Okay, here is my answer to
Simpwn's question, its gonna be a big wall of text on my phone... but keep in mind that Im typing it on my phone. (Go easy on me)
Okay, so Zakeees and I were talking last night and he asked me why I felt like Wildstar or any of the other MMOs I've played (keep in mind I never got into WoW) have been able to keep my attention... and after about 2 minutes of thought I came mostly to the conclusion that Achaea ruined the MMO style RPG genre for me. (Check out
www.achaea.com for some basic info on Achaea: Dreams of Divine Lands) Obviously he was curious as to why a MUD, or text based rpg, had me so captivated and I kinda rambled as to why (and I think Triage can commiserate with me on this one but replace Achaea with UO).
Here are some of the reasons in a little nicer form than me spamming a huge text at Zakis, which was converted into a multimedia message cause it was so long:
Achaea is a complete sandbox, with no level cap. Once you get to level 18 you're thrown out of the starting zones forever and are left to fend for yourself. If you don't communicate with the other players you have no idea what to do or where to go, because the game is about learning to fend for yourself.
Branching off that, Achaea's Guild (Theyre called Houses now) system is completely and utterly robust and not only has player involvement, but is also backed by the God (Admins basically) system. Each House chooses a god which kinda would align with their goals and or ambitions and the God then helps them in small non-gamebreaking ways, as long as it doesn't conflict with the God's Order... which I will go over shortly. Also Houses have been established a long time, some even are relatively similar to when they started over 10 RL Years ago when I first started playing. (Over 400 in game years) They have expansive things to help out new players and most Houses have some kind of secret or goal they are always striving for. As an example, the last House I was in, the Warlocks of the Rising Phoenix had the goal of combining different elemental properties to make a megagolem. The House before that that I was in, the Shadowsnakes were actually working on finding some lost scrolls inside a sunken ship they'd found, plus a group we started called Razor Squadron had the goal of breaking into all of the other House halls and collecting valuable goods from them so we could make a quick profit. The first House I was in way back in the day, The Occultists has always had the goal of raising a creature of unfathomable power called the Unnameable Horror (lolvoldemort) to destroy sapience as we know it. Im very proud to say I helped gather the orphans to sacrifice to raise it. We actually did too, but a group of good aligned Gods banned together to banish it again.
Not enough awesome roleplay for you? Heres more! Orders for Gods are similar to the Housing system, but the Gods more actively participate. My last character was one of the main acolytes of Pandemonium, God of Strife. I started 3 wars singlehandedly in the game. In the Order I also set free a gigantic onyx bull that killed several hundred players across the game before it was finally put down for good. I led hoardes of Goblins through a tunnel into the city of good to raid their church for a holy sword so that I could place a bunch of magic and alchemical properties on it and use it to cut through space-time. So many awesome and fun adventures were had in the name of Strife.
But what about what people care about? Like I was saying about the PvE, there is no level cap. Once you reach level 99, you gain the ability to turn into a dragon of your choice, from any of the traditional dragon colors. The PvE is very difficult and fun, even though its a GIGANTIC grind. It took me an actual year nearly to make dragon. (Of course it didnt help that I PvP'd as well) Also when you die, you lose experience with more being lost over time if you stay dead, so there are a lot of consequences for dying, which makes PvE more difficult and fun, especially as you progress in levels.
So PvP. Achaea has the most complete and difficult PvP system of any game Ive ever played. Mst of the combat is based off of afflictions, each affliction has a cure. The affilictions dont wear off until you cure them, and some afflictions can block others from being cured. Because of this, I consider all other PvP to be childsplay. Woth text whizzing by faster than you can read, you have to rely on text highlights and instincts to become good at the PvP in the game. Automated curing systems are allowed but they dont help in every case, and the popular ones have a lot of breaks that are found out quickly by players. When you become good at PvP in the game though, groups of people will come to try and hunt you down, because youre able to 1v3 the lesser pvpers. The last time I died in PvP on my main character they brought 7 people to jump me while I was defiling their shrines.
NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?!?! Here is a list of some of the other things I did in the game...
1. I was a thief. Stealing gold and very valuable items directly from players. Most people will pay a lot to get their things back too.
2. I became one of the most feared pirates in the game. Similar to stealing, but you can sink their ships as well, which costs 80k go raise back up. The ships themselves cost over 350k just to buy.
3. I raided many cities with members of my House or City. Gotta love that PvP.
4. I became an Assasin who got paid for killing other players.
Oh I almost forgot about cities, do you like politics? Dont worry! Because YOU can run a city. Or help run a city. Or run events for a whole city. Or anything other political that you may like.
Customisation! Theres a lot of it. Players can submit designs for their own jewellery and clothes. Not to mention customize their pets, mounts, weapons, armor, artifacts, appearance... its all text, if you wanna pay for it, they will change it. I had a skeletal zombie hydra as a mount. Plus a customized artifact shield that was given to me by Pandemonium.
So... as you can see... Achaea would be pretty much the most perfect and amazing game... if it had graphics. So overall... I think I need a sandbox type game or else it just wont hold my interest.
