A while back I fell down a rabbit hole digging into Blade and Soul NEO Classic (trying to figure out whether the NEO was just supposed to be “new” or was an acronym too), when I stumbled into a Reddit comment attempting to define the game in a way that made me genuinely laugh.
“[It’s] BnS Classic,” the Redditor quipped. “Like what WoW, Runescape, and almost every other MMO has done. Re-live the nostalgia! Re-live the trauma!”
OK, I realize he’s being facetious, but at the same time, he’s not exactly wrong. A clear-eyed look back at some of the MMORPGs I grew up on most definitely reminds me of some of the low-grade trauma from the early days – being ganked, being robbed, having a guild castle stolen through subterfuge, petty fights, falling asleep on my keyboard during boring-ass all-night raids, that time a guildie faked his death IRL and sent everyone into a multi-day panic – and that’s before even getting to the bugs and grind and camping and elitism. Sure, it’s not in the “I fled a warzone with only the clothes on my back” sense of trauma; more in the “I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to catch a bus to school when I was 12” sense. Not scarred for life, but definitely not eager to go back for no compelling reason.
Do any old MMORPGs provoke trauma for you?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
