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Coupled with the whole "Path 'o Titans" thing, I imagine the levels will be different from your standard "1 more level, 1 more talent point thing." There are a lot of things you can do with leveling outside the standard "grind xp until you puke" methodology...Maybe they're experimenting in that direction.

Maybe they want to repeat the success of Trials of Atlantis in Dark Age of Camelot?

Perhaps I am getting too old, but every time I see AoC, I keep thinking that someone typo'ed when they meant to type in DAOC.

My brain happily refuses to acknowledge Age of Conan even though a few of my good mates talk nothing else MMO besides this (and the "good old days" spent playing every MMO going all the way back to Ultima Online)

E. TRANSFER OF RIGHTS TO YOUR ACCOUNT

You shall be permitted to transfer once to another person eligible to obtain an Account your right to access and use your Account (but not items, characters and attributes of characters separate from the Account), on the following terms and conditions:

etc. with a bunch of requirements (physical transfer of CDs, notify Mythic).

There was a clause that said you couldn't broker the account of another, but eBay wouldn't be a party to that. Since they just enable a legitimate transaction and never take possession of the "object" in question, not sure that it would be an issue.

The MMO industry is based on ripping competitors off. WoW ripped Mythic's own Dark Age of Camelot's PvP system off pretty wholesale.

It's a market with limited ideas, so the best you can do is take the best parts of what's out there and put it all together, maybe add a cool widget or two to stand out. Blizzard did a pretty good job of that, and they've done pretty well by it.

What the heck -- let's make it six comments.

I can see you hated DAoC. In the interest of keeping the facts straight, though, there are currently 5 expansions, and the game was released three and a half years ago. That's about 9 months between expansions.

Love it or hate it, DAoC made some strides forward in the genre:
= 3-faction RvR (2-on-1 teaming against the leader)
= positional & situational combat moves
= stealth system that relied on distance
= clever magic lines, such as Bladeturn and the Theurist "one target" pets
= PvP where ability to hit an opponent was independant of level (level 20 could hit a level 50 -- although they barely did any damage)
= massive scale PvP: 150 vs. 150 was not uncommon during the first year
= a stable release. They raised the bar for Acceptable Release Day Performance.

You can focus on the negatives, of course. If that's your karma, then it's your karma. I just want to get the record straight for anyone else taking the time to read comments here.

As far as Imperator: I thought the same thing ... wierd concept. But then again, Warhammer has Elves in Space, so ... meh. A game is fun or not based on gameplay, not on realism.

Given that Warhammer has a huge existing fanbase, and everyone looks at Imperator and says, "Romans in Space? Wierd." ... it makes sense that they would shift their development efforts away from Imperator and onto Warhammer. Mythic produces a polished product, and having Mythic acquire the Warhammer Online rights is a great move for everyone.

As much as I'd like to use a more restrictive account on my Windows box, I find it absolutely impossible to do so with many games and various other applications.

One typical example is Dark Age of Camelot by Mythic Entertainment. The game itself is installed to a C:\Mythic\ directory usually, as well as all the profiles for every character. Even World of Warcraft is just as bad, all the profiles are stored in a subdirectory in the C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\!

Until developers start supporting limited user accounts with their games/applications, people will just be lazy and stick to an admin account - which will always work.

"Because running Camelot would require a considerable amount of data management, we initially planned on using Oracle to store account and character information. However, Oracle's quoted license fee of more than $900,000 quickly removed them from contention. Once we got over our shock and amusement at Oracle's pricing, we turned to a Linux-based freeware solution, MySQL, to manage Camelot's data storage, which so far has worked admirably.

Everyone developing games should at least investigate open source solutions for their servers. It's saved us a pile of money and has been stable and reliable. In fact, prior to Camelot's launch, it was axiomatic that MMORPGs were unstable and prone to crashing during their first month or so." - Gamasutra

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch must be the longest place name in the world. Oh, the link above says it is the longest railway station name in the UK, and suggests it is the longest domain name. Luckily we have moved on since 8.3 filenames! From what I have heard, your Auntie lives in a very nice place.

To answer your question most people in the UK know of Llanfair although they may be like me and only know the first two syllables and the last three. Some years ago I had to come up with a Celtic name to play DAOC and, well, I thought that Gogogoch was a good one :-)

"As far as fast-paced balls-to-the-wall PvP, sieging a castle(or pledge fighting at a boss spawn) has no match in any MMO I've ever seen."

Tried Dark Age of Camelot?

Because I beleive alienation is 'a bad thing' (tm)... here are some terms explained. If I missed anything, post it and someone (maybe me) will help ya out.


