4 ms·

As an apple gamer from the early 80's who played all of the ultimas (and bards tales, and wizardries...). WoW was the game I had always wanted. I found it bett

As an apple gamer from the early 80's who played all of the ultimas (and bards tales, and wizardries...). WoW was the game I had always wanted. I found it better than UO because it had the interactivity and sophistication I had dreamed about. That came with a downside. I like to describe WoW in these terms: "So you like ice cream right? Here: go eat this truck full. Go on. You said you liked ice cream, go do it. /points gun at my head/ ... EAT."

moron4hire 6y ago
THIS is the best description of WoW I've ever heard. Truly wonderful. I thank you.
- btrask 6y ago
  As someone who never played WoW, I'm curious. What exactly was the ice cream, and what was the gun?
mrits 6y ago
I like finding other Bard's Tale players in the wild. It was easier to learn how to use a hex editor to hack the game than to actually play the game...so that's what I did.
- rakah 6y ago
  Same here! I remember taking a saved game file, backing it up and then earning some gold. Comparing the two roughly told me where the saved game kept its gold. Then I made that number tremendous. I think I was in fifth or sixth grade at the time - it was a lesson that's served me well :)
chongli 6y ago
interactivity and sophistication I had dreamed about I'm not sure what you mean by that. Wasn't WoW just a theme park MMO? You walk around alone or with friends, killing camps of monsters and completing fetch quests? UO had ridiculous levels of interactivity. You could go into the forest, chop some wood, turn the wood into bows and arrow shafts. Kill a chicken and butcher it for meat and feathers. Use some wood to build a fire and cook the meat. Use the feathers to fletch your arrows. Now you're got a bow and arrow. Hunt a deer and butcher it for a large amount of meat and hides. Take the hides back to your house and tan them to make leather. Tailor the leather into leather armour with your character's name on it! Dye the leather a unique colour and put it for sale on your vendor NPC. Come back another day and find other players shopping for leather armour in your store! Chat with them and make friends. Go on an adventure together. Build and design a new house to live in together. UO was Minecraft before Minecraft. Servers had thousands of players and there was a ridiculous amount of interactivity between players and the environment.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- staycoolboy 6y ago
  > I'm not sure what you mean by that. Try playing WoW. Just about everything you described in is in WoW. The crafting system is crazy.
  - chongli 6y ago
    I'm pretty sure UO is (or was) unique among MMOs for having non-instanced player-built housing with full customization and decoration [1]. I fondly remember player-owned houses set up in high traffic locations such as near NPC cities, around moongates, along roads, and outside dungeons. It was so cool how you could go into a dungeon and fight monsters for treasure and then come out and visit another player's house which was set up as a shop, allowing you to restock on resources before heading back into the dungeon. All of these houses and shops were customized and decorated to an incredible degree, giving the world a very cozy and lived-in feel. I know Star Wars Galaxies had player-owned housing but from what I remember the interiors of the houses were instanced away from the main world. This totally destroyed immersion. I can't tell you how many times I was playing UO, crafting in my house, when I'd see people outside wander by and step out to chat with them. Incredible stuff! [1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=uo+house+decorations&t=osx&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=uo+house+decorations&t=osx&iax=ima...
    - Alex3917 6y ago
      This. Also, the fact that inventory wasn't slotted (like Diablo and pretty much every other game) made the game feel vastly more real and immersive, for me at least.
  - Raph_Koster 6y ago
    WoW's crafting system is pretty strongly inspired by UO's. Actually, everyone's crafting system is pretty strongly inspired by UO's. That said, the big difference is that crafting in WoW at launch, and for many years thereafter, was very much an adjunct to the primary game of combat. You cannot level up in WoW without combat. In UO, combat was not a requirement. You could play the entire time, and become rich and powerful, just as a tailor, or whatever.

moron4hire 6y ago

THIS is the best description of WoW I've ever heard. Truly wonderful. I thank you.

btrask 6y ago
As someone who never played WoW, I'm curious. What exactly was the ice cream, and what was the gun?

mrits 6y ago

I like finding other Bard's Tale players in the wild. It was easier to learn how to use a hex editor to hack the game than to actually play the game...so that's what I did.

rakah 6y ago
Same here! I remember taking a saved game file, backing it up and then earning some gold. Comparing the two roughly told me where the saved game kept its gold. Then I made that number tremendous. I think I was in fifth or sixth grade at the time - it was a lesson that's served me well :)

chongli 6y ago

interactivity and sophistication I had dreamed about I'm not sure what you mean by that. Wasn't WoW just a theme park MMO? You walk around alone or with friends, killing camps of monsters and completing fetch quests? UO had ridiculous levels of interactivity. You could go into the forest, chop some wood, turn the wood into bows and arrow shafts. Kill a chicken and butcher it for meat and feathers. Use some wood to build a fire and cook the meat. Use the feathers to fletch your arrows. Now you're got a bow and arrow. Hunt a deer and butcher it for a large amount of meat and hides. Take the hides back to your house and tan them to make leather. Tailor the leather into leather armour with your character's name on it! Dye the leather a unique colour and put it for sale on your vendor NPC. Come back another day and find other players shopping for leather armour in your store! Chat with them and make friends. Go on an adventure together. Build and design a new house to live in together. UO was Minecraft before Minecraft. Servers had thousands of players and there was a ridiculous amount of interactivity between players and the environment.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
staycoolboy 6y ago
> I'm not sure what you mean by that. Try playing WoW. Just about everything you described in is in WoW. The crafting system is crazy.
- chongli 6y ago
  I'm pretty sure UO is (or was) unique among MMOs for having non-instanced player-built housing with full customization and decoration [1]. I fondly remember player-owned houses set up in high traffic locations such as near NPC cities, around moongates, along roads, and outside dungeons. It was so cool how you could go into a dungeon and fight monsters for treasure and then come out and visit another player's house which was set up as a shop, allowing you to restock on resources before heading back into the dungeon. All of these houses and shops were customized and decorated to an incredible degree, giving the world a very cozy and lived-in feel. I know Star Wars Galaxies had player-owned housing but from what I remember the interiors of the houses were instanced away from the main world. This totally destroyed immersion. I can't tell you how many times I was playing UO, crafting in my house, when I'd see people outside wander by and step out to chat with them. Incredible stuff! [1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=uo+house+decorations&t=osx&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=uo+house+decorations&t=osx&iax=ima...
  - Alex3917 6y ago
    This. Also, the fact that inventory wasn't slotted (like Diablo and pretty much every other game) made the game feel vastly more real and immersive, for me at least.
- Raph_Koster 6y ago
  WoW's crafting system is pretty strongly inspired by UO's. Actually, everyone's crafting system is pretty strongly inspired by UO's. That said, the big difference is that crafting in WoW at launch, and for many years thereafter, was very much an adjunct to the primary game of combat. You cannot level up in WoW without combat. In UO, combat was not a requirement. You could play the entire time, and become rich and powerful, just as a tailor, or whatever.