Good evening All and Hello! After a few days of talking within the Realm and Alliances on Albion there seems to be a large want of more types of "event" like that of which the Developers have been doing. Which many of us enjoy and thank them for. But through the conversations and chats within the realm and alliances and battlegroups many generally liked this overall idea. As such I have asked someone whom is much more eloquent then I to more aptly write this, overall this does seem though to be a large amount of views. Please if you have time, give this a read. While it is being posted in the suggestions, I apologize if the Dev's would like this in a different area but as what this entails I guess it would be in suggestions.
This is by no way or means meant to be a criticism of anything
"Hail and well met!
If I could explain my motivation for playing Dark Age of Camelot in one word, it would have to be
nostalgia. My ties to the game are rooted in the four years I played DAoC from 2002-2006. My son
found the game first and introduced me, his gamer mother, to it. He correctly calculated that I would fall
in love with it and pay for his account. In the years that I played it, as my kids grew to adulthood, it
became a place for us to share adventures and friendly competition, and the players in my guild and
alliance became friends who would sustain me through some difficult times.
In 2006, I left that town and my marriage and DAoC. I rebuilt my world and tried a couple of times over
the years to play the Live game again, but it had changed so much that it wasn’t the place I had left. My
house was gone, as were my guild and alliance. Though the geography was familiar, the mechanics were
not. Friends had moved on.
A couple of years ago, I reconnected with one of those dear friends from Dark Age and found Phoenix. I
created characters with the name I had used on Live, made my last name the name of my server on Live,
and soon people recognized me. I found guildies and allies I had played with long ago and made new
friends.
I was delighted to find myself back in the Shrouded Isles expansion I had known so well. It took me some
time to remember things, but every time I visited a place I had known in Live I remembered the people I
cherished and the great times we’d had. I remembered the favorite levelling places where my kids and I
had spent hours laughing together in Vent (remember that?) or tossing teasing remarks across the
room. Something that had been lost to me over time and by necessity has been restored to me in
Phoenix.
Every time the ToA map is opened for an event, I strap on my minstrel shoes and zoom all over it,
remembering where those marvelous, vicious salamander pets could be found back in the day, how
awesome they were when they weren’t trying to kill me. I remember the Khaos Shield quest and the day
the whole alliance went out to get it for the GM in the alliance who usually led those quests and never
claimed loot. I remember how happy he was to get it, and his voice in Vent as he choked up over seeing
so many people turn out just so he could have it.
If you took a poll, I think you would find I am not alone in playing Dark Age because of nostalgia. It’s
certainly not because of state-of-the-art game play or graphics. It’s not because each class in Alb is
perfectly balanced against their counterparts in Hib and Mid. It’s because it takes us back to the glory
days when we shared victory (and defeat) tackling those bloody ML’s that took 200 people and hours to
complete, relentlessly battling the other realms, leveling toons to 50 and then farming for the plats to
template them. The challenges of the game required many people and much cooperation to complete
and gave us a reason to build the close-knit guilds and alliances that created real community.
I think nerfing the big mobs on Live was one reason for its demise. If I only need a group to complete the
hardest challenge in the game, why go through the work of building a larger community? And without
the community, what is the game?
If I could ask the Dark Age version of Santa for anything, it would be that the developers remember the
element of nostalgia when they are charting the game’s future. I appreciate all of the hard work that has
gone into developing the XP events, and it has been a blast playing cooperatively with the other realms,
but I don’t want to see Trolls or Firbolgs in Camelot City or Dartmoor. I am unapologetically an Alb for
life, and if I want to experience the other realms I have 100 character slots to do that with.
I don’t know anything about coding or programming, but if it’s not too difficult, perhaps you could open
the ToA ML’s for PvE events and reward us with feathers or drops or credit toward skins that make our
player-crafted gear look like the artifacts (but don’t bring back artifacts that have to be levelled, please).
I could see each month rolling out a different ML for fun, and that would take up most of a year. But if
the game takes off too far in a new direction and no longer tugs at the heartstring of my nostalgic self
who started this game with her first minstrel in 2002, then it will have lost something essential which
motivates many of us to be here."
