Memorable Moments

[Lum]

I'm currently finishing up a book which is an introduction to MMGs for newbies (omg!) and one of the things I'd like to include is a small bit with 10 players describing their most memorable moment in an MMG. If you'd like to be included and have your exploits memorialized in print for the benefit of newbies everywhere, feel free to post it here. 

Some various ground rules:

1) Must be G-rated.
2) Must be written in a way that someone who's never played the game you're talking about knows what's going on.
3) Length: can't be more than 3-4 paragraphs. More than a sentence. :)

Thanks!

[WayAbvPar]

One of my favorite moments-

This comes from Shadowbane (a game based on PvP/guild warfare). My character was a thief, able to ‘hide’ and become invisible until I took overt action (like attacking or stealing from another player or mob). I was tracking a group of enemy players near one my my guild’s cities, reporting back to the guild leadership about their movements and relative strength.

Eventually, the enemy group stopped on a hill outside the city, just out of visual range. While waiting for my guildmates to come and help me kill them, I took the opportunity to peek into each of their packs (still remaining unseen) to see if they were carrying anything useful. Lo and behold, I found that one of them was carrying a siege hammer (a very expensive piece of equipment specifically used to damage an enemy’s city walls and buildings, costing the enemy gold to repair them).

I waited for the cavalry to come. When I heard (through the guild chat) that they were closing in, I made my move. I snuck up next to the carrier of the siege hammer and stole it from his pack, which caused me to become visible. In the momentary confusion, I started running for my life, with all 5 enemies hot on my heels.. I led them on a merry chase for a minute or two, but was running out of time (and health!), but  laughing until I had tears in my eyes. Just as I was sure I was going to die, I ran over the top of a hill- right into my group of guildmates!

The tables were turned- I spun around and attacked the nearest enemy, and in just a few moments it was all over. 5 enemies lay dead at our feet, with their precious siege hammer in my pack. Moments like this are why I play games.

[Rasix]

I guess I'll have to post one from WoW (stolen from the defunct blog and editted for language) since most of my good UO stories involve stylized violence and PKing.

This World of Warcraft moment happened in Uldaman. If you're not familiar with this dungeon, it's geological dig site in The Badlands that's mostly filled with troggs, evil dwarves, and has a nasty reputation for swarming you at times with just hordes of monsters. There are a lot of encounters seemingly just designed in this instance to shock and awe. One such encounter completely took me by suprise.

Anyhow, before entering the dungeon, we didn't look on thottbot (a popular spoiler site). I find it's best not to know what's coming ahead of you, so you can get the most out of some of the more interesting encounters in this game. To get to this fight, you need to complete a very Indiana Jonesish quest. You get pieces of a staff in the beginning areas of the dungeon. One piece is pilfered from a trio of dwarves; an homage to an earlier Blizzard game. You assemble and plant the staff in front of a miniture model version of a city. As you might guess, a light beam eminates from somewhere, hits the staff and a ray of light shoots out. Except.. this ray lingers on a huge, previously inaccessible door across the room(not on the model city) and that door opens. Out pops something that nearly made me crap my pants.

The size helped me jump. The thing was easy twice the height of your normal giant, which made it so we were stabbing it in the feet. The gutteral noise the giant made somewhat scared me. But the level of the giant being displayed as a skull instead of an actual number (in the user interface) did the trick. That's almost like Blizzard saying, "haha, NOW YOU DIE". Usually, this is reserved for something so high above you, it would have little problems mashing you into a fine pulp. Only later playing did I learn that this is also used for "boss" type monsters. I backed up for a second, turned around, and ran for about 5 feet just out natural, "we're all going to die" fear (good to know the coward at heart still lives within me). Then I quickly pulled it together, turned around, and engaged the giant. Luckily my two companions were a bit more cool-headed than I was and were already in the midst of fighting. Of course, I then heard over the phone, "I remember hearing about this encounter, this mob is really only around level 50". You know, that would have been good information BEFORE WE STARTED THE FIGHT. But, I think in retrospect, it was more fun not to know.

[Toast]

Dragon:
In good old Everquest, I joined a loosely organized group of players to raid a big red dragon's lair. As a lower level player, I had never killed anything more threatening than a rat, a beetle, or, perhaps, a goblin. Our red dragon target, Lord Nagafen, was the stuff of legends at this point in Everquest. Going to kill "Naggy" had become a rite of passage for players who would proudly announce their Lord Nagafen raids in gaming message board personal signatures.

So, here I was outside Lord Nagafen's lava-filled bedroom. At this point, our mob had meandered for hours fighting bats, bugs, giants, and glacial frame rates to finally reach the big red dragon. The time to fight was finally here. When the "Go Go Go!" order from leader scrolled across my chat bar, I charged into the room.

My heart was pounding. My hands were sweating. The giant dragon filled my screen. It was beautiful, even if it was stuttering around and clipping through the walls and objects the cave. Nagafen's roaring and jingles and zings of spells cast by players filled my ears.  In the excitement, Nagafen's powerful fear spell sent my character running uncontrollably away from the fight. I fell off a ledge into some lava, and when I finally emerged, the beast had been slain.  I apparently never even landed a blow. I spent the entire fight treading lava. That didn't even matter. I had killed a dragon.

[Llava]

When I killed 3, nearly 4, higher level players in Dark Age Of Camelot with guerilla tactics.

