When a game really clicks with me I can count on a specific moment or two when I (literally) take a second and think to myself ‘Woah. THAT is cool!’ Thankfully even with years of games behind me and more game selections than I can shake a stick at, I still have these moments. The majority of the time it’s when I encounter something that is larger than myself. Pictured above: Toxxulia flying around Sundered Frontier in EverQuest 2. When a raid is working on her she has two seperate scripts, one for easy mode and one for hard mode. One of them causes her to fly off around Sundered Frontier and players will often see her (as well as see the emotes). Dragons always seem to elicit those “ohhhh” moments from me in pretty much every game.
In Rift I had that feeling during my first invasion. I mean rifts were neat but they happen so frequently and you can defeat them with a handful of players if there are not more around. Invasions on the other hand, invasions can progress to a massive point and the bosses of these encounters are often times (literally) larger than life. As you and a group of 50 other players try to take on stone giants and other fabled creatures it really gives you a sense of wonder. EQ1 raids also gave me ‘chills’ – back before the days of 24 and 12 person limits.
What was your greatest ‘woah’ moment, in any MMO? Let me know in comments!
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.
It was my fourth day in EVE Online. I’d done some noob missions for the Agents that teach you the basics. I had hooked up with the Wednesday Wormhole Wanderers – the Vanhemlock.com crew. They had hinted that scanning was a thing they could use more of. So I had trained that and got myself an Imicus. The first dedicated scanning ship you can get.
To train I just went about and scanned. To my great excitement I found a Wormhole. The rest of the crew came to the system I was in and we all went in. I had my first woah moment. There really was an awesome adventurous feeling of really going into the unknown. After a couple of minutes the second woah came when I large ship went in and out several times through the hole we entered through. The wormhole caved in, and WOAH! We’re stuck! So we had to scan for an exit. We found one that lead to the, to me, fearsome and mythical 0.0. We had to treck home through 0.0 and LoSec. We all got out. But woah, what a fourth day.
Usually I have these moments, when a story surprises me. But in an MMO? Hmm. I guess the first time I saw Ragnaros rising out of his pit in WOW Classic was one of those moments! He was terrifying!
Ah, and visiting many locactions in LotrO were great moments, too. I know Middle Earth quite well. I’ve been reading Tolkien’s books again and again since I was a child. But seeing locations like Rivendell, Hobbiton or Weathertop in the game and actually being able to walk though them took my breath away on several occasions!
I think the first “woah!” moment that I can remember was in World of Warcraft, on my first character ever. As a newly born night elf, I remember going through the starting area and then leaving Shadowglen, rounding a corner and walking straight into a hulking Ancient Protector. I was completely blown away.
Recently… Hmmm, I guess I’ve become jaded. But the last time I remember thinking “wow, this is really cool” was when approaching the Lost Star Destroyer in Star Wars Galaxies. It’s an instance which you can only reach by getting on a player flown ship, then fly through space and up through the hangar on the bottom of the Star Destroyer. Standing on the bridge of a guildie’s ship, while he piloted it, was a true Star Wars moment. Have some screens from it somewhere, it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in a MMO – ever.