Because this site is staffed by us Olds, we tend to remember the history of this ridiculous genre pretty well. This is materially helped by the fact that we were there for pretty much all of it. I don’t need to go searching to see what people thought about Final Fantasy XI when it launched in the US; I can look back on being there on launch day and remembering people complaining about slow installations or server issues or what do you mean I have to camp in the freakin’ Dunes for days?
These days, of course, there are a lot of pieces of jank we no longer have to deal with (and full credit to Justin for pointing a bunch of those out last week). But as someone who does enjoy my time with these older games, I think it’s also easy to get caught in the weeds of the jank and the things we’ve moved beyond. So let’s flip the table and talk about what makes going back to play an older MMORPG really cool right now.
1. The system requirements are very light
Odds are good that most of the people who are reading this article are not doing so on a system that cannot handle reasonably demanding games. But the thing about MMORPGs in general is that most of them do not tend to be as demanding as single-player games, and older ones are several ratchets below that, too. Oh, sure, your casual-web-browsing laptop can’t handle a newer title, but it might be able to handle Anarchy Online just fine because of the nature of computer hardware advancing over time. And sometimes it’s nice to not have every processor screaming at full volume craving a break, right?
2. There’s loads of content
I do not blame, say, City of Heroes veterans for wanting new content in the game’s new official servers because I am one and the content in there is familiar to me, being a veteran. However, if you’re new to the game, you have nine years of mainstream development to catch on, plenty of missions and maps and challenges to undertake. Oh, sure, that’s true for any MMORPG, but it’s easier to add more content to an existing game with a robust framework, and older titles often have buckets of content to go through.
3. You don’t lack for guidance
You don’t need to keep a wiki open on your second monitor to play a video game. You really don’t. However, it’s understandable if you want to know how you should build your character or where you find this super cool mission line that people are telling you that you need to see. Fortunately, with older MMORPGs, you don’t need to scour the web for the one blog post that hints at what you’re supposed to do. This game has been out for 20 years. There’s already a guide about building your character. It’s nice to have those resources available – on the open web rather than buried in an obscure Discord – and choose whether or not you want to use them, yes?
4. The communities are excited to meet new folks
People who have been playing FFXI for the past decade have been mostly playing with the same people, potentially in an ever-shrinking circle. That’s not shaming anyone; it’s just the reality of having an older game with a fairly calcified playerbase that slowly drops off. But that also means that when someone new shows up, the veterans are happy to help you out with everything from helping you get places to potentially just tossing some armor your way because they hardly need it any more. You can meet new friends.
Bonus points: Those friends are usually Olds, like me, which means they’re usually pretty chill and just happy to see you milling around.
5. You can see what made these games unique
It can be hard to understand what originally sold people on some older MMORPGs. Sometimes that remains hard to see even once you play the game, but more often than not, if you let the game have time to sink in and commit to it, you can find yourself appreciating the unique pace of the game and the structure. Oh, sure, I am not going to make Dark Age of Camelot my main game, but playing some of it and getting to see the feel of the world lets me understand why people did get into this even if its halcyon days are past.
6. There’s a slower pace to enjoy
There is a fine line between “slow” and “plodding” with any piece of game design. There’s a reason why FFXI (an old game I personally feel has aged into its current state fairly gracefully) has done a lot of things to speed up travel and advancement. Yet even within that context, the game is slower than more modern games. There’s more time spent just kind of existing, walking from place to place, and so forth. When older games are managed well, you spend less time looking for chat companions that don’t exist now, but still more time enjoying the feel of a world that is often more isolated and yet somehow more of itself.
7. You’ll find surprising beauty
In some ways, CoH is a deeply silly and artificial game. Its city districts chopped up with walls between the districts to justify how zone lines work and its mitten hands and painted-on faces? Deeply silly. And yet sometimes the light hits the water just right as you fly over a zone, or you watch the cars buzz overhead, or you’re in a pitched battle high on a flying ship, and all the silliness goes away. You can appreciate what makes this game beautiful despite the age.
8. You’ll appreciate modern systems more
When I was younger, I absolutely hated being told that if I learned to do things slowly by hand, I would appreciate it much more when I used devices that could just do the task for me easily. I hate it even more because it was true. My point isn’t that you’ll play CoH and think “wow, this combat sucks, I’m so glad other games have faster combat,” but rather that you’ll play it, you’ll appreciate the combat, and then you will also appreciate the differences that make faster combat work in other games. It’s fun that lets you have deeper fun in other games!
“Your version of fun sounds like a lot of work.” I write about video games, dude; the two impulses are the same for me.
9. There are new memories still to be made
Y’know what is really cool about older media? It’s still there! You can still go experience it! Like, my favorite film was made when I was seven, and it’s still amazing, you can just watch it now and it’s still beautiful and tells a good story. Older MMORPGs are the same way. You can go play them and suddenly you’re having fun with something that’s still just as fun as it was years ago, and your friends can join you when you say, “Hey, I’m playing Anarchy Online and it turns out it’s really good!”
10. It can be unexpected fun
This is, I think, the best part. It’s all well and good to go into an older game with an eye toward historical completionism or as some form of archivist, but I think it’s much more valuable as a whole to go into an older game you have always been curious about and find out that it is actually fun. It feels like you get to have your own private fun adventure, isolated from a larger community, a reminder that these MMORPGs are out there and still a load of fun. And sure, maybe you’re going back to your more vibrant community in a more modern game at some point, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a fun vacation all the same.
Everyone likes a good list, and we are no different! Perfect Ten takes an MMO topic and divvies it up into 10 delicious, entertaining, and often informative segments for your snacking pleasure. Got a good idea for a list? Email us at justin@massivelyop.com or eliot@massivelyop.com with the subject line “Perfect Ten.”
