MMORPGS

[JadedDM]

So does anyone else here play Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games? Horizon and I have played a few over the years, often together.

I started with Ultima Online, years and years ago. I was awful at it. I couldn't go five minutes without being killed--usually by PK'ers.

Years later, after I had met Horizon, we started playing Final Fantasy 11 together. I played Daos Soulstaff, a Hume White Mage and she played Esmerelda, an Elvaan Warrior.



Not too good at this one, either. It was incredibly difficult, and even after three years of playing on and off again, I never made it past level 21 (out of 75, at the time). What a tortuous game that was. I can't believe I actually paid money to play it.

Long after that, we tried Dungeons and Dragons Online, since it was free and all. I played a human thief named Gaheris, and Horizon played a human fighter named Jasmin. But since it was set in Eberron (a setting we don't know very well, if at all) and went by 3E rules (which we also don't know well, if at all), we didn't get too far in this one. Afterward, I soloed a while as a human paladin named Arkos, but I don't think I ever made it past level 6 (out of 20).

So, yeah. Not a great history with MMORPGs. But that brings us to the present day, where things have changed.

Back in November, I joined up on Star Trek Online. I play a Vulcan Science Officer (Daos Soulstaff) in the Federation and fly an Oracle-class starship called the USS Seleya. Later on, Horizon joined too, playing a Bajoran Tactical Officer (Shalad Daneera).



I made it all the way to level 50 (the highest level in the game). I also have a level 50 Klingon and a level 30 Romulan, although I haven't played either of them in awhile. Daos is my main character. Currently, they're having the summer event on Risa, so we've been busy with that.

The most recent game we've started playing, about a month ago (we picked up copies for Horizon's birthday), is Final Fantasy 14. It is much improved from 11, far easier and more forgiving, which is great. In fact, I've already hit level 21 in a month, which--as I said before--took me about three years in 11.

Like in 11, in this one, I am also playing Daos Soulstaff, a healer. Horizon plays a catgirl lancer named Cemi Bajahira.



So that about covers it for me. What about the rest of you? Any of you play in MMORPGs? If so, got any stories to share?

[BishGada]

I played PerfectWorld and something I forgot it's name, Rune-something, but I usually find those game tiresome. I never played with people I already knew before joining the game, and then you see thousands of people and well, have nothing to tell them. Then you start running miles and miles to finish missions, kills bunches of monsters again and again... and when you have money or level up you again need to runs miles and miles back to town to use it... As I said, tiresome. In the Rune-something game, you also had to improve skills like woodcutting, fishing, cooking, mining and so on, so you had to spend hours doing stupid stuff, otherwise you had no chance surviving the game.
All in all, I guess I'm not built for that kind of games.

[JadedDM]

Yeah, they're much more fun when you have friends to play them with. And there's always some element of grinding involved, some far worse than others, as a way to extend gameplay. Still, the MMORPGs of today are nowhere near as punishing as they used to be back in the 90's and 00's!

[mgbevan]

I have only had a few spurts with RPGs, I played Diablo 3 for a couple of months a few years ago. I enjoyed Kingdom Hearts on the PS2 back in like, 2005 or something, but that isn't MMO. The story in Kingdom Hearts was great for child me, trying to find and complete everything was most enjoyable. Disblo 3 however felt very grind-y and got tiresome quickly.

I prefer FPS and RTS games, Unreal tournament, C&C, Starcraft, Planetside 2 are some of the ones I have played.

[Breila]

I've never tried any MMORGs. but knowing that I spent about a hundred times more hours of my life reading books than watching TV or movies, that's not surprising.
Also, what I've read about them (back in the 00's) was that you need to spend regular time online to achieve anything meaningful, and I didn't think it worth my while.
But the Star Trek-based game might change my thinking, since Star Trek is one of the few series I enjoy on screen, and playing the MMORG could be something I share with my son (and it's not easy to find something a mother and teenage son enjoy doing together).
So how does one get access to that game?

[JadedDM]

Star Trek Online is quite different from many other MMORPG, namely in that it is not required to group up with other people if you don't want to (I soloed the entire game to level 50 without a problem) and it's completely free.

You can download the client, called Arc, here. It's the blue button in the upper right hand corner that says "Install Arc." Once you have Arc downloaded and installed, you can download Star Trek Online through it.

The game takes place between 2409 and 2410. About 30 years after Star Trek Nemesis. And pretty much everything has kind of fallen apart since then. The Klingons declared war on the Federation and so they are enemies again. Romulus was destroyed (as depicted in the events of the Star Trek reboot by JJ Abrams), and a new group of Romulans have broken away from the Star Empire, calling themselves the Romulan Republic.

