503 sweaty men in a cave (MMOs).

[Toric]

MMO's I have played:

Guild Wars (Still playing)
Star Wars Galaxies
World of Warcraft
Anarchy Online
R.O.S.E. Online (Decent, but not gonna pay for it. I miss the beta. )
Ragnarok Online
Everquest 2

I haven't heard of this Trickster game until now, I'll have to give it a shot.

[Rowne]

If you do try it, we'll have to try and arrange some kind of DMFA get together in the beta.  Since you'll be there, I'll be there, Silver will be there and another fellow that I happen to know will also be there.

[Arcalane]

On another note, do you have[/i] to post in orange? It's hard to read on some of the other schemes.

Sorry, buddy. It's a necessity. It looks fine to me. The background is black, and the text is orange. It's a complete stand-out.

It should not be a necessity. By the default, on that theme, the font should be white. Over here, on this theme, the background is purple. Orange and purple do not mix.

[CutMan]

On another note, do you have[/i] to post in orange? It's hard to read on some of the other schemes.

Sorry, buddy. It's a necessity. It looks fine to me. The background is black, and the text is orange. It's a complete stand-out.

It should not be a necessity. By the default, on that theme, the font should be white. Over here, on this theme, the background is purple. Orange and purple do not mix.

Hee hee. I really AM sorry, but I don't think I'll be changing it anytime soon. It's funny how your background is purple when the default is black. Aside from that, if we take a look at the color wheel, PURPLE and YELLOW are complete opposite colors, meaning they contrast eachother highly. Orange is kind of like yellow. The opposite of orange is blue, and purple is sort of like blue. As I said before, it's a complete standout.

If it bothers you that much, then just highlight my posts to see what I'm saying.

On another note, has anyone tried playing 'Adventure Quest?' It's ridiculously lame and irritating. And to think: its creators are making a load of money off of a crappy RPG made on Flash 8. Sad, really.

[Rowne]

That and there's always the option of grabbing Greasemonkey for Firefox and throwing together a script for this domain that forces all text colour to be white.

[Aridas]

If a large number of DMFAers get interested in a long-term relationship with maplestory, I might be tempted to start a guild...

[Rowne]

I could certainly try it out, I'm willing to give anything a shot.  If I remember correctly, Maple Story's free too, nay?

[Netami]

Maplestory is sort of dull. Even when I hacked (which is rampant), there wasn't a lot to do. Maybe on a shard it'd be fun, but who knows. I couldn't imagine DMFA starting a group in any MMO outside social type games.

[Rowne]

I admit that I've changed gears a bit lately but the topic was originally about finding out what everyone was playing more than actually trying to form a group, after all, if X amount of people play Y game then there's already a group there.  It seems though that aside from PlanetSide players, I'm about one of the only avid MMOers around these 'ere parts.

You're likely right though, most would probably hang around in Second Life more than an actual MMO.  I'm tempted by Second Life but I want to shop around for visual appearances before I go there next.  My last attempt was particularly horrible and I want to do better.  I have this thing with appearance in online games.  Bloody ill-conceived sense of fashion.  *Cough.*

[Netami]

We recently expanded in SL, actually. I expect a post about it soon from Slavkei or Silver. It's a much bigger lot.

I've played a ton of MMOs, but I just can't imagine myself raiding in WoW with someone from here. 

[Rowne]

I liked Second Life, I really did.  It's just the first time in there, I went in ill-prepared.  The next time I do it I want to do it better and put in a bit of research before I build a character.  Building a character in that game isn't exactly an easy thing, at least if one doesn't want to look overly generic.  So this might be a good time for one to look into it again and start the aforementioned research, considering that it's a time of change for Lost Lake anyway.

As for World of Warcraft, to be frank, you've picked about the worst example of any MMO that you could pick there.  If it's a good playerbase that you're after, you'd be better off with Ultima Online, Everquest, Everquest II, Final Fnatasy XI or a bunch of others that I could think of.  The problem with Warcraft is that it became too popular with the mainstream and there're a lot of idiots about.  That's slowly happening to Everquest II sadly and I'm thinking about moving on from there when I find a new game to move on to.

