EorzeaReborn Column @MMORPG.com

[Ticks]

Gotchas. I'm not 100% sure he talked about it in any of the pieces, but one of the things that really got us was back in EQ2 when they released Kurnak. We got off the boat and went straight for Karnors (dungeon). Took our guild and crawled down to the very bottom, and killed the boss a few times. Finally got his very rare drop and was thrilled for a nice ring upgrade. Only to link it in our alliance and find it was worse then the end reward from a solo quest line in the expansion starting area.

It was very demoralizing.

Ahh the days of dodging the massive trains at the entrance of Karnors ^^

[Ryahl]

Ahh the days of dodging the massive trains at the entrance of Karnors ^^

You know, Karnors (EQ1) is an example of something that was really cool in old MMO's that you don't see much of these days. Because of the train potential, and the split entrance, pretty much every server evolved it's own "rules of conduct" on how to train in Karnors.

For ours (Brell Serilis) it was "go right." You enter to the right and you exit to the right. That way, your train would (ideally) never hit anyone.

The fact that entire sets of norms and rules evolved in those older MMO's was an illustration of just how social they were. Yes it's nice to not worry about some of those old mechanics anymore, but we gave up something when we gained something.

[Orophin]

The fact that entire sets of norms and rules evolved in those older MMO's was an illustration of just how social they were. Yes it's nice to not worry about some of those old mechanics anymore, but we gave up something when we gained something.

Ain't that the truth.

Mostly I think that the gamers from 10-15 years ago (most of them) grew up and gained responsibilities that keep them from being able to sit behind a game for 8 hours at a time. Another factor is we have a whole new generation of gamers now with an overwhelming need of instant gratification. The gaming industry seems to have evolved around these changes.

While I liked many things about FFXI, (it was my first MMO, I never got into EQ or the older ones) that style of play just doesn't seem realistic anymore. At least, it won't draw enough people to net SE a profit on this game, which is what it really comes down to at the end of the day.

I guess it's kind of a no-brainer that the social aspect of MMOs will take a hit when people are spending less time playing with each other. This trend is probably something that can be seen with every MMO after the FFXI/EQ era, especially once the ones made within the last few years have tailored themselves to being able to progress to max level completely solo.