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Post by rotten on May 4, 2009 7:35:22 GMT
Logged on today for the first time in a while:
"The 2009 Fund Drive is ongoing, but going poorly. Please type 'help donations' and consider what you can do."
Well, considering that I haven't seen more than 50 people on the last great big bunch of times I've logged in, I'm wondering if this game is done for. I've thought it lost a great deal of its original flavor and I think, ironically, that it was the level cap change that really did it in. All in all, though, the game just isn't what it used to be and even a noob like me can tell. Bazhi will undoubtedly ride it's corpse into the dirt in his quest to hit 50 but will he be kind enough to turn the lights off when everyone else is gone?
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Post by nine on May 4, 2009 18:20:06 GMT
I disagree about the lvels, when i came back at the end of 07 after more then 6 years away, the additional goals (levels, traits) and the extra challenges that levels allowed for (ie epics) are definately the main reason i got addicted again. I quit because AA had become stale and boring, no number of new areas full of 9k monsters woulda made any difference to that. The expansion of levels and the additional power you can obtain because of them and traits has done wonders for keeping me interested. I doubt I'm alone in thinking this. AA will die someday no doubt but I wouldnt be suprised if that day may be as far away as another 5 - 10 years? (Die imo = less then 5 active players during peak hours) <5 active players is not as dead as it seems, there are times of the day NOW where there are less then 5 ppl non idle at a time, but if its peaking that low, then the games all but dead PS Bazhi wont continue playing till 50, no way.
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Post by sinister on May 5, 2009 15:12:08 GMT
I've been on a mud that dwindled from 40+ to just me, so I found AA kind of crowded even now. That was until Verde accidently suicided making me realize how much we were in competition for areas.
Anyway, aside from the general decline in the population base, the donation drive could also be affected by the global economic slowdown. People simply might not have the money to donate.
Anyway right when I came back last year, I read a bunch of posts by Spock regarding moving AA to a graphical parallel. It was clear he was right. Text players could play AA in parallel with GUI players. I never saw it as one or the other.
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Post by tehlung on May 5, 2009 16:55:02 GMT
I've been on a mud that dwindled from 40+ to just me, so I found AA kind of crowded even now. That was until Verde accidently suicided making me realize how much we were in competition for areas. Anyway, aside from the general decline in the population base, the donation drive could also be affected by the global economic slowdown. People simply might not have the money to donate. Anyway right when I came back last year, I read a bunch of posts by Spock regarding moving AA to a graphical parallel. It was clear he was right. Text players could play AA in parallel with GUI players. I never saw it as one or the other. Makes me think of the post-glory days for aa when i was competing with you for efficiency with Caesar. I'd get home from class and see Sini'd been on for 5 mins. I'd get an undead as Lung, load it up with empty flasks, and idle at x. You'd logoff within 2 mins Re Graphics. With how fast movement and combat is on aa, it would give people seizures to see all of that graphically.
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Post by sinister on May 5, 2009 19:40:16 GMT
Ah, good times, good times.
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Post by orphan on May 5, 2009 22:35:56 GMT
It will die off eventually from lack of "new" player's joining. Just voting for AA is not enough. The website for example hasn't actually been "updated" in many years. It's so far behind that most of the information is now void. The classes and skills are out of date, the artificer's aren't even there. In general, the site is boring and does nothing to make me want to play. I only came back after a 5 year sabbatical because my brother wanted to play again, and I do remember the fond times. On a side note, why do so many people bother logging in, if they are just going to go linkdead almost the whole time? And to that note, what's keeping you guys from playing again? Why spend all of this time discussing, but not playing anymore? When I was a new player and nub, it was nice to have people to look up to. I actually played back in the day when Lunger was at the top of his game, and players like Machine, Edge, Behemoth, Tollie, Calvin, Levek, Tanus, were forming these massive 4-man parties, ravaging the countryside (sorry if some of those are alts, I don't know everyone personally, and those are from long ago memory, i'm forgetting tons) but I spent time examining people and their parties, their equipment, the awesome auctions, etc. It was fun, and exciting to see other people walking around with their big badass selves and equipment. It brought life to the game. However, now I login, and there's like 1-2 powerplayers on the mud at any time. And by your standards here, they probably don't even qualify as such. I'm no longer a nub, although not a powerplayer, it still feels the same, the game is just "lacking" without you guys here, AA misses you, so... come back All these linkdead people, and guild chatters are boring. I find myself alienating away from everyone because they are just getting on my nerves. I've left the last 2 guilds I joined, and always kepy my line off. These people just aren't "playing" the game anymore, it's lame...