My friends had been patrolling the area for a while (only a couple of them) and I was coming to join them.  I was playing a level 43 Mentalist at the time.  As I was walking along to catch up with them, their names popped up on the screen as having been killed by enemy realm members.  They said they were on their way back and that I should wait, so that's what I did.  I travelled to the nearest milegate and hid in the tower up top.

As I was waiting, four members of an enemy realm (each level 50, the maximum level in this game) came running up to the milegate and waited at the base.  Somehow, they hadn't seen me through the windows.  I decided that they would almost certainly notice me eventually and that I should take advantage of my position while I had it.  I started casting everything I had at them, through the window.  Apparently, they didn't think to look up, because they ran around confused for a while trying to figure out what was killing them.  One dropped, then another, then another.  The last one standing was a Necromancer, who had been hurt.

What you need to now about Necromancers is that, in this game, they act entirely through their undead pets.  Kill the pet, the Necromancer is just a soft, nearly dead, exceedingly wimpy target.  The pet, however, is very dangerous.  I attacked the pet from above, but it came running up the stairs of the milegate towards me and out of my line of sight.  I hid in the opposite corner corner, waiting for it to open the door.  It did and I unloaded, taking off a large chunk of its health.  It closed and hit me once with its weapon, hurting me badly.  I stunned it with another spell, ran towards the door, and hit it again.  As it came out of the stun and towards me again, I opened the door and jumped off the milegate, taking some damage for the fall.  The pet couldn't follow suit, so I got a bit more distance and hit it with everything I had.  It was nearly dead when it reached me, managing to hit me only once before the residual damage from one of my spells finished it off.

And then, there before me, was the Necromancer.  He had a shred of health, as did I.  He came at me with his staff, prepared to bludgeon me to death.  I prepared to stun him, but he ducked behind me and out of my line of sight before it went off.  He smacked me once with his staff.  I turned, this time locking on him so he couldn't duck behind me again, and began casting my stun spell to lock him down so I could finish him.  A split second was all I needed.  Just a half second longer.  But it wasn't to be- his staff cracked against my body, finally removing the last breaths from my exhausted frame.  I fell to the ground and died.

The Necromancer, though, had no time to celebrate his victory.  My friends had arrived in the area in time to see the announcements of the kills I had scored, and they came into view just as I died.  They charged at the Necromancer and obliterated him.  It wasn't as satisfying as finishing the kill myself, but it was pretty satisfying.

[Rodent]

My most memorable moment in a MMOG comes from UO. As a rookie with only a limited MUD experience as my ally I headed out from the inn by Vesper in search of fame&fortune. I quickly came across a mushroom circle and decided that this would clearly be a magical place, so I decided to walk into it and see what happened... From out of nowhere ( well from the edge of the monitor ) comes a headless one and chases me away. I was still convinced the mushroom circle was magical and I vowed to return after I had developed some fighting skill and gotten myself some armor.

I never did go back to that particular circle since by the time I was armed and ready to take on the headless, I already knew enough about UO to understand the utter insignifigance of it... I still smiled when I walked/ran past one though, and it's my best memory from a MMOG ever.

[Cheddar]

When I first started UO I was far from a power gamer.  I began with 10 strength (death in those days) and max dexterity.  I figured out that you could steal from someone right on the edge of town, run inside the town line, and when they attacked the guards would wack them, thereby allowing you to loot all their goods (key was to call guards one step inside town lines so they died outside).  So one night I was doing this, and a guy in full plate got wacked.  BINGO - BIG MONEY! 

I promptly looted him, banked the goods, and moved on.  All his plate armor was magic, along with the halberd.  So, blissfully I went back to my little noob thief technique, and after loading up on ill gotten goods I started heading back to bank goods. Out of the blue the guards wacked me!!!  Evidently after a certain amount of stealing you went red, and that was insta death in town.  I now had a bank full of goods I could not access!  As I stood around trying to figure out what to do (creating a new character was the only solution I could think of), the guy with the fancy magic plate and halberd I had aquired earlier walked up.  He had some skill in ghost talk (I forget the exact skill name), and we proceeded to make a deal.  He would help me find a red healer in Yew, help me turn blue again. and I would return his halberd.

We literally spent HOURS working our way around Yew.  At the time there was a guild on Sonoma called "Spawn," and all their members were named spawn.  They were zerg PK's, and I almost lost my new partner to them.  Well during the run we met another dead guy named Lancelot (killed by the aforementioned Spawn).  He joined us in our journey to return to our physical bodies.  Eventually we ran into a red healer, got ressed, and began our trek to plate guys house.  None of us had magic, so we had to wander around guarded areas, and really that was an adventure in and of itself.  Eventually we made it to his house, and he had a begger trapped inside.  After handing me 100 gold he told me to give the begger 1 gold every 5 minutes.  By this time I was tired and bored, so logged of after getting Lancelots e-mail address.

The next night I made a new character (I was not about to stand there handing 1 gold every five minutes for God knows how long), met up with Lancelot, turned away from my life of crime, and began my life as an adventure.  We spent the next 3 years playing together, having a myriad of adventures, and just enjoying the golden age of Ultima Online.

Oh and the halberd that plate guy was willing to do anything for?  A couple years later a banker was added to Bucs Den, and I had to see what the fuss was all about (for years I was curious as to what that item was, I was of a firm belief it would be vanquishing).  Turned out to be a Halberd of Ruin (lowest level of magic).  Oh the sweet bliss of noobedom!

