The Friendly Upstanding MP Speaks
Once upon a time in a land on the same planet as everyone reading this, before Giovanto was Edvvin and Giovanto was even Giovanto and more often known as Amez or Edwen, there was a boy. He was 12 years old and recently installed Xfire because it came with Far Cry.
He got bored and so he looked under "free games" on the Xfire website. Amongst them there was a game called AA. But there was also a game called AO.
The post for AO stated something to the effect of "Funcom is now allowing people to play the original AO for free". So he decided to try it.
After patch after patch, he got frustrated and decided against playing it. He uninstalled it.
But then he decided to try again a month or so later. He got in game and into the Welcome Hall on a bald, female, nanomage NT. He got onto the shuttle and crash landed into noob isle. After being fussed over by that nurse several times and rolling several alts he played a Doctor name Loreay for a while. After running around a bit, he got bored and stopped again.
But that would not last.
He rolled an Engy named Amez. He played this engy so long, he got into the fabled Temple of (Train Wrecks)! Playing there for some time, with a friend he'd made through Doom 3 and had on Xfire, he enjoyed the finer sides of AO, despite being a total gimp and not even knowning what the grid was. But it didn't matter to him. He loved AO. The omnious message that popped up when walking into a player owned city....the weird mutant sounds that accompanied the spooky music in and around the Galway Shire. It was just so....so wonderful. I can't even describe it. It made me feel a certain way that nothing else ever had and ever will.
He didn't know it yet, but AO was actually an MMORPG, and he didn't realize it at first, but AO was the first MMO he had ever played. And the only one that had its teeth sank into him, never to ever let go.
He did get bored and stop for a brief while of course.
Of course.
But then he wanted to try something new. So he tried a prof he hadn't rolled before. And so came Giovanto. A name that many people today know. Even though Giovanto himself is still my highest level (70ish) fr00b and has not been logged for a long time. That was when he joined his first major organization, CGI. He loved it there. It had an odd feel, even odder people, but it was like no other guild in any other game he had played between spells of AO. It held him. And it held him.
And held him.
But Gio couldn't be a fr00b forever. No. He'd had various bouts of full on AO action (up to AI, this was before LE) and he loved it even more. The creepy, strange, practically senseless Shadowlands. They were just as strange and enticing to him as RK was with its weird wandering mobs and weather/lighting effects. The swirling blue mass in the sky was funny indeed. And he loved it even more. He dreamed of being a max level character in any game for a long time. He felt like he could do it. If he ever did it, it had to be AO. AO was so special. Nothing else came close. WoW was a joke in comparison. He played it a few times, yes. But not for long. It didn't have anywhere near the same hold. He made PayByCash payments in a frail attempt to maintain a paid account. He sent in cash payments through the mail!! Even knowing that it might fail, and it usually did, he'd keep trying. And a few times he succeeded. And he enjoyed the game even more, even if he had a few months at the very most to try and enjoy it. Many payments were lost in the mail however, and finally he just stayed fr00b....
When he found out about the PBC prepaid card, his heart practically stopped. It was in the blizzard years ago...he had just enough cash to get the card. That card was the very key to making his wintery weekend with school closed complete. So he walked. On foot. For ten miles round trip to the only store in his small town that had the card.
He got his card.
Skip ahead a few years. He stayed sl00b for a time. Getting tired of sneak/AS/repeat he tried a Fixer. And loved that even more! It was so great. So fast paced. It was like playing AO for the first time all over again. But shortlived. He couldn't keep paying. Not at the time. So he said goodbye to his Fixer and kept playing fr00b, still in love with AO. Until one day he was able to pay again....and decided sl00b wasn't enough.
Enter the anniversary upgrade.
He had one thing to do though. There was one original love that still wouldn't escape him. One prof he always wanted to hit 220. Always wanted the green pet that went with it. Loved the varied usefulness and general feel of it. And summoning killer meatballs to take down enemies. Because killing things with a bizzare spiked floating ball while being healed by another floating ball and pointlessly launching calm he didn't understand with yet another weird floating ball, the kind of pets you'd only see in AO and no where else that made little to no sense which only made them even more attractive. Edvvin the MP was born.
Edvvin would go on to hit 150, the highest he had gotten since 2005 when he made his first toon on his first account ever. Then to 200!! And now...
Now Edvvin is 211 as of today in and Inf mission (special thanks to Luni, Kitty, and of course, B.E.E.R.). Edvvin will be 220 soon. He will be the very first max level toon I will have in any MMO. Ever. After 8 years (I am now 20) it will be done. My favorite profession of all will be the one. Healball and Meatball EXTREME forever!!
The point to this life story is that AO is timeless to me. I am head over heels in love with it.
If AO dies, I will mourn it like a friend that dies. Or a family member that dies. I will mourn it forever and never forget it. It will always have a place in my heart.
But it doesn't have to die!! I don't have to mourn it. Not if you, the devs and everyone else (including the immortal community of AO) do what has to be done to keep it going. We already know what has to be done. You've led us along for years and years. I've watched it happen. I've rolled my eyes. I used to say that the new engine would come when Duke Nukem Forever came out.
Duke Nukem Forever came out. And went out. A while ago.
The NPE isn't far behind that. It's long overdue. I have no idea what has caused it such a huge delay. Some of the changes are terrible as well. I want my /pet hunt back. Seriously. I used to love using it on Noob Island. Now it's gone? For no reason?
I want the odd vending machine out in the middle of nowhere. I remember discovering the Vet machine on accident and wondering what it was. Years ago. More part of its appeal.
Some of this stuff might seem outdated but it's a novelty of AO that has to stay. Don't change too much.
The idea of taking the game to Steam is probably the most hopeful thing I've heard in 8 years. That's almost a surefire way to bring it back to life. I've seen some really good stuff in this thread. Skeptics are around of course and I do not blame them at all. But I like the replies and you're taking (somewhat) constructive criticism well. Which is more than I can say for any other game I've ever played. Direct responses from the dev teams are another aspect of AO that I love.
Here's something: what are you going to do with all these city plots?! It makes the world barren and I can't stand it. Reenabling them would be great because it's yet another novelty that makes the game so wonderful. We want it back!
Change is nice. Everything evolves. But you have to be careful what it evolves into. Don't transform the game beyond recognition because the things us die hard AO lovers enjoy about the game will slowly melt away and so will we.
Don't let my game die. But don't completely transform it either. There has to be some kind of compromise with that as well. Don't wipe out key elements of the game that we've grown to love over the years. But don't leave things so outdated that the game dies out from old age, either. Keep the Veteran booth. Give us the worldwide city plots back. It's a novelty? Maybe. But it's part of what has made the game (see the beginning of the tale) for me and so many others. It's just what AO is.
I thank everyone who reads this entire thing. And hope I've had a solid point about the game and where it's going. We want transparency. We want to know what you're doing to our game. What will happen to it. What we can look forward to. What will keep AO living and give it new life as well.
Signed, A Nice Upstanding MP