Elemental Challenge Day Twenty: MMOs
6 min read
Ready to get addicted? Today we’re talking about massively-multiplayer online experiences, or MMOs. More often than not MMORPGs, MMOs involve tons of players, tons of grinding, tons of looting, tons of raiding, and tons of walking about huge digital worlds. These are some of the biggest games you’ll ever find and some of them have been played my millions for longer any other games have. Love ’em or hate ’em, MMOs were the natural step in the progress of video game technology once the internet came to fore. They’ve become an animal all their own, always enticing but be wary if you fall desperately into their wily traps, for ever. When MMOs attack, they attack hard. Avoid or tread lightly.
These are just a few of our more or less favorites…
The Green Screen Mage
Guild Wars. Don’t care for it now, but I loved it when I was younger. My guild was very obsessed with getting the most expensive armor. I just liked to run ahead and get everyone killed…. I’m not good at MMO games.
The Black Humor Mage
The Midnight Mystic Mage (Sublime Reviews)
Habbo Hotel?? Ok you caught me, here is where I am sorely lacking in video game knowledge and experience. I have never played a true MMO although I have often considered playing World of Warcraft and I am planning to pre-order Sea of Thieves, but unless the game is couch co-op I am usually pretty antisocial as far as my online gaming. Another “game” like Habbo Hotel that I played was PlayStation Home, but these were just glorified chat rooms with a little bit of fun video game flair.
The Spoony Bard Mage (Nerd Speaker)
I spent a year in World of Warcraft. I managed to get out. You won’t make me go back. Never.
The Final Fourteenth Mage (Cilla vs. Games)
FFXIV is my favourite game of all time. I didn’t think anything could stop me playing RuneScape until A Realm Reborn came along and blew RuneScape out of the water. I love everything about it. My Free Company on my server is amazing, I enjoy raiding with people, destroying primals and most of all farming for all of the unique mounts that the game has to offer. One of my pet peeves about some MMOs is that you’re stuck in one class; which is why I enjoyed RuneScape’s system. FFXIV follows the same system and allows you to switch between classes at will. Because of this I have tried classes I never thought I would – healing!
The Hopeful Handheld Mage (Retro Redress)
Never played one. Haven’t the time or inclination. I love having games in my life, but I don’t want them to BE my life.
The Dapper Zaffre Mage (Save File 02)
Ragnarok Online was one of those games that I could spend a summer on without even realizing it, especially with how popular private servers were. (Mid-rate FTW, yes?) From the extremely memorable soundtrack, to the gorgeous 3D areas of the game, RO was probably everybody’s first MMO in my class, even before RuneScape became the popular game to hang out on. Needless to say, I have a lot of fond memories of this game, and still give it a go every now and then when things are slow and I don’t want to even attempt poking my backlog with a stick. It’s a shame that the DS game really didn’t do it justice.
Fact: Ragnarok Online is probably the biggest factor after Final Fantasy VI that forever cemented my love of mischievous thieves, stabbers, and sneak attacks.
The Over-Caffeinated Nostalgia Mage (Nostalgia Trigger)
MMOs are a tough one for me. Truth be told, I’ve only ever played two, but when I get into an MMO, I commit. As in, “abandon all relationships, ye who enter here!” commit. Anyone who’s been hooked on an MMO knows it’s time to hang up the “Boyfriend Material” jersey for good just as soon as you click the Create Account button. I’m convinced the best way to get a mate to break up with his girlfriend is to introduce him to an MMO. My answer for best of all time, however, has to be World of Warcraft. Specifically, vanilla, pre-Burning Crusade. There hasn’t since been a more pleasant player-base than those who inhabited Azeroth during those first few months from 2004-2005. Complete strangers would go out of their way to help the newbies, and it was simply a blast to explore the massive open world that was unparalleled at the time. The early years of World of Warcraft purely was a magical time of discovery, learning the Auction House economy, wandering around and raiding with great people, and creating actual tangible relationships with fellow players. I don’t think any other MMO to date has offered that.
Every once in a blue moon to this day I’ll have a dream that I’m wandering around Winterspring on my Saber mount. I miss vanilla World of Warcraft like an old friend who moved away.
The Rage Mage
MMOs are the only games that have a lifespan. They grow old and eventually die, leaving behind a wake of mentally pre-pubescent man-babies whining about the deaths of their virtual social lives as level-2-billion Dark Elf Seamstresses. At least there’s crappy fanshipping to keep your loneliness at bay. That warm tingly feeling inside is just your heart falling asleep if you play an MMO for too long.
The Well-Red Mage
I’m just about burned out on this category of gaming. MMOs are the gaming equivalent of bottomless spits: infinite price tags, endless grinding for loot, mucking about with unsociable strangers in so-called social platforms, feeling lost. We used to call EverQuest “EverCrack” when I was in school for a reason. As such, I’ve only dabbled in a few (MapleStory, Vindictus, Tera) and got sucked into one or two (WoW almost got me once upon a time). I’ve dropped too much time into MMOs already and I’m not sure I’d like to go back to that again. Well… maybe Final Fantasy XIV. No! Resist temptation! “But they have red mages…” Get behind me, Satan!
