Ode to a Long Gone Friend - Dark Age of Camelot

[@SirGrindalot]

A couple of notes: Even though the game is still up and running, I always use the past tense when talking about Daoc because I see its experience as something that is now in the past. The characters I occasionally use to login the game and travel around every few months are from a friend who's stopped playing long ago, noty og characters.

[@elfo7]

I am glad I found this gem of a video "hidden" within youtube. Watched the whole video. Finding these kind of nostalgic videos makes me smile and I am glad I am not the only one who is nostalgic about DAOC. I played Prydwen/Hibernia (not hard to guess my faction looking at my name) in Europe, and DAOC was an experience I will never forget. I went to play there with a lot of friends and we had the best time ever. This is going to be a long post. As you said, I always wanted to have a similar experience to DAOC in more modern games but with time I realized this will never happen again. In my opinion, the game had much to do with it since it didn't hold your hand, but the main reason was because it was much harder finding guides of what to do, it felt natural to group with your friends and go finding a new dungeon with new monsters (dungeons were so amazing with rich atmosphere), or a good spot to level up, and exploring was so much fun with these sunsets, monster variety, huge zones and beautiful landscapes. I still log into the game just to hear the hib music and watch the world again, it just feels like home. People also had a different mentality. I remember most people were complaining when TOA released and it's true the expansions brought some bad things, but I can't believe how much content they added, the raids were awesome, it literally felt like you were in another world, so many bosses and things to do. I didn't play much TOA but enough to realize the huge work they did with it, it's amazing to think it only took 2 years for DAOC to be made, nowadays every ambitious game takes 10+years (Star Citizen, Ashes of Creation). I was never very good at the game and it took me a long time to level to 50 with my ranger, people didn't want me to group with them because ranger was awful in PvE (which is a design problem this game had, since groups evolved to be basically pbaoe everything) , but I still loved the game. I have never experienced the same feeling except for WoW, which is another game I also adored for different reasons. When I was in stealth in the mid frontier and saw a group of trolls charging at me thinking they saw me and getting past me, my hands were shaking, and I remember some awesome fights I had defending keeps and in Darkness Falls. These good old days when waking up, logging in and seeing how your realm was doing was everything I needed to be happy. It was truly a masterpiece and I don't think anyone who didn't play it will know the unique experience it was. I could keep talking about it for ages, and while it is sad that I will never experience something similar again, I am glad that I got to experience the golden age of MMO from 2000 to 2008 or so with DAOC and WoW. These memories will always be there and I will never forget all the time I spent in a different world full of epic adventures.

[@SirGrindalot]

@@elfo7 thanks for the comment, I believe our experiences in Daoc have been very similar. It was a truly unique experience in a world that felt really alive. Every time I open the game and teleport to Oceanus I remember the 1st day of ToA when I rushed to kill Traldor for the staff and the encounters for Orion Belt and Golm. Not having any videos of those years is a real shame but the memories will always be there.

[@valentinzambelli9930]

I still remember walking from campco forest to Camelot. Absolutely blew my 14 year old mind

[@SirGrindalot]

I created my first character there as well! The long trip North was absolutely unbelievable, going from a semi deserted forest to the camelot hills

[@AcuRobbie]

Eden server is running very well and we'll be seeing season 3 start in a few month. would be awesome to see even more people come play

[@worth5867]

Thanks for making this video, it’s hard to describe those early days of DAOC but it hits home for a few of us out there.

[@marethyu31]

I am a bit too young to have reached this game but a lot of what you talked about painted a vivid picture. Strangely resonated with me, bringing back memories from different later games: wartune had a similar battlegrounds experience although the combat was turned based, being chased by the enemy clan members after stealing enemy intel scrolls in Age of Wulin, the unique depth of skill rotations in BnS etc. All that being said, the most missed aspect of MMOs is the way it brought players together and immersed them in a shared RPG experience, something that hasn't been captured by multiplayer, team multiplayer or even battle royale games. These were the golden days of gaming that created such amazing moments shared among people.

