It’s a throwback to EverQuest era MMORPGs apparently, with slow, group-focused gameplay and even old-fashioned monsters like the fire beetles:
It’s made by a small indie team on a shoestring budget ($200k), with early 2000s graphics, but I think that is part of its nostalgic appeal. Subscription costs $15/mo but there is no upfront cost or in-game cash shop.
If you are really nostalgic for the original EQ, you can play it for free. Either on official servers or through emulators. I don’t see the appeal of this.
I played original EQ. A lot. A lot a lot. Starting in '99. I don’t feel the need to go backward.
MMOs are a really tough market to break into. Ultimately, what makes an MMO really great is a large player base. And what gets you a large player base is being a really great MMO. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem.
I think the technical term is “network effect natural monopoly”.
Heh, I played a lot too… way too much. It consumed so much of my life for so many years I had to force myself to delete my account just to stop the temptation.
And besides, it’s not the same now that everyone is like level 8000 or whatever. It was that early novelty, when something as simple as running from one city to the other required several hours of finding tour guides and speed boosts, that made it so magical. Over time the conveniences they added (made sense, since nobody had time anymore) unfortunately also moved the game towards easier and easier casual and solo play. And then WOW happened and that was that.
And of course, experiencing those games as a teenager, in their heyday, is totally different from trying them again as a 40 something decades later Now I play for a few hours and mostly lose interest…
No doubt. I was skeptical but hopeful of that other game, Stars Reach (coop sandbox MMO video game) , but it’s dying now. At least this one is apparently at 10k or so players supposedly, which is an encouraging sign.
Now I play for a few hours and mostly lose interest…