The cover art is beautiful. A bit too randomly horny for my taste but, nonetheless, beautiful. If anyone else is curious about the whole thing and some barbarian ass.
Horniness aside, I really love that old style of fantasy art.
Is it just me or does the magic user (blonde on the left) look a little like Ali Larter?
I suppose your mileage will vary, but when I played this game in 1999, I couldn’t get a party together that wanted to do anything but grind the orcs in the common lands. Everyone kept saying that’s where the best experience is. I asked people when the game started to get good, and they told me “this is the game.”
If you asked other folks they’d probably tell you that “the game only starts at max level with fully built out gear.”
You’ll always find groups of people min-maxing but in my guild the general philosophy was to enjoy the journey.
If that meant getting drunk and causing shenanigans in town that day, so be it.
And shit like this is why I don’t like MMOs. The game should be ending once I’ve played long enough to max my character. Like you said, the journey is the point of RPGs IMO.
I think post game content should still be important, but the common design of having players rush through leveling content so they can run hamster wheel content at max level is terrible. I really wish the whole game was the game, not just the stuff you do after the mind numbingly easy leveling.
You needed to get out of the Faydark and go somewhere where the higher level players were. All the noobs would stay in the starting areas and grind an easy boss zone. All the good players were off across the world, far away from those starting areas. I used to get good parties by hopping off the boat between the continents at the little island, because only the actual adventuring players were traveling there.
The best time I had, though, was when I got enough people to start my own guild. It was an RP guild, and my character was an egotistical, megalomaniac High Elf that started the Order of Pureblood Elves. We only took in Elf characters as members. Half-Elfs could also petition to join, but they were treated only slightly better than other races.
The hardest part of that was getting my reputation up with the Dark Elf city so I could go there and recruit dark elf players to the guild without having the guards attack on sight.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug
For me it’s Asheron’s Call. Loved that game.
Old mmos had adventure and discovery. The current state of the internet doesn’t allow for adventure and discovery in an online multi-player game.
With Asheron’s Call we had Maggie The Jackcat and the VN boards, and that was it. You couldn’t just look up the best path across the obsidian wastes to Ayan Baqur and find a youtube video explaining all of the danger points and farming areas. You had to just do it yourself or communicate with real people in real time to figure things out.
That magic is gone and it’s never coming back… and it sucks 😕
AC was clearly better than EQ though 👍
I have the impression that being “good” at the game wasn’t even a concern back then. I remember a lot of players being completely unbothered about their own character levels and wealth. Players were busy building communities and driven by small and personal achievements. Sometime I wish gaming had remained niche and never reached the masses. The early 00s was such a sweet spot.
or communicate with real people
You lost me.
Standing in Arwic spamming “plz help get 2 crater” until someone made you a vassal in exchange for running you past monouga cottage to the Bandit castle area portal and escort to and through crater pathway…
Darktide forever.
…and also Morningthaw because carebear experience with my brother.
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I wish I could enjoy it that way, it really does sound amazing, just as a consequence of its age and engine… It’s feckin ugly and the combat doesn’t feel like much of anything is happening.
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It’s way too grindy, but then again, that’s why I don’t play MMOs generally. It is the one I put the most time into, so I guess there’s that.
Project1999.com. You’re welcome.
Would you say it’s still a better experience than bg3? Honest question.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is not a MMO
Would you say BG3 is a better experience than Mario?
Totally different kinds of rpg. You’d be better looking at pathfinder, divinity original sin or pillars of eternity if you enjoyed bg3 instead of an mmo.
