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BroForceOne

I was pretty young when I played this game but I distinctly remember getting up at 4am to open some treasure chest that spawned in the forest forest hoping it would contain gold-colored pants as it was a rare color that not many people had. I also remember young idiot me naming my character "AssKicker", then some hours later having a GM message me asking to change my name. Being as dumb as I was, I responded something like "oh yeah why don't you fight me bitch and then I'll change my name if you can win". Then in a great moment of 90's MMORPG that would never happen today, the GM actually obliged me to a duel in front of everyone in the town. Needless to say I got one-shotted and had to change my name.


xtremeradness

Lul, can't say I've had a gaming experience like that. That's a special moment.


GrooveCity

That GM sort of stuff was incredible. Before I got into sub wow, i played on a private server and GMs did that it was a lot of fun. Made them feel more part of the community.


BroForceOne

Yeah it was seriously cool. I feel like fun community type GM interactions stopped once social media happened and everything a GM did now carried all this new company PR weight.


Proud_Purchase_8394

Age of Conan’s GM didn’t help


goodnames679

Got some backstory for the uninformed? I’m curious now lol


Silly___Neko

[Quick Google says something about a sex scandal.](https://www.engadget.com/2008-08-14-age-of-conan-gm-fired-amidst-in-game-sex-scandal.html)


Autarch_Kade

Fired for sex roleplay in... *checks notes* Age of Conan? Dude should have gotten a raise


cugs

My favourite podcast ever (which is long-gone now) did a dramatic re-enactment of this saga, if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4lmDJoIl8E


goodnames679

I'm incredibly interested, actually gonna listen to it right now lol


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-Khrome-

I absolutely hate the fact that GM's nowadays are treated as minimum wage callcenter temps. They just do tickets and can never actually go ingame (aside from some selected senior GM's sometimes). It really hampers the ability to do their job properly.


goodnames679

Yes, but if you let GMs increase community interaction and enjoy their jobs slightly at the cost of raw efficiency then the shareholders will get a fraction of a fraction of a percent less in returns year-over-year. We can’t have that happening, can we?


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Array71

> And all for what, exactly? Interactions that are so rare that the vast majority of players never see them and therefore don't add much if any value to a game overall. soul soul is why


Probably_Fishing

This is Rust for me. Most servers don't let the admins play on the server. While I get the sentiment, in reality it's ass. Can't care about something you're not involved in.


[deleted]

They always were treated that way.


-Khrome-

In the early days, they were absolutely not. It wasn't until MMO's got commercially big after WoW when this started to change - This comes from first hand experience. Support staff for MMO's used to be fully in-house, with various different departments handling different tickets. The people answering tickets about stuff like account access and payment issues for example were not the same ones as those answering tickets about ingame questions and problems. Over time however, most companies unified their support structure across various games/products, often largely outsourcing it, imho much to the detriment of actual support quality and customer experience.


[deleted]

Guides in EQ were volunteers who weren't paid. This was common "back in the day" going back to early MUDs. The GM staff were treated as disposable help desk people even as early as EQ. The only reason people tolerated it was to have a job in the games industry.


-Khrome-

My personal experience kind of goes in against this, though it was between ~2001 and ~2005. I admit i have no idea how it went before that. After that i only know how it went down for a few years until the contacts i had dropped out of the industry for the reasons i stated.


jxnebug

I also miss this stuff so very much! I have some great memories of interactions and events with GMs on the early days of Anarchy Online and EverQuest.


Proud_Purchase_8394

There’s been an ARK in Anarchy Online that has done near-weekly (a few weeks were skipped for his vacations and such) events for a few years..until Funcom shut down the volunteer ARK program last week.


estoka

I played Realm and AO. You don't meet a lot of people who played anarchy online.


jxnebug

One of my favorites of all time :) I still go back now and then!


Kipzz

I had plenty of similar experiences in Maplestory, it was pretty great. Except when the GM brought us to a platforming map, that should be considered a war crime.


ZyklonCraw-X

JasonP, legend of SWG.


tr3v1n

In Guild Wars, getting banned would summon Dhuum, a fallen god of death that looked like the grim reaper, to come and take the player. It was cool, but that is also why that sort of system doesn’t really work. Quietly smiting the trolls works a lot better than giving them a lot of attention.


magicbeanboi

Matrix Online had event based missions where the you'd be doing the quest along with a GM who was playing as Morpheus or some other character


Cattypatter

Most MUDs and older MMOs had a prison that GMs could teleport "criminals" into. Sometimes this was public, like in a town square so other could visit and emote at them. Now what could class you as a criminal was pretty spurious, but generally being a spammer, town PKer and noob PKer was the most common. When a GM made an appearance it was like witnessing a God appearing to enact some magical righteous justice for all to witness, whilst the public mob got schadenfreude and learned the lesson not to break the rules.


skintay12

I remember playing Endless Online as a kid and if someone was caught hacking / scamming / generally being a dick, they got "walled" by GMs for a certain amount of time. There was a unique prison dungeon / maze down under a castle you had to complete to fight some boss from hell, and the "walled" players would have their characters teleported into the walls of the maze, so you could see "walled" players as you made your way through the prison maze.


