minuses: Being based on personal skill, it's frustrating for people with shaky hands (read: me). XP and levelling idea seems inappropriate for this game and lead to a dull level-grind. Not much story and little support.
Favorite Memory: Cruentus Legio. I probably butchered the spelling, but some of the best pilots in our organization split off to form the Burning Legion (is that what it means? I forget). They role-played Octavian (one of the 3 races) nationalists and attacked the other two races relentlessly, calling them inferior. They dominated so thouroughly that people complained that Octavian ships were overpowered. In concert with the game designers, they whole legion was changed to be another race. They then roleplayed that they were mercenaries, hired by that race to crush their enemies. Now, Solarian ships are overpowered!! They change to the third race. It wasn't the ships that were overpowered - it was the skill and coordination of the Legion. Wow.
Game: Anarchy Online
Type: Sci-Fi Adventure
Plusses: Sniper-rifles and machine guns and robots and electro-vibro-swords and nano-magic! Well balanced classes that compliment each-other, yet still generally solo-able. All skills available to all classes (your class determines how expensive each skill is to raise). Instanced 'missions' means you don't have to compete for spawns. Land Control makes PvP actually mean something.
Minuses: Worst. Launch. Ever. Yes, worse than WoW. Crippling, unplayable lag, not due to hardware or server issues, but basic flaws in program design. Sometimes dramatic changes to classes in the name of balance turn the least-played classes into the most-played (see: fixer).
Favorite Memory: The Shadowlands. In the expansion, a new world, floating in an alternate dimension is discovered. There are 7 'layers', based on Dante, that are visually and thematically the most stunning and interesting I have ever seen. The rolling plains, the perfect Garden, the featureless gray stone of purgatory, the depths of the sea, the snowy wasteland, the fiery volcano, and finally, an insane maelstrom leading to nothingness. At the borders of all these lands is The Brink, filled with primal monsters that eat away the edges of the world. Breathtaking.
Game: Asheron's Call 2
Type: 2nd-gen Fantasy Adventure.
Plusses: 3 races: Humans (your stereotypical fantasy humans), Lugains (like dwarves, if dwarves were elephants), and Tumeroks (tribal lizard-people. Females: Sexiest. Walk animation. Ever). 3 unrelated factions: Order (your usual fantasy 'good guys'), Dominion (think communism to a 1984 degree, fantasy style), and the Other One With The Name I Can't Remember (anarchists, nobody has the right to tell you what to do). Some great and odd class ideas (see memories).
Minuses: Some terrible classes and bad balance. No vendors (you heard me right). Interesting crafting system, but sub-par crafted items.
Favorite Memory: Some classes are so out-of-the-box that you wonder how they came up with them: the Lugian Tactician creates walls and stone turrets, and can upgrade them with armor-piercing ammo and rapid-fire mechanisms; the Tumerok Hivekeeper flings bees and wasps at his enemy from a beehive on a rope. Other classes are standard fantasy types but are very well executed: the Lugain Berserker, for example, is your usual dual-wielding, hulking damage machine, but the hit-combo system leads to thrilling combat. There are a line of skills that do 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 hits in a row; each one requires that the one below it has been done recently. What happens in practice is that combat is started, and then turns quickly into a blender - 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6....
Game: EVE Online
Type: Sci-Fi - Spaceship piloting
Plusses: Robust player economy, including mining, manufacturing, shipping, and free-market selling. Improve-over-time skillset means that those with less time to play, or those who don't want to shoot pirates, don't get left behind. Great graphics and space-backgrounds, with amazing contrast between the largest Battleships and smallest Frigates. Interesting ship balance, with a wide variety of modules available; heavy battleship weapons will never hit a small frigate that is zipping around at high speed, but conversely, the frigate will never do enough damage on its own to destroy the battleship. Similarly to Homeworld, the best fleet consists of a mass of Frigates to destroy Battleships, Cruisers or anti-frigate Frigates to destroy Frigates, and Battleships to dominate Cruisers.
Minuses: Mining is boring! Distances are long, which is nice in that a certain area can 'belong' to a group of players, but it takes a long, long time to get between places. Lots of 'nothingness' out in space.
