OT: MMORPGs & other Online entertainment

[AgentZero]

I've recently began thinking of giving Online gaming another try. My Last forray started with a visit to a Quake-Con like convention, and the sheer egos of those involved put me off the experience the Last few years. And of course we've all heard the horror stories of the behaviour of some of those involved in Online gaming.
I was wondering, since you lot seem like such a decent bunch, do many of you play any Online games, aside from SE PBW, anyway? I've been thinking that World of Warcraft looks a little too tempting to resist, even though I'll have to wait a few months for the European release.

Also, my broadband provider slaps me with monthly download/upload limit (which I personally think defeats the purpose of broadband), and I'm wondering just how much information is sent back and forth when you're playing something like WoW, EQ or the like. Obviously if it's something significant, that might put a hold on my plans for a while.

[Alneyan]

I used to play MMORPGs, back in the days. These weren't exactly "Massive" games though, as there wasn't more than two or three hundred players at once. My preference would probably go to MUDs, like Achaea. MUDs are usually free to play (though some offer credits to have access to special advantages, and, above all, to support the game), but are based on text rather than on graphics.

Download limits make broadband virtually useless indeed (well, unless no ISP offers unlimited access at slower speeds). I believe the amount of downloading/upload done is very low, since even my modem at 33,6 kbauds had no trouble handling the games. Of course, spending a lot of time on such games would probably result in high downloading/uploading, so.

[Arakiel]

I was playing Everquest 2 right up until my home computer went *fizz*...

What I played of it, I liked alot. It has really high hardware specs though which is why I was upgrading...which it turn why it went *fizz*. As with any Online game, the MMO's have their share of jerks and inconsiderate people. They also have their fair share of nice friendly people. Ignore the jerks, hang out with the cool folk and your fine. If your the type that can't just ignore the idiots then MMOs aren't for you. You'll just end up frustrated and angry over silly things.

MUDs are "ok" but were much better back in the day. From my personal experince "most" of the MUD players these days are hardcore mudders which have little or no patience for new people...your results may vary.

As for your download limits, i'm not sure that you should be overly worried about it. Most Online games are still geared towards the 56k modem user since the majority of the planet still doesn't have broadband. Since your dealing with games that can run over 56k they aren't going to be pushing gigs of data every hour to you. So unless your planning on playing for 6 hours straight every day you'll probably be fine.

ed: spelling

[AgentZero]

Just double checked and I've got a montly 4GB download and 1GB upload limit. Anyone know of any utilities that can track how much you're down/uploading, BTW?

[Hugh Manatee]

Thing is most games have configurations in their options, you set up wether or not you have 56 K or BB, if you have BB info is transfered faster.

Myself I play Mech Warrior 4 Mercenaries, it's the best shooting/sim game out there, you customize a robot, load it with guns, and kick some ***. There are a few asshats out thee, but I've found a group of more mature gamers who don't get off on ruining others fun. Another game that looks like fun is Guild Wars, it's a free MMORPG(once you buy the game itself) but that does tend to atract the asshats....

[Alneyan]

That should be enough for casual (and not so casual) play then, if your other uses of bandwidth aren't too heavy. I do not know any utility to check your use of bandwidth, since I have been fortunately spared that annoyance.

The MUDs I played on have a friendly policy towards newbies, which is the sensible thing to do if you would rather not see a given MUD (and most Internet stuff, for lack of a better word) die off. If there is an active presence of the staff, I wouldn't expect any flame at all, at least for a newbie not striving to become the biggest nuisance ever seen on the Internet.

*Grumbles* This thread is tempting me to get back into the world of MMORPGs (well, once I have more free time on my hands). Must... resist... futile...

[Gandalf Parker]

I host a MUD which seems like it just wont die. Hasnt been advertised for almost a decade but people wont let it go.
SDmud.org 7777
if you are interested.

Other than that I recently returned to Ultima Online and Im pretty happy with the changes. Most of my complaints before were from overcrowding and now its way down. Alost too far.
Its abit Monty Haul (too easy to get stuff) but still fun to put time in.

[Randallw]

I play City of Heroes, although I usually solo. Can't say as i've been annoyed by other players really. The most annoying thing is when someone sees me on a list of players and sends a message asking to team up without even talking to me. Talk to me to my face (or if i know them) and i'll be friendly, usually explaining that i was just about to log off. When a message pops up saying "annoyingotherplayer wants to team up. do you agree?" i click it off without even talking to them. As for the download/upload, I actually think I use up more browsing then if I spend an equal amount of time playing.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Heh. Glad to know I'm not the only one who wouldn't rather have someone actually talk to me before hitting that 'team' button...

Probably say 'no' anyway, with my current character. Partly because I'm roleplaying and partly because if I'm going to go into one of the tough hazard zones, I want to know that the other people on the team have a good chance of making it to the target zone. Which means I'd only team up with people who were in the general area of the target zone.