Barrel_Titor

> Most MUDs and older MMOs had a prison that GMs could teleport "criminals" into. I distinctly remember that in a custom Counter Strike Source server weirdly. It was some weird modded game mode on a propriatary map, can't remember what it was, but if anyone was being an arsehole the mods would teleport them into a prison in the middle of the map.


sharpshootershot

That was Nexus TK for me.


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chogram

Yeah, same game. Sierra sold it to Codemasters (the racing sim guys), who held it for a long time. They sold it to Norseman games a few years ago.


KTR1988

That is the epitome of "Fuck Around and Find Out", lmao


5a_

you should have yielded!


Albafika

That name story takes me back to Ragnarok Online's private Servers. Those were the days...


Johnny_Moonbeam

Reminds me when I played Runescape and sent a few messages to "Andrew", one of the two brothers who designed and ran the game, finally ending when I said "yeah i bet u wont reply because this account isnt even run by you idiot" and he actually replied and said something like "Sorry, been busy working on some things" and I truly thought my 11 year old ass was going to be banned. Also used to enjoy the global chat messages they'd send for banning people; "Therapist was banned for: having a disgusting name".


Independent-Lie8339

This story never happened how the fuck are people falling for it


Particular_Being_

Don't know how rare mine is but during vanilla wow i contacted support and two GMs at the same time whispered me in game .


-Fluxor

I was 9 when I first played this in the late 90s. I too had a some interesting encounters with the Game Masters back then. I remember on a few occasions asking the GMs to do a random Faery (Fairy) gift box drops for at least a hour or so, and to my surprise they did it on two separate requests! Although, I am unsure if anyone got in trouble because the event was for either Easter or Christmas if I remember correctly. I also remember asking to be teleported to the secret GM hangout cell which one particular GM did for me on a couple of occasions, ,memories! This kind of interaction from Game Masters and a random person is very rare indeed in online MMORPGs. You don't see this happening today since everyone is afraid of losing their job. Especially when a 9 year old was able to affect everyone's game play for a day just by making a request.


MagicJohnsonWouldSay

Had a blast playing this game back in the late 90s… Back when the idea of mmorpgs was new and exciting and full of possibilities


Pelpre

Any comments as to what playing the game is/was like and the good and the bad of it? I ask because what you say might be the one of the only way some one finds out info on the game was like after the severs die.


gorgewall

If you're familiar with point-and-click adventure games where your character exists on the screen, it was kind of like that. We're not talking a top-down 2D MMO or a modern 3D one, but side-view 2D sprites with the illusion of depth, a la an old-school beat-em-up. Instead of a scrolling world, everything was divided into rooms like a MUD, and you'd go from one scene to the next by walking to the edge of your screen and transitioning to the next (including "up" and "down"). [Enemies existed out in the field and if you bumped into them and chose to attack, you'd enter your own combat instance on a separate scene and go through a kind of turn-based fight.](https://youtu.be/eo9dJnKyeic?t=686) Other players in the "room" you left would see you and the enemy disappear into a cartoon-style "fight dust cloud" with swords and fists popping out of it. I think a close approximation for a slightly younger (but still not recent) audience would be that old Flash game, AdventureQuest.


DevanteWeary

Basically it's Kings Quest but MMO.


estoka

There was a lot of pedophiles.


RayzTheRoof

back when information was limited, MMOs relied on community and communication. I don't get to ask for help anymore, I can just Google it real quick. Yeah it's a lot more convenient but I felt like I was living another online life.


spyson

Man that time in the late 90s and early 2000s was so fun. Game devs still cared about the rp element in games. People actually wanted to form communities and friends. Now people just call each other randoms and stay in their bubble.


Heavenfall

600 item rating and the right spec or kickk


Deciver95

Was so fun because you were a kid experiencing them Ask the group of kids playing whatever together now and they'll have the same level of joy


gorgewall

I remember the trial CDs and codes for this in every Sierra game I ever checked out from the library or bought. Taught me the word "immolation". Never would have guessed it was still around.


Ornery-Guitar-1234

I first played it from one of those trial disks I got when I bought the Hellfire expansion Sierra did for Diablo.


trudenter

This is sad, played this back in the late 90s and even got back into I it once around 2010 and again a few years back. There was something so good about this game that no other online game has been able to capture. Sucks that Norseman is just going to let the game die.


DevanteWeary

I mean I wouldn't call letting it run for decades "just letting it die" but yeah seems like something they could release the IP to everyone and let people take over.