[Xilren's Twin]

Two short ones:
The first is a little generic in that it's not a single encounter or event, but flying for the first time and engaging in multi-foe/airborne combat in City of Heroes.  CoH is a superhero themed game that draws it's insipiration from comic books, and nothing says "hero" to me more clearly than the ability to fly.  Coming from games where combat was mostly an group on 1 foe and the third dimension was just a picture to CoH was like a breath of fresh air.  Being able to soar to the tops of skyscrapers, statues and all over the landscape of Paragon City with your cape flapping in the wind, diving down to help some person in trouble, or even flying away from a bad situation just fits the mood.  "Puny mortal, what good will your knife do you now. I can FLY!"

The other great feeling of combat in CoH is the ability to take on multiple foes from the get go.  Heroes shouldn't need to gang up just to beat one foe; they wade through hordes of minions to get to the supervillians.  My storm defender was using his gale power to send multiple foes hurling backwards through the air as soon as he donned his costume.  Flying up to the top of a building and blowing gang members off the roof to watch them try and run away just feels right.

And lastly, the first time I saw a game react to my actions, even if it was just a limited way, was memorable.

I was doing an lower level quest in Dark Age of Camelot involved brining a message to some soldiers at a guard post.  Sounded simple enough, so travelled the land and delieved the message, thinking my task was complete.  Suddenly the guards sound the alarm!  We've being attacked by a swarm of undead charging us from the woods on a nearby hill.  I hoist my weapon and join the fray, helping the defenders defeat the skeletal menace...

That was the first time I can remember in game npc's reacting in a fun way beyond just dialogue or a small scripted scene.  Probably 20 npc engaging in battle right in front of me.  While this is certainly more prevalent in today's games, at the time is was a definate improvement to the status quo and made me want to do quests more, to see what i could discover rather than simply monster hunting in the wilds.

Xilren

[Mr_PeaCH]

I know that you asked a bunch of MMO vets for their memorable experiences.  But since the subject of your book is an introduction of the genre to newbies my thoughts went along the lines of how I felt about my first MMO when I was but a n00b myself.

I had been playing Diablo and Diablo II for years but never had played anything truly 'massive' or persistent.  My Diablo clan was very large and some of the leaders had sampled the new MMORPG "Dark Age of Camelot" and urged the entire clan to make the migration.  And so DAoC became my first MMORPG.  I had been told that we were concentrating on a particular server (Pellinor) and realm (Albion) and so I went there and created a new acolyte (healer type) toon.  I emerged 'in game' at the Prydwen Keep in the zone of Camelot Hills.  This was grade-A newbiedom at its finest.  I was stunned by the numbers; dozens of playing characters running around inside the keep itself, seemingly hundreds out in the killing grounds.  People 'shouted' at each other in greeting, asking questions and trying to form groups.  The game was so vibrant, so alive; Even though games like this had existed long before (UO, EQ...) it was an absolute and wonderful shock to my system. 

I had been given instructions on how to search for my friends and get word out that I had arrived but I decided to do some quick exploring on my own.  I remember standing in front of the keep, high on the hill, and just watching the sun rise in-game during those first few minutes.  I was in awe.  I trod down the hill and wandered through some trees and found a river that ran behind the keep.  I took a few tentative steps into the water half afraid that I might simply sink to the bottom but of course I was able to swim and did so to reach the far bank.  I thought I heard music so I searched around and found another player, a minstrel, standing behind a tree with colorful musical notes issuing forth from a lute.  Incredible!  I asked her about the song she was playing and she must have had a good laugh, it was just a spell she was casting.  But it was pure magic to me.  Alas, I wandered to close to what I thought was another player only to discover too late that it was an aggressive 'mob' (mobile creature, monster) and one too high a level for me to handle.  It promptly tucked me in for my first DAoC dirt nap... oh no, but not my last.

Months later finds me a cagey DAoC veteran and my character is trying to rendezvous with my guildmates to group up and tackle one of the better dungeons (the Barrows).  My sister-in-law comes in while I'm 'in transit' (riding a horse) and starts asking me about the game that I'm playing.  She has absolutely no knowledge of the genre and so I'm trying to explain that there are hundreds, even thousands of people 'in game' with me right now; she expresses disbelief.  I jump off the horse and head for the entrance and I only pass monsters, no players, so her disbelief grows; she actually believes I'm putting her on.  When I reach the entrance, several of my friends are standing about so I quickly type to them how my sis is right here with me and would they please try and convince her that there are real people behind other computers all playing this game.  Hilarity ensued as some began dancing and 'emoting' for her amusement.  I pointed her attention toward the chat box where others were asking her for her name and still others were insisting that she was right and this was all just an elaborate ruse planned by me.  To this day I think she's only half convinced that MMO gaming is real and she still occasionally brings that incident up... some people are just that way, I guess.

[Venkman]

I was playing one of those shooter games at work when a buddy walked up and said his brother got him hooked on this "Ultima Online" game. Now, I had previously heard about it, but only from folks who scoffed at those "whackos" that apparently like logging into some virtual world just to get chased around by people who like killing them.

But this guy I trusted, so I decided to give it a shot.

I've never looked back.

