Kane
I have many names
Because felipepe literally wrote a Codex for RPGs I do the same here for MMOs, except that I am not retarded enough to make this my magnum opus. Still, completeness sake that mean mistress demands it. (I am also kinda bored right now). This post wants to tell the tale of one of the most infuriating, insane and sometimes most funny aspects of game development in the past 20 years.
Every game not on this list ain't an MMO and is therefore shit, as are the people playing those games. If you haven't played any of these games or disagree that these are the only and true MMOs, please go outside and get laid instead of posting in this thread.
Essential terminology
Functional: You can launch the game and play it. It is not in alpha or beta state but actually has been released at some point.
Carebears: Losers that tend to do boring tasks like gathering crafting and abhor PvP. If they are the overwhelming majority of players in your game or if your game is catering to them, chances are your game is pretty shit and you should switch games, or, if you are a developer, reconsider your life and think about why you went into the game making business (hint: fun).
Full Loot: When you die, you lose everything you have on you and anyone else in the world can pick it up and use it. This is essential for a true MMO experience (also called 'the kick'), because once full loot is core to your game all the other important systems kind of fall into place automagically.
The sacrosanct list
Ultima Online | Origin Systems (*1997/09/25)
The one, the only. Released in late 1997 by Origin Systems and still operated by EA for money today, those greedy fuckfaces. Ultima Online kind of defined the term MMO as we know it today (I'll ignore the cries from the baboons playing Everquest and its clones here). Set in the fantasy-world of the preceding singleplayer games of the same name, Ultima Online allowed thousands of players to simultaneously play the game online for a monthly fee. It was not single-sharded though.
Has everything. Lacks nothing. Its greatest legacy is probably its timing (hence, skill)-based PvP system.
Perfect game if it wasn't for shitty graphics, shitty interface, shitty controls and generally being a shitty outdated turd only played by people that also enjoy shoving increasingly large spiky objects up their butt. As a consequence not even its several expansion packs could halt the player numbers steadily declining over the years. The death-knell to this game is widely considered the introduction of a care-bear copy instance of the game server that existed in parallel to the original hardcore full-loot environment.
Asheron's Call | Turbine Entertainment Software (*1999/11/02)
Asheron's Call was the first MMO to introduce a large, dynamic, seamless 3D world occupied by hundreds of players. Also featured an advancing in-game story that was updated every month. Naturally it was subscription-based. Asheron's Call peaked in early 2002 and since then steadily declined. In late 2003, Turbine purchased the rights of the franchise from its publisher, Microsoft, and assumed full control but was unable to halt the decline.
Dark Age of Camelot | Mythic (*2001/10/10)
While borderline non-MMO it still qualfies because it spearheaded largescale PvP and faction based PvP. Mythic made this game and when they were bought by EA they turned to shit and so did the game.
Shadowbane | Wolfpack Studios (*2003/03/25 - 2009/09/01)
Created by a bunch of MUD-veterans, Shadowbane is a fantasy MMO noted for pioneering Open World PvP and dynamic world content. You could morph terrain, build and raze buildings and even hire AI combatants. The Worldmap was completely seamless. Territory and cities were player owned. Shadowbane also featured a government system and was the first game to have a political metagame. And it had zero quests. Shadowbane is as much a cult as it is a game; you cannot claim to have played MMOs if you don't have played Shadowbane. Unfortunately the game was buggy as shit, so it shut down in 2009. And as such there is no way for you youngsters to learn about proper & true MMOs anymore.
Eve Online
The only functional MMO out to date. Features player driven economy, open world PvP and has a political metagame. It is also a super boring grindfest full of carebears.
Darkfall Online
The theoretically best MMO ever made. Features Quake-like combat in a massive Morrowind'esque World with full loot and a player driven economy. Everything is craftable, repair does not exist. Political metagame is somewhat limited. Sounds too good to be true? Yes, it has been shut down. The developer (Aventurine) is a bunch of shifty greek bastards that preferred guzzling ouzo and driving race cars instead of keeping the dream alive. When it was alive it was known for it horrible levels of grind that even brought tears to the face of the most hardened Korean MMO Veteran.
Darkfalll: Unholy Wars
The sequel to Darkfall Online by the same company that did the original one, Aventurine. Was shut down too, because Aventurine is shit and logically so was the game.
Darkfall: Rise of Agon / Darkfall: New Dawn
A bunch of nerds who want to play game developer brought the license for Darkfall from Aventurine. Idiocity seldom comes alone, so another bunch of nerds thought they are better at playing game developer than the aforementioned idiots and also bought the license, so there are now two competing teams defiling Darkfall's rotting corpse. They both have irrelevant ideologic differences about the future of Darkfall, so a cooperation is out of the question.
Mortal Online
Back in the day also known as Darkfall's Competitor, this one wants to offer Ultima Online with enforced full frontal nudity (you cannot go 3rd person view!) but falls short at anything, simply because the developers are like 4 people and they're incompetent and are using UE for a friggin MMO game. What the hell?
