Ultima Online. Idk how it is now, as I haven’t played on vanilla servers in like 20yrs, but you basically just got dropped into the game. Luckily, I had a friend who did play who taught me the basics. Otherwise, I woulda just been running around town aimlessly.
Eve Online is kinda like that, too. Originally, I don’t think there was a tutorial (I started in 2005). Over the years, they’ve implemented a tutorial and iterated on it. Or just completely re-did it over and over again. It was bad. Like Ultima Online, Eve is a sandbox MMO, so no tutorial can show you everything possible in the game. But even the basics felt like not enough and just long and drawn out. The system in place today is certainly better, but players are still better off making friends quickly to learn the ins and outs.
Planetside 2 also originally didn’t have a tutorial. I played the original Planetside back in the day, but the games are pretty different from each other. So it was a bit rough in the beginning. I remember coming across the early biolabs and running around the bottom of it for a quite a long time until realizing there were then “satelite bases” which had jumppads to the top of the biolab entries.
Even when a tutorial was introduced, it was pretty crap. Like sure you learned the basics of how to move, and how to shoot, and how to spawn vehicles. But the game is so much more than that. Big parts of Planetside 2 is understanding the map and environment, flow of battles, where each bases’ capture points are, and of course positioning. And that’s all stuff you don’t get in the tutorial because there are so many different bases and the continent are large. Plus, some of that can only be learned by playing the game. Which can be frustrating when a player is dying 50 times in a row while getting a single kill (if they’re lucky), because they don’t yet understand anything I mentioned.
It’s an OK game. I say that, yet I keep getting sucked into it. Quit for like 10yrs, then I came back in 2018. Stopped playing again at the start of 2022, only to come back again at the start of 2023. I have a problem…and her name is Eve!
I’ve also been playing Eve like 10+ years myself and every time I think I’ve won it I haven’t yet.
One of the best aspects of the game is the community around it though, rather than the actual gameplay. In fact, a lot of the gameplay is rather stale these days.
Agreed. I’m in the one of the null blocs, and have been since for last 4-5yrs. I’m not particularly deep into the community, either the alliance or Eve in general, but I just like playing with other people. Are F1 Tidi blobs fun? No, but I’m still playing with people. Logi wing can be fun, trying to get everything organized, and then keeping cap chains organized and going while get melted. I was doing FW earlier the in year, which is ofc much smaller scale, so I got to chit chat and know the regular gang that I ran in. Which was nice.
Compare that to FFXIV, where I really don’t have to talk or work with anyone, other than in instances. A single player experience in a world filled with others doing their own single player experience. Yeah there’s community, but it never feel like it resolves around the game; it’s all just extraneous stuff like nightclubs and stuff.
Gameplay wise in Eve, I feel like I’ve done everything I’ve really wanted to do in the game. After this many years of playing, the mystique and curiosity is gone. But the players do still make it interesting from time to time. Thank god for that.
Ultima Online. Idk how it is now, as I haven’t played on vanilla servers in like 20yrs, but you basically just got dropped into the game. Luckily, I had a friend who did play who taught me the basics. Otherwise, I woulda just been running around town aimlessly.
Eve Online is kinda like that, too. Originally, I don’t think there was a tutorial (I started in 2005). Over the years, they’ve implemented a tutorial and iterated on it. Or just completely re-did it over and over again. It was bad. Like Ultima Online, Eve is a sandbox MMO, so no tutorial can show you everything possible in the game. But even the basics felt like not enough and just long and drawn out. The system in place today is certainly better, but players are still better off making friends quickly to learn the ins and outs.
Planetside 2 also originally didn’t have a tutorial. I played the original Planetside back in the day, but the games are pretty different from each other. So it was a bit rough in the beginning. I remember coming across the early biolabs and running around the bottom of it for a quite a long time until realizing there were then “satelite bases” which had jumppads to the top of the biolab entries.
Even when a tutorial was introduced, it was pretty crap. Like sure you learned the basics of how to move, and how to shoot, and how to spawn vehicles. But the game is so much more than that. Big parts of Planetside 2 is understanding the map and environment, flow of battles, where each bases’ capture points are, and of course positioning. And that’s all stuff you don’t get in the tutorial because there are so many different bases and the continent are large. Plus, some of that can only be learned by playing the game. Which can be frustrating when a player is dying 50 times in a row while getting a single kill (if they’re lucky), because they don’t yet understand anything I mentioned.
Yeah but Eve Online isn’t a good game either 😋
You’re right…It’s the best! 😎
It’s an OK game. I say that, yet I keep getting sucked into it. Quit for like 10yrs, then I came back in 2018. Stopped playing again at the start of 2022, only to come back again at the start of 2023. I have a problem…and her name is Eve!
I’ve also been playing Eve like 10+ years myself and every time I think I’ve won it I haven’t yet.
One of the best aspects of the game is the community around it though, rather than the actual gameplay. In fact, a lot of the gameplay is rather stale these days.
Agreed. I’m in the one of the null blocs, and have been since for last 4-5yrs. I’m not particularly deep into the community, either the alliance or Eve in general, but I just like playing with other people. Are F1 Tidi blobs fun? No, but I’m still playing with people. Logi wing can be fun, trying to get everything organized, and then keeping cap chains organized and going while get melted. I was doing FW earlier the in year, which is ofc much smaller scale, so I got to chit chat and know the regular gang that I ran in. Which was nice.
Compare that to FFXIV, where I really don’t have to talk or work with anyone, other than in instances. A single player experience in a world filled with others doing their own single player experience. Yeah there’s community, but it never feel like it resolves around the game; it’s all just extraneous stuff like nightclubs and stuff.
Gameplay wise in Eve, I feel like I’ve done everything I’ve really wanted to do in the game. After this many years of playing, the mystique and curiosity is gone. But the players do still make it interesting from time to time. Thank god for that.