WoW - World of Warcraft (the game, duh)
Push - Phase
EQ - EverQuest
D&D - Dungeons & Dragons (Pen and paper, not MMORPG)
DAoC - Dark Age of Camelot
PVP - Player versus Player
PVE - Player versus Enemy
MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
RTS - Real Time Strategy
NPC - Non Player Character
XP - Experience (a measure of progress between character levels)
RP - Role Playing
Aggro - Aggression (when an enemy is focused on attacking you)
DPS - Damage Per Swing
AoE - Area of Effect
Root - An immobilization spell (not admin :P)
Mangina - Derogitory slang for a male playing a female character (in this context anyways)
Mez - Mesmerize (stuns target for a set time, or until it is attacked)
HP - Hit Points
AC - Armour Class
emote - (electronic-motion ?) A special command that causes your character to perform an animation (like waving, cheering, bowing, etc)

Happy, er.. reading!

Hmm... But what if you have to pay $9.95 a month (on top of your ISP charges) for said encyclopedia?

Wonderful point. It's very clear that nobody is going to want to pay for any service over the internet.

I am a hardcore gamer who spends > 40 hours per week on games. Ranging from Dark Age of Camelot (an MMORPG), Call of Duty, America's Army and C&C Generals, depending on what mood I'm in. On top of this I try to get some programming in as well.

Today I have less time to invest 'dedicated' to one particular game, which is frustrating because you develop friends in the online gaming community that you lose when you move on. To me its saddening, and I'm clawing on to keep at the level I used to be at, but it isn't working. :(

Oh well, time to find a girlfriend, get married, and put the money spent on computers and games into a home deposit!

I agree. I don't really see any harm in calling the game Mythica. It's not like they're calling it Dark Ages of Camelota. As far as similar content goes, take a look for yourself: Mythica and DAOC

Interestingly, if you go here ,the name of one "plane of existance" is called Midgard, as is the name of one of three realms in DAOC. Same legends aside, after visiting Mythica's page, I get visions of a 3D diablo 2 with a cracked out battle.net riding shotgun, not really DAOC. No mention of massive PVP, which in my opinion is what makes DAOC. I don't see a reason for Mythic to panic. DAOC is far more intriguing and well thought out imho.

As has been stated several times... it's a just a game.

You don't have to become the master of the universe to have fun. I've played several of these games, especially DAoC. But I don't have anywhere near the time required to get to the "end game."

The most fun I've had in these games are when I get together with my real life friends and go screw around. We'll take our lower level character and go raid a lowbie dungeon. Or we'll go get totally lost and explore the world as we find our way back. It's just fun to hang out in the virtual world with your buddies, who have been transformed into mages, warriors, monks, etc.

Sadly this type of casual play doesn't justify the monthly charges. Which is why all my accounts are currently disabled...

Huh. I've been enjoying Dark Age of Camelot quite a bit. You might want to give it a shot if you are consistently being disappointed.

I play a MMORPG called Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC). A major part of DAoC consists of realm vs. realm combat, where players from opposing realms clash in epic battles (a.k.a. lag fests). There is one well known form of cheating in DAoC, known as radar, which allows the radar user to see the positions of enemy forces in realtime before he can be seen himself.

The most popular radar program for DAoC is Excalibur, hosted by your very own Sourceforge. The troubling thing about Excalibur is that it does not fit any of the definitions of cheating, although it clearly gives players using it an unfair advantage. It does not modify the game binaries, or modify memory areas or graphical output when running. It does not interfere with or modify data streams between the client and server. In fact, it doesn't even run on the same computer you play the game on. Excalibur runs on a Linux / *nix computer on your local network, and works by passively sniffing packets, decoding them, and constructing a detailed overhead map of the player's surrounding area. Thus it is, and always will be, undetectable whether someone is using radar or not.

It really is a rather clever hack, but it's ruining the game for us honest players. (And no, I have never ran Excalibur, even to try it out.) The question is what can be done about? It would seem that the only two options are:
1.) Encrypt every packet sent between the server and client, which would undoubtably slow everything down.
2.) Send less information to the client, by implementing some kind of server-side clipping, whereby the server determines what objects are visible to each client and sends only those. Again, this would slow everything down, on the server side because it requires more work, and on the client side because when the player suddenly encounters the enemy horde, his computer will be forced to load hundreds of character models all at once.

So, any other suggestions?

Obviously you've never played Dark age of Camelot. It is a windows game and is more fun that any other game I've ever played.

Grouping all windows games into one "sucks" category is pretty dumb on your part, you couldn't possibly have tried them all.

My PS2 has been in the living room collecting dust since I discovered DAOC. Haven't seen anything good for PS2 since FFX. *Yawn*

BTW, I actually _have_ that particular little jewel and I'm sorry to tell you that it does suck pretty bad. A total let down to say the least. Save your money, invest it in a small server and just install Linux there.

