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Some think that is fortunate - bcs you found from the start what other people search lifelong.
Some think that is sad - bcs for the rest of your whole life you know what you are missing!
After this insignificant little lesson of human wisdom lets go to the topic:
Dark Age of Camelot - the MMORPG that had PVP right in the beginning
The game was the reason for my Father to ask me to get us Internet (he was retired and had some health issues that made it necessary to take care of him so he lived with us) - until then we had a 33k Modem and played Multiplayer in LAN-Party sessions.
I guess it was early 2002 when DAOC launched in Europe and living in a big city we got DSL Internet quite soon after making the request for it.
Everquest was only known from some advetising, ofc so was Ultima Online.
DAOC (Dark Age of Camelot) was by the time announced in the mags you had to read for all news and it seemed to click with my father and so we bought us the game.
For the time it looked ok (it used the early game egine that runs Morrovwind and Fallout 3 i.e.) and was quite smooth as long you would not exceed some limit of Playercharacters on Screen.
Its beauty was the ambience, the social aspect, the way it interconnected PVE and PVE and made them symbiotic instead of anticlimatic, the variety and depth.
I will link some Vids i found on YT so if you want you can make yourself a picture of it.
Why it worked PVP aka RVR and PVE so well together was that it made PVP and PVE exclusive but dependant on each other and offered also shared experiences but all the time it never took away player agency (PVP could not be forced upon you it was allways your conscious decision to take the risk or stay away).
Also the 3 Realms PVP aka RVR was ever dynamic so it would never stop in a 1 sided supremacy situation as the 2 wekaer sides would allways band together (either informal/ooportunistic or even with negotiated intend via Alliance leaders).
Winning in RVR ment that your Realm would get buffs in PVE which ment you could get better ressources from stronger PVE-enemies that were used to craft better PVE and PVP gear.
The economy was allways booming bcs everything had wear and tear even quest rewards like the Epic Gear from the Class Quests.
It was in the interest of the PVP Players that the PVE Players were as strong as possible and vice versa bcs it benefited both of them.
Darkness Falls was a shared PVE/PVP zone used for high end ressource farming that switched allegiance to whomever won the RVR objectives that granted them exclusive access into that zone.
Only with that access you could enter that zone (but you could stay/log out there and log in back regardless of which side had access - the genious thing was that you were kicked out of the zone only upon death and respawn).
That gave the shared zone a whole new dynamic and was also a way to intorduce PVE oriented players into low intensity but high engagement PVP.
Bcs Stealthers (classes with stealth ability) from enemy reals would go on PK sprees and the whole dungeon would band together to hunt them down.
A PVE Player is not that interested in killing his enemy PVP Player, he will respwan anyway and death thus is meaningless aside of a more or less lenient death penalty but getting a PVP Player killed and this deny him access to that zone until his Realm has won back the right for access - that is very meaningfull and highly satisfying!
So, imho DAOC was the game that did it right in the beginning (and lost it later).
Yet ofc the game is 20yrs old and technically it shows but i find it highly astonishing that nobody every really recreated that experience with better tech and modern accessability while keeping its depth and 3 Realm dynamic with the exclusive and shared elements of mutual togetherness of PVE and PVP.
Vids:
"Dark Age of Camelot is the among the greatest MMOs ever released, and is still filled with fulfilling action. It's a game with an high skill ceiling and incredibly deep combat mechanics. In this era of thriving PVP games, I contend that this 20 year old "lightning in a bottle" game not only holds up, but deserves its place among some of the best games available right now.
The Legend of Dark Age of Camelot - YouTube
Dark Age of Camelot - HOW TO START!
Dark Age of Camelot - HOW TO START! - YouTube
Classic Dark Age of Camelot - Beginner's Guide Primer
Classic Dark Age of Camelot - Beginner's Guide Primer - YouTube
Ambient Music of DAOC
DAoC Albion Salisbury Plains ambient music music (night) - YouTube
Have fun digging in mmo history
PS: How DAOC influenced daily live:
When i started in 2002 it took roughly 9 months of 6 hours per day (twice and thrice at weekends) to get a Char to max level.
The end levels were especially hard to get and it was in a high level zone were a Dragon was sleepding that every now and then (dont remeber the time but it was a set time frequency) would wake up and fly a patrol.
Every Player on flat ground would inevitably get killed and the death penaltys became very severe really quick.
So farming the mobs there in 8man groups (bcs lesser groups could not do it usually) there was allways a contdown clock set to alarm when the Dragon would wake up.
That would enforce a break in the gameplay called in german "Drachenpause" - in english it probably translates into "Dragon break".
The Hills at the very edge of that zone where safe and everyone in that zone would gather together there for that break.
As you could not afford to be absent from you group while in action all things human were put into this Dragon break.
So for all of us old german DAOC vets Drageon break (Drachenpause) is still today the synonym for following the call of nature...
PPS:
DAoC Dem Hibbies HQ - YouTube
Edited by Thorqemada, 07 October 2021 - 10:34 AM.
