I'm depressed. I still love AoCs unique feel. The combat system, the lore. But i don't have anything left to do on it. I've done all the six man dungeons (except black castle... i know shame on me), raid wise only Lurker and two boss in Ardashir but i'm not a raider so i can do without.
I like PvP. And i like PvP server because there playing felt like an adventure. It use to be. Questing wasn't simply going from point A to point B kill a mob and go back to point A with only fighting occuring at point B. You had to be on your guard. Even when you weren't attacked, questing was harder because you had to keep your CC for players, just in case. Questing alone was dangerous, so you had to play with guildies which is the point of an MMO i guess...
At least on RP-PvP servers reputation meant something and it structured the server. Those that felt ok with the reputation of lousy ruffians on one side, white knights on the other and various shades of grey.
Damn ! So god damn fun. Sure sometimes frustrating. I was a total noob back in the days. When i reached level 80 i had killed 70 players and died a little under 1.000 times. But rarely camped, always guildies came and helped. And wars started !
And then open-world got stabbed in the back. Repeatedly. Over the years everything was made to make it more and more tedious to fight in open-world. Hindering spontaneous guild vs guild fights just so some cranky players could continue to quest solo.
It always frustrated me to see them complain so much so fast. Some hardcore QQers you would look their toons up on YG and see them cry with something like a total of 200 deaths... PvP enthousiastes would drop everything they where doing and rush to help if they heard a guildie was getting ganked. But still some players claim PvPers destroyed PvP. Arg !!!
That kind of PvP i've never got enough. But now... what's left ? PuG minis and occasionnal Harry Potter sieges.
The players left have become so 'professionnel'. Finnished the time where PvP was filled with 'skilled amateurs' more light minded and eager to fight for the sake of fighting rather than show off. All about the maths and less about the sport.
Aaah... good times:
2008
2009
2010
2012
2013
Too bad they are so rare now... and moving to Crom won't change that.