One Man’s Journey Through A Life In MMOs

It has been said that computer games are the enemy of writing, and by extension reading. It might be true. It may also be that some games really do qualify as ‘Interactive Fiction’ and they are capable of telling a good story – I’m looking at you Tex Murphy. There is a subset of games that have, since their inception, brought people together to discuss the relative strengths and weakness of characters, to talk about the adventures those characters have, and created friendships that have lasted years. The multiplayer online games. In particular, the RPG versions of these – the MMORPG.

Now, I’ve played these games for years, but I haven’t played them all. I’d really appreciate it if folks who’d played other games or have other memories add them to the comments section below or have a discussion in the forum. So, my story.

Or rather, the story of Arte et Marte – the guild, the group of friends, I’ve played these games with since…well, since at least 2000, and perhaps a little before.

It began with Ultima Online, on a dial-up connection, with ICQ as the preferred method of chatting. An age before 3D MMOs became the norm, when there were no safe realms. If you left the city, say Britannia, then you were fair game for all the PKs (player killers) out there. You saw a red name floating above a characters head and you either ran or fought. I ran, a lot in the early days. In the company of a like-minded adventurer, I ran into a PK in one of the dungeons who wanted to us to pay him (or her) not to kill us – I think we ran away. It was in this game that I met a fellow gamer whom we shall now refer to as Ed.

In UO, you could buy a proper house. One that was part of the world itself, no separate zones here. You could set up a shop, have your characters make all the goods you sold, and decorate it in your own way. There was no auction house that covered the entire world, no automatic delivery of items, or magical mail system. If you wanted to buy something, you had to go out into the dangerous wilds, and hunt it down. Magical items were rare, and items degraded, got lost or stolen. There was a roaring trade in player crafted goods, house prices were comparable to those in the UK and rising at a similar rate. A living, breathing and bloody vicious world to play in. Until they split it into two realms that is; one safe and one unsafe. Most folks stayed in the safe realm. We left.

And went to Dark Age of Camelot. This is when the guild really came together. Here, on Salisbury Plain, not far from Stonehenge, we could meet up and hunt the undead creatures, the animated skeletons of long dead roman soldiers. Mention the phrase “Black Dog” it conjures the memory of one our number, the eponymous Ed, being chased all over the plains by a canine. Of course, everyone else came to his aid – well, once they’d all stopped laughing long enough.

We went into the frontiers. The first views of Snowdonia and the fortresses. The massive battles at enemy castles, the sieges, the little stories of heroism and foolishness. This was Player versus Player, or rather Realm vs Realm, with meaning. Yes, you could be killed by a stealthy character if you ran around on your own, but in a group, that’s where the experience shone.

From Camelot to Warcraft. The new kid on the block, a promise of new adventures, a new world to explore. We dived in. The world of DAoC had a darkness, a griminess about its world. Warcraft aimed for a world torn apart by war, but a brightly coloured, cartoony one. We adventured and roamed the world, enjoying it at first. But there were cracks – the queueing for PvP battles, the lack of a need for grouping, most quests could be done on your own and those that needed a group could be skipped and you would still level up.

From here on, in the guild remained together, but the games changed at a faster and faster pace. Everquest 2 for some of us, back to DAoC for a bit, Guild Wars 2, Warhammer, Secret World, Age of Wulin [1], Rift, Darkfall, Elder Scrolls Online, Eve, Elite and the list goes on and on.

Ed, Cal, Ty, Garth, Kal, and I (Arun), still play these games, but the meet-ups are fewer (in the games) and deciding on just one game to play is much more difficult. Has the quality of gaming declined? No, I don’t think so, there are just many more of them to choose from. Has the nature of the games changed? Yes, there is certainly a move towards more solo play and less grouping, unless you are a raiding player. And player versus player? Most of these games have it now, but it is only Elder Scrolls Online (that I am aware of) that has tried to recapture the essence of Dark Age of Camelot.

The thing is, I don’t regret a thing. Okay, I might have finished another book or seven (either writing or reading), but I’d also have missed out on some great stories. Nothing is going to replace a book anytime soon, but computer games and MMOs in particular, do let you write your own story – at least in some regards.

[1] That was just me and for obvious reasons, if you have been following the #SPFBO.

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