Jund

AC for sure.

Only level 38, but am enjoying AoC. There's some ganking and the ranged magic classes are a little overpowered, but they'll be toned down. As for the ganking, so what - it's not like anything is risked. Can't comment about sieges yet as I haven't participated in any. That said, I find it hard to believe that an article that professes to revisit and review the PvP in AoC is based almost entirely upon the Tortage experience and a conversation with a player having 7 toons between levels 1 - 20. GG~

Heh, I'm not sure why people perceive the PvP in AoC to be "hardcore" - it isn't. It's no Shadowbane, UO or Asheron's Call - Darktide server, for example. True FFAs with full looting. That said, I find the global chat to be incredibly tiresome and after my first day in game, got out of it. It's immature, inane and incredibly annoying. For the record, I play on Cimmeria - the RP PvP server.

Currently, my toon is a level 36 ranger. I've had some blind guild invites which I routinely reject, but I've had one nice inquiry from the The Temple and the guy I spoke to seemed like a nice chap. I haven't taken him up yet on the invitation because I've wanted to check their website out (which I've done) and also because I haven't had time (family vacation etc.), but may very well. So that was a positive experience.

Only other experience I've had has to do with the PvP. I've been ganked and I've ganked - which is fine. No problems with any of that on my end, but I had a hard time refraining from laughing when I ganked a guy and was told that I wasn't supposed to do that and should watch my back. I thought that was funny - I mean, I know it's a roleplay server, but it's also a PvP server . . . Incidentally, contrary to most, I don't find the two to be mutually exclusive. In fact, in Shadowbane, some of the very best PvP players/guilds were dedicated roleplayers as well. But I digress~

No problems with the patch here . . .

And the outdoor RvR is rockin!

Let's see:

- completely seamless, massive world
- a completely skill based (in lieu of level-based) game
- dynamic world - seasons, towns destroyed etc.
- monthly content updates
- story arcs
- real live events with actors playing epic characters - see Bael'Zharon for eg.
- Dark Tide - pks, antis, neuts with some of the finest politics ever
- learning spells (yeah, you actually had to think in AC unlike in the mindless games we mostly play today)
- tinkering/imbuements to weapons/armor
- a real sense of danger - you die, you dropped your gear and what's in your bags

All in all, it was a much more challenging and novel game. Games like WoW are really just dumbed down retreads with refinements. Now run along son~

Any list that fails to include Asheron's Call is incomplete~

"Large organized RvR" - ummm, yeah. More like a warband plus associated hangers-on moving from undefended objective to undefended objective to undefended keep and then on to the next undefended zone. It may be large and it may be organized, but it certainly isn't RvR.

And honestly, this entire discussion has been highjacked because of the dysphemistic use of the term "gank group" which some people here seem to equate with the highly organized, disciplined and specialized groups that operated in DAoC - a game many of you probably never even played.

I played in gank group on Palomides. We were actually a pretty large guild that was heavily involved in realm defense (often fielding 2 to 3 groups in the zerg), but we also fielded a regular group that ran nightly apart from the zerg.

Contrary to what Pingles believes, we weren't "miserable little mama's boys" (for example, I'm 43, married, have a son, am pretty athletic and a professional). We roamed around and took out other groups of 8, 16 even 24 players. We coordinated with the zerg (admittedly, some did not) and scouted for them. We often operated as a tactical shock force. Zerg would meet zerg and we'd flank or strike from behind. We participated in relic assaults all the time and sometimes, when our frontier was in danger, we'd invade the opposing realm's frontier to begin taking their keeps to put them on the defensive.

We were highly organized, highly geared, fully buffed, Vent-enabled and extremely disciplined. There's a place in for that kind of play. The only issue I have with some groups is the reluctance/arrogance they sometimes display in being unwilling to participate in a coordinated way.

And as for the whole honor/regardless of level or class crap . . . please. Just as there's a certain amount of reward, there's a certain amount of risk. If I see you, I'll kill you. And besides, it's not like you lose much in games like DAoC and Warhammer. All you're really risking is a little time, some coin to buy back your death penalty and a little pride.

CoH? The standard? How so? We're talking about a game that launched nearly 5 years ago and has only released 14 issues. Now granted, these issues are carry more content then a typical MMO patch, but I wouldn't call them the standard.

Try Asheron's Call which offers a dynamic game supported by monthly content patches and has been doing so for nearly 10 years.

Excited? Not really. What this patch really represents, aside from a pair of new classes, are a huge number of bug fixes, balance changes, improvements to crafting and the new zone domination system.

These are all good fixes/changes and I'm pleased wit them - but they don't excite me. What will is new content, which is what you'll see with 1.3 I believe.