Presumably, most people here have a fair familiarity with the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) phenomenon, but here's a rundown of the major products out there from my bookmarks, for anyone who's interested but not wholly informed. Feel free to correct any of this if my understanding of any of these games is in any way flawed:

Anarchy Online
Asheron's Call
Dark Age of Camelot
Everquest
Shadowbane (just released - very buggy)
A Tale in the Desert
Ultima Online

Horizons
Eve Online (final beta - close to release)
City of Heroes
Dragon Empires (in beta)
Everquest 2 (in development)
Lineage II (in development)
Star Wars Galaxies (closed beta)
Imperator (very early development)
World of Warcraft (very early development)

Most of these games don't release specific subscriber base numbers. However, a series of very good guesses is compiled here.

Basically it boils down to: Yes, if you want to play the latest 3D-Games you better get a new machine.

I don't see why this is bad? I personally dislike 3D Games since they all look alike. If you want you can still play great games with older Hardware, the whole simulation, build-up scene for instance. And most likely your system could even handle games such as DarkAge of Camelot or Everquest, wich are games with a focus on gameplay and not grafics. I agree, there are a lot of crappy games out there with really stunning grafic fx, but i don't care about them (anymore). I let my friends play them and when one diamond among them is found i consider wether it's worth the hardware upgrade. The last game i did this for was Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Had to upgrade for 20$ and get a TNT2 to play it at decent fps. Now i wonder what doom3 brings. Is it worth the upgrade to Radeon/GeForceFx? I don't know. Maybe I will keep waiting for WarhammerOnline until I upgrade. But someone will betatest for me and then i can still stick with my XentorTNT2/32MB and keep playing Anno1503 or DarkAges.

In an industry scrutinized by the government as a drug infested haven that pollutes our communities and destroys the ability to lead a productive life, there is another industry that has the potential to become even more dangerous than any drug addiction. I'm not supposed to be writing this. What was supposed to happen was I prove my thesis that I couldn't be sucked into a virtual reality like many people I have met before. I never really understood what I was getting myself into when I started my research experiment, playing a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.

Three years ago at a nightclub I bumped into an old friend of mine who went by the nickname "Iggy". I was really amazed to see him because no one had seen nor heard from Iggy in over a year. Many of his friends had all wondered what happened to him.

"Jesus Iggy, where in the hell have you been?!"

"Everquest," was all he said. He looked down at his feet when he said it.

"Huh?" I had no clue what he meant.

"I've been playing Everquest."

As we spoke, Iggy opened up to me and confessed that he had lost his job, his friends and didn't want to go out much anymore.

"It's an addiction. I'm only out tonight because the server is down for patching and I'm miserable."

For some reason, he couldn't look me in the eye while he was talking. He was obviously embarrassed.

"Um. Okay." I mean, what was I going to say to something as incredulous as that? I've heard of game obsessions, like those college kids in the seventies that murdered their whole family while playing a Dungeons and Dragons game, but I just thought that sort of obsession lies only in the minds of sociopaths or people with a lot bigger problems than playing a game. Iggy was a really nice, normal guy who had lost a lot to some online role-playing game called "Everquest". I had no idea what to make of it.

I never saw Iggy again. Neither has anyone else who knew him that I have asked. Since that night I really pondered the absurdity of his situation. It nagged at me.

On the web you can put the words "gaming addiction" into Google and discover a thousand and one sites for support groups, self help courses, testimonials and various studies. There's the "Everquest Widows" forum, a site called "Ariadne - Understanding MMORPG Addiction", and a myriad of articles on topics like game addiction and the innocent bystanders that suffer from it.

As one Everquest Widow puts it, "I plan on starting "Widows Weekly." It will be a group that meets in a local coffee shop. Here, spouses can talk and help one another through this difficult process, and begin to realize that there is a life out there despite the loss of our loved ones. I plan to send the bill for coffee and snacks to Verant. It would be but a small compensation on their part to repay me and others for the loss of our loved ones--so pay up, Verant!" -- Christine Gilbert CD Mag.com

What I find interesting is that many of the people who author these articles or sites have usually neither played the games or have just been the "victims" such as spouses or family. Others who dissect the topic of game addiction tend to be outsiders looking in, shaking their heads or turning the study into one giant mouse in the maze science experiment. It's rare that you find someone, who actually plays games passionately, speak up or write anything about negative side affects.

The more people I met who played computer games, the more I wanted to understand the obsession. I also had another stake in this because my partner, Low, is a gamer and a "geek" in every sense of the word. Not to mention my fiancé. It was beginning to cause some strain on us from time to time in terms of "quality time". I was getting really angry with him on a regular basis actually. According to Low, it was I who had the problem, not him. This is how most gamers think. Deal with their gaming or don't deal with it at all. They will play either way.

So I eventually decided to do some investigation and find out what makes these gamers and role players tick. What sort of recreation has the ability to absorb people to the extent that marriages break up, jobs are lost, and they lose friends? How does playing a game on a computer make someone lose functionality in the REAL world, because they want to spend too much time in some imaginary reality? For crying out loud, I thought, it's just a game.

