Greetings TESO friends and followers!
(Alert - long post/wall of txt hits fighter for 20! lol)

This is my first post in the ESO community. I've been loosely following the game since it was announced. Over the last few weeks my interest in TESO has increased as once again I'm feeling the need to play and enjoy a new MMO. This post may interest some nostalgic RPG gamers, but I'm writing it more in the hopes that a developer would read it and take some of my gaming memories to heart and perhaps stimulate a thought towards their game creation.

I wanted to take a little time and provide some feedback from an old gamers' perspective. When I say old I mean it from the point of my own gaming history. I'm no longer a spring chicken mind you, but I've played computer games since the words home and computer were first used in the same sentence. And even before then there were many hours spent reading, drawing and playing paper and dice RPG's...

My first computer RPG memories go all the way back to Gateway to Apshai on my Atari 400 (I had to Google the name) and sometime thereafter I remember playing Zork on the Apple IIe's they had in our high school "computer room". I remember saving up and doing some horse trading to get a Commodore 64 and later on working to play PC games during the rise of the x86 processors. I've was there to play all of the new, now classic, RPG's such as Wizardry, Ultima, Might & Magic, Diablo, Baldur's Gate, Fallout and so on... more than I can remember in a thought. I also got caught up in the early flight simulators and I do remember enjoying many Lucas Arts games... Tie-Fighter/Xwing etc... Haha, looking back I've been a nerd's nerd for quite a long time.

By the late 90's most everyone with a PC that gamed had at least heard of a "MUD". With the increasingly affordable dial-up services such as Compuserv, Prodigy and of course AOL... many online RPG's, such as GEMSTONE, were a gamers' dream come true. By the time Ultima Online shipped I was hooked on online games big time. At the end of the 90's 3D graphics were all the new rage, and two new 3D MMO's of note were the first to usher in our modern MMO. Everquest and Asheron's Call.

I played both Everquest and Asheron's call at launch, but ended up making Asheron's Call my main MMO after a few months, primarily because it played smoother on my PC and dialup connection at the time. I'm sure my passion for MMO's is in large part due to the nostalgia of Asheron's Call as remembered through rose colored glasses and the newness of 3D MMO's in general.. but with that said, for me there has been no other game that comes close to the masterpiece that was Asheron's Call.

For me Asheron's Call set the bar for which all other MMO's are judged. None have come close. If you were one of the lucky few who experienced AC back in its early prime, you know as I do it was magical. It was amazingly simple to play, yet it was maddeningly difficult to master. It was a harsh and unforgiving place, yet at the same time begged to be explored. It was a massive virtual world with brimming with swords, sorcery and the unknown. I enjoyed the grouping and later raiding aspect of Everquest... but AC will always by my first love <3!

Certainly I've had fun in other early games such as Everquest, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot and even Star Wars Galaxies. And love or hate it, World of Warcraft opened MMO's to the masses. There are several other games such as Eve Online, Vanguard, Warhammer, Rift and even SWTOR that deserve mention for expanding the genre with new and improved ideas on MMO play.

MMO's of the past were not always concerned with gear and leveling. You played them just as you would a character on a sheet of paper. The journey was the adventure, the end game was not something most thought of.. as you wanted the adventure to continue. All of the afore mentioned games with maybe the exception of Everquest lack what, in my opinion, needs to be core for a game to be a truly rewarding MMO experience... and that is the level of difficulty, degree of complexity and even randomness of statistical loot!

For me... most modern MMO's have become too fast and easy. For example, nearly anyone can play WoW or SWTOR a couple hours a night and be at level cap inside of month. Just following the quest progression allows this. Many may feel this is ok and normal. For me and the likes of many of my old gamer friends, there is no real sense of achievement for us in a character that can go from level 1 to cap in a few days of play. This is also directly related to how long a game can retain players.