DC Universe Online, free-to-play, was my last MMO and what a massive sinkhole that was. The only MMO I enjoyed right up to the point of stopping was Dungeon Fighter Online, and the reason for that is because they closed the US servers on us. I guess it’s still going strong in Korea? DFO was fun because it was an arcade-style fantasy beat ’em up with RPG elements and character classes and complex combos. Fun times. Good thing I could get my money back when the server went belly up… but I could never get that time back.
We made it through the dreaded, purple-skinned MMO territory. Come back tomorrow. The party starts when you arrive! Thanks for reading!
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Well… Lord C has no internet *Sobs* or money *Sobs louder* but… I guess..
Hack.Slash 1-4 I’ve finally got all 4 on PS2 5yrs ago after findin out that 2 games weren’t it/I wasn’t done & sadly it was just in time for my ‘No Money to Game at all’ lifestyle occured *Sobs so hard, Eyes fall out* & it counts! because it is styled as an MMO by CyberConnect but without the hassle of ‘Other People’ bein dicks & ruinin it!!!
I have fond memories of 1 & 2 so, govment BS aside, I pray Lord C gets time to FINALLY finish Hack1-4 & FF7 (& a few more hundred games… *Sighs* :C )
Definitely WoW for me. I played it over 8 years and it helped me through some rough patches. I quit in 2015, but I still miss my Night Elf Druid and Orc Hunter 🙁
I have not played any proper MMO games. The closet game was competing on Mario Strikers Charged over the internet. It was enjoyable to play against opponents of various abilities (from highly experienced players to beginners with less skill in the game). It was also interesting to guess the motives of the opponent’s actions, I remember one team seemed to not realise that, at a certain point, the game suddenly launches a flurry of footballs at the other team’s goal and another team that suddenly became much better after half-time (as if the other player’s had asked a friend to play for them). I also liked the way it did not seem to force the player to spent much time on it, it provided matches to play when I was online and I did not need to play it continuously to maintain good levels.
Was Dungeon Fighter Online addictive? What does it feel like to play these games? Did you feel aware of how much time was passing while playing one? What features made you want to keep playing?
Sadly, since DFO is no more I can’t say what it’s like now. But it was addictive, easy to lose time in. I enjoyed the arcade style gameplay and the job classes.
MMM’s post was pretty funny, hehe. I played World of Warcraft for a short period of time in Korea, in Korean, but it never sunk its talons in and I walked away after a couple weeks. That’s the sum of my experience with MMO’s really.
Lucky… 😀 I don’t think I’ll ever go back to MMOs, tempting as they are. Which is very.
I’ve only dabbled in the genre and never super seriously. The closest I came to sinking in was with Star Wars: The Old Republic so… I guess that one.
Here I thought that MMOs turned you into Oscar the Grouch but my friend you made it through the gaming world unscathed by MMOs, and that’s admirable.
Reblogged this on Retro Redress.
I’ve never really taken the time to get into MMOs. I love the idea of them, but don’t love the money and time required to play them (though truth be told, middle school me really wanted to get into Ragnorok). Last year, a bunch of my friends tried to do a WoW campaign together, and I tried to get into it then. Tried being the key word. I was rarely able to play when everyone else was on, and as a result, I was multiple levels lower than them, which was a problem when we’d go into battles. It got to the point where I felt guilty for dragging them down. I also didn’t really find the game play engaging, which didn’t help with my rapid loss of interest.
The closest I have to an MMO that I love is Destiny, which is pretty similar.
“I’ve never really taken the time to get into MMOs.” Don’t! Haha like someone else said here: playing an MMO “was the best time I never want to have again!”
Haha, I did see that, actually! It made me smile. I was surprised, because I always hear so many great things about this genre, but most of the players here sounded pretty disillusioned with them. Good to know!
I never could really get into MMO’s. World of Warcraft was probably the best one I played. Warframe has some MMO like qualities, but it can still be played as a single player experience if you choose so I liked that.
Single player games have a lot of value, and it’s interesting that there are some games that bridge the two features of gameplay.
Reblogged this on Sublime Reviews and commented:
On day 20 of the Elemental Challenge I showed my complete lack of knowledge about MMO games and went with Habbo Hotel, a glorified chat room of a game by I used to play a long time ago. Stop by The Well-Red Mage and let us know your favorites in this category!
Guild Wars for sure! I had a similar experience to the Green Screen Mage.
I am a firm advocate for pay once, play forever. Guild Wars was my first MMO
& I had a fantastic guild. The Archangels of the North! I purchased the Game
of The Year edition, & later got Eye of the North as a Christmas present, so
having Heroes to back you up & command really added to the experience.
Final Fantasy XIV for me (^__^) Truth told, it’s the only one I’ve ever played.
Was it A Realm Reborn, or the original release?
I had a great time in ARR, right when it came out during the beta, for about 9 months. Logged thousands of hours and took over my entire life outside of work. The ability to switch between classes was amazing and it was so cool getting good in any role. Very good community attached to it as well (at least, there was, years ago when I played it) because all the younger players tended to flock to World of Warcraft and most people playing were in their mid-20s and up.
Like the Final Fourteenth Mage also said, Free Companies were also great and I absolutely loved the folks in mine. Met some great people on there.
“Best time I’d never want to have again” is the best way to describe my limited experience with MMOs!
Well, at least you went with the best franchise MMO ever 😉