I had a lot of questions but no one I talked to had answers. Gamers would tell me, "You won't understand unless you are a gamer yourself." Ok, no problem. I figured I could just play a game I find entertaining and get bored and write about what nut cases gamers really are.

It just wasn't that easy. This little experiment of mine turned out to be more dangerous than I ever imagined.

I wasn't able to begin playing a game right away. The opportunity just never really presented itself directly to me. There just wasn't a game I really liked enough to "get into it" for long enough. Low would play his Quake, Unreal Tournament, Black & White, Carmageddon, Fallout, Diablo II and a multitude of other first person shooters, but nothing seemed all that captivating to me and there was no way I could play these games with him due to his extreme level of skill and years of practice in a 3D environment.

I played a little Diablo and actually had a bit of fun with that, but I found I only really enjoyed it when I played with Low or our friends in multi-player mode. We would go "adventuring" together as they call it, fighting demons and wizards and monsters and coming out winning or dying, but having some fun just playing together. It was my first taste of actually playing with another player in a game as a team. But when Low moved onto the next game, bored with Diablo, I didn't have the same drive to play anymore. So I put my project aside and put up with his gaming as best as I could.

Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORPG) have been around for many years. You can find thousands of websites, magazines, web-zines and the like that are devoted to the enormous market out there for online gaming. Sites like GameSpy, that literally receive millions of visits per day from gamers and industry types from all over the world, provide an almost infinite amount if information about these types of games. Hundreds of thousands of people play games like Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, Asheron's Call, and Ultima Online each day from all over the world. With the upcoming launch of The Sims Online, analysts and game reviewers are expecting the largest online game community ever seen to develop.

"The Sims promises to be one of the most interesting human experiments in the history of the Net." -- David Kushner, Entertainment Weekly

Low had tried many of these MMORPG's. He never stuck with one very long because, as he puts it, "I got tired of being a crappy tree-elf that always fell out of the damn tree village." In Ultima Online, he "got tired of having all my stuff stolen from me and getting killed by stupid 'PKers' (Player Killers)." Apparently for him, the rewards were far and few between to keep him interested in these games. He also has a very short attention span with most games. Play it, beat it, and move on to the next game is his motto. The more games you play in a single year the more well rounded you are apparently. With the new enhanced graphics engines, hardware and development that goes into games these days, it's amazing how stimulating the market can be right now.

Early in 2001, however, Low's opinion of online gaming changed drastically. He read an article about a new online role-playing game that was set about 30,000 years into the future, on a colonized planet. The story line was science fiction themed, with monsters, mutants, futuristic weapons, wars, and sinister political plots. The player would have the ability to create a character avatar from a wide variety of attributes and be surrounded by very realistic 3D graphics, with incredible scenery and sound. You would have to defend yourself, form guilds, make friends and alliances and your goal would be to "learn" or level your character as the game progressed in order to increase your skills and possessions. There would be PVP (player versus player) combat, PVM combat (player verses mobile or "mob" for short, a term used to explain computer generated enemy or monster) and a variety of other things one could do while in the game online. You could fly a plane, morph into animals and go on dangerous missions and epic quests. The game was called Anarchy Online.

Something about this Anarchy Online game really had his attention and right after it came out in July of 2001, he bought his copy and began playing, and once again I lost him to a game. He could not stop going on and on about how "cool this or that was" or the graphics or all the people he was meeting. His excitement was just ridiculous in my eyes but I had been through this before. Nevertheless, the game also captured my interest because of its science fiction theme. I am a sci-fi buff and the storyline had such a great plot that they actually sell the novels online for it. I read the chapters as they were released and was hooked on the storyline.

Low bought another copy about two weeks later. "I want you to play with me." By this time we were under some strain because he was really absorbed by this game every night. It looked really intimidating to me and I opted not to play it right away, stalling for time. The 3D environment bothered me because any game I had ever played, like Diablo, for example, had always been in third person view, which is a bird's eye view of the environment. The 3D graphics were dizzying as I looked over his shoulder from time to time.

In the end I caved in under the pressure and began playing it in September of 2001. I was a horrible player in the beginning, running into walls and getting lost or killed all the time. It didn't matter to me. I was playing a game with my boyfriend and found with each day that went by, I wanted to log on and play more and more.

So what was the appeal? Before I realized what was happening, I became addicted to playing this game. While logged into this game I met wonderful people, via their avatars, laughed to funny antics via chat window discussions, and experienced a futuristic sci-fi world via incredibly realistic 3D graphics and sounds. We ran through swamps with mutant wolves chasing us, the sound of our feet making wet suction sounds just like you would have in reality. We could hear birds chirping in forests we scouted and vultures crying overhead as they spotted us and attacked.

