When I was a younger man, I once had a brilliant idea. It was late in 2018 and I was gearing up to embark on the daunting task of producing a podcast every month the following year. I had recently purchased a plethora of Final Fantasy games on Vita and I decided to play one a month for the show. With 15 games and only 12 months in the challenge, I struck XIII (because it sucks) XI and XIV from the list to make the math work.
Eliminating XIV was difficult, but I knew Hobby Box Burns had played an insane amount of the game so I figured we were covered. After we ranked all the mainline entries earlier this year, my wife thought the latest online title sounded interesting and encouraged me to check it out. With the pandemic and most summer activities cancelled, I was able to sink over 30 hours into the game.
Perhaps I will get around to writing about the experience, but suffice to say I loved it. I’ve always had an affinity for MMOs, and it had been a while since I had really sunk my teeth into one. This month felt like a perfect time to rehash my MMO history and rank the titles I’ve tried.
Ultima Online
Much like when I wrote about reuniting with Baldur’s Gate last December, I will always have an affinity for UO. It was my first online love. It was released in 1997 and I was astonished to learn that it charged a monthly fee. This was before I had a credit card and I didn’t think there was any way to convince my parents to pay for it. Like any good hustler, I found another sucker to pick up the tab.
At the time I was working for a place called the Internet Depot. This was before everyone had cell phones, let alone smartphones, and people would actually spend money to come in and use internet-connected PCs. I convinced the boss that we could expand our market if we had computer games for people to play. I got him to pick up two copies of Ultima Online. I could play at work and had run of the account when the Depot was closed.
Visually, games have come a long way from UO’s isometric view. This game was essentially a big fantasy sandbox. You played a human with a few cosmetic options and dropped into a lawless world, free to pursue your interests. You were free to be as industrious or evil as you wanted to be. There were monsters to slay, dungeons to crawl, houses to play and hundreds of strangers to troll.
One of the things I really enjoyed about the game was the skill-based progression system. There were no character classes to choose from, just a bank of skills. You could have a total of 700 skill points and skills went from 1-100. Generally you needed a fighting skill (swords, fencing, archery, whatever), tactics (I can’t remember the impact it had on fighting, but I believe it was essential), magery and magic resistance, that’s four of your seven maxed skills. Other things like healing and hiding had to be weighed carefully. Skills had attributes tied to them. Raising your magery would increase your intelligence, improving swordsmanship would increase your health. Your attributes were capped at 100 apiece, with a total of 250 points available. You couldn’t max out your health, mana and stamina, you had to choose the attributes you valued most.
I have never played another game that let you be a villain like UO. You could steal from other characters and/or kill them. If they caught you trying to steal, you would turn gray to them, and they would be able to attack you without repercussion. If you attacked a player you turned gray and anyone could attack you. If you killed five or more player characters, you turned red and anyone could attack you any time without penalty. If you tried to commit these sins in any town, the victim could call the guards and they would teleport in and kill you instantly.
Fighting monsters in a dungeon is always fun. The lawlessness of UO would crank the intensity up to 11. Yeah, you could take down a couple more water elementals and increase your haul, but if a couple reds roll in you risk losing everything.
I’ve always loved freeform exploration and UO gave you the freedom to go wherever you want and build your character however you want, even if you plan was dumb. I am astonished to see the game is still running today and still offers a paid subscription.
Everquest
A couple years later, Everquest came out. It offered a more robust fantasy experience, you could even play as a troll! I can’t remember a lot about this game. It also had a monthly fee. I didn’t have a PC that could run it, I have no idea when or why I bought it. I did play one summer on my roommate’s PC in the dorm. I’m sure he was thrilled to have me on his computer all the time playing Everquest and Diablo II.
Amazingly, this game is still alive as well. Check out this article from PC gamer on how Everquest was still relevant 20 years after release.
Ultima Online Again – In Por Ylem
Later in college, sometime around 2002, free shards of Ultima Online started popping up. The base game had undergone some dramatic changes. One of my friends stumbled across In Por Ylem, which promised a traditional UO experience – without any subscription fee. It was amazing. I poured hours into the game on another roommate’s PC. I can’t remember how long I stuck with Ultima this time, or why I drifted away from it. Who knows why a 21-year-old does anything?
World of Warcraft
On Nov. 23, 2004 my college career was nearly derailed by the release of World of Warcraft. My roommate picked it up and after watching him play for a little bit I drove from store to store in Mankato until I got my hands on a copy. Suddenly school, work and every other aspect of life became less important as I dove into the world of Azeroth. Seriously, I nearly failed my last semester’s worth of classes because of the game.
Out of the gate, you had to choose whether your character would be a member of the Horde or Alliance. I created an undead mage for the Horde. The two factions were at war, if you saw a member of the other side out in the world you couldn’t communicate with them, and you could attack them openly. At launch, it was the only PvP in the game.