[@SirGrindalot]

Mmos were definitely designed differently in the 2000s/early 2010s. The last one that got close to it for me was guild wars 2 but it missed the mark a bit.

[@marethyu31]

@@SirGrindalot Unfortunately it seems like it's not on any game company's best financial interests to develop such games anymore. On the other hand there are rumors going around that Hoyo has been looking to hire people that have experience in developing MMOs specifically 👀

[@Gramasz]

To be fair. You were forced to group up in daoc. You even had a group bonus xp if you grinded mob in group. But even without the bonus (it was a small bonus) it was more convinient to exp with a good group against higher level mobs than solo (even solo with a buff bot for better stats and 0 downtime) I don't know how many players would have choosen to exp solo (maybe with quest) if it was possible

[@marethyu31]

@@Gramasz That's how most MMOs would work in general in the following years too. You could solo some parts but you were forced to team up for others one way or another. Interaction with other players is kinda the whole point of the genre XD

[@Gramasz]

@@marethyu31 yes but usually that's for end game pve content. In daoc you would exp 4/5 times faster with a balanced group. You didn't even need to be a full group of 8. Just 2 tank 1/2 healer and some damage dealer. It was also relaxing to just run kill mob and run back to kill the mob that spawned and just chat. And eventually switch area when you were starting to match the same level as the mobs. Oh and some class like healers couldn't level up in solo at all. It was painful. They needed a group. Healer in daoc were something else. They would just heal (A LOT) and CC. It's not like some new BS mmorpg where there are some class that "also heal a bit" Healers were healers for real and usually there were always 2 healers in a pvp group

[@TheTigerweedz]

Lancelot server day 1

[@SirGrindalot]

Fellow og player

[@KYoss68]

DAoC was my first open world MMO and I think it ruined me for the genre. I've looked at others but I immediately try to find out about the PvP and well... Yeah. I played DAoC for 23 yrs and while my account on Live is still open I just don't have the heart to log in anymore... The pop is so small now and the game so broken and all my friends have left Hibernia or left the game altogether and I've been a Hib the whole time. Unless something drastic happens ie: Broadsword coaxing the Eden team to join the live server dev team, the game is essentially dead. It lasted far longer than it was supposed to because the end game action was so robust but that play style relies on larger scale action and it's down to 8-mans now including known cheaters the Broadsword team does nothing about. I find myself now with a lot more time to spend on other things and at a complete loss as to what I should do.

[@SirGrindalot]

No other game has managed to fill the void left by Daoc in my daily life. Got a day off? -> giga pve grinding session + some rvr Back home after work and I'm tired? -> chill pve + crafting Have a couple of hours and my guild is mostly online? -> rvr For me it was almost like an isekai that I played along my real life. I've enjoyed other mmos but nothing ever came close to it.

[@hendcafu]

Daoc is goat ❤❤❤

[@SirGrindalot]

True

[@lightelos]

im still playing in official server , the population is lower than never before but somehow you still find quality battles.i think the charm of the game still there but broadsword ruined it with absolutely no new content or smarth ways to keep population alive. (something that Eden shard does efficiently)

[@nerfgunner13]

I haven't played daoc but i feel the same way for some of the mmos i've played in the early 2010s 🥲

[@SirGrindalot]

it's very sad for me that the younger generation of gamers will never be able to experience those mmorpgs like i/we did. No matter whether you preferred daoc, runescape, wow or others, there was something unique about experiencing them over the course of the years.

[@Hirnschlacht]

@@SirGrindalot You're right. No matter which game you played back then, whether it was Ultima Online, EverQuest, or even Star Wars Galaxies, the reason these games became so important to players was that there were no platforms like KZbin, Twitch, or anything similar to help players navigate. Back then, you had to figure out EVERYTHING yourself and/or together with friends. There was no minimap, not even a regular map. When you bought the game, it came with a physical map that roughly showed the most important points. But you never really knew where you were or where you should go to level up. You were dependent on other players, as dependent as you never had to be later on. Accordingly, the relationships between players were very close, and many good friendships were formed. You could also say, since AIDS, sex was never the same again. Similarly, MMORPGs were never the same since the spread of the internet.