"Darniaq" was born in Diablo 2, but he really was raised in UO. The most memorable moment I've ever had was my first encounter with random strangers who went out of their way to help me.

I'm running from the local graveyard back to Empath Abbey with what I guessed was the entire place following me. Out of nowhere, this portal opens, and out comes two what-I-assumed-were really experienced high level players. A bunch of lightning and meteors later, the undead were, err, dead. Again.

Six months later, I took over leadership of the guild they invited me into a week after that meeting. That action also required I finally buy a house in which to place the Guild statue, and this action required me to supplement the ingame gold I had at the time with the necessary balance I ended up having to purchase with real world cash. That was my first experience with what is now called "Real Money Trading" (RMT). It was also my last. The honor of taking over leadership of the guild, and the requirement of a house to take on the statue, were both enough for me to justify the purchase. No other event has come close.

More importantly, the random encounter started me on the path of paying it forward. In every game, I generally end up with whatever class or template can move fast, can get out of danger quickly, and dispenses big friggin' explosions. Altogether, this lets me roam the landscape periodically, looking for those in need. Trite maybe, but it adds a social dimension to these games, something that justifies the monthly fee.

I can nuke monsters all day long in hundreds of other single player games. Only in massive online ones can I do that to aid people I don't know.

[schild]

I just felt the need to point out that UO was probably the most NON newbie friendly [online] game ever. Yet everyone's story is from that.

[Cheddar]

I just felt the need to point out that UO was probably the most NON newbie friendly [online] game ever. Yet everyone's story is from that.

It was pretty much the first TRUE MMORPG.  Also, one of the things missing is the extreme lows and highs these days.  Part of what made UO fun was not KNOWING what was going to happen when you went out adventuring.  This leads to memorable instances; such as the time you overcame that PK'r who ganked you 400 times.  Or the feeling of intense relief when you escaped near death after getting jumped.  Human behavior is not predictable; computer controlled MOBs are. 

[Llava]

I just felt the need to point out that UO was probably the most NON newbie friendly [online] game ever. Yet everyone's story is from that.

Mostly UO and DAoC.  Weird, that.

[Cheddar]

I just felt the need to point out that UO was probably the most NON newbie friendly [online] game ever. Yet everyone's story is from that.

Mostly UO and DAoC.  Weird, that.

Tag! Your it!

[Driakos]

I got another UO story to through onto the pile.

In the Town of Jhelom, there was an arena.  Players hardly used the arena as it was envisioned.  Instead, they used it to fight the Warrior NPCs that spawned in the arena, to train up their combat skills.  The NPCs that spawned, all had a pretty distinctive style.  Big clunky helmet, ringmail tunic, and assorted non-matching armor.  They were always named things like Thomas, Gaylord, or Frederick.  Simple one word names.

I would dress up like a warrior NPC, and go to the arena.  If there were two or more players in the area training their skills it was game on!

I'd NPC waddle on over to one player.  In UO the NPCs have a tell-tale method of walking.  It's more like a stutter-step they do across the screen.  I'd just hang around for a few minutes doing nothing.  Then when a player from across the screen would start fighting a new warrior NPC, I'd go into War-Mode and NPC beeline walk over to his newly spawned warrior.  Then I'd attack and kill it.  The players would use wimpy weapons to fight their NPCs, so they would last longer and they could pay less attention to the boring process of skill gain.    Killing another players NPC was bad form.  But it would look like player A, sent me, over to kill player Bs NPC (you could hire them for gold).  So player B would laugh, and tell player A to knock it off.  Player A who was previously oblivious to what happened, would be confused. 

Sidling back over to my player master, I'd stand around dormant until another warrior spawned.  Again, I'd go into War-Mode and kill it.  Player B was now yelling at Player A.  Player A would tell me "all stop"  "All stop", at which time I'd hit my speech macro "Very well, I am no longer guarding or following."  Many nemeses found each other in the Jhelom pits.

B: dude stop
A: huh?
B: dude stop killing my npcs
A: im not lol
B: STOP
A: all stop
Me: Very well, I am no longer guarding or following.
A: all stop
Me: Very well, I am no longer guarding or following.
NPC spawns
Me: Guards! Tis murder!
B: WTF!!!1111

I loved it.



In early Everquest, players bodies would die in all sorts of strange poses around the landscape.  Bodies through walls.  Bodies stuck in trees.  Bodies in the sky.  I'd lose hours of play time, because when I would come across a messed up body, I'd have to stick around and have fun with it. (not that kind of fun)  Like, a body sticking out of the side of a tree, I'd talk in Ol' Prospector voice at anyone running by.  "Don go in dem woods!  The bears in that forest knock mens through solid oak they do!  I'll sell ya dis here magic fire beetle eye!  Ward off bears it do!  Ohhhhh peaches!"  Or try and start a cult to worship the flying corpse in the sky.  Most people don't play along.  Less talk, more level.  Fun for me though :)  Which is probably why it took 2 months for me to get to level 14, before finally quitting EQ.

[Fabricated]

When me my friends first started World of Warcraft two of us made Tauren characters (basically, Minotaurs), after running though the newbie areas we finally got to go see the capital city of the Tauren, Thunder Bluff.

Thunder Bluff is basically a city on top of a series of huge mesas that reach way up into the sky for what feels like miles. After taking the ride up to the city we got into a discussion if World of Warcraft had falling damage. Sounds stupid, but neither of us had played a lot of MMORPGs, and the last few we had tried had either no falling damage or non-fatal damage.

