No, I am not talking about the film where Will Ferrel kills an old man by having him wrestle in a tub of jello with 2 hot chicks.
There has been a lot of talk on some of the MMO forums about what is better old or new school MMO's. First, lets define what old and new school means and if you are an old or new school player.
If your first MMO was World of Warcraft, then you are likely a new school player.
If you were playing online rpg sometime before WOW, then you may be an old school player.
New school refers to the series of MMO's that have copied many features of WOW. In these games, you tend to level quickly and then spend a lot of time in what is referred to as end game.
If your mother has a big gold question mark above her head with a quest to do the dishes, you are new school.
If you think that words like pwn and leet are elvish, you are new school.
Old school games you tended to take a lot longer leveling and you spent a lot more time in each level bracket exploring or dungeoning. There was even a roleplay aspect to some of the earlier games... not immersion, roleplay. You were expected to actually act like a Paladin, if you played a Paladin.
If you have ever been encumbered by loot, you are likely an old school player.
If you have ever lost a level by dying, you are likely an old school player.
If you have ever said, "back when"... you are definitely old school.
If you have ever attended a wedding between characters (oddly I have)... well you might just be crazy.
While I would probably consider myself an old school gamer, looking for a game where you played through each level rather than rushed from gold question mark to gold question mark, I will admit that I could live without a lot of the repetative grind that many old schoolers cherish.
I remember walking sideways back to town, because my character was so heavily encumbered he could not move properly, but strafing seemed to work. I could live without this memory or this type of grind.
So what constitutes an old school game. Quite simply, less treadmills. MMO's are designed with a series of treadmills. And like little hamsters, players will run on these imaginary treadmills to get their various rewards. A game like WOW has multiple treadmills. There is of course XP, then Reputation, PVP points, Arena points, badges/tokens, quests, attunement quests, crafting, gathering, money, mounts, raiding... etc. Sometimes I have heard these referred to as themepark type games, where a bunch of rides are put in. I think treadmills are more apt as completing most of this content is as boring as running on a treadmill. An Asian MMO probably has 2-3 times as many treadmills as WOW.
Old School games tended to only have 2 treadmills. Money and XP. Some had crafting. You often crafted to get money, so it was often still a money treadmill. As a result, there was a lot more content devoted to adventuring.
Adventuring was the focus of the game. Not collecting poofballs
The harder the content the more money and xp it yielded. The less people you did it with, the better. However, all the good content was group content so the social aspect was much greater. I remember raiding Kara with people in my guild who had never done an instance before. Soloing was just not possible or profitable in many of these old school games. As a result, the game tended to be about the adventure. About taking on new areas and/or doing it will fewer people. Constantly, pushing yourself to improve your character.
In the end, what I think people miss most is adventuring. Most of these newer MMO's have so many treadmills, you spend half your time doing things that are not.
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