Asheron's Call Only $10 No Subsciption

MoO 2 not surpassed!? Ummm ummmm…. OK, it's just too far off topic. I'll have to let it lie.

Originally Posted by Zloth
MoO 2 not surpassed!? Ummm ummmm…. OK, it's just too far off topic. I'll have to let it lie.

Not even close, no

Promise me you're not thinking of those awful GalCiv games, at least!

Visually things change, not only in the realm of video games but in general. Fact is Asheron's Call is a great game built up over the years to be perfected. Does it lose merits because of how it looks? No. Does it require a degree of tolerance because it's aesthetics aren't modern? Probably. A role-playing game is a role-playing game; if you can imagine Dungeons & Dragons scenarios then you can survive Asheron's Call.

Dare I say.. even enjoy it!?

Originally Posted by Embolus
Visually things change, not only in the realm of video games but in general. Fact is Asheron's Call is a great game built up over the years to be perfected. Does it lose merits because of how it looks? No. Does it require a degree of tolerance because it's aesthetics aren't modern? Probably. A role-playing game is a role-playing game; if you can imagine Dungeons & Dragons scenarios then you can survive Asheron's Call.

Dare I say.. even enjoy it!?

I'm not saying it has lost anything, I'm saying it looks like shit.

If you don't have a problem with that - cool.

I do, though, and I prefer not having to imagine things - which is one reason I prefer playing games above all other forms of pure entertainment.

There's probably a reason why these old MMOs have almost no subscribers or players left compared to newer ones.

Maybe they're all simply unreasonably intolerant? That, or they don't play games to "survive" the visuals - hoping to get something in return. Maybe they're excited about something fresh that they haven't played to death already?

Who knows

WoW was smart in how it developed a visual aesthetic that didn't depend on technology that much. That's probably one of the main reasons it's still so popular.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
There's probably a reason why these old MMOs have almost no subscribers or players left compared to newer ones.

The reason is because people move onto games that are shiny and new, and get bored with older ones. Understandable, right? I don't feel it's as deep as you're trying to get across.

Originally Posted by Embolus
The reason is because people move onto games that are shiny and new, and get bored with older ones. Understandable, right? I don't feel it's as deep as you're trying to get across.

I don't really know what depth you're talking about.

To me, it's a natural part of life - moving on when you're done with something. Technology improves and evolves - and most people enjoy the advantages of modern smartphones over the old hardline ones, and most people prefer Blu-ray over VHS.

That's not to say there aren't perfectly valid exceptions.

I think my "issue" - if we can call it that - is that these people, representing the exception, have such a hard time accepting what's natural for most other people.

If you prefer playing Asheron's Call over other, more modern MMOs, that's wonderful. The game is great in many ways.

But why not just accept that most people have moved on many years ago? I can give you my personal guarentee that you won't recruit many gamers for long.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
But why not just accept that most people have moved on many years ago?

""because people move onto games that are shiny and new, and get bored with older ones. Understandable, right?""

Originally Posted by Embolus
""because people move onto games that are shiny and new, and get bored with older ones. Understandable, right?""

Fact is Asheron's Call is a great game built up over the years to be perfected. Does it lose merits because of how it looks? No. Does it require a degree of tolerance because it's aesthetics aren't modern? Probably. A role-playing game is a role-playing game; if you can imagine Dungeons & Dragons scenarios then you can survive Asheron's Call.

I'm sorry, but that quote from you just doesn't smack of acceptance of the thing we're talking about.

But, it's no big deal.

I wish you all the best with the game!

Over and out.

I can't wait to get back into it myself. I loved the stat and character development, as well as the extensive character customization. I have very fond memories of this game as a middle-schooler growing up! I'll never forget those countless "corpse runs" I'd have to make with a buddy, or asking some random, high-level strangers to help me retrieve my body.

OH! That was an awesome feature as well! You could actually stumble upon corpses that people didn't bother recovering, and after a few hours or so, the corpse became freely lootable! I remember finding some sweet stuff once in awhile on those. Good times man, good times!