Despite the lack of beast races (which I do so dearly love), I'm actually tempted by the new Lord of the Rings MMO, it sounds particularly out there and weird, at least worth a shot.  I've signed up for their beta anyway.  I admit though that the MMO I'm really looking forward to again is Phantasy Star Universe.  I had some real good times in FF IX so I'm eager to try an Eastern MMO again.

---- Edit

Oh and to clarify the World of Warcraft point, I think most of the folks from around these parts would find Warcraft a major turn-off due to the nature of the folks found within.  It'd be like having a hippie wander around a futuristic, cyberpunk, neo-fascist America.  The two just would likely not be compatible.

To further clarify, I agree that the folks around here wouldn't fit in in Warcraft because Warcraft is the only MMO I've encountered that behaves like Counter Strike.  I'd suspect even the PlanetSiders are more well-behaved.

(Edit: Forgot to add cyberpunk, it doesn't read as I wanted to without it.)

[Netami]

WoW may have a terrible community, but it has gameplay that others just don't. We tried FFXI before WoW and we hated it. A clunky login and billing system, and the grind was unlike anything I had ever experienced. There was absoloutely no replay value. CoH and CoV are drab, dreary games that you can "beat" very quickly, but their community is the best I have ever seen. Still, one can only stand around crossing one's arms while trying to look tough in RP for so long. D&D Online was just bad.

[Toric]

Darn, looks like Trickster's been delayed for a week. I'm gonna have to wait to play my killer bunny-boy of doom.

[Toric]

Woot, Trickster's finally up. Pretty interesting so far, has plenty of bad translations. It seems the different races are gender-specific, so no bunny-boy for me. I had to settle on a raccoon, named Toric of course. If anyone else tries this game and wants to add me as a friend, go for it.

[Blazehawk]

I play WoW myself, but I tend to only find it enjoyable when I have at least a small group of friends to play with. It does have good gameplay, but I do agree, there are a lot of idiots on there. Eh, I get to play with friends from back home, as well as a couple people I know in Cincinatti, so its an easy way to spend time together.

I do play UO still on occasion, but only on freeshards. I helped run a few in the past, but lately I've just been server-hopping or creating my own and seeing what all I can do (I'm used to Sphere, but now that everyone's switched to RunUO I'm a little confused.), like get a boat stuck inside a cliff. Remind me to never be a sailor. 
I also play Guild Wars, and trying to get in a guild run by someone on another forum I frequent.

I used to play Dark Age of Camelot, but quit after a while because I couldn't seem to find any friends to play with. Other than that though it was pretty fun.  I also played Anarchy Online for a while. I can't stand Everquest or FFXI though. I also tried Gunz Online, but tired of it because there seemed to be a lot of hacking in it, at least when I was in.

Hmm...and I do agree that Phantasy Star Universe looks pretty spiffy. I played PSO quite a bit back in the Dreamcast days before everything went pay-to-play. 

I also play Second Life quite a bit, I'm actually trying to construct a little club-type place on my little spot of land. Everything uses high-res versions of Heretic textures, I think it looks pretty cool so far.

[Rowne]

Seraline: You have good taste, I approve!  You also make a good point and that point is that almost any MMO can be good if one takes their own friends.  Some MMOs can be scary if one works with pickup groups.

Toric: I might meet you in there, Britain is doing it's heat-wavey thing right now so that's not likely immediately but when dusk closes in and it cools down I'll likely be found scarpering around in there, like some wereMMO.  Also a Raccoon, Rowne.

I have to sheepishly admit however that I was strongly tempted to roll up a female Rabbit and name it Rowne, just for kicks.

Oh and drilling?  What fun!  If I were to analyze it, I'd say it's cross between Ultima Online's resource gathering and Everquest II's collection quests.  Those are two of my favourite things.  I spent most of my time merrily drilling around and I've already found a number of nice drill-spots that it seems that almost nobody else knows about.

Netami: I agree with your assessment of FF IX and CoH / CoV.  I disagree with your views on World of Warcraft though.  It seems to be a game of uninventive quests that emphasize time spent playing over skill.

Final Fantasy IX was much like Warcraft in that way, too much like.  Warcraft had a better interface but they were similar, unless one found a good group, it was really a horrid experience.