Here is the trailer.

The game is full of references to all of the television shows (even the obscure animated series from the 70s). It also has a number of characters from the shows, some of them even voiced by their original actors (Michael Dorn as Worf, Tim Russ as Tuvok, and Leonard Nimoy as Spock narrates most of the game.)

There are three classes in the game. Tactical, Engineering and Science. Tactical is all about fighting, sort of like the warrior class in D&D. Engineers focus on building things, like drones, portable shields, and so forth. Science officers focus on healing, buffing and so forth.

There are also three kinds of ships. Escorts/Corvettes are small and fast, with lots of firepower but weak shields and hulls. Glass cannons, basically. An example would be the Defiant from Deep Space 9. Cruisers are big and slow, but have excellent shields and hulls, but nowhere near as much firepower. All of the Enterprises fall in this category (including the new one in the game, the Enterprise-F). The third class are the science vessels, which tend to come with lots of special abilities and powers that other ships lack).

That about covers the basics, I think. There are lots of German players in the game, I've seen numerous fleets dedicated to them. If you need any help, just ask!

[mltillis]

My first outing with MMORPGs was Everquest II. Afterwards I tried DDO and LOTRO. None of which kept my interest enough to continue past a day or so of gameplay. However I recently tried Neverwinter and was hooked from the onset. No grinding, the story missions will take you all the way to max level without interruption. Plus the foundry has an enormous amount of player created content, including multi-part adventures.

As a side note, I should say that it's possible that my attitude towards MMORPGs has changed over the last ten years and Neverwinter may not be as superior to the previous games as it personally feels to me. To each their own, as they say.

[JadedDM]

I'm glad MMORPGs are starting to move away from the grind. Final Fantasy 11 was such a chore.

But what's really weird is I still sometimes miss the crazy, anything-goes days of Ultima Online. You know, a game where PVP wasn't limited to just special duels and instances and only the bravest would dare venture away from the safety of the towns. I mean, I wouldn't want all MMORPGs to be like that, but it's too bad none of them are anymore.

Anyway, Horizon and I still have fun with STO and FF14. I even got some screenshots.

Here we are taking an airship to another city:

(This game is really, really pretty.)

Here I am looking all mysterious and cool after disembarking from said airship:


Here's Horizon's character being all adorable:


And here we are trying to settle a domestic dispute:

The little Lalafell (basically a halfling) woman cowering claims that the tall Elezen (basically an elf) with strange hair is a rumored killer on the loose, but he swears he's a beautician who just lost his tools. (Note Horizon's character shaking her fist angrily at him )

Ah, sadly we didn't have time to finish that quest before Horizon had to go to work. Maybe next time.

[xelphyn]

I played a bit of ff14 (the free trial) before the fair season started and I had to hit the road for work.
What server are you guys on? I may get back into it ( full version) when the season is over.
One more week... I am so ready to get back home.
I also play Guild Wars 2 which is enjoyable for it's dynamic combat (you don't just mindlessly press the same rotation over and over), and game mechanics that encourage cross-player synergy.

[JadedDM]

We're on the Siren server. What role do you usually play? Healer, tank, DPS, support?

[xelphyn]

Usually what ever role I can squeeze out of a mage class. Which typically means DPS or support, but sometimes I can manage to find a functional method of tanking... But the requires prior knowledge and cooperation of the rest of the group.
I had gotten a summoner up to level 20 (the level cap with the free trial) but I'll probably create a new character when I upgrade to the full version.
(Oh I also had a second character on a different server that I made as more of a pun than anything else: a lalefel lancer named See Lancealittle.)

[Namenlos]

I've played a few MMORPGS, basically lived a second life in World of Warcraft, played a bit of of DDO much like Jaded and have tried a few others as well.

I'm currently waiting with very little patience(I SERIOUSLY CAN'T WAIT!) for Firefly Online to be released, whenever that will be. It may resemble the Star Trek game, I wouldn't know never tried it, but space awaits!

[JadedDM]

Haha, yeah. Firefly Online has been 'coming soon' for a year or two now. I wouldn't mind trying that, too, if and when it is ever released.

[TristenC]

Used to play "The Realm Online" back in the day, but not much else. Did a little DD0 in the last year or so, practically never on though. Char name is, get this, TristenC... how wild is that, lulz...

[JadedDM]

Wow, who would have guessed DDO would be popular among D&D players?

Too bad they never made a Dragonlance version. No problem here with Eberron, but it's not really my favorite setting.