Favorite Memory: Our company had set up mining operations in a good but crowded area. A few of us got tired of mining and competing for asteroid belts, so we split off, created our own new company, and started blasting full caravans leaving towards central, populated space. In true pirate fashion, we'd grab the most valuable refined metals and scrap from the destroyed ships and run like mad. Eventually, most caravans were well protected with cruisers and battleships, but then we just shifted tactics and started hitting the miners directly and refining the minerals ourselves.
Game: World of Warcraft
Type: Fantasy Adventure
Plusses: Decent class balance. A quest for everything! Lots of places to explore. In-game Auction House to sell items (for in-game money, of course). Fun and familiar (to many) Warcraft basis. Capture-The-Flag and Base-Capture PvP battlegrounds (coming soon; I've tried the CTF, it's a blast).
Minuses: Unexplainable lag and sync issues sometimes. Not much to do when your level is maxed out (so I've heard, but I haven't made it there yet).
Favorite Memory: The spell that made 'sheep' a verb. sheep (v): to turn an enemy into a sheep with the Polymorph spell. Baaaaaa! Some underwater content is a clausterphobic but exciting experience - try not to hold your breath along with your character! The horde of zealots that come to avenge the death of Herod of the Scarlet Crusade is a moment of 'no way'. More memories to come, as I continue to play...
Do you share some of these same memories and impressions? Have you played different MMPOGs (I never played Evercrack, DAoC, Ultima Online, City of Heroes, etc.)?
Game: Asheron's Call
Type: 1st-generation Fantasy Adventure
Plusses: Great story and writing. Interesting skills and character-creation as there are no defined 'classes'.
Minuses: Long level-grind. Choices made at character creation are vital and (until very late in the game's life) unchangeable. Little to no concept of aggro or crowd control. Vulnerable to overpowering min/maxing - just because there are no defined classes doesn't mean that there is not a best skill set that everyone has to have. Worthless all-or-nothing PvP system means you have no defined allies.
Favorite Memory: Portal to Teth. A little background here: Fort Tethena was an outpost in the middle of a good hunting ground; however, it was a long run from anywhere. You'd often see tons of beggars asking for a 'pORTAL to tetH?!!?!?', which got highly annoying. The Big Bad Guy, Bael'Zheron (a GM controlled encounter during one of the monthly events) came to a spot near Fort Teth. In combat, he'd often cast a spell called 'Portal to Teth' which, true to it's name, did transport the target to the Fort. Unfortunately, it put them at an altitude of about 20,000 feet. Free fall! On a side note, he also cast a spell called 'Rain of Cows'. Let your imagination run...
Game: JumpGate
Type: Sci-Fi - Spaceship Piloting
Plusses: A skill-based MMPOG!? You actually fly the spaceship with your joystick (OK so Crimson Skies was first, but it wasn't quite a persistant world). Physics-based flight system (with added artifical 'drag' to keep ships from reaching mind-numbing speeds) leads to involved piloting experience and exciting circle/joust/strafe dogfights.
Minuses: Being based on personal skill, it's frustrating for people with shaky hands (read: me). XP and levelling idea seems inappropriate for this game and lead to a dull level-grind. Not much story and little support.
Favorite Memory: Cruentus Legio. I probably butchered the spelling, but some of the best pilots in our organization split off to form the Burning Legion (is that what it means? I forget). They role-played Octavian (one of the 3 races) nationalists and attacked the other two races relentlessly, calling them inferior. They dominated so thouroughly that people complained that Octavian ships were overpowered. In concert with the game designers, they whole legion was changed to be another race. They then roleplayed that they were mercenaries, hired by that race to crush their enemies. Now, Solarian ships are overpowered!! They change to the third race. It wasn't the ships that were overpowered - it was the skill and coordination of the Legion. Wow.
Game: Anarchy Online
Type: Sci-Fi Adventure
Plusses: Sniper-rifles and machine guns and robots and electro-vibro-swords and nano-magic! Well balanced classes that compliment each-other, yet still generally solo-able. All skills available to all classes (your class determines how expensive each skill is to raise). Instanced 'missions' means you don't have to compete for spawns. Land Control makes PvP actually mean something.
Minuses: Worst. Launch. Ever. Yes, worse than WoW. Crippling, unplayable lag, not due to hardware or server issues, but basic flaws in program design. Sometimes dramatic changes to classes in the name of balance turn the least-played classes into the most-played (see: fixer).