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Post by tehlung on May 5, 2009 22:58:17 GMT
And to that note, what's keeping you guys from playing again? Why spend all of this time discussing, but not playing anymore? When I was a new player and nub, it was nice to have people to look up to. I actually played back in the day when Lunger was at the top of his game, and players like Machine, Edge, Behemoth, Tollie, Calvin, Levek, Tanus, were forming these massive 4-man parties, ravaging the countryside 3 reasons, mainly. Time and a lack of interest. I don't want to spend an hour starting fresh and gearing up every day, when I can get the same enjoyment by hitting load on a single player game and pickup right where I left off. Thats the nature of the mud though. When necros had killer revenants, I could login and be as eq'd as I needed to be in 5 minutes. That made for lots of play time. The people who wanted time based classes could play shitters or rangers. Now, pretty much every class is set to where you have to spend eons gearing up. That routine gets old fast. I'm also not 21 and in class for a couple hours a day anymore. I stare at a computer screen from 730 to 530/600 and the last thing I want to do when I get home is stare at a computer screen for hours on end. I doubt I'm alone in this situation. People growing up nowadays play games on consoles or play WoW. From what I've heard people say, its a far superior product for their time. Third reason is the wizard attitude. I'll be PC and not name them, but there was more than a few. I'd get asked to check out an area or class change or whatever for them and give them some feedback. Most times it was good, with a few suggestions for improving the area from an active player's perspective. The few times I really had a beef with their idea,area,change my opinion would be disregarded and the wizard would start flaming. I wasn't the only player who was in this situation. These were the changes that seemed to always make it into the game regardless of what multiple players advised. The attitude of those wizards was generally "if you don't like it, leave." So players like myself left. Lastly, nice to see I made a good impression on someone even with all my coonassery!
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Post by orphan on May 5, 2009 23:38:31 GMT
Yeah, you are right about all of those things. I did give up AA for Guild Wars, my brother quite for WoW, then I moved on to Call of Duty 4, etc. But those get old too.
The one thing I most agree with you on, is the eon's of prep time. I loved... absolutely loved playing my big cleric back in the day, but the dreaded hour - 1 and a half hours of prep time, every single time I logged in, was ridiculous. If there was just one thing I could change in AA, that would be it.
It makes the game more difficult, because I start slacking on my prep and gear, and once I see my kill/hour rate drop, I get bored and quit. It shouldn't take -That- much effort to get up and going. That's why I decided to play a fighter after all this time, I just want to login and hit the nearest shop, buy any suitable weapon, and bash. Simple, fun, easy to do and easy to quit at any time, without worrying about the "man it took 2 hours to get all this eq, I can't quite now..."
And the following will probably give you a good laugh. I started playing waaay back. hold on let me do the math, i'm 23 now, and I started waaaay back, in like 1998-99. I totally sent you a tell one time, "Asking to tag or bash with my godly like 61 longsword skill"... such a nub. I blame it on age though. lol, either way, good times.
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Post by sinister on May 6, 2009 5:17:00 GMT
Wow, you remember Behemoth (my alt) in a party? Heck, I don't remember me in a party!
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Post by Pillar on May 6, 2009 14:45:58 GMT
levek... a powerplayer? hahahahahaha.
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Post by nine on May 6, 2009 15:29:44 GMT
Hahaha!!I was about to say the same thing!!
hes like top 5 chars in age and hes like what.. lvl 24? hahaha
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Post by tinuviel on May 30, 2009 17:15:04 GMT
Mortals Online by Guild: # The Eldar 20% # The Snowfolk 16% # The Courts of Chaos 12% # The Scythe 12% # The Knights of Drin 12% # None 12% # The Black Bear 8% # The Monks of Antana 4%
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Post by tehlung on May 30, 2009 17:43:30 GMT
tinyevil i miss helping you and sudiot on the newbie line
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Post by shin00bi on Oct 19, 2009 20:58:36 GMT
Logged on today for the first time in a while: "The 2009 Fund Drive is ongoing, but going poorly. Please type 'help donations' and consider what you can do." ironically, that it was the level cap change that really did it in. I concur on this actually. The usual process used to be to keep those level 19 "Complete" characters coming. I have close to 30 alts, and remember about 20 of them. Most of them were created under this mentality. But now that we have increased levels and traits, you're encouraged to stick with one character. What we end up with is high level players running through the mud like highspeed steamrollers. Mud needs to be coded to accommodate. I realized this when I see Bazhi at Fub's all the time, and when other players attempting to level give me a hard time for killing Huge Dragon. What was once Diablo II is now a small town in WoW with only one server. Edit: De-harshened a tiny bit.
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Post by CalviN on Oct 19, 2009 22:12:57 GMT
Um... Bazhi's always at Fub's, cuz... well... that used to be the only area he knew how to get to. And he was always killing hdragon all the time, cuz, well, that was all he knew. And FYI, Bazhi'd probably killed the huge dragon about 3000 times before the level caps ever came out. Hence a lot of us referring to it for years as "Bazhi's dragon". Now that he's virtually indestructible, well, he's just switched from huge dragon, to Valdrath.
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