I just want to know...

I did the whole "Play with anonymous players on the internet" back in the UO and SWG days.

Decided that I simply was unable to cope with such "eccentricity" for any long duration, so stopped playing those type of games.

If I could play SPO using multiple characters (as was possible in earlier releases. darn devs for cleaning up loopholes.) I would in fact still be doing so.

Once the FPO mode is released, that will be my defacto play-style.

 

Someone please help with acronyms..


SPO => Single Player Online
MMO => Massive Multi Player, Multi Player Online
SMO => Selective Multi Player Online
SP => Single Player Offline
FPS => First Person Shooter OR Frames per second

So what is FPO and OPO?

 

FPO = Friends-Only Online (the third online mode that is currently unimplemented)

OPO = Open Player Online (this was the old name used in earlier dev chats for the current MPO : Multiplayer Online mode)

 

Thanks Raas!

 

I like using SPO to level and explore alone, but social interaction is important to me, and also it is no fun to be flagged for PvP playing SPO mode.

 

I do use SPO simply for grinding (mats and mobs). I do use it less and less, as I am kinda "warming up" to the SotA community, but I guess the reason why this transition takes a bit of time is the experiences I had with MMO communities in recent years. Several people who replied to this thread seem to have made the same experiences.
I of course am aware that there still are a lot of great people in all those MMOs. It just sometimes seems quite hard to find them. Yes, you had tons of jerks in UO as well, people who were being rather...anti-social. Ninjaing stuff, insulting people, trying to be as obnoxious as possible, interested mostly in ruining someone else's day.
However, I had so much fun playing with others in UO, whether it was being in the archers guild on GL, going dungeoning with someone I met in Skara Brae, whatever. You see, I remember my first few days in UO so very well. Training wep skills in that keep outside of Britannia. My first set of armour, bought from an NPC vendor in town (which I then lost when exploring out of town with my newly tamed bear, who attacked an orc. Then I lost connection to the game server, and when I was back in game, I was dead and my armour and bear were gone). One of the coolest experiences was...I ran into this other player at that keep, we started talking, and then decided to go exploring. It was all SO much fun, even though we had no clue, and eventually were killed by, I think, a wisp he attacked just to see what happens.

You see, the two reasons I was so very excited about UO when I first read about it in a gaming-mag were:
a) it was an Ultima game
b) The editor wrote that you could not only play with all those other players online in the Ultima world (I remember how excited I was reading that), but that you could choose which way to go. If you wanted to be a crafter/vendor, not out to kill mobs 24/7 or something, you could. Set up a store, and craft weps, armour, decorations, whatever. That was SO cool (and quite advanced, I thought, because I figured that such an early MMO would be first only about fighting, but to already have a system in place to play different styles if you chose to seemed SO creative).

Those were the reasons I started with MMOs. To have that freedom, to communicate with players, to support the community and interact with it, to be able to grab a sword and head out to have some adventures or help people I encounter out there, or to do "mundane work", crafting things and selling them.

I did all that in UO. Then, I moved to other MMOs, and at first, I enjoyed them too. I guess I liked the different styles, enjoyed the leveling systems, the new worlds and stories, new mechanisms, all that. However, I did notice that more and more, I encountered people who I simply had no fun playing with. Yes, there were some great people out there, and I remember long nights of raids and dungeons with people I liked. But so often, especially in groups set up randomly with a dungeon-finder, I'd meet people I just wanted nothing to do with. Immature behaviour, insults, number-crunching (treating others like crap if they didn't reach certain numbers, kicking them after yelling and laughing at them), just rude, bullying and childish behaviour.

I am not saying it was only those games. As I said, you had jerks in UO. And you have great people in modern MMOs too. And if you look at social media sites, Youtube comments, commentary on other pages, it seems rudeness or childish stuff is en vogue.

Also, drama was mentioned, and I experienced that too, unfortunately. Guilds breaking apart over some loot, or some stuff that happened between two members, people taking the game MUCH too seriously, people abusing their powers or running guilds like a Sith Lord. I watched shouting matches, people ragequitting, all that, and that, to me, isn't a lot of fun really (and of course, this happened in UO sometimes too).

So, I started to shun people. Which, I know, is weird when its about an MMO. But I still loved the game-worlds, still enjoyed playing my chars, or was simply attached to the game due to what happened in the past. And modern MMOs often cater to solo-players (a huge debate right now, it seems).
I have to say I was VERY bitter about MMO-communities after all those bad experiences. Simply didn't wanna go there anymore (also started playing singleplayer games again before I got SotA). So when I came to SotA, I really was...careful. I actually thought it'd be the same as in those other MMOs. People running around in the most obnoxious hairstyles, names and outfits they could get a hold of, trying to make everyone miserable, interrupting RPing, trying to ruin immersion, or simply being out to make someones day miserable. And so I tried out the MPO-mode a bit to check out the community, but when I went out adventuring and farming mobs, I went with SPO. (I am sure there are some of the people I described in SotA as well, but maybe, there is a different ratio?)
I simply didn't wanna have to race to a single mob again, didn't want to play mob-tagging/resource-gathering-race against others, whatever.

I was HOPING that the Ultima-connection and the different (IMO) old-school-style of SotA maybe would attract players more serious about playing, with a different attitude but frankly, was tired of what happened in the past, so it's only now that I discover the community much more. And am glad I am, it's just taking some time. I use MPO mode more and more now, try to communicate with others, try to help, I did receive a lot of help myself, and I am actually looking forward to meeting players and interacting.

So... that is the reason I used and still use SPO mode in between. I know, WAY too long of a reply, but maybe, there are others out there who have a similar approach or similar reasons for not playing the MMO-side too much right now. I am in the process of switching over, but it's taking some time. Based on what I experienced here at the forum and in game, I am warming up to the MMO-side more now, and am glad I found the game.

I apologize for the overly long post, just wanted to explain it's not a black or white situation, or that sometimes, there might be good reasons why people stick to playing alone even in an MMO.

 

I didn't know that was possible to do! As in, any stuff you got from SPO would carry over to MPO?
That's a good idea. I mean 99% of the time I prefer to play MPO 'cause I like seeing other players, but it's nice to know that can be done.

 

Yes, right now, you can do that. So sometimes, when I just wanna brainlessly grind skeletons in Deep Ravenswood, I switch to SPO, level up, gather loot. Then head back to Owls Head to sell and see my trainer, but I quickly log out (also nice to get out of a zone even quicker, log out and click "start on world map"), switch to MPO and walk to Owls Head to sell while talking to other players, helping out in the chat channel etc.
I am not sure how much it will possible later on, as I read somewhere that this might not be possible anymore in the final release, but right now, I use it. There are some areas where people farm a lot, and SPO lets you avoid other farmers, if you want to do that.

 

what are you talking about?
Of course you can play the same character in single player online, all the online games are exactly the same game, its just the amount of other players in your instance which changes. Single player OFFLINE is different, that character can never go online

 

I think it's important to not now that all modes online will share the same resource layout, by that I mean if whatever hex has 12 nodes of wood available it will only have that much available in all modes total. So if someone gets 4 nodes in SPO then only 8 are left. Now, they have yet to implement this, but this was explained how it would work.

 

In that case I apologize for misunderstanding what I read back then!

 

^^This^^