What were MMOs like before WoW?

Turn MMOs into grindfests

WoW was the most casual MMO when it came out

standardized it into making every other mmo the same formulaic garbage because they all think if they make their game just like WoW they will get as much money and popularity as WoW

I think wow crystallized the tank/dps/heal system and this led to a more boring gameplay

Dark Age of Camelot
>Massive open world
>Dungeons arent instanced but instead are part of the actual map
>Massive realm vs realm pvp where player factions actually matter
>Seige engines that are crafted by players and brought into RvR
>Somewat challenging levelling experience
Fuck I miss it

Im thinking of making my Own MMO, Im taking a bunch of features that I found best in multiple games

the leveling was way too much of a grind but the pvp was awesome

>Planet Side
Isn't Planet Side 2 doing well?

It was the "Perfect" mmo and was popular.
So everyone copied it

Far from it. It's also an ironsights Battlefield clone.

This classic right here. It's my favorite Star Wars game of all time.

Attached: 220px-Star_Wars_Galaxies_Box_Art.jpg (220x314, 18K)

Still the best MMO when it came to monthly content and story progression.

Got any stories? A guy told me about the Shadow Spire event, and how that one hub was destroyed and how the remains of a Shadow Spire lay on a hill near another hub city. He mentioned that there were other events just like it.

It's been so long since I played that I'd need to read over patch notes just to recall some of the details.

I do remember players talking about how characters on one server actually fought and killed a GM during a monthly event.

I googled a bit and found a summary of the event I mentioned.

>During Asheron's Call's height of glory there was an event known as the "Shard of the Herald" this was he culmination of a series of events where 6 shards were destroyed by players which brought new and more powerful items into the game world. The Shard if the Herald was the last of these shards. Turbine decided to spice thinsg up a bit by making players swear allegence to the demon Bael'Zharon (whic is the demon that would be released once the shard was destroyed) thus making players flagged for PvP. The payers then could wither go and destroy the shard or try to defend it. Most of the shards on other servers quickly fell except for one, and that one was on the Thisltedown server. Players on this server organized what is known as 'The Shard Vigil" and defedned the shard from would be attackers 24 hours a day. These player's defense of the shard was so stalwart that the developers had to include lore which allowed them to create NPC's which they controlled to help players break their lines and shatter the shard. Impressed by this the developers rewarded the player's with a statue comemerating their efforts. My hats off to the players who stood thier ground and made the devs have to cheat in their own game in order to win.
Pretty fucking neat

mein negro

Attached: vwlsi8ctp9721.jpg (1125x1125, 390K)

Good

WoW didn't kill the MMO genre exactly, it just set a trend. It innovated in just the right ways to make it incredibly popular, and a lot of companies saw that success and tried to emulate it. But instead of doing what Blizzard *actually* did and adapt what was successful while paring out what wasn't, they just copied more or less exactly what WoW did and then threw their hands up when they didn't hit 10 million subs within the first months.*

Arguably, one of the biggest trends WoW set that killed the genre is the belief that endgame is the only part of an MMO that matters, when you're supposed to enjoy the journey along the way. Which makes one wonder why they even bother to put in a leveling system in the first place.

*For some reason, game companies and publishers don't realize that it took a few years before WoW really became the juggernaut it's best known for, yet they push the panic button if they don't get those apex numbers immediately after launch.

Mostly shit and basically on the level of your average Korean grindfest you've probably seen thousands of before. That is to say, not much of anything to do but grind and pretend there is stuff to do while grinding.

MMOs have honestly never been good. People say WoW killed MMOs, in reality it just made the death of the genre last longer than it should have. Without WoW MMOs would have been long dead and buried by now. Instead we've got what we have now.

Too successful too quickly. Blizzard wasn't prepared and had no business having something that influential, not that many other colpanies would have done better. Because of this, every Tom Dick and Faggot copied the formula, and wala, we live in a world of zero originality and fucktarded consumers that care more about QoL than actual content.

WoW is the Jordan of MMO's, when something becomes popular, everyone expects you to make something as good as the most popular product in the same genre, hence why any chance of being creative with virtuals worlds became an attempt to become as popularas WoW, in a genre which was niche as fuck.

Dozens of cheap copies emerged, and all failed, because what made WoW popular in the first place was how well built it was, an extremely polished product. The second you pick a cheap korean mmo, it feels worse than wow in every way, from the network coding, to the control feedback, and a myriad of little details that make them feel like crap because you already experienced a better product. Those who didn't try WoW were able to stick with subpar products, specially those who weren't able or willing to pay for a retail copy and a sub fee.

Attached: 1445227950514.jpg (384x384, 31K)

I really wish there were more MMOs where you could just play a dude in a setting. So many MMOs now treat level 1 players as an ultimate hero. If you want to be a merchant or entertainer, too bad, you're the Chosen One. You and the hundreds of thousands of other players in the game.

Hell, even when being an adventurer was the standard, like EverQuest and Vanilla WoW, you weren't treated as the Chosen One from the start, or even at the end. You were just one of many adventurers; you had to prove you were the hero.

Also, it makes me sad that SWG and the KotOR games are really the only Star Wars games that embraced being a melee character without a lightsaber. Running around as an explorer with a vibroaxe is neato.