Some zones were primarily Horde or Alliance zones. Some were contested. Either way, whenever you saw a human or an elf, you knew the fun was about to end. Usually, a bunch of them would roll in, kill you and camp on your body, effectively halting your progress on the current quest. May as well go watch a movie or something, and hope they get bored by the time you are done. These interactions set off such a visceral reaction for me, I no longer enjoyed playing as humans, elves or dwarves in other games. I still carry a grudge against the alliance, but they did lead to this plum:
On a less infuriating note, I have always enjoyed crafting in MMOs. If I recall correctly, you could also choose one gathering skill and one crafting skill. For crafting, I chose enchanting which required items you only get from breaking down magical items. I’ve never had such a sense of poverty in an MMO. I did have a lot of fun dabbling with all of the gathering and crafting skills on side characters.
WoW is the first game I remember with instanced dungeons.INstances are game areas set off from the rest of the world, that only your party is currently inhabiting. I recall the WoW dungeons being really long. For comparison, Final Fantasy XIV starts you off with a bunch of tiny instances to teach you the core mechanics for your class.
I learned some things about myself in WoW. Most notably, I don’t play well with strangers. I generally consider myself a kind and considerate human being, but in the veil of anonymity on the internet my most uncouth side shines. I eventually created an alternate character that was a healer and if someone in the party pissed me off, I would just let them die in dungeons. If I wasn’t playing with friends, I really struggled with some of the content. There were some quests that just weren’t manageable for solo play.
I tried quitting this game multiple times. Eventually, they announced that the amount of experience needed for levelling would be significantly reduced. That caused a nerd rage that officially broke the WoW spell for me. I hear the game has changed dramatically from when I used to play it. They released WoW classic last year and I’ve debated jumping on to relive the glory days, but then I think, “eh.”
UO Again? What’s Wrong With You Dude?
In Por Ylem relaunched in February, 2011. It was a complete server wipe – everyone would be starting from square one. We got a group of friends together and we were going to hit it hard at launch and buy a sweet house in a great spot. We all chose different crafting avenues to make sure we could outfit ourselves with good gear and make a bunch of money. I chose the role of blacksmith.
I spent roughly 26 of the first 30 hours the server was live mining ore and crafting greaves after determining they were the most profitable item I had access to. With Ultima, your skills only go up when you are doing something that challenges your skill level. I think making greaves took me from 50 blacksmithing to about 60 and then my skill gain flatlined, meaning all I was doing was grinding out gold for the greater good.
After the initial binge I had earned about 60,000 gold. My friends immediately ditched crafting to fight monsters (which is much more fun) and earned a combined about 5,000 gold. We/I got a sweet house in a great location outside a city. We played for a bit, but I think I fell off when the baseball season started a couple months later.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
I honestly thought this could be the best game I would ever play. It combined three things I love: MMOs, Star Wars and Bioware games. The game released Dec. 20, 2011. I had quit my job in Minor League Baseball months earlier and moved back to Minnesota with a very slim bank account and a huge credit card debt. I knew I would struggle with the monthly fee until I found a job.
When I eventually found a job I didn’t have time to play. Also, I had just started dating this blonde girl I had known since high school and I needed to reallocate resources. I can’t remember if I played for 30 days or a little longer, but I fell off the game pretty quickly.
There was a lot I enjoyed about The Old Republic. It had a stronger emphasis on story than any other MMO to date. Each class had a unique storyline with completely voiced cutscenes. You got your own ship. You took part in space battles. I thought it was really fun. It just came out at the wrong time for me. The next year the game went free to play. You can still get the great class stories, but there are limitations for free players. Check this article from PC gamer on the free-to-play model.
Guild Wars 2
The original Guild Wars broke the traditional MMO mold by launching without a monthly fee. You buy the game and you can play it. That’s pretty great. Unfortunately it was competing with WoW, and no one has time to really commit to two MMOs.
When the second game went free to play I took the opportunity to introduce my future wife to the world of online gaming. She enjoys getting wailing on monsters. We played for a couple pretty decent sessions, but we never really fell in love with it. I thought it was fun, but it couldn’t topple Diablo III or the Lego games for us. Eventually my desktop crapped out, and as a one PC family we couldn’t play it together anymore.
Tom’s Authoritative Ranking
Based on my personal experiences outlined above, I hereby list the official ranking of MMOS:
- Final Fantasy XIV
- Ultima Online
- World of Warcraft
- Star Wars The Old Republic
- Guild Wars 2
- Everquest
What’s New at OiO
Episode 24 of Outside is Overrated – Final Fantasy VII Remake
In the latest episode of the podcast, Tom, Joey and Brandon dive into one of their most anticipated games in years – the Final Fantasy VII Remake. The crew talks about what is familiar, what is new and what comes next. There are clear warnings before spoilers.
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Thank you so much for reading my column this month. Until next time, stay inside kids!