It's hard to believe that DAOC will soon be celebrating 10 years. The Camelot Vault staff has been tossing around ideas on things we can do to commemorate the event: retro screen shots, retro video, retro topics. It got me to thinking about how I even came to this game.

My son and a group of his friends from Everquest were bored with that game and decided to try something different. In comes DAOC. I watched him for a few days, and he encouraged me to try it out. He helped me log in to his account to try out his hunter that was only a level 18 at the time. I was impressed by the detail put into the games artwork and the massive size of the zones. It was a whole new gaming experience for me, who has never played an MMO. Although I have to admit that roaming around the starter towns in Midgard was pretty depressing with all the snow covered zones. He told me a little about the other realms, but didn't know much since he was pretty new to the game himself.

I decided to log in when he wasn't around, and explore a bit myself. I was surprised when I first logged in and saw how many people were playing. There was a long list of servers with various populations listed. I decided to select one I knew he didn't have any characters on, in a different realm. That way, I wouldn't mess up his game, and he might not notice that I was playing. I chose Iseult since it was somewhat middle ground with the population. Within weeks, my son gave up on the game and went back to EQ, so I got lots of play time after that. I was quickly hooked. It wasn't long before I was introducing my other son to the game, and fighting for computer time. Yes, he did end up starting up his own account.

So what was your introduction to DAOC? How did you hear about the game, or come to play?

If you have an idea for a topic you'd like to see, please drop me a line.


Posted from Camelot Vault

A friend at work had been telling me about the game for 6 months and it sounded like a lot of fun. I didn't wanna play because it costed money to play,so after a while,he lent me his account to try it and after about 5 min playing the game I was hooked,this was right after si was released.

What kept me playing was 3 realms,realm pride,df and the rvr exprience was a blast.

I had a lot of great times and memories.

I have returned a few times and I get too frustrated at too many things.
I don't feel I can return and enjoy the game until several things are addressed.

 

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Friend said, "better than EQ". I said, "yeah sure." He said, "keep siege." I said, "OMFG!"

 

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i was in high school at the time and sat next to a kid who was always drinking energy drinks and i said to him, why do you do this man? he told me about a game he plays on his computer. which happened to be daoc. being the guy who was always ready to try a new game i did. and i had dial up then too! and a crappy computer. but i was so impressed by how biig it was and being lost in camelot. when i found out there was a pve server i was all in with multiple accounts

 

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I first logged into DAOC, December 30th 2001. I was not cool enough to play at release or beta. Hell, I did not even know what an mmo was until that day. My older sister was a big EQ fan (or nerd as I thought gamers were) and picked up some game called Dark Ages of Camelot. I was hanging at her apartment for New Year’s week and she tossed it at me, so I figured "okay I'll try it."

I logged in and managed to stumble my way into Castle Camelot and never finding my way out. /quit while thinking, "what a stupid game." For some reason (maybe a hangover), a day or two later I tried it again; this time the blue place with the hammer, picking Bedevere at the time because of its low population and my lack of anything close to decent rig for gaming. My lame Norse warrior "Sublimedad" was born.

This second time around I somehow got a level or two. I afk'd and my sister poked around on my toon a bit. At some point some troll gave her gear, a gold and welcomed her to the game. 1 GOLD?!?! OMG I am so rich I thought. After blowing it on some cheap dye, I changed my attitude and realized this game seems okay.

Later that week, I was grouping with the same few people what seemed almost on a daily basis. Some dwarf named Kukrol or something, a red haired warrior Kedohabringer, a blue hunter chick named Qisa (later to become Hunter TL) and a Norse rune master Subortbjorn (I know that’s spelled wrong). The dwarf said "Hey I want to start a guild I started on Albion side on another server". So we all venture into Jordheim (even better, making our way back out)With the name Crimson Blades somehow hovering over my head.