Our adrenaline would pump as we fought for our lives against twenty-foot tall robots with buzz saws for hands, or as we went on safaris to hunt giant brontosaur-like animals. We had the ability to heal and save each other as well as other members of our team at the time. We also had the ability to gain the respect, over more than a year later, of many online players, for being a great couple of characters in this game. We have, in fact, become high-ranking officers in our guild, which is almost like a family or alliance with other people to help you in the game.

In South Korea, some in-game alliances are valued more than real life friendships. A game called Lineage: The Blood Pledge has captivated approximately a third of the population. In Lineage, characters can take on the role of Princes, Wizards, and Knights and vow their loyalty to their clan or guild. This loyalty had lead to an incident in 2001 where a player was nearly beaten to death in real life for virtually killing the character of another player.

"He boasted that he had offed the gangman's virtual character just for the fun of it. Bad idea. The roughnecks dragged the 21-year-old into the urinal and pummeled him until he was covered with real-world bruises." -- By Michelle Levander, Time Magazine

It is easy to lose yourself to your imagination while you become someone you could possibly never be in the real world. You can become a hero, a bad ass, a wealthy person, someone with special powers or gain an enormous amount of respect from people who look up to you. This isn't to say you can't be that kind of person in reality, but what if everyone had this ability to find respect, admiration and status, simply by being in the environment long enough. What if all you had to do was play each day and level higher and higher, each goal leading to a new goal of achievement and possibilities. And what if you never had to leave the comfort of your chair to do this?

What if you could really become a diva, a soldier, a magician, or a samurai, and people respected or admired you unconditionally as long as you had a long red bar looming over your virtual head. Or, as in especially my case, what if while you were in this virtual reality, you didn't have to worry about deadlines, due dates, over 1000 emails per day to read and answer, or day-to-day stress that comes with what I do. The virtual reality could absorb you so much, that for the time you are logged in, you forget everything else. It doesn't seem to matter whether you are a strict role-player (someone who stays in character) or 'hardcore' (someone who spends more time in-game than an average user). You still can be addicted and absorbed with the attention you get.

The official Anarchy Online Community Forum, which gets thousands of posts per day, has also been one of my sources for observing how obsessed people have become with the game. Recently, a devoted and well known player had to throw in the towel due to her addiction problem.

"The level to which I got into things here is what has lead me to this point where I must say goodbye. My internet addiction and denial of it has taken me to a point where I must get a hold of it. I realize that many people have what it takes to play a game like this "casually" in a healthy manner. I am unfortunately not one of those people. I am currently battling bi-polar disorder (manic depression) and the escapism that a game like AO offers is too much like a drug for me."

The ability to be respected, to be admired, and to succeed, even in an imaginary world, is a very powerful lure. It can cause a person to produce endorphins, a chemical released into the brain that causes a feeling of energy and well being. Gaming also causes adrenaline production and extreme excitability. Scientists have proven that endorphins and adrenal rushes are incredibly addictive.

"There are indications that pleasurable games and activities cause the body to produce endogenous opiates such as endorphins. These substances are actually addictive. Some addictive drugs, such as heroin, are chemically similar to these natural substances, while other addictive drugs are thought to stimulate their production."
-- Leonard Holmes, Ph.D. from the article, Is Pokémon Addictive? 1999

It should be easy to see why gaming can be addictive as a direct result of the physical effects on the body. I also believe that people can become addicted to respect, admiration and power as well. Even though the production of endorphins can be a positive side affect in one way, it can be easy to overindulge and put aside productive living. But there are many ways to do this and online gaming is not the only vice out there. People find many different ways to escape the problems in their life or to combat stress.

People log on each and every day to find a level of respect that doesn't come easily in day-to-day life. They log on to escape reality or to escape other real problems such as illness and stress. I have met people in this game who have mental disorders or physical impairments. I have also played with people who are in IT jobs all day long, listening to customer complaints, getting bitched at regularly. Some have even admitted that they never hear the words "good job" in the real world.

One player who works in the IT technical services industry, told me "I get my faith in people restored when I get online. People treat me with respect and are actually nice to me. They don't expect anything in return. Also, they believe me when I tell them something because of my level in the game."

I know of other overly stressed out people who log in each day to escape their day-to-day experience of working or living in hard reality. We met a person in game, for example, who is an EMT. Everyday he witnesses death and horrible accidents. He told us that he plays the game to get it all out of his mind. I also met a nurse online with a similar story, and a school teacher who teaches eleventh grade in the Bronx, NYC, who is very stressed out by his job.