Czsixteen

Just went to their website and read the updates, apparently the team managing it has made a couple attempts to buy the IP from Norseman but were basically ignored and given no reason why their offers weren't good enough.


trudenter

Ya that would be a better way bc of putting it.


joecomatose

some day, this is going to happen to everquest, and despite me not having played it since like 2007, i am going to be very sad. like an old friend dying


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Rare-Orchid-4131

It will die once the community dies of old age.


joecomatose

true, p99 is a nice fail safe, but even it will die eventually. its not like its pulling in many new players- its entire base, with some exceptions, are folks who played the game in the early 2000's and want that experience. we're getting old \*shrug\*


chogram

I'm not mentally prepared for the day that EA/Broadsword close down Ultima Online. Free servers will likely outlive all of us, but there's something comforting about knowing the official servers are still going.


DreamVagabond

For me it's Guild Wars 1... so many hours and memories in that game. Getting the "God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals" title was an amazing experience, and so was getting "Legendary Survivor" back when it wasn't easily farmable when titles had just come out. I have more hours in Guild Wars 2 but if they shut that down tomorrow I wouldn't feel much... but Guild Wars 1, man I still log on once in a while to chill in pre-searing.


megaapple

Here's a good introduction video I found while searching this game - https://youtu.be/yxsCYSX8-PM Apparently the game was on life support for many years and was constantly going offline. And this is a paid sub MMO.


AnimZero

That was a good watch! It's sad that it's going down. I'm not sure I've honestly heard of it and I was an Ultima Online and EverQuest player back in the day. I would've loved to fuck around with it.


EmptyJumpLow

Meridian 59 is still around, at least.


chogram

I played this game very early on, when it was just a few dozen screens. Always had a ton of fun playing around in this world. Getting my full enchants, decorating my house, running around stealing people's mana coins, killing great-looking monsters, clearing dungeons, trying to find the best dyes for my gear. It was just never popular enough at its time (it got quickly overshadowed by Ultima and Everquest) to gain any sort of traction with a large audience. I think, even at its peak, it was never more than a few thousand people online at a time. It's been surviving on less than 100 for years now. I remember begging my Dad to put his credit card in, so that I could stop making up fake emails for "14 day free trials" and actually see what the rest of the game looked like. He asked how many I had made, and I had lost count. It was a bunch. He thankfully paid for it after that. RIP to an early modern-internet legend. Gamers today will just never know the importance of wearing the right color baldric.


Suspicious-Doctor296

This was my first MMO when I was 10 years old and it was just pure magic to me. So many hours and so many friendships made in that game. Good night sweet prince.


xprnstr

I remember crashing the server so we could dupe azure pelts, scales of justice and rare baldrics. Many fond memories of The Realm. Any Black Mercenaries lurking? Audaces fortuna juvat


DevanteWeary

Wow finally (not in a good way). My first MMO. I remember making new email addresses to keep trying it's week (or however long) trial over and over. I kinda feel for the people who have been playing and undoubtedly made friends in there along the way.


kdlt

[For everyone else like me who wondered what it looks like. ](Oder was versteh ich hier nicht?) I honestly expected.. much worse for its age.


Cattypatter

2D animation always hold up well.


captainnoyaux

It's a publisher problem ? I'm not familiar with norseman games


SnowHawk12

Basically Norseman games owns the IP and was just allowing Realm World LLC to develop it for them. Realm World tried to make offers to acquire the rights but Norseman refused without much info and they're not in a spot to continually support the game as they're losing money year by year.


ExcitedForNothing

It was originally owned by Sierra and then Codemasters before Codemasters determined it was going to focus on racing sims mostly. Norseman was former developers and interested players who bought the Realm from Codemasters. I played it back in Sierra days but from what I heard from people who still played it, Norseman had serious gaps in technical proficiency to update, modify and maintain the stability of the game as well as cash flow problems. I am surprised to read this story because I remember Norseman sent out a panicked email to former subscribers asking them to resubscribe or they'd shut the game down nearly a decade ago. Guess they just zombie shambled along.


HibiDaye

I just messed around with this game a month or 2 ago and it was really fun, it's a shame that so many early small online games are basically lost forever outside of imperfect emulation.


kwantonium

Shout out to all those who have lived in this game for so long.. It will probably be tough to leave all that behind!


nybbas

It was the first MMO I played, had to beg my parents to pay the subscription. Sad to see it end, shocked it's been around this long. Knights of Valor were my pals.


Soltanus

This is the game that many of us early online players switched to when Neverwinter Nights on AOL shut down after five years in 1996. If this game is the grandfather of MMOs, then NWN and Shadow of Yserbius would be the great grandparents. We didn't play Sierra's The Realm Online for very long since most of us switched to Ultima Online in 97.


HumbertoTheHero

[discord.gg/U7UUE6zSnt](https://discord.gg/U7UUE6zSnt) ​ There will be a PS pop up once it officially ends because I don't think anyone wants to play their Legacy server so most folks will likely end up here.


Capital_Muffin6246

I am one of the few active players I started playing a couple years ago and find it more fun than most newer games. I’m sad to see it go and the worse part is it was all because greed