Leveling via quest progression should be used to an extent but should not allow one to reach end game. Grinding on the other end of the spectrum should be used but kept to a minimum or else risk boredom. Or even better, take leveling out of the genre entirely... If I could figure this out I'd be rich!

At this point I would like toss out a few bullet topics of conversation that many of my guild mates and friends often discuss among ourselves and fall along the lines of what would make a "perfect" MMO of old mechanics with a new graphics engine...

These topics do no contend with cost or profit of an MMO or if the ideas would make the end result a niche product. Most of these could be applied to any MMO without much effort and all of these are based on tried and true mechanics of old MMO's past. (Namely EQ and AC)

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Slow down leveling of character - (A capped character need hundreds of hours of play)

Make player death sting by either de-leveling or strong xp payback (This will slow leveling some and ensure content is respected)

Make player death in pvp sting same as in pve (There should be no difference between the two)

Do away with quick travel, tie long distance travel to real time (This will slow characters leveling and increase the feeling of world size)

Make content that is gear driven not level driven (ie.. if a noob has epic gear on he is epic)

Do away with bind on pickup and bind on equip items (see above, Arthur was King the moment he drew Excalibur from the Stone)

Have quests given based on towns and region requirements... (ie - kill 5 deer for butcher.. for food and hide)

Increase reward for exploration and reasons for exploring (Random Loot/Chest & Treasure maps in world)

Make magic powerful but slow and costly to learn (An elder wizard/mage should be feared! But a lowly apprentice should be fodder!)

Make gear drops and stats that are random (Diablo's core success is based off this mechanic alone. )

Make mobs drop loot according to equipped items (no bats dropping swords etc.. A skeleton holding a sword and shield drops a sword and shield!)

No auction house or magic delivery mailboxes (old MMO's had hubs or towns to gather to sell/trade etc..! Items cost more or less depending on where you were in the world)

Give crafters the ability to tinker... (make new improved items from old gear, good way to balance economy)

Give crafter the ability to have critical success and critical failures (Make it count)

Make item upkeep/decay reasonable (Good way to balance economy)

Give weight and size to inventory items (ala any real RPG.. no massive bag of holding crap)

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The above certainly does not cover every aspect of MMO play, but from having many discussions with my guild mates and friends, this covers the lion's share of what separates the old from the modern MMO's. Developers are always shocked at how fast "hardcoe" gamers rush to endgame. Unfortunately there is no silver bullet to solve the issue. What really needs to happen is a mix of old and new MMO ideology.

(TLDR)

I and many like me played the original MMO's for years... long after something new and shiny came along. There are many reasons why, but primary among them was character attachment and real satisfaction in leveling to cap "back in the day". It counted for something... because you earned it.


Krulux

I agree with almost everything you said. Problem with teams making MMOs is - money money money. They don't have the time to make good, big games anymore, they need to sell it asap and move on to the next title while milking the rest of the money with DLCs including weapon scabbards, bananas, being able to see EXP bar and epic socks, preferably each sock being a different DLC with a price of it's own.

The too fast thing just reminded me of how much was Diablo 3 downgraded. Each new patch seems to empower the damage and duration of attacks while making enemies and difficulties easier. Inferno was supposed to be for the best of the best but it feels like a walk in the park now. I had bigger issues getting through Diablo 2's Nightmare in single player. Also remember that the 1st character to reach lv 99 in single was played for 2 years, in Diablo 3 character that's lv 60 and Paragon lv 100 (basically lv 160) was played for around 626 hours which is rougly 26 days. It's a joke.

Putting this aside to read it later, I got a feeling we gonna agree on alot of [censored].

Mmo's have changed drastically in the last three year's. My opinion is that games today are not truly being development for players but for the bottom line the ($$$$) and yet if the development of a game such as ESO focused on what the player base would like the ($$$) would take care of itself. For myself I am waiting on crafting to see how much a player is limited too expressing themselves in crafting to see what limit's will be on ESO before I decide too buy.