WAR carves itself a big slice of fun.
DateTime:7/8/2009 5:21:12 PM

Realm versus realm combat, which pitted players against each other according to which of three factions they join. It makes DAoC something special, and also set a new standard to imitate: even WoW copied the faction war concept Mythic introduced.

As a pretty hardcore gamer and especially a hardcore MMORPGer, I tend to hang out online with a lot of tough critics that never fail to belittle World of Warcraft for its ‘kiddy appeal.’ But where they see a game aimed at kids, I see a game aimed at a huge casual market, primarily older gamers without the time or energy to invest in the vast undertakings that are some of the more hardcore MMOs out there. The numbers certainly back me up: with over ten million subscribers worldwide, WoW is an online game phenomenon.

It should come as no surprise, then, that it has become the de-facto standard to imitate. Where Everquest lead the nerds online, WoW lead the rest of gamers. Mythic entertainment isn’t a newcomer to the MMO field: they took the EQ formula and added in a great new mechanic in their MMO, Dark Age of Camelot. Realm versus realm combat, which pitted players against each other according to which of three factions they join, made DAoC something special, and also set a new standard to imitate: even WoW copied the faction war concept Mythic introduced.

But DAoC was also a fairly hardcore MMORPG, requiring hours of grinding with like-minded XP hungry players. Quests were few and far between, and soloable content was limited. Dark Age of Camelot, while it had its dedicated following, was no more approachable than the other MMOs of the “Golden Era.” WoW taught us that MMOs could be polished, look like they weren’t in a perpetual beta test, and appeal to casual gamers. Unfortunately, WoW’s casual appeal rings more like a massive single player game with a chatroom.