City of Villains I particularly enjoyed but only because I had fun playing a villain and I helped to organize a convention of misunderstood boffins, who were quite cheerily showing off their latest creations to the villainous community, that was fun.

To be completely honest with you, the only really good memories I have of MMOs are of Ultima Online and Neverwinter Nights.

In Ultima Online  was fun to be the farmer or the fisherman and there was always plenty of roleplay, it was early days for MMOs then, with UO being the first big release after Meridian 59.

Neverwinter Nights was and likely still is the King of roleplay.  It was grand to get a group together and to run a module.  I'll never forget some of the adventures I ran through some of the modules and some of the utterly crazy characters I met.

---- Edit

I'd also note generally and in particular that Trickster Online might once again foster the Ultima Online atmosphere.  The gathering of items isn't node based so it's not like Final Fantasy IX or World of Warcraft ...

OMG, look, a node!
Get it, get it!
IT'S MINE!!!
I'll kill you, I need that ore!

Instead it has this truly serene feeling to it, where the gathering is based upon the stats of the player primarily, I've noticed that there are some spots where I'm luckier than I am in others but this was true of Ultima Online too.  I'm not sure whether it's intentional or not but still, there are no nodes.

It's just a matter of finding a spot and drilling away whilst having a nice conversation with another driller standing nearby.

[Blazehawk]

  I forgot about NWN...I suppose because its not just one big MMO, but a whole collection of little ones you can pick from.  It's like a buffet...but with demon hordes. 
I played on a couple of them, the only one I really stayed on was Tales of Illuvatar, but lost interest after the original admin and such left. Occasionally I'll hop on there, but I tend to have the most fun playing modules like Penultima, and the Ravenloft/Classic D&D remakes  But if I can ever get a group together like I had back at home for D&D...I'll be addicted all over again. How can you not love a rogue that can lead dwarves off a cliff like lemmings? 

Thanks though, I think you have good taste too. ^^

[Roureem Egas]

Hitsuzen is at work again. D:

I've been playing online at Trickster myself as well, as a Raccoon. Except I picked a different name, GamblerLux. I really should try to find you guys, if it weren't for the fact we have it only on one of the computers. That and it takes forever to get in. Stupid cloggers doing nothing for hours.

Still, I'll remember to search you guys out. Maybe we could form a party or something.

[Rowne]

Seraline: Might I suggest the Penultima series?  Specifically, Penultima Rerolled.  The first Penultima series was wonderful but the second was nothing short of art.

If I had to describe it I would call it a Pratchett game done right.  Even though it isn't set in the Discworld Universe.  You'd have to play it to see.  I still have fond memories of the mages setting up an alternate dimension to function as their internet and the playable character asking a Goblin if that's how he really looked (OMG no, this is just my avatar.  LOL!).

The most praiseworthy aspect of Rerolled though is that it took upon an aspect of Pratchett that many people seem to ignore.   I find that Pratchett philosophises openly in his books and he does it with charm and finesse, that's an act that Rerolled follows and with class, I might add.

Egas: I don't know if you'd find me, I'm on at weird times.  The weather around here is acting as bloody erratic as it could.

I wake up one morning and it'll be cool and then suddenly the temp will jump a good 10 degrees.  It's as if nature is taunting me.  So I'll pull a 24-hour shift then and stay up at night, when it's cool and then I'll sleep through the next day.

If however you do manage to catch me in the game, I'd welcome to company.

[Blazehawk]

Hmm...I haven't tried this Trickster thing yet...perhaps I should have a go.

Anyway, I have played through both Penultima campaigns, and I've tried Stefan's other mods too.  Excellent modules all the way around. I loved Penultima Rerolled, I never see m to get tired of it. Loving Pratchett's books also helps too.  Whenever I want to play it though, I usually end up playing through both campaigns in one sitting because I love them so much. 

[Llewelyn]

One nice thing about Trickster is that the "XP per hit" and item going to the first blow to land means there's no killstealing as such.  For the most part though it seems that if multiple people end up on the same monster, and aren't in a party, that the others always back off if they weren't the first to hit.  A nice bit of courtesy, even if it's not strictly necessary.