Favorite Memory: The Shadowlands. In the expansion, a new world, floating in an alternate dimension is discovered. There are 7 'layers', based on Dante, that are visually and thematically the most stunning and interesting I have ever seen. The rolling plains, the perfect Garden, the featureless gray stone of purgatory, the depths of the sea, the snowy wasteland, the fiery volcano, and finally, an insane maelstrom leading to nothingness. At the borders of all these lands is The Brink, filled with primal monsters that eat away the edges of the world. Breathtaking.
Game: Asheron's Call 2
Type: 2nd-gen Fantasy Adventure.
Plusses: 3 races: Humans (your stereotypical fantasy humans), Lugains (like dwarves, if dwarves were elephants), and Tumeroks (tribal lizard-people. Females: Sexiest. Walk animation. Ever). 3 unrelated factions: Order (your usual fantasy 'good guys'), Dominion (think communism to a 1984 degree, fantasy style), and the Other One With The Name I Can't Remember (anarchists, nobody has the right to tell you what to do). Some great and odd class ideas (see memories).
Minuses: Some terrible classes and bad balance. No vendors (you heard me right). Interesting crafting system, but sub-par crafted items.
Favorite Memory: Some classes are so out-of-the-box that you wonder how they came up with them: the Lugian Tactician creates walls and stone turrets, and can upgrade them with armor-piercing ammo and rapid-fire mechanisms; the Tumerok Hivekeeper flings bees and wasps at his enemy from a beehive on a rope. Other classes are standard fantasy types but are very well executed: the Lugain Berserker, for example, is your usual dual-wielding, hulking damage machine, but the hit-combo system leads to thrilling combat. There are a line of skills that do 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 hits in a row; each one requires that the one below it has been done recently. What happens in practice is that combat is started, and then turns quickly into a blender - 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6....
Game: EVE Online
Type: Sci-Fi - Spaceship piloting
Plusses: Robust player economy, including mining, manufacturing, shipping, and free-market selling. Improve-over-time skillset means that those with less time to play, or those who don't want to shoot pirates, don't get left behind. Great graphics and space-backgrounds, with amazing contrast between the largest Battleships and smallest Frigates. Interesting ship balance, with a wide variety of modules available; heavy battleship weapons will never hit a small frigate that is zipping around at high speed, but conversely, the frigate will never do enough damage on its own to destroy the battleship. Similarly to Homeworld, the best fleet consists of a mass of Frigates to destroy Battleships, Cruisers or anti-frigate Frigates to destroy Frigates, and Battleships to dominate Cruisers.
Minuses: Mining is boring! Distances are long, which is nice in that a certain area can 'belong' to a group of players, but it takes a long, long time to get between places. Lots of 'nothingness' out in space.
Favorite Memory: Our company had set up mining operations in a good but crowded area. A few of us got tired of mining and competing for asteroid belts, so we split off, created our own new company, and started blasting full caravans leaving towards central, populated space. In true pirate fashion, we'd grab the most valuable refined metals and scrap from the destroyed ships and run like mad. Eventually, most caravans were well protected with cruisers and battleships, but then we just shifted tactics and started hitting the miners directly and refining the minerals ourselves.
Game: World of Warcraft
Type: Fantasy Adventure
Plusses: Decent class balance. A quest for everything! Lots of places to explore. In-game Auction House to sell items (for in-game money, of course). Fun and familiar (to many) Warcraft basis. Capture-The-Flag and Base-Capture PvP battlegrounds (coming soon; I've tried the CTF, it's a blast).
Minuses: Unexplainable lag and sync issues sometimes. Not much to do when your level is maxed out (so I've heard, but I haven't made it there yet).
Favorite Memory: The spell that made 'sheep' a verb. sheep (v): to turn an enemy into a sheep with the Polymorph spell. Baaaaaa! Some underwater content is a clausterphobic but exciting experience - try not to hold your breath along with your character! The horde of zealots that come to avenge the death of Herod of the Scarlet Crusade is a moment of 'no way'. More memories to come, as I continue to play...
Do you share some of these same memories and impressions? Have you played different MMPOGs (I never played Evercrack, DAoC, Ultima Online, City of Heroes, etc.)?
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