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The Daily Grind: Were older MMOs better by virtue of experimentation?
If you haven't sensed it by now, the Massively staff is made up of a very wide range of preferences, experiences, and gaming types. Sometimes quite heated discussions -- OK, rabid rubber chicken-throwing screamfests -- erupt due to disagreements over what makes MMOs great, what the industry should be doing, and what it did right in the past. Recently we got into a two-fatality "discussion" over whether or not MMOs prior to World of Warcraft were better simply because they weren't trying to copy WoW and were more willing to experiment. It certainly seemed like there was more variety from each new title back then, although some of those experiments certainly did not prove to be palatable to the gaming masses. Then again, this might be a case of rose-colored glasses looking upon the past with faulty nostalgia instead of accurate realism, and it discredits the actual innovation and evolution of the industry since then. There certainly are more people playing today than back then, and MMOs have become more widespread and accepted by even mainstream media. So what do you think? Were older MMOs better because they experimented more than ones today or do titles today deserve more credit for what they have become than glasses-wearing old-timers give? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Old BG Mount haunts Karazhan
Akussa sent us this ghost of Battlegrounds-past, which he and some guildies spotted being rode outside Karazhan. (You can see that it's relatively recent in that it's open to the Blood Elf race ... kinda.) The source of interest in the item comes because it only requires level 55, for a "very fast mount." What some may have thought was a bug, a patch change, or even some kind of clever exploit is actually a remnant of times gone by. A veritable gremlin of the wonder-years of a battleground where -- to get the really good stuff -- you competed against every person in your own faction. Back in that day, you'd try and outplay every person in your own faction to earn the top-dog spot. The better you did against your faction-mates, the higher rank you got. Then, in the old Honor system, if you got to Rank 11, you could buy your faction's honor mount pretty simply. When they changed the mount system (making training expensive, and mounts cheap instead of vice versa), if you had the Rank 11 Mount. . .you got grandfathered to have the riding skill. WoW Insider extraordinaire, Daniel Whitcomb, reports still seeing the occasional 59 twink hanging out upon ancient War Wolf. I, on the other hand, ain't seen one in forever.
Rewarding the old timers of WoW
I like Zymm's idea over on the forums-- he suggests that people who have been playing WoW for a while, or just "older" characters, should get some sort of special recognition or title as a WoW "old-schooler." Not just because I am a WoW old-schooler, but because it'd be nice of Blizzard to give out a little recognition for players and characters that have been active and playing for a while. I'm not saying that they should start handing out Epics just for standing around, but a special tabard or title would be kind of nice.And there are other benefits, too. It'd be a quick and easy way of telling who the veterans are in-game-- as in, who should know what they're doing and who might not. Plus, our characters don't actually age, so while gear is some indication of where they're at in progression, it doesn't tell you who's been on for years and who just powerleveled to 70 in the past few months. Some common indicator of age would set a milestone for how long characters and players have been around.Eyonix jokes about "Old School Zymm," but it's a good suggestion-- we should have some way of showing off how long both we and our characters have been around Azeroth.