Right now I've got a Cat named Swiftwind, Fox named Sharilar, and a Lion named Garren.  I've enjoyed them in about that order too, though the lion got gypped a little by ending up in Paradise instead of Coral(stupid random town arrivals).

[Rowne]

What I really like is that this game absolutely screams Ultima Online nostalgia at me.

For example, the day/night cycle is true to form.  At night, a small circle of light surrounds the character, very much like in UO when a person was holding a candle.  It means that anything past the 'candlelight' distance can't be seen.  I have to admit that I'm genuinely eager to wander around dangerous areas at night.

The weight is true to form, with the character's speed being affected by how much they can carry.  Everquest II eventually caught up with UO on this front but I think that Trickster is the first 2D MMO to implement this since UO, it's a nice touch.

The zoneless resource gathering is once again, very true to Ultima Online ideals.  Instead of a group of people grasping for a node, everyone finds a spot and wanders around and merrily drills, this leads to polite conversation whilst gathering up bits and bobs.

I also like the fact that there are so many uses for items.  Ores can be compounded, an interesting process.  Also, there are quests where one can turn in items to complete them, however a lot of these quest items also have a dual purpose.  For example, collect up a number of spoons and you have yourself a sword, collect up enough worn boots and you get a shiny new pair of boots out of the endeavour.  Or you can turn them in for exp.

I've also noticed what Swiftwind was talking about and to be honest, it pleases me.  I'm so tired of mannerless misanthropes mistreating the MMO milieu.  In some games, I've often talked peoples ears off for trying their best to steal harvest nodes or kills from me.  Apparently I'm in the wrong because I have respect and I don't conform to mindless greed, yay.  Rant over, Trickster isn't like that, that pleases me.

All in all, it's a happy, mellow little experience of a like I haven't seen in years.

---- Edit

Okay, that was a bit uneven so I'll cover a few reservations I do have, just to be fair and honest.

Firstly, there seem to be player shops everywhere, I have no problem with this but it makes it hard to find NPCs sometimes.  What I wish is that they'd include an option to actually turn off the player-shop sprites.  That way, I could not see them until I want to see them.  It could be bindable to a key toggle.  This would make navigating towns much easier, at the moment it feels like commuting through a meat sandwich.

The translations are a bit iffy but they're not as bad as you might think, it's quite easy to get the gist of what the NPCs are talking about but I can't help but wish there were some way I could convince them to let me rewrite some of the dialogues.  It's a minor niggle and it's nowhere near as bad as in some of the 'From the East!' games I've played but it's no Cave Story either, sadly.

The last reservation I have relates to chat entry, to be honest it might be a good thing since I haven't tried channel chatting yet.  Basically, the chat bar doesn't allow sentences of more than roughly 25 characters to be inserted.  This means that constructing complex sentences is nearly impossible.

On the upside, it cuts down the attrocious spam I've seen in more mainstream MMOs.  There's also 'channel chatting' though.  If that has a bigger space of entry then the public speaking limitation actually isn't all that bad.  It does force a lot of people to use shorthand though, which is icky.

And that's really about the only bad of it I've seen.  I usually have a lot more to say about the more negative underbelly of MMOs than that, so Trickster still wins.

[Rowne]

Well, I'm still playing Trickster Online.

I got my first taste of partying today as I actually opened up a bit and joined a few.  It didn't involve everyone grouping together to fight a single monster (a la Final Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft) but instead it simply provided bonuses for communal togetherness, which is both delightfully odd and entertaining.

By grouping the right kind of people in a weirdly class based way, certain types of parties can be formed.  So when a rather cold mage decides to get to know a charming fighter better and so on, experience multipliers are dealt out.  So it'll be a matter of +1.5 of the standard exp, 2.0 and 2.5 with the best being a Royal Party, where without rational explanation, everyone suddenly gains a regal heritage.

And I get to act like King Luca because I can.

All in all though, what continues to impress me as I wander around is the artsyness of the game.  I don't know, it seems to me that professional games are very iffy these days.  Some of the MMOs out there look awkward, like something out of Nickelodeon or a very fuzzy photograph.  The art in Trickster Online though is top notch and I'm consistently amazed by the beauty of it and how well they've handled the UI.

I suppose it's a 2D thing though and it might be fuelled by nostalgia because I haven't played a good 2D MMO in so very long.

