The UO emulator scene got me into network programming. I've never seen an online game capture so many ancillary/emergent/accidental gameplay mechanics as well as this, somehow all the 3d MMOs seemed to downgrade a lot of the interesting economics, building, exploring that UO delivered. PvP and quest type stuff is probably a lot better in other games but it was still compelling and you could realistically play solo or in a group or casually interact with randoms and effortlessly switch between these as you felt like it.
> somehow all the 3d MMOs seemed to downgrade a lot of the interesting
Unfortunately two things turned out to be true:
1) Most people don't want any of this and prefer to be on rails
2) The two groups of people most attracted to a game like this wind up in a dynamic where one group will leave the game if the other is present. Whereas the 2nd group requires the 1st to want to play.
A few of the older 3d MMORPGS did try to instill some of those mechanics. Examples include:
1) Asheron's Call (which had a very active mod scene and now an emulator scene). I don' think the servers are nearly as popular as UO though.
2) Shadowbane (this one was heavily guild based but it was fun being a bit of an outlaw and PvPing random people and guilds).
Maybe there is some opportunity there? Very little going on in the mmo world now tbh. Wow, old school runescape, final fantasy online, not much else worth it.
> Wow, old school runescape, final fantasy online, not much else worth it.
What about
- Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR),
- The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO),
- Guild Wars 2 (GW2),
- EVE Online,
- Black Desert?
All of them (except Eve) feel too much like WoW reskins to bother with. This is personal opinion but the feeling probably reflects why they have 1% (estimated by ChatGPT) of WoW’s subscriptions.
This game was created before virtual currency and pay to win was a thing. The potential money is probably too corrupting.