"Most human beings pass through periods in their lives, when they feel compelled to engage in some apparently mindless activity that, for the time being, seems to provide some relief from the prevailing chaos in their lives. This could be something as simple as spending hours in front of the television set. Or going on uncontrollable buying sprees just to feel and smell the newness of the product. Or getting into a series of dead-end relationships. Or going on eating binges. Or playing computer games, uncaring of unattended work piling up. Or playing snooker every evening at the club regardless of the family's legitimate demand for more attention. In other words, binging on anything potentially destructive to the body or the soul. Fortunately for many of us, after a period of this compulsive indulgence, we pull ourselves back to the mainstream and get on with our lives, until the next compulsion hits us."
-- Dr. Vijay Nagaswami, from the article, Who? Me? An addict, The Hindu Folio 2001

This is not to say that there are not positive aspects to interacting with people online. Online gaming opens the doors to people who might not have the ability to do so due to time, geography, or many more reasons. Gaming online is an inexpensive and quick way to make new friends, chat with people all over the world and share an experience with people you would never meet because they may be continents away.

One of our online friends, for example, who goes by the character name "Docker", lives in Leiden, Netherlands. Another friend, "Chanell" lives in Einselthum, Germany. These are really interesting people we would never have met if it was not for the game we play online. I asked Chanell why he started playing online games.

"It all began with Diablo II being released. Then my friend, Yppo, made me try it online. I found it was an incredibly boring and annoying game. Then Yppo made me try it online and I loved it. I joined his clan and had months of online fun, then it got boring, close to the moment DAoC [Dark Ages of Camelot] was released in Europe. While I went to DAoC, Yppo chose to go to A.O." Eventually Chanell started playing A.O. as well.

When asked how playing A.O. affects his social life, he reflected, "As for my friends... yes we hang together a lot less. This could be related to A.O. or the fact that we don't work in the same city anymore. I am not totally sure. I still have a lot of phone calls and meetings so I am not "lonesome" it just isn't an as high frequency as before."

And with that I can only think that one's social life is in the eye of the beholder. I interact with Chanell almost every day. In fact I interact with more people than I ever have before because of playing a computer game. They just are not all physically in my proximity.

Interaction with people... It got me thinking and I began to develop my own theories on what causes the addiction. Psychologists can use fancy terminology like "Motivation Factors" and "Attraction Factors" such as self-esteem and self-image problems. They can harp on the role of achievement problems and relationship deficiencies in a person's personality. But I think I can sum it up to one word that would work for any individual needing his or her game "fix" each time they log in, regardless of how well rounded they are in their lives or how much of a basket case they could be perceived as.

RESPECT.

I think it is just that simple. I like the feeling I get when people look up to me in the game or ask my opinion. It seems to be a common drive for players in general. That is, to be respected for being the best and reaching the next level in the game.

Not everyone who plays games neatly fit into these Psychologists stereotypes. "Solories", another Anarchy Online player, is an example of someone who just logs on for the sake of play.

"I would say that I am responsibly addicted, meaning I have never been late to work due to AO.
My wife would prefer that I not play AO as much as I do, but I always make time for her every night, and try and do one thing planned together every weekend. I have never been late to work, but the first night I played AO I stayed up until 4:00 am and had to get up at 6:00 am and the next day I played until midnight. I don't feel that AO affects my work habits, work is work and when it is time to play, it is time to play. I enjoy watching my character grow in his skills and MMORPG's in general let you get away from the normal day to day monotone life and do something out of the ordinary. In AO I am Solories Enforcer of Rubi-Ka a defender of the cause. I fight battles that help my guild get better and help the clans win a war against the Omni."

In the process of my gaming experiment, I became a casualty of the concept of being respected. If someone had asked me in September of 2001 if I expected to be obsessed with an online role-playing game a year down the road, I would have said with confidence that I am one of the most level headed non-addictive persons I know. No way could this happen to me. In fact, I would have been reminded of poor old Iggy and his demise.

I technically have ended my experiment. In the process, I haven't lost my job, and due to our simultaneous obsession, I have not lost my fiancé either. I haven't lost my real life friends, but they do sometimes look at me funny when I talk about the game I play. Low and I get our work done, run our business and have a great balanced life together I think. Anyone who actually knows me in real life can tell you that I have no self image or esteem problems and in fact, I have been accused of having quite an ego. I won't even go into Low's ego. I will admit though, that I have missed quite a few parties, nights out with the girls, shopping, and some chores needed around the office and home because of Anarchy Online. I will also admit that I want to log in as much as I possibly can every single day.

People have worse entertainment addictions than playing computer games. If I am going to be addicted to something, I would choose online gaming over drugs, bowling, gambling, television, or being a baseball fanatic easily. I don't have to wear ugly shoes, lose my hard earned money or do the wave next to someone I don't know and that just about makes it a no-brainer for me. It IS after all just a video game, like Neal describes in his great novel, Snow Crash. It is just another amusement park.

"Amusement parks in the Metaverse can be fantastic, offering a wide selection of interactive three-dimensional movies. But in the end, they're still nothing more than video games."
--Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

And I will leave you with that. Signing on now... Tenjikiito, level 157 Female Solitus Adventurer, Advisor to the Clan Guild Synergy Factor, the best damn guild on the world of Rubi-Ka, with the best damn virtual people one could ever virtually meet.