Star Wars: Galaxies
Crappy IP but hey at least it was a sandbox. Released in 2003 as one of Lucas Arts last follies, it had true open world PvP and a player driven economy. It was most renowned for his galaxy sized player crafting system.
The Repopulation:
A fan made spiritual sequel to Star Wars: Galaxies that is currently on hold because the people behind the game's Engine (Hero Engine) went bankrupt. Yeah that's a fun story. But that's what you get used to in the proper & true MMO business.
Planetside 1&2
The two games are largely identical, except for 1 being plain superior at everything so I list both in a single paragraph. Made by Sony Online Entertainment and therefore doomed to fail, the definitive MMOFPS experience. Skill is somewhat essential, so you need to bring your cock along. Features large wars on giant battle fields that have the potential to last days - in reality fucking OP TR just rolls in with their zero recoil one billion DPS rifles and instagibs anything. L2P TR seriously.
Camelot Unchained
Sequel to Dark Age of Camelot. Not yet released. Potentially shit.
Crowfall
NYR. Has some weird character based class system but also Voxel Destruction. Most features seem half-baked. Potentially shit.
Albion Online
NYR. This is a EVE Online clone in a fantasy world that also stole a couple of ideas from Darkfall. Like the abysmal Grind - of all things. Why didn't these morons copy the graphics instead? Potentially shit.
The Exile
NYR. Formerly known as Das Tal this game is aimed at the well hung portion of the population. Wants to combine BLC combat with Guild Wars 1 GvG and Asheron's Call'esque territory control. Potentially kinda cool.
Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade
NYR. Planetside meets Warhammer. The vision is boner inducing but we all know how it will end.
Gloria Victis:
NYR. Motrtal Online with magic. It's garbage and it's going to be free.
Chronicles of Elyria
NYR. EA & Crowdfunded game, so it will be a disaster. This one wants to be a real medieval MMO (not one with servers capped at 20-60 players). Features a feudal system.
Screeps:
NYR. The one true MMORTS on the list. You literally program your units and they do their stuff even when you're offline.
Crush Online:
NYR. Moba inspired faction warfare on a world made of chained arenas.
Star Citizen.
NYR. Already a legend for being vaporware.
Shroud of the Avatar
NYR. Fanatasy version of Star Citizen.
Dual Universe
NYR. An upcoming single-shard sci-fi MMORPG focused on emergent gameplay and building.
I am sure I forgot something important. The formatting is a mess. I will update the formatting and add more games/expand the existing ones as I find the time and can be arsed to. Feedback is welcome, but if you play Everquest or one of its expansion packs you're literally worse than hitler and the cancer killing gaming, so just don't post.
Every game not on this list ain't an MMO and is therefore shit, as are the people playing those games. If you haven't played any of these games or disagree that these are the only and true MMOs, please go outside and get laid instead of posting in this thread.
Essential terminology
Functional: You can launch the game and play it. It is not in alpha or beta state but actually has been released at some point.
Carebears: Losers that tend to do boring tasks like gathering crafting and abhor PvP. If they are the overwhelming majority of players in your game or if your game is catering to them, chances are your game is pretty shit and you should switch games, or, if you are a developer, reconsider your life and think about why you went into the game making business (hint: fun).
Full Loot: When you die, you lose everything you have on you and anyone else in the world can pick it up and use it. This is essential for a true MMO experience (also called 'the kick'), because once full loot is core to your game all the other important systems kind of fall into place automagically.
The sacrosanct list
Ultima Online | Origin Systems (*1997/09/25)
The one, the only. Released in late 1997 by Origin Systems and still operated by EA for money today, those greedy fuckfaces. Ultima Online kind of defined the term MMO as we know it today (I'll ignore the cries from the baboons playing Everquest and its clones here). Set in the fantasy-world of the preceding singleplayer games of the same name, Ultima Online allowed thousands of players to simultaneously play the game online for a monthly fee. It was not single-sharded though.
Has everything. Lacks nothing. Its greatest legacy is probably its timing (hence, skill)-based PvP system.
Perfect game if it wasn't for shitty graphics, shitty interface, shitty controls and generally being a shitty outdated turd only played by people that also enjoy shoving increasingly large spiky objects up their butt. As a consequence not even its several expansion packs could halt the player numbers steadily declining over the years. The death-knell to this game is widely considered the introduction of a care-bear copy instance of the game server that existed in parallel to the original hardcore full-loot environment.
Asheron's Call | Turbine Entertainment Software (*1999/11/02)
Asheron's Call was the first MMO to introduce a large, dynamic, seamless 3D world occupied by hundreds of players. Also featured an advancing in-game story that was updated every month. Naturally it was subscription-based. Asheron's Call peaked in early 2002 and since then steadily declined. In late 2003, Turbine purchased the rights of the franchise from its publisher, Microsoft, and assumed full control but was unable to halt the decline.
