I played the first iteration of RoM so long ago I mostly forgot about it. I recall enjoying the "WoW Clone" but somewhat different vibe at the time but mostly wasn't so impressed to to stick around for very long, only leveling in the starter areas, etc.
Fast forward ~16 years and a lot of MMO water has passed under the bridge. Stuff that didn't seem to matter to me at the time now have gained value from sheer appreciation.
- Slower Leveling, playing deliberately.
In many "modern" MMOs there's been an inflationary creep of fast leveling and be it all and everything gameplay. CoA offers a path to be "nearly everything" but unlike most games it requires due diligence and some effort. In WoW having "throw away" characters because most stuff is low hanging fruit - in CoA there comes a realization that there are so many layers of effort and choices that investing a time in a character makes it valuable and appreciated to a degree I haven't felt since Dark Age of Camelot.
- this game is not the RoM I remember from ~2009
First off it looks different, less "wow like" visually, I vaguely recall otherwise back in the day.
Also the game systems have a lot of depth and complexity. Crafting is not dumbed down but engaging and rewarding with effort. Choice matter, since you can't readily be a master of all trades. The nature of multi classing system is basically an undiscovered country for the player. Some mystery is good, but perhaps that will get Wiki-ed out at some point.
The questing system requires you to be away and not totally stoned. There's a lot of fiddly stuff you need to do at times...so you can't necessarily just click your way through as you cat nap.
- I won't be rolling many alts, if I do it will be only one for each playable race.
The effort of getting characters setup and "right" is rewarding but not something easily undertaken on a whim. Obviously I am not considering fast leveling- instant high level stuff...no thanks. I actually want to progress my char and play the game not skip content. It's why I played Slow and Steady in Turtle WoW and play DAoC even to this day.
- The game runs great on my 15 year old PC
Locked in at 720p playing on Lutris/Vulkan, my machine handles it well and looks quite nice. I will see how the Directx 11 implementation will do when it goes live. Right now, I am good.
I am still settling in to CoA but I have a feel for things now.
Got my UI setup and a very short list of addons that help address some things. Addon development is still in the caveman days - I confess I don't like my player status frame in the upper left of my screen...but I will adapt.
Over the last week or so, I have tried out various race/class combos, done a lot of tinkering and oopsies but CoA is growing on me. There is a dearth of information unfortunately. A lot of the forum and discord posts are sparse and dated. I haven't been able to watch hours of videos on YouTube about various class and game play tips.
The UI has a lot of... character, my eyes are a bit older now I see a big window with smol text. I am Gandalf scanning the dusty tomes in a poorly lit archive.
But that's alright - it takes me back to a time when playing a new game was truly an undiscovered country.
Shakespeare
QuoteThe undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
"The unexplored country from whose borders no traveler returns confuses our mind, making us choose to bear the miseries we have rather than fly to others we know nothing about."