Thank you for an opportunity to be heard.
GM of Riders on the Storm
If anyone else feels this way please if allowed... write out your nostalgia stories, or perhaps similar poll type ideas. Again this is meant not to be of any criticism. Only of fond memories of nostalgia and hopefuls for more myriad events -Perci
This is by no way or means meant to be a criticism of anything
"Hail and well met!
If I could explain my motivation for playing Dark Age of Camelot in one word, it would have to be
nostalgia. My ties to the game are rooted in the four years I played DAoC from 2002-2006. My son
found the game first and introduced me, his gamer mother, to it. He correctly calculated that I would fall
in love with it and pay for his account. In the years that I played it, as my kids grew to adulthood, it
became a place for us to share adventures and friendly competition, and the players in my guild and
alliance became friends who would sustain me through some difficult times.
In 2006, I left that town and my marriage and DAoC. I rebuilt my world and tried a couple of times over
the years to play the Live game again, but it had changed so much that it wasn’t the place I had left. My
house was gone, as were my guild and alliance. Though the geography was familiar, the mechanics were
not. Friends had moved on.
A couple of years ago, I reconnected with one of those dear friends from Dark Age and found Phoenix. I
created characters with the name I had used on Live, made my last name the name of my server on Live,
and soon people recognized me. I found guildies and allies I had played with long ago and made new
friends.
I was delighted to find myself back in the Shrouded Isles expansion I had known so well. It took me some
time to remember things, but every time I visited a place I had known in Live I remembered the people I
cherished and the great times we’d had. I remembered the favorite levelling places where my kids and I
had spent hours laughing together in Vent (remember that?) or tossing teasing remarks across the
room. Something that had been lost to me over time and by necessity has been restored to me in
Phoenix.
Every time the ToA map is opened for an event, I strap on my minstrel shoes and zoom all over it,
remembering where those marvelous, vicious salamander pets could be found back in the day, how
awesome they were when they weren’t trying to kill me. I remember the Khaos Shield quest and the day
the whole alliance went out to get it for the GM in the alliance who usually led those quests and never
claimed loot. I remember how happy he was to get it, and his voice in Vent as he choked up over seeing
so many people turn out just so he could have it.
If you took a poll, I think you would find I am not alone in playing Dark Age because of nostalgia. It’s
certainly not because of state-of-the-art game play or graphics. It’s not because each class in Alb is
perfectly balanced against their counterparts in Hib and Mid. It’s because it takes us back to the glory
days when we shared victory (and defeat) tackling those bloody ML’s that took 200 people and hours to
complete, relentlessly battling the other realms, leveling toons to 50 and then farming for the plats to
template them. The challenges of the game required many people and much cooperation to complete
and gave us a reason to build the close-knit guilds and alliances that created real community.
I think nerfing the big mobs on Live was one reason for its demise. If I only need a group to complete the
hardest challenge in the game, why go through the work of building a larger community? And without
the community, what is the game?
If I could ask the Dark Age version of Santa for anything, it would be that the developers remember the
element of nostalgia when they are charting the game’s future. I appreciate all of the hard work that has
gone into developing the XP events, and it has been a blast playing cooperatively with the other realms,
but I don’t want to see Trolls or Firbolgs in Camelot City or Dartmoor. I am unapologetically an Alb for
life, and if I want to experience the other realms I have 100 character slots to do that with.
I don’t know anything about coding or programming, but if it’s not too difficult, perhaps you could open
the ToA ML’s for PvE events and reward us with feathers or drops or credit toward skins that make our
player-crafted gear look like the artifacts (but don’t bring back artifacts that have to be levelled, please).
I could see each month rolling out a different ML for fun, and that would take up most of a year. But if
the game takes off too far in a new direction and no longer tugs at the heartstring of my nostalgic self
who started this game with her first minstrel in 2002, then it will have lost something essential which
motivates many of us to be here."
Thank you for an opportunity to be heard.
GM of Riders on the Storm
If anyone else feels this way please if allowed... write out your nostalgia stories, or perhaps similar poll type ideas. Again this is meant not to be of any criticism. Only of fond memories of nostalgia and hopefuls for more myriad events -Perci