Dark Age of Camelot | Mythic (*2001/10/10)
While borderline non-MMO it still qualfies because it spearheaded largescale PvP and faction based PvP. Mythic made this game and when they were bought by EA they turned to shit and so did the game.
Shadowbane | Wolfpack Studios (*2003/03/25 - 2009/09/01)
Created by a bunch of MUD-veterans, Shadowbane is a fantasy MMO noted for pioneering Open World PvP and dynamic world content. You could morph terrain, build and raze buildings and even hire AI combatants. The Worldmap was completely seamless. Territory and cities were player owned. Shadowbane also featured a government system and was the first game to have a political metagame. And it had zero quests. Shadowbane is as much a cult as it is a game; you cannot claim to have played MMOs if you don't have played Shadowbane. Unfortunately the game was buggy as shit, so it shut down in 2009. And as such there is no way for you youngsters to learn about proper & true MMOs anymore.
Eve Online
The only functional MMO out to date. Features player driven economy, open world PvP and has a political metagame. It is also a super boring grindfest full of carebears.
Darkfall Online
The theoretically best MMO ever made. Features Quake-like combat in a massive Morrowind'esque World with full loot and a player driven economy. Everything is craftable, repair does not exist. Political metagame is somewhat limited. Sounds too good to be true? Yes, it has been shut down. The developer (Aventurine) is a bunch of shifty greek bastards that preferred guzzling ouzo and driving race cars instead of keeping the dream alive. When it was alive it was known for it horrible levels of grind that even brought tears to the face of the most hardened Korean MMO Veteran.
Darkfalll: Unholy Wars
The sequel to Darkfall Online by the same company that did the original one, Aventurine. Was shut down too, because Aventurine is shit and logically so was the game.
Darkfall: Rise of Agon / Darkfall: New Dawn
A bunch of nerds who want to play game developer brought the license for Darkfall from Aventurine. Idiocity seldom comes alone, so another bunch of nerds thought they are better at playing game developer than the aforementioned idiots and also bought the license, so there are now two competing teams defiling Darkfall's rotting corpse. They both have irrelevant ideologic differences about the future of Darkfall, so a cooperation is out of the question.
Mortal Online
Back in the day also known as Darkfall's Competitor, this one wants to offer Ultima Online with enforced full frontal nudity (you cannot go 3rd person view!) but falls short at anything, simply because the developers are like 4 people and they're incompetent and are using UE for a friggin MMO game. What the hell?
Star Wars: Galaxies
Crappy IP but hey at least it was a sandbox. Released in 2003 as one of Lucas Arts last follies, it had true open world PvP and a player driven economy. It was most renowned for his galaxy sized player crafting system.
The Repopulation:
A fan made spiritual sequel to Star Wars: Galaxies that is currently on hold because the people behind the game's Engine (Hero Engine) went bankrupt. Yeah that's a fun story. But that's what you get used to in the proper & true MMO business.
Planetside 1&2
The two games are largely identical, except for 1 being plain superior at everything so I list both in a single paragraph. Made by Sony Online Entertainment and therefore doomed to fail, the definitive MMOFPS experience. Skill is somewhat essential, so you need to bring your cock along. Features large wars on giant battle fields that have the potential to last days - in reality fucking OP TR just rolls in with their zero recoil one billion DPS rifles and instagibs anything. L2P TR seriously.
Camelot Unchained
Sequel to Dark Age of Camelot. Not yet released. Potentially shit.
Crowfall
NYR. Has some weird character based class system but also Voxel Destruction. Most features seem half-baked. Potentially shit.
Albion Online
NYR. This is a EVE Online clone in a fantasy world that also stole a couple of ideas from Darkfall. Like the abysmal Grind - of all things. Why didn't these morons copy the graphics instead? Potentially shit.
The Exile
NYR. Formerly known as Das Tal this game is aimed at the well hung portion of the population. Wants to combine BLC combat with Guild Wars 1 GvG and Asheron's Call'esque territory control. Potentially kinda cool.
Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade
NYR. Planetside meets Warhammer. The vision is boner inducing but we all know how it will end.
Gloria Victis:
NYR. Motrtal Online with magic. It's garbage and it's going to be free.
Chronicles of Elyria
NYR. EA & Crowdfunded game, so it will be a disaster. This one wants to be a real medieval MMO (not one with servers capped at 20-60 players). Features a feudal system.
Screeps:
NYR. The one true MMORTS on the list. You literally program your units and they do their stuff even when you're offline.
Crush Online:
NYR. Moba inspired faction warfare on a world made of chained arenas.
Star Citizen.
NYR. Already a legend for being vaporware.
Shroud of the Avatar
NYR. Fanatasy version of Star Citizen.
Dual Universe
NYR. An upcoming single-shard sci-fi MMORPG focused on emergent gameplay and building.
I am sure I forgot something important. The formatting is a mess. I will update the formatting and add more games/expand the existing ones as I find the time and can be arsed to. Feedback is welcome, but if you play Everquest or one of its expansion packs you're literally worse than hitler and the cancer killing gaming, so just don't post.
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