I was rummaging through the garage the other day and came across a couple of game boxes from the late 90s that brought back vivid memories of summers spent in front of my old Pentium II. Considering how dry most game content is these days, especially in the MMO genre, it's really incredible what some of these oldies were able to accomplish back then. Who remembers a time when consoles and internet gaming were irreconcilable, when computer game companies boasted of servers with more than 2,000 people people playing simultaneously, when players couldn't communicate through speech and had to painstakingly type out every motherfucking word? Do you remember when you were actually afraid of being killed in a game for fear of losing all the shitty magic items you spent hours questing or camping to get? Perhaps you remember trying to buy and sell your loot in an online economy that wasn't fucked by bots, macros and Asian goldfarmers. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are you played one of these games:








Fuck World of Borecraft and whatever other dull contrivances people are wasting away in front of these days, that shit took everything great about these games and turned it into a primatial lever-pulling contest. There was a time when online environments rewarded exploration, team work, research, communication, etc. Now the only variable they give half a shit about is time. Player pays x amount of dollars, plays for y amount of hours, becomes level z, the end. WoW can offer their "free starter pack" until level 500 for all I care, their game will still be a drawn-out, one-dimensional grind from start to finish. The only difference is instead of slaying normal pigs, you'll slay spiny pigs, or demon pigs! Big fucking deal.

Sure the oldies like Everquest demanded our time, our money, even an occasional human relationship here or there. Sure they only offered us frustration and heartache in exchange, accompanied by an occasional lucky drop or level up. But the difference was the element of danger they presented. Zones used to be massive environments crawling with danger that players had to avoid as they precariously crossed to the next friendly city. Quests used to be obscure bits of knowledge that you had to consult guildmates or guides to obtain. Raids were carefully coordinated ventures that demanded strategy and attention, or it was everybody's ass. And when you died, you didn't just neatly respawn with a tiny bit of experience missing. No, you took a massive fucking xp hit, you had to run and find your corpse, and if you died in a bad enough spot, you had to hire somebody to help you out or there was a very real possibility you would lose everything. Shit mattered back then.

Anyway, thought I would publicly reminisce over these gems and how great they seem in comparison to the shit that is coming out these days. I haven't played an MMO in probably 6-7 years for the reasons described above, and I often think about finding a new computer game to get into, but after experiencing the early days of MMO it hardly seems likely I'll find anything worth my time. Or maybe I will, and that's the problem.

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Last edited by phyrrus on Jul-28-2011 at 19:15