I remember searching a random corpse I found lying around and found a really cool sword that dripped acid/poison. I was running around all proud and the envy of my area because I was the only one with anything that cool, and everyone was asking where I got it. Shortly thereafter I ended up getting lost exploring some God forsaken part of the map, fell off a cliff, died and lost my prize forever. Moral of story: Search everything and stay away from cliffs.

The best part of the game, for me, was the way you were completely free to develop your character as you saw fit. It's been so many years now, but wasn't it also full loot PvP? I can't even remember anymore.

DArt, I believe it was full loot PvP on the Darktide or PvP server.

In non-PvP servers, if you died, your corpse remained there with EVERYTHING on it, and you had something like 2 hours real-time to recover it. It would lock the corpse so only you could loot it in those 2 hours. However, after the time limit had passed, the lock on the corpse would end and ANYONE would be able to loot it.

It was a great feature and I enjoyed it a lot. I have some very fond memories of retrieving my corpses from very precarious places.

Two hours? Thats rather drastic.I remember Everquest give you time based on level.I had the habit of doing lots of wandering so that two hours would never be enough for me.
Was there ship travel? That was always a pain but tolerable due to conversations you could strike up.
i played Asherons call but didn't really like the reagents for spell casting so playing as a mage character wasn't too fun for me

I don't remember the exact time, redman. I'm not sure if it was 2 hours or more based on level. Can't remember.

Don't remember if there's ship travel, either. It's been a long time since I've played.

I've only ever played one MMO in my life and that was Asheron's Call the month it came out. It was fun but was lots of grinding. The guild system was interesting in how experience points was distributed but felt fairly gamey and would generally only benefit those that were highly social which isn't me.

The thing that killed it for me was that I died in a desert somewhere and was unable to locate my corpse in time (which I think was 2 hours). I lost my single most precious item which was a really nice breastplate and was what was keeping me alive most of the time. When the free month was up I didn't bother renewing it. I think I got a free month later and tried it again with a new character for a weekend or two but didn't stick.

Now if they would release the server so that I could run my own, I would definitely give it another shot.

Another awesome feature of Asheron's Call is the patron system. To start the game, it helps to find a patron to outfit you with decent armor and weapons. As you level up a bit, you can find players who will patron to you, and you will gain a small amount of XP for every kill they make.

I used to be part of a guild that had regular meetings in the town halls and stuff, and you'd see 100 players all standing around in the same place, with different ranks themselves in the guild and what not. Pretty cool stuff.

Played for an hour or two last night, and wow, the game is still great and just like I remember it! I made a video about character creation and how detailed it is, I'll upload that later. Point is, it feels like a true RPG with endless amounts of customization, rather than some rigid MMO system. The creativity is super high with this one.

Also, the game doesn't look bad at all! It actually looks quite nice to my eyes. I'm in love with the art style and the colors. Everything is colorful and vivid, and there's plenty of unique looking assets and textures for weapons, armor, etc. It's really nice on a 32" LCD screen.

One thing I always loved about Asheron's Call was that you always knew the high-level characters when you saw them. When they were wearing some magical looking armor with a sword that was glowing, I would be in awe of them. That seems to still be the case all these years later.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Also, the game doesn't look bad at all! It actually looks quite nice to my eyes.

The game had an engine upgrade a few years ago. Also, it looks worst on screenshots than in-game when it comes to these older games from what I experienced.

Originally Posted by azarhal
The game had an engine upgrade a few years ago. Also, it looks worst on screenshots than in-game when it comes to these older games from what I experienced.

You're right. I noticed that in-game, it looks great. Very colorful with a charming art style. I also play with everything on max settings, for what it's worth.

It doesn't look modern, but it looks good. It's detailed enough to still be visually interesting. I like how the various armors look. You can create some really wild looking characters. The distant landscape is cool, too, and the sky has some really nice effects.

I just validated that the lifetime account for AC allow you to play AC2 (no fee, they allowed AC subscribers to play AC2 when they rezzed it from the dead and didn't take that away when moving to a one time fee).

See FAQ for download link if you wants to try it and a wiki for help.

Note is has super low population.