So I ask, "Well, are we going to find out or not?"

Since we thought we'd be treated like idiots if we asked "HAY GUYZ DOES FALLING HURT" on the general chat channel, so we did the only intelligent thing...we jumped off Thunder Bluff. We both barreled over the nearest ledge we could see, and fell...and fell...and fell...and naturally, died after splattering all over the ground.

Of course, we could've tried a smaller drop, or read the manual, or asked on the general channel, but our experiment in darwinism proved to be much more fun. Who'd have known that falling hurt?

We eventually moved on to other servers, but my friend always brings up our scientific experiment whenever we group with other players.

[Arnold]

I just felt the need to point out that UO was probably the most NON newbie friendly [online] game ever. Yet everyone's story is from that.

It was pretty much the first TRUE MMORPG.  Also, one of the things missing is the extreme lows and highs these days.  Part of what made UO fun was not KNOWING what was going to happen when you went out adventuring.  This leads to memorable instances; such as the time you overcame that PK'r who ganked you 400 times.  Or the feeling of intense relief when you escaped near death after getting jumped.  Human behavior is not predictable; computer controlled MOBs are. 

I probably would have quit UO really quickly, as I had quit all the MUDs I tried on and off in college.  What got me to stay was a nemesis.  He preyed on me when I was a newbie and I was awed by the things he did then.  I wanted to get strong and I wanted my revenge.

Strangely enough, my quest took me to other things, areas, and groups to gain power.  I never did get my revenge, and when I finally did meet that nemesis again, years later, he was a shell of his former self.  After all the thief nerfing, I found him in the process of converting his tank thief into a warrior.  We joked about the old days and had a good time.  I didn't want to kill him anymore because I understood what the game was about, and I didn't feel the grudge anymore.  Of course, until I told him, he was never aware the grudge existed, or remembered me.  I was just another one of the hundreds of people he preyed upon.

[Merusk]

I just felt the need to point out that UO was probably the most NON newbie friendly [online] game ever. Yet everyone's story is from that.

Mostly UO and DAoC.  Weird, that.

I'm trying to decide which EQ story I want to tell.  There's lots of EQ haters here, most who enjoyed any part of the game were driven off a long while ago.

[Sky]

There was an orphan girl who lurked on the outskirts of Moonglow. She was a nice girl, but her parents had been killed by rapacious pirates before her eyes, so she had to make a living somehow. Tired of stealing bread from honest bakers, she waited until the pirates landed one night and crept out to their ship. The drowsy guard didn't notice her hiding behind a tree, and eventually wandered off. She dashed for the ship and hacked off the lines with her rusty dagger, setting sail for the pirate haven of Buccaneer's Den.

She put the boat aground on the island and crept through the dense foliage, alert to the bawdy singing she could hear in the distance. Following the wan lantern light through the jungle, she came upon an inn and was aghast: it was a slaughterhouse! The poor inkeeper and his family laid in pools of their own blood, and the bloodthirsty villians responsible laughed and relieved them of their hard-earned gold. The girl could not abide this, though she was a small girl and could not stop them. So she decided that she would do what she could: steal that gold! Creeping up to the building, she hid near the entrance, waiting for a villian to make the mistake of standing too near her. Sure enough, one rogue ambled over and she quietly lifted the flap of his backpack, which was overfull with gold! She snatched a large handful and ran for the woods...the ruffians gave chase! While the whole bloody horde of them pursued, she ducked behind a tree and quickly hid. The buffoons apparently didn't notice this move, and they all ran past her, searching the jungle.

She quietly ran back to the inn while they were occupied and found two junior members of the pirate crew left behind. Just then some new folks showed up, must've been relatives of the inkeeper's family. Though young, the murderous bandits were equal to the task of slaughtering these innocents! She ran in boldly and thrust her hand into the smaller one's pack and came away with a fistful of gold! Again, she ran for the jungle and hid behind a tree. Again, they gave chase...right past her tree. She giggled...this was kinda fun! When she went back to the inn again, the pirate band had reassembled, but this time there was a glorious Great Lady amongst them! What was this? She had to get a closer look, so she donned some of the discarded serving wench garb and snuck into the room, unnoticed in the mob that was exclaiming in anger that they had been robbed. Lifting the flap of the Lady's pack...she saw a ring of keys! Now that was very interesting...she grabbed the keyring and noticed a transportation rune, which she took as well. She left the inn and returned to the stolen boat, making for Moonglow, city of Mages. A mage was able to open a dimensional gate to the spot marked by the rune...a filthy mansion in the swamps! It was a hive of activity, but she was able to sneak up and hide near the door...and sure enough, the keys opened it! This was the pirates headquarters!

Now all she had to do was hold an auction with all the pirate band's rivals! Wouldn't they be surprised?





(Cheddar's story makes me chucke, as an early UO thief who didn't go red from stealing, though I stole non-stop ;) Screw that beggar exploit, just steal from reds!)

[kaid]

One of the funniest mmog stories I have ever heard was from a friend in my old eqlive guild named Zammer. Zammer was a high level wizard known for his tendancy to kill anything that looked at him funny. He could only enter two towns without guards attacking him. His home erudin and neriak. I assume neriak let him in cause they were amused by his homicidal nature.