Special thanks to the following people for help with my research and leveling:
Sohjiro (Low Tek), Theevilcouch, Demnspawnt, Akarah, Chanell, Sheffy, Mr. Cheeze/Conqueso, Solories, Kirishami, Docker, Ramzie, Boco (who is to blame for all of this), Sultanx, Asmoran, Caddock, Meurgen, Tergwannabe, Trus, Ayanamie, Cplkane, Spherana, Ankokujin, Thedwarf (aka Notmyfault), Stromm, Molg, Butwalrus, Ciyt/Toonot, and Yokoduna.

Related links:

Anarchy Online
Dark Age of Camelot
Ultima Online
Diablo II
The Sims
Everquest
Try Anarchy Online free for 7 days! (We dare you to). =]

Sadly lame folks who feel they have to cheat to be able to compete with others are everywhere. It would be one of the most attractive features of a MMORPG to know that there were no effective cheats and that when I got beaten in the game it was because the other guy was better than me, not because he was able to load up a frickin cheat program.

While it might be nice to know all the stats on items, it is not a sufficient justification for using cheat software. Ever. If the playerbase feels the game should provide more information, then you lambast the developers with requests to add it as a feature, but you don't use and encourage the development of cheat software to further that goal. You might have honorable intentions but the 10,000 folks coming after you and using the same software are simply too lame to win a game on their own, and are there for the unfair advantage it offers.

Not so relevant in EQ per se,where players are not in direct combat (unless on the Zeks I know), but very relevant to Dark Age of Camelot (and also see Camelot Herald for Statistics on the scoring and state of the game etc )- the game I play a lot at the moment - where players are regularly in direct conflict with each other. Programs such as Odin's Eye have threatened that game heavily.

Actually, some of the design seems to draw on the unique design of DAOC in some respects. DAOC was the first to introduce Realm vs Realm combat (where players belong to one culture permanently at war with 2 other cultures (Vikings, King Arthur's English, and the Celts of Ireland), and SWG evedently has a similar 3-sided conflict (Empire, Rebels and the Underworld) updated to suit a science-fiction universe. Player-vs-Player combat is hardly a new thing (UO had it) but DAOCs version of it is remarkably effective

Dark Age of Camelot (See http://www.darkageofcamelot.com for some information on the game and http://www.camelotherald.com if you want the game scores for each server and individual) was a very clever development in the world of MMORPGs and while its got its problems, its a very enjoyable game overall. A new expansion called Shrouded Isles will be out in in December. I have been playing DAOC since the day it came out and I haven't lost interest yet.

I hope that Verant/Sony learns from their experience with Everquest and develops a more rounded game. The Star Wars intellectual property is very well developed and deserves a good game. Sadlly, Verant has not been the most responsive of companies in the past.

I am looking forward to SWG immensely. It may be the game to pull me out of DAOC, but its gonna have to be a lot more than just eye-candy to do so.

I've been warning my friends still hooked on EverCrack and DAOC that they're throwing their lives away... maybe this will convince them.

Since the capability of using one's cable modem with the XBox is there, it's just a matter of attaching the XBox to a hub along with a packet sniffing system, then either alter the packets as they go in/out or just view them. Encryption is poor, since you're sacrificing performance if it's too effective. People already do this with Dark Age of Camelot, sniffing the packets and displaying maps on a Linux system, including where enemies are.

Yes, I should have mentioned its 25ms refresh rate. Text is pretty much rock-solid, even if I grab the scroll bar in IE and ram it up and down quickly. I haven't really played Quake III on it, but I have played Dark Age of Camelot (Go Hibernia!), and even if I switch mouselook on and flick my mouse around, the scenery flies around without any noticeable difference in smoothness (and lack of smearing) as on the 17" Sony GDM-200PS (very nice CRT monitor) which the VX900 replaced.

So, all in all, a kick-ass monitor. :)

Mythic Entertainment already has the servers post 'scoring' info onto a web server, the Herald lists players scores(called Realm Points) and updates automagically, as well as the entire realm status.

-Henry

DAoC (Dark Age of Camelot, website here) was pretty bug-free when it was released.

In fact, I think they've introduced (and then had to fix) more bugs in patches than they've fixed bugs which existed in the first place (before patches). If that makes sense...

From their own website:

Who is Mythic Entertainment, and what games have they done?

Mythic Entertainment is the most prolific and one of the most successful online gaming developers in the industry today. With eleven online games to its credit, Mythic has been a major part of all of its distribution and publishing partners pay-for-play games including AOL, the Centropolis Gaming Center, Gamestorm and ENGAGE. Our titles include some of the most popular online-only games of all time including Spellbinder: The Nexus Conflict, Aliens Online, Starship Troopers: Battlespace, Silent Death Online, Rolemaster: Magestorm, Darkness Falls, Darkness Falls: The Crusade, Splatterball, Godzilla Online, and Dragon's Gate.