Maybe a month or two after the guild leader was a no show, we decided to venture off on our own and be done with this guild. (but you never forget your first) That day, Children of Loki were born. I was never a big fan of the name, but I was certainly a big fan of the people. A guild still standing before the introduction of Ywain, which was the last time I checked.

DAOC will always be my first, and you never forget your first, mmorpg, and as silly as it sounds, it is something I am proud to say. Since then I have played them all. UO, AC, AC2, CoH, Shadowbane, WoW, SWG, AO, EQ, EQ2, DDO, LotRO, EVE, GW, Lineage, AoC, Aion, Rift and a slew of other games filled with let downs, and empty promises. <cough> Warhammer <cough> Nothing has ever come close to the experience I had with DAOC.
I have had characters on all the servers, all the realms, finally, settling comfortably in my home on Gaheris.

To me, this game has so much to offer, and still would if it was given the attention it so deserves. From housing, to Battlegrounds, to crafting to socializing and grinding, it has something for everyone. That is what brings me crawling back to it time and time again. So while I may not have been one of the uber leets that got to experience this game since release, I was close.


Mysticmike proud to be from Gaheris, proud to be from Dark Ages of Camelot.

 

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I too broke my MMO cherry in the realms of Camelot. My friend bought me a copy of the game so I could tag along with him and his wife while they played. I liked the concept and played a pally as my first toon. Not long after that SI came out and I rolled an inconnu reaver on Nimue named Dagdamor. We picked an RP server because it appealed to all of us for different reasons, for my friend it meant he could make up stories, for his wife it meant mature players, for me it meant the closest thing to D&D I could experience. Eventually I saw this cloth caster running around with a pet that was fighting for him. In those days it was not fashionable to play a cabby so you did not see them too often, but I knew that was the class for me as soon as I saw it.

Like Mike, I wandered off to several other game, WoW, EQ2, Rift, and LotRO to name a few, but I always find myself back here. Also like Mike, I eventually decided to give Gaheris a try, and it fit like an old shoe and I never stay away from there long.

Must be something to that whole first time thing.

 

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I was playing Quake 3. The guys I used to play Quake with had moved on to Everquest and Asheron's Call. I had resisted because I didn't want to pay a monthly fee and what I had heard about how EQ sucked up all your free time didn't appeal to me. But when they started posting screen shots from their adventures in the new game DAOC, I thought it looked really cool. So I went and bought it and after 3-4 days of powerleveling, I was caught up in levels with the rest. Ironically I had no clue that DAOC even had RvR when I bought it even though that is the aspect of the game that kept my a subscriber for most of the 9 following years.

 

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I had never played an MMO prior to Dark Age and I first saw the game in the Spring of 2004. I had been in Iraq since March 2003 and after almost a year in hell, we finally started getting some lifestyle upgrades, and our commander used unit funds to buy access to satellite internet from an Iraqi vendor. Many of us had our own laptops by that point and could do just about anything we wanted online when we had free time, which wasn't often. One day I saw two of my friends playing a game on their laptop. They were just leveling up some alts, they already had mains, as they had been playing the game since release. They explained the game to me and tried to show me what RvR looked like, but with the poor connection we had, there wasn't much success in that. They didn't get to play it much, but enough that I saw it and took interest. I didn't actually download it or attempt to play it until we got back home to Germany. We returned in July and I started playing it in September of 2004.

 

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A friend who played asheron's call with me tried it out and recommended it.

RIP Posh

 

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I worked with three or four guys who played. They were constantly on me to get the game but I thought it was pretty nerdy so I blew them off. Just after SI came out I bought a computer (not for Daoc) and one of them found out and gave me the account I have all my mains on today. Needless to say I was hooked from jump and have played pretty steadily since 2002-2003 up until recently. All my original RL Daoc buds left the game about the time WoW came out except for one who I see from time to time.

Its been a great run. Ive had alot of fun and met some pretty cool people I wouldnt have otherwise. Daoc was my first MMO also.

 

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