TheContact
Member
Scorched Earth (1991) - DOS
This was the first PC game I played. The terrain was destructible, you could save up money to buy new weapons, and you had to adjust power and account for wind when shooting. Landing a direct shot felt really good, and this game is still fun. People have made indie games based off of this concept on Steam, though I haven't tried any of them.
Dark Age of Camelot (2001) - PC
DAoC was somewhat obscure in an already obscure genre at the time. Ultima Online had previously been the MMO garnering the most subscriptions, and pioneered the monthly payment option, whereas before MMOs typically charged you by the hour. They also created the "game time cards", and UO defined the term "shard" you hear in a lot of current MMOs as one of the early villains had a glass crystal that shattered into "shards" of glass, each "shard" was technically a server but it's how they explained the overall ultima worlds existing across multiple parallel universes in the lore, but I digress. Everquest was the most popular MMO after Ultima Online and pioneered 3D MMOs, but again, compared to other genres, MMOs didn't capture the attention of nearly the amount of gamers as they do now, in huge thanks to WoW.
But I didnt play EQ, I played DAoC. It had three factions, each existing in their own PvE worlds ) that you could never enter as another faction (unless you played on a Co-Op server, but you could meet in PvP zones. This game was PvP first, and PvE second. The three factions each had their own unique classes, which was hard to balance but kept each class feeling somewhat unique despite having 25 races and 45 classes to choose from. The way they tried to balance it was, each faction had the same access to the types of spells (each faction would have a speed boost, crowd control, aoe heals, etc...) but the variety was in which classes got which spells. A melee fighter on one faction might have an aoe speed buff, whereas on another faction it would go to a support class. The three faction split was interesting, and PvP was usually done in large groups they called "zergs", a reference to StarCraft. You would earn more powerful abilities the more kills you received in combat, and the game featured some really fun keep assaults and defense, including siege warfare.
It was also incredibly time consuming. I would play this game all night and would play so long I would watch the sun come up, not even realizing how much time had passed. And it wasn't easy, either. You would lose XP for dying, there was a lot of downtime in between fights, the overall combat was clunky and mostly just relied on macros, but god damn the game was fun. The community was the best part. People who play MMOs now will never know the sense of community the older MMOs had--they were smaller and more tight nit. A good comparison would be like living in NYC or LA, you see a ton of people and never really connect or care about any of them, but if you live in a small town and see the same people every day, you start to actually care. New MMOs have lost that, and will likely never be achieved again.
This was the first PC game I played. The terrain was destructible, you could save up money to buy new weapons, and you had to adjust power and account for wind when shooting. Landing a direct shot felt really good, and this game is still fun. People have made indie games based off of this concept on Steam, though I haven't tried any of them.
Dark Age of Camelot (2001) - PC
DAoC was somewhat obscure in an already obscure genre at the time. Ultima Online had previously been the MMO garnering the most subscriptions, and pioneered the monthly payment option, whereas before MMOs typically charged you by the hour. They also created the "game time cards", and UO defined the term "shard" you hear in a lot of current MMOs as one of the early villains had a glass crystal that shattered into "shards" of glass, each "shard" was technically a server but it's how they explained the overall ultima worlds existing across multiple parallel universes in the lore, but I digress. Everquest was the most popular MMO after Ultima Online and pioneered 3D MMOs, but again, compared to other genres, MMOs didn't capture the attention of nearly the amount of gamers as they do now, in huge thanks to WoW.
But I didnt play EQ, I played DAoC. It had three factions, each existing in their own PvE worlds ) that you could never enter as another faction (unless you played on a Co-Op server, but you could meet in PvP zones. This game was PvP first, and PvE second. The three factions each had their own unique classes, which was hard to balance but kept each class feeling somewhat unique despite having 25 races and 45 classes to choose from. The way they tried to balance it was, each faction had the same access to the types of spells (each faction would have a speed boost, crowd control, aoe heals, etc...) but the variety was in which classes got which spells. A melee fighter on one faction might have an aoe speed buff, whereas on another faction it would go to a support class. The three faction split was interesting, and PvP was usually done in large groups they called "zergs", a reference to StarCraft. You would earn more powerful abilities the more kills you received in combat, and the game featured some really fun keep assaults and defense, including siege warfare.
It was also incredibly time consuming. I would play this game all night and would play so long I would watch the sun come up, not even realizing how much time had passed. And it wasn't easy, either. You would lose XP for dying, there was a lot of downtime in between fights, the overall combat was clunky and mostly just relied on macros, but god damn the game was fun. The community was the best part. People who play MMOs now will never know the sense of community the older MMOs had--they were smaller and more tight nit. A good comparison would be like living in NYC or LA, you see a ton of people and never really connect or care about any of them, but if you live in a small town and see the same people every day, you start to actually care. New MMOs have lost that, and will likely never be achieved again.
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