My best friends where playing it and I went off to the AF and moved a few states away. I never wanted to give it a shot but I figured it would be a good way to stay in touch with them. I got hooked from there, none of us play now but we still talk about it and always consider coming back. Things need to change before a comeback though.

 

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Couple of guys who I worked with told me about DAoC. I gave it a whirl. I have taken some breaks and left for a while a few times but I always end up coming back.

I was working from home during the summer of '01 and out of the blue one day I got an invite to take part in the beta of a game from an MMO from a company I'd never heard of before named Mythic. I downloaded the client, logged in and was hooked. The can still hear the opening screen trumpets in my head.

 

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My whole quake 3 clan tried it when open beta hit. We started a guild etc and I was instantly hooked

 

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Before DAoC I I played other games. I started back when we paid $1.50 an hour to play online. The game was Air Warrior. It was amazing how skilled players schooled those of us just starting. I was not rich and was raising a family so I had to watch the money! Back then we had 28.8k baud dial up modems, or 14.4k if you were not cutting edge lol!

Then Warbirds came along. It was a huge step up from Air Warrior and had a monthly fee. That was a truly great game. No way to fake the skill factor in that game.

I read PC Gamer magazine at the time. There was an article about Asheron's Call (the first one). For some reason I tried it. That was even more fun than Warbirds, which I did not think possible! In the good days the boards were very free. No one closed threads, no one got banned for cussing someone etc. It was truly a fun, fun community! The developers of AC1 were just some college kids and very receptive to change, plus they were very passionate about the game (unlike the early DAoC devs, who had the most horrible god-syndrome in gaming history! But I digress lol).

I made great friends in AC1, just like I had in Warbirds. There were three of us that ran together but one had a death in the immediate family and had to care for his family more and the other eventually drifted off.

I saw an article for DAoC in PC Gamer and tried it. It was very silly in many ways, especially with the time-sinks. I had never liked EQ because of them and it seemed that guy that ran DAoC was doing his best to outdo them. I forget his name, but after the great devs in AC1 it was like falling in cold water. Then they hired Sanya... My gosh what a disaster. She delighted using axes to get flies off the heads of friends. The boards got so Nazi I lost interest in them and it was quite obvious all the DAoC team knew to do was nerf, nerf nerf. It was amazingly aggravating lol!

Then came ToA and I bailed for years. I loved the game in parts but it seemed every time I tried to do something the devs nerfed it or blocked it or something. Never saw any business antagonize people like that group did.

For some reason about a year ago I came back for a free trial and found many good changes. My toons were still there and it seemed DAoC had gone through a "Golden Age" of common sense developers. The game had so many nuances it was amazing. And the time sinks were much much much better! (Thank you whatever group of devs did the changes).

I quit for some months when my dad got sick and passed but came back and am enjoying the game more than ever before. There are still some things that need to be fixed (such as the silly sprint that goes off so quickly when we stand still in a group and some forget to turn it back on, the much too long length of mezzes and the recent nerf of astral weapons after I worked so hard to get them... /sigh.... but I digress again lol)

Really, today the game is much better than ever before. I am playing about five nights a week (gf.... mmmm ) and enjoying it.

DAoC is a game that has such a spotty dev history I never feel comfortable with this game. The new devs had a shining moment opportunity and ruined it with the mess that they call a web-page. Very bad start for new devs.

More worrysome is their self-proclaimed changes soon to RvR for noobs. Yes, the game is very, very complex. Genius actually and I really mean that it is genius. I have been playing games a Long time (I have the original Ultima Online beta disk...). To me, Nothing comes close to the genius that went into making items and abilities so grand. The realm rank system is awesome, and templating is a challenge that is very very very satisfying once it is done well.

I fear these bumbling devs will make some huge changes to realm rank that makes it much too easy. And of course templates, the one thing beside realm rank I fear "they" will nerf is very fun. I sure hate to think of "them" making big changes in that area (although I sure do want a MoH for one of my toons and they are never in game anymore lol!)

Anyway, you asked, I rambled, so there it is. I just wish DAoC had good devs from the start. It could have been the greatest game of all time. Really. Tje great thing is the game can continue to be developed... We will see.

daoc was poopy enough to run on dial up, while UO had upgraded engines and my connection wasnt enough for just the mass of people and the graphics so i would just have like a slide show.

someone from my guild on UO told me to try daoc since i loved pvp in UO, he said its class based pvp so soloing is harder but the game is legit, and it was able to run fine on my dial up~


i forget the year but it was good times.

 

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Lurikeen p0rn

A group of my friends had four computers set up and said we should try dark age of camelot. I played it casually and leveled up a bard because that sounded like a fun class (I had no concept of rvr or pvp before I played dark age).

I got more interested in the game through the lore.. and in 2003, the game offered a lot of in-depth storytelling based on a lot of celtic lore. The trials of atlantis part was addictive and I was more interested than ever to grab a few artifacts. However, it was rvr that kept me there, and after finding a great guild in guinevere, I've been pretty much hooked since then.

My girl friend bought the game for not realizing it was an online game. I had never played an MMO or an online game but gave it a shot. From that first day starting in Vasudheim I was enthralled with the landscape and graphic detail. A few days after launch there were so many people it was like a parade of adventurers.

We didn't know spit about enemies. When zoned over to emain nobody was over 40 and there must of been 85 Thanes. We suck so bad we couldn't get past the frontier gates so we would time the blue hammers and blow the server.

My berserker never had a chance on dialup.

Some of best days of my life and Include highschool summers and college parties in that. MMO players are some of the funniest, meanest most entertainingly disturbed people in the world and I digem.

I left DAOC but I'm back. The land has changed but the first feelings of blood lust and adventure and wonder glimpse in my minds eye occassionally then a Nightshade nukes me from range.

A guild that our guild was at war with on UO were going as they had got into EU beta, so a few of us applied for EU Beta, I got in and enjoyed it so carried on into retail.

 

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