Mythic has more experience in developing and running multi-user online role-playing games than most of its competitors. Dragon's Gate is one of the longest running online RPGs out there, having just hit its 12th anniversary and is still going strong on the Centropolis Gaming Center. Mythic also has the successful Darkness Falls RPGs, which is available on the Centropolis Gaming Center.

> IM - is a world of divided standards, so you can only talk to AOL users if you're an AOL user, MSN if your an MSN user, etc

Goodness forbid we get a little competition in the IM 'biz'. Look ma, no ICQ number! Anyway, there are multi-network clients out there.

> email - is a world where you need to sift through 20 spam messages to find your one message. Also the monoculture of email clients created a nightmare reality of viruses.

Don't know about you, but my spam filter catches virtually all of the crap; but maybe I'm just lucky. Can't do anything about Outlook usage, though.

> nntp - spam is certainly a problem, as is the bulk of news services no longer carrying binaries.

There are more efficient ways to distribute files nowadays. I hope I'll never have to uuencode anything ever again.

> Search - pay per search, or commercially-supported search (ie - paid-for results placement).

Only an issue when the engine doesn't tell you it's a paid link. Don't know about others, since I mainly use Google.

> Stock Trading - find me a stock worth investing in today

I forget, were hugely inflated IPOs part of the original Internet spec?

> WEB - commercial consolidation funnels most people to portals.

I've yet to see statistics showing how many people use these portals, instead of switching to something else instantly. I know my 12 year old sister doesn't use her default portal.

> Nobody can afford to host anymore

Has it really gotten more expensive? I thought prices were going down, if anything.

> 70% of the URLs were dead

Creating and hosting a web page costs time and money. Did it used to be different?

> Free Music - the age of napster is finished.

Darn, why am I the last to know these things? I'd better disconnect from Morpheous then. Thanks for the heads up.

> Free Software - I'm not talking about Free Software, I'm talking about that which the BSA is making extinct. Warez.

Hasn't the BSA been making Warez extinct for about 10 years now? (Since the BBS days?)

> Marketing - ah yes. If you're an advertiser, the internet is your friend

Last I heard advertisers were leaving the Internet in droves. Of course, marketers are idiots who aren't used to getting any feedback on the "success" of any of their drivel^H^H^H^H^H^H ads.

> there's nothing out there for them but advertising and crap

I notice you're still here.

There seems to be a backlash against the Internet since the dot-com stock crash. People have gone from proclaiming it as the best thing since sliced bread to saying it's the worst thing since New Coke. I'm one of the unreasonable heathens who thinks it was something in between. I also think the average user does like having broadband. Web pages are getting bulkier (and flash-ier) all the time, music is still popular online, and nevermind all those online games.

Hate to burst your bubble, but I think this inter-net thingy might be around for a while.

I've never even heard of this game so I wanted to learn more, but no link was given. (shame!)

So here it is: http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/

My wife and I are now thoroughly addicted to Dark Age of Camelot, the latest and greatest MMORPG on the market. I was formerly an EQ player but switched the moment DOAC was available. My wife has now tried DAOC and is also hooked on it. We both have equal systems (well hers is probably slightly better) and a good cable connection and we can play together. Plus our guild (Teeth of Garm, in Midgard on the Percival server for those who care) is completely composed of local residents in our community. I think that while we are playing a fair whack now, it will tone down a bit, and I certainly don't see it as being any worse than watching TV together, in fact I would say its definitely an improvement over TV since its interactive.

Plus, since we are gaming together I don't receive any flack over how much time I am spending playing. I am not ignoring her while I play I am usually grouped with her. It lends a more "social" feel to the game to have both my wife and my friends and acquaintances playing online that grouping with complete strangers does not have.

I would recommend Dark Age of Camelot over Everquest any day! I just got this game a few weeks ago, and it's incredible!

I'm about as extreme a geek as you're going to find, and I make my living working on these games now (cheap plug).

At least in one major camp of design thought, more than making games we are engineering social constructs. It's not so much that the social evolution in these games is unexpected, as that it's incredibly hard to predict. Sometimes real-world parallels work (the Tragedy of the Commons in UO's closed economy) and sometimes they don't (player justice has always tended towards anarchy, when traditional social theory says it should work).

Actually, the level of attention to these games from mainstream society is steadily growing, a while ago there was a sports story about how one baseball player was particularly pleased with a game winning home run because the pitcher had once let the batter's character die in EverQuest. My current project is funded by a major Movie and TV show financial group, has a TV show in development, and will have product placement in several major films. Now *that's* mainstream.

--ave Rickey