Well Zammer being a good guy offered to help escorte a raid of his buddies into splitpaw 2.0. The raid group was a bunch of level 20s trying to get a feel for the team work needed later for the real raids. Everything was going good they were near the end of the dungeon when it happened. It was somehow a gnoll enchanter who must have bribed a dev managed to land a charm on Zammer.

Then the raid saw the following.

 Zammer has started casting Ice Comet
Zammer has killed Roderick
Zammer has started casting Inferno of Alkobar
Zammer has killed Dixie
Zammer has killed Bonerafious
Zammer has killed Singabear
Zammer has killed Truesoul
Zammer has killed Soandso
Zammer has killed Soandso2
Zammer has killed Soandso3
Zammer has killed Soandso4
Zammer has killed Soandso5
Zammer begins to cast Lightning Storm
Zammer has killed Soandso
Zammer has killed Soandso2
Zammer has killed Soandso3
Zammer has killed Soandso4
Zammer begins to cast Ice Comet
Zammer has killed some wood elf
Sigh about 10 secs later Charm broke off and i killed that darned lvl 25 gnoll. Sigh all that death happened in about 20 25 secs.


When the smoke cleared Zammer stood alone after killing everything friend and foe alike. The funniest thing is when he sheepishly told the guild what happened we were all laughing so hard we were crying.


kaid

[Nija]

I really don't have anything to add, but I can't help but notice that 90% of the stories involve player vs player interaction. PKS ARE EVIL! You all should be ashamed of yourselves. This is a book for people new to the genre. If they read these wonderous things then fire up WoW, expecting to be able to do half of this stuff, they're going to be incredibly disappointed.

[Bunk]

I just felt the need to point out that UO was probably the most NON newbie friendly [online] game ever. Yet everyone's story is from that.

Not entirely - I posted my newbie story on the other site about AC - Darktide. I think that takes the cake for non-friendly newbie environments.

[sinij]

Probably my favorite moment was killing PK that loved to kill me and fellow newbies in UO near Moonglow graveyard. One day, after I got my 80 tactics killing lich there I decided it is time to fight back for a change. I traveled to capital city, Britain, and spent what then was fortune for me getting my and few other weapon deadly poisoned. When PK got back to kill us that memorable day he faced very angry mob of newbies armed with deadly poisoned weapons. Down he went. We cut his corpse up, showed his corpse's head up his ass, cooked his jerky, cut his precious black clothing for bandages, lured away and killed his mare (we lost quite a few doing that but what can stop angry and determined mob of newbies with poisoned weapons) and wore parts of his armor as a prized trophy.

[Venkman]

I just felt the need to point out that UO was probably the most NON newbie friendly [online] game ever. Yet everyone's story is from that.

Depends on when you started. I personally started when Renaissance launched. At the time, every character I rolled started with a full complement of whatever the recommended template needed. For Magery major, it meant a dagger, full set of reagents, food, and so on. Also, every character, regardless of template, started with 5k gold (didn't take me long, even as a rank newb, to create a few dozen toss-away characters to drop-transfer the 5k over to my main ;) ). Finally we started in Trammel and, if I recall correct, did so after going through newbie tutorial zone of Haven, wherein were NPCs with objectives and direction (I do not honestly remember if I did start day one in Haven or if that was patched in later).

So I thought it was very much an easy newbie experience.

EQ was my second MMORPG. That was a tough growth experience. XP and item loss at level 2, no ingame zone map, the default interface that required MUD-level slash commands to not only customize, but even just to use, Spellbook-covers-window meditation, and four different chat windows each with a completely separate series of conversations (spatial, shout, ooc, and auction). Not only had I no idea what I was doing, but it was sensory overload to boot! And yea, I accidentally attacked my first NPC.

I swear the camaraderie many remember from EQ started as a group of people coming together against the common enemy that was the crappy interface and masochistic newbie experience.

[Xilren's Twin]

PKS ARE EVIL! You all should be ashamed of yourselves. This is a book for people new to the genre. If they read these wonderous things then fire up WoW, expecting to be able to do half of this stuff, they're going to be incredibly disappointed.

Not neccessarily.  You'll notice most of these memories are from the very first or among the first mmorpg's people played.  There's a reason for that.  I remember launching EQ for the very first time towards the end of their beta and being blown away by the possibilities.  3-d fantasy environment (looked damn cool at the time) in a huge multiple player rpg.  Most of that early fun was simply due to the newness of it all.  You just can't recreate that same level of newness in your 2nd, 3rd or 8th game. 

You're right in that, especially listening to the UO stories, the amount of possible actions you can take in that first game will seem rather limited...

But, beyond the newness factor, most of memories will involve other people  good and bad.  I too could have talked about dragon raiding in EQ or scout/ranger battles in SB, or revenging a PK, but others covered those already. 

On the whole, stuff that's memorable is memorable because it's different.  When it's new it's ALL different.  When you get past that, it;s really up to the people to make it different...

Xilren

[Soukyan]

Back in the early days of EverQuest, the "A" key was mapped to autoattack. Corpses in front of high level NPCs was a very common sight since you had to "H-A-I-L" them to get them to speak to you. Not an anecdote for the book, but a friendly reminder for those who experienced the insta-death disappointments.