My most wonderful find today though was something new about the pets, it has wandering pets much in the same way that Everquest II has wandering pets that follow the player.  However, these pets are interesting.  Why?  They yammer, frequently.  Not anything particularly helpful but just general blather.  I just feel that if someone couldn't look at a Penguin clapping and cheering on a buff Lion warrior and at least not chuckle ... well.

My lord, cheer up!

That's it master, give them what for!

Go on, I know you can do it!

Grand stuff.

So if anyone's reading this and hasn't tried it yet, you should.  After all, it is free and I think rather highly of it.  Especially how friendly it is.  When did you last play an MMO to have mages hang around and heal you even when you weren't in their party (and not just as a rare once a day occasion but frequently)?

As for those that are playing it, we really all need to get together.  Besides, I need a royal party with people that talk more.

I, King Rowne, proclaim this to be Kill Everything Day and I decree that you shall all Kill Everything!

[Blazehawk]

I gave Trickster a shot, and I'm quite enjoying it. Right now I have a lvl 5 Librarian named Systlaine. I'm wandering randomly around Paradise at the moment.

[Rowne]

I started off in ... er, Bright Cora or something akin to that.

I can actually get to paradise though I think, since a mermaid gave me a high tech teleportation device in exchange for sun-block (no, really!).

[Suwako]

I play SL at random. (Mostly when I hear about someone special being online.) 

[Supercheese]

Trickster also strikes me as a great game. The only other MMO I've played is WoW... so my basis of comparison may be less than perfect. I've got a level 7 Dragon named Slider, and I think I'm in that Paradise place.

Does it matter which of the two places you play on? Pearl or Ruby?

The only problem with Trickster I can see is that some of the commands aren't intuitive. Took me twenty tries to figure out how in the hell to use the freakin' drill! I couldn't comprehend that it wanted me to keep on tapping the mouse button once the bar was in the right area... bah, I'm stupid. 

I agree there are too many player shops, but I think the spacebar (when not chatting, of course) can help get rid of those sprite banners...

*alt+tabs back over to the game* Whee!

[Rowne]

Well, more Trickster travails and tales ...

Today, I decided to try out my strange teleportation device.  I went to Paradise.  Then I found out that it was only one way.  I'd note now that I'm only level 13 (barely) and that all of my quests are back in Coral.  Instead of giving up, I decide to walk back to Coral.

Do I manage it?  Hell yes.

Using the MyTrickster.net overworld map, I figure out the general direction I have to go in and slowly, checking portals, I make my way to Aquarius, the underwater city.  Whilst this is happening I'm being scared witless by things five times my level chasing me around and throwing bombs in my general direction.

From Aquarius I head back into another dungeon, which involves things five times my level throwing bombs at me, much to my chagrin.  After all that was over though, I finally go back to Coral.  I decided to celebrate.  So I went to grab a mug of tea and some nice biscuits to celebrate.

I return to find that I've died, at the hands of something that can barely even harm me, at least if I were fighting back.

So, on resurrection ... back to Aquarius I go!

When I twitch, I twitch with vigour!

From there, I once again set out into the underwater dungeon and dodged pirate Turtles that were trying to teach me the benefits of pineapples to my everyday health.  Much zig-zagging between players was done until finally I got out again.

This time I didn't stop until I was all the way back to the town.

The moral of this story?  If you get a strange teleportation device of an odd mermaid requesting sun-block, don't use it until you're at least level 30.

----

I actually picked up drilling pretty quickly but that's because I'd seen minigames before like it.  It reminded me of Golf games, where you have to get the bar on the line andsoforth, it only took me a few tries to figure out what it wanted me to do.  I suppose exposure to Japanese weirdness does help.

As for Pearl or Ruby, they're just different shards [read as: server sets].  What's really wonderful about the Trickster setup is that if you create a character on Ruby, you can play it later on Pearl or Ruby and you can switch back and forth.  If you have a friend on Ruby though and you're on Pearl, you won't see your friend, the populace is separate.

[Supercheese]

I feel stupid (still): how do you interact with player shops? [The topic was never addressed in the tutorial...]

[Roureem Egas]

Double click the shop names.

Did anyone have problems finding bath supplies, or is it just me?