[Soukyan]

In early Everquest, players bodies would die in all sorts of strange poses around the landscape.  Bodies through walls.  Bodies stuck in trees.  Bodies in the sky.  I'd lose hours of play time, because when I would come across a messed up body, I'd have to stick around and have fun with it. (not that kind of fun)  Like, a body sticking out of the side of a tree, I'd talk in Ol' Prospector voice at anyone running by.  "Don go in dem woods!  The bears in that forest knock mens through solid oak they do!  I'll sell ya dis here magic fire beetle eye!  Ward off bears it do!  Ohhhhh peaches!"  Or try and start a cult to worship the flying corpse in the sky.  Most people don't play along.  Less talk, more level.  Fun for me though :)  Which is probably why it took 2 months for me to get to level 14, before finally quitting EQ.

That's pretty funny. I would have joined your cult.

[Vosx]

Taxi to victory...

and

Leeeerooooy!

[ahoythematey]

Taxi to victory...

and

Leeeerooooy!

Holy shit, I thought you died at the hands of Shadowbane fanboys or the french.

[schild]

Don't you mean "in the matrix?" I thought he died by having his jack pulled out by Sony.

[Stephen Zepp]

During the early days of my Shadowbane play on the Fear server, a couple of friends and I participated in an event that was run by some of the Shadowbane staff that involved approximately 100+ players in a PvP game all either cooperating to try to summon a powerful demon, or defeat the summoning. This event led me and a few friends to decide to form an organization based around an in-game story, called a Lore Guild.

In most MMOG's, lore guilds are at a disadvantage because they choose to limit their abilities to fit their story. For example, our storyline was based around the concept of the Holy Church and the Temple of the Cleansing Flame, two "factions" in Shadowbane who's history was based around a split of the Temple from the Original Church. Our story premise was that this split actually weakened the power of the Church, and was allowing the summoning of very powerful demons and demigods from other planes to destroy the worlds of Shadowbane. We called our guild "The Church of the Reunification", and began to play only a limited set of classes that made sense from the two factions, and worked on building up our ranks and city in preparation for future events.

What we were doing was making a bet with ourselves that the Shadowbane staff would have a follow-on event after the first one, and that we could play a major part since we had formed ourselves specifically for that purpose. We participated in what was otherwise a mostly non-lore based server, staying out of wars and battles that didn't involve our storyline, but maintaining vigilence against the powers of darkness. As it turns out, we were right...

About 3 months after the first event, once we had gained about 25 members in our guild and built a nice city, I received a "tell" (a private communication) from a rank 7 "player"...at that time, player characters could only make rank 6, so I knew the time that we had hoped for had come. Over the next 12 hours, I worked hand in hand with this "npc" being played by a staff member as well as my guild to form what became one of the longest and largest server events I've ever participated in. I can't even begin to summarize all of the various things that happened that night, but it involved a siege of a major city with over 200 participants that was actually initiated as a distraction to keep the "secret mission" we were given protected from attack--we bottled up most of our enemies with a feint attack on their city so that they wouldn't be aware of the main quest we had been given...and it worked! They ultimately got enough clues from their npc/staff members to realize that the attack was a distraction, and sent some teams out to defeat our mission, but we were successful.

At the end of the quest, we were all gathered about our city (which at the time was still under construction--no walls, and only a few shops and trainers) celebrating, when out of the mists came an entire army of our enemies lead by none other than the very demi-god we were fighting to defeat! After a very long fight we came out victorious, and were rewarded for our efforts by being given what at that time was a very first for our server: custom guards that were templars and confessors of the Temple of the Cleansing Flame.

What made this event, and all that led up to it for me so signifigant is that all games set up lore and background stories for their worlds, but very few actually do anything with these stories within the actual game play. The Shadowbane staff at that time spent lots of time and effort keeping their stories alive, and giving us an incredibly immersive storyline to play within...and that is what gaming is all about to me. Anyone can read an incredible book and feel as if they are a part of it, but when you can play in a game with other people and build the story yourself based on what you do, now that is an experience that is memorable when playing a game.

[MrHat]

During the early days of my Shadowbane play on the Fear server, a couple of friends and I participated in an event that was run by some of the Shadowbane staff that involved approximately 100+ players in a PvP game all either cooperating to try to summon a powerful demon, or defeat the summoning. This event led me and a few friends to decide to form an organization based around an in-game story, called a Lore Guild.

In most MMOG's, lore guilds are at a disadvantage because they choose to limit their abilities to fit their story. For example, our storyline was based around the concept of the Holy Church and the Temple of the Cleansing Flame, two "factions" in Shadowbane who's history was based around a split of the Temple from the Original Church. Our story premise was that this split actually weakened the power of the Church, and was allowing the summoning of very powerful demons and demigods from other planes to destroy the worlds of Shadowbane. We called our guild "The Church of the Reunification", and began to play only a limited set of classes that made sense from the two factions, and worked on building up our ranks and city in preparation for future events.

What we were doing was making a bet with ourselves that the Shadowbane staff would have a follow-on event after the first one, and that we could play a major part since we had formed ourselves specifically for that purpose. We participated in what was otherwise a mostly non-lore based server, staying out of wars and battles that didn't involve our storyline, but maintaining vigilence against the powers of darkness. As it turns out, we were right...

About 3 months after the first event, once we had gained about 25 members in our guild and built a nice city, I received a "tell" (a private communication) from a rank 7 "player"...at that time, player characters could only make rank 6, so I knew the time that we had hoped for had come. Over the next 12 hours, I worked hand in hand with this "npc" being played by a staff member as well as my guild to form what became one of the longest and largest server events I've ever participated in. I can't even begin to summarize all of the various things that happened that night, but it involved a siege of a major city with over 200 participants that was actually initiated as a distraction to keep the "secret mission" we were given protected from attack--we bottled up most of our enemies with a feint attack on their city so that they wouldn't be aware of the main quest we had been given...and it worked! They ultimately got enough clues from their npc/staff members to realize that the attack was a distraction, and sent some teams out to defeat our mission, but we were successful.

At the end of the quest, we were all gathered about our city (which at the time was still under construction--no walls, and only a few shops and trainers) celebrating, when out of the mists came an entire army of our enemies lead by none other than the very demi-god we were fighting to defeat! After a very long fight we came out victorious, and were rewarded for our efforts by being given what at that time was a very first for our server: custom guards that were templars and confessors of the Temple of the Cleansing Flame.

What made this event, and all that led up to it for me so signifigant is that all games set up lore and background stories for their worlds, but very few actually do anything with these stories within the actual game play. The Shadowbane staff at that time spent lots of time and effort keeping their stories alive, and giving us an incredibly immersive storyline to play within...and that is what gaming is all about to me. Anyone can read an incredible book and feel as if they are a part of it, but when you can play in a game with other people and build the story yourself based on what you do, now that is an experience that is memorable when playing a game.

OMG.  That was you?  Small world.

[Tebonas]

Everquest - Pre-Kunark era.

Me and some other Barbarian rascals were hanging around in Halas, our hometown. swimming around in the town moat, exchanging war stories of past fights. One brings up the idea we could bring the Bandits in the Plains of Karanas to justice (Barbarians in EQ worshipping the gods of Justice). So we gather at the tunnel from Halas to Everfrost, marched through the snow to the dungeon connecting Everfrost to the rest of the world, slaughtered the Gnolls there and after about half an hour we found a bandit camp (we never have been in the Karanas before, we only knew Everfrost and Qeynos Hills, the zones inbetween. Spoilers were frowned upon in those days, we were out to explore). We brought some of the bandits who stood on their own to justice, then we pushed towards a couple standing near the center of the camp. Suddenly those bastards began to cast. Bandits that cast? Caught us entirely by suprise, they were druids. Needless to say we were slaughtered on the spot. Back in Halas (only traitors bound anywhere but at home) we stood there naked and lamenting our fate. High level characters came to our aid, one warrior with a surname, something quite rare in those days (In Everquest you can pick a surname at level 20, we were at most level 10), and a Shaman with a magic weapon he has gained as present from the dwarves for his help (a quest on a different continent on the other side of the world). Again we marched there and stormed the camp, but our overconfidence brought our doom. Back there again and change of tactics, we sneaked towards the camp, inch by inch towards our corpses, so that we didn't rouse the suspicion of the bandit guards, then when we were close enough we dragged our corpses away from right under their noses, took our gear and didn't return for some levels.

Yes it was fun, even as we died. Not because we were victims, but because we bonded over that experience, and because it was still new to us. Corpseruns lose their glamour once you do them for the 100st time, but the first few are an experience in itself.

[tazelbain]

What made this event, and all that led up to it for me so signifigant is that all games set up lore and background stories for their worlds, but very few actually do anything with these stories within the actual game play. The Shadowbane staff at that time spent lots of time and effort keeping their stories alive, and giving us an incredibly immersive storyline to play within...and that is what gaming is all about to me. Anyone can read an incredible book and feel as if they are a part of it, but when you can play in a game with other people and build the story yourself based on what you do, now that is an experience that is memorable when playing a game.

Sounds expensive. I wonder how much people would pay to play in a game that did this all the time. 

My recollection of events in SB, most people just participated in the hopes of getting uber loot, just like EQ.  And the event caused people unhappiness more than anything else.  But it was as interesting change to the normal school yard politics of SB.

[Sky]

About 3 months after the first event, once we had gained about 25 members in our guild and built a nice city, I received a "tell" (a private communication) from a rank 7 "player"...at that time, player characters could only make rank 6, so I knew the time that we had hoped for had come. Over the next 12 hours, I worked hand in hand with this "npc" being played by a staff member as well as my guild to form what became one of the longest and largest server events I've ever participated in. I can't even begin to summarize all of the various things that happened that night, but it involved a siege of a major city with over 200 participants that was actually initiated as a distraction to keep the "secret mission" we were given protected from attack--we bottled up most of our enemies with a feint attack on their city so that they wouldn't be aware of the main quest we had been given...and it worked! They ultimately got enough clues from their npc/staff members to realize that the attack was a distraction, and sent some teams out to defeat our mission, but we were successful.

That's the kind of interaction I was getting used to in UO. At first it was just tons of player questing, but after OSI cherry picked talent for the Seer program, we worked pretty regularly with them to implement a ton of cool stuff. It was funny, after a lot of rp groups were getting personalized buildings, the quake style players starting screaming bloody murder because we were getting 'favoritism'. Yeah...playing to enhance the game fiction instead of just roving the map as a non-rp gank squad and annoying players will do that. But ultimately, it was one of the reasons the IGMs got shackled and things started going downhill from there.