Talk:The Realm Online
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The article says that many consider The Realm to be the longest running MMORPG because Meridian 59 shut down for a while. But Furcadia launched a couple weeks before The Realm, and is also still running to this day. Should that statement be edited?
Its funny because this game was better than meridian 59 and before it as well.
Unless this article is missing important details, The Realm was not the first MMORPG but one of the first. Both Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds and Meridian 59 had been released commercially months earlier. --Mrwojo 18:11, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Actually, Neverwinter Nights and The Shadow of Yserbius were both released years before Realm, M59, or Nexus. Realm was a fun game. Anyone remember Man of Chocolate? Siyavash 12:43, 14 August 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Article Suggestions
If anyone who has played The Realm Online could expand on this article it would be appreciated. At the moment it has no information on actual gameplay, and I was hoping someone might be able to change that. Thanks!
Odie5533 20:31, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
The realm was originally designed by sega in 1988, if you look at an old copy of ultima I's game book it lists its development in the back coming soon section, it just didnt hit public alpha until 05.
I remember The Realm ver. 1.x being "pushed" (read advertised) inside the Sierra Online magazine that you received for registering any Sierra game. I'm not sure that 1.x could be played outside of the old Sierra Net gaming site (but I could be wrong about that) and it was certainly a year or two before '95. I subscribed to late ver. 2.x and almost immediately accepted the upgrade to ver. 3.x, so I never really had a feel for ver. 2.x. I played 3.x for at least 4 years, and my lead 'toon had over 700 levels when I decided to not renew my subscription.
The lead programmer was know to us as Stephen (Stephen Nichols as I recall) and he took the abuse for the almost static state of The Realm until it was purchased by Codemasters. Stephen then was co-lead programmer with Bryan until Stephen took another job with a different company. It was told that Stephen was hired by Sierra because he was very adept at hacking the old Sierra Net so he could always win whatever he was playing. That turned out to be a good thing because The Realm was beset by hackers in and around '96, and the ensuing chaos led to creating a class of multi-millionaires who ruined the Realm economy. Things that had normally sold, player to player, for 200 - 500 gold were then priced in the millions. Nothing was done to reset the economy, it was said that only a wipe would do that, and Stephen promised that there would be no more wipes. He kept his word, and that hack was eventually dealt with. On the weekend that all of the duped gold showed up the dupers would shamelessly drop hints on Channel 1 which was the start-up chat channel. At that time there was a 500 level cap on the game. I was online when Stephen said his goodbyes on Channel 1, and followed him to the test server where he dropped +/- 100 baldrics that were only available on the test server. By this time the level cap was expanded to 1000 with an ugly "Hunter Green" baldric award. We requested hundreds of times for a level 750 baldric, but Stephen (and later Bryan) always laughed those requests off.
Bryan did make some graphical/gameplay changes to the Realm. The most important were virtually unkillable monsters that first showed up in the desert, a range of helmets/hats, and the Sword of Tiwaz. Before the SOT the most desirable weapons were the Wrath and the Executioner's Axe. During the end of Stephen's reign as programmer the Wrath, the EA, and the SOT were assigned levels so you couldn't hand one to your newbie 'toon and send him out with the best weapon in the game.
There was a massive crash that almost coincided with the launch of EverQuest and many of us who had nowhere to go on a holiday weekend signed up for EQ. When the server finally came back online everyone had lost levels back to Sierra's last back-up, and so many familiar players just stayed away. My lead 'toon lost about 200 levels because of that crash. Level loss was always an issue due to the combat system.
Combat in The Realm occurred in a animated "cloud". While you were in the combat screen, everyone happening by saw only the cloud. The loss of any combat carried the chance that you would drop an item or two from your inventory (including gold and/or mana) and always carried a loss of expreience points. At higher levels, in PvP, you could easily lose 25 - 50 levels that were very tedious to get back. Once combat was lost you had the option of staying there or having a band of wandering ???'s carry you back to the living room of your house. If you stayed, there was a short period of inactivity that prevented you from recovering your dropped items. They could be picked up by a wandering monster, or another player, or the monster that just "killed" you. Your dungeon "party", if you had one, would stay inside the cloud if you died and were dropped outisde. The Realm was one of those few games that would permit a single player to reach the higher levels without ever joining a party, and that was one of the things I most admired about it.
PvP was selectable. You could turn it on from your inventory screen, or simply attack another PvP player, which turned it on for 30 days. You could ONLY PvP another player who had PvP turned on. All others were immune. The Realm had a PvP area where you could turn your PvP on and enter into combat with other players, and that area did not carry the PvP penalty. You did have to remember to turn PvP off before you left that area. There were "jumpers" waiting in every direction to PvP anyone who walked out of that area with PvP still turned on.
I stopped subscribing when Bryan (Codemasters) began changing the locations of the dungeons, and when the really nasty monsters from the desert began wandering the eitire game board. I was no there when Codemasters pulled out.
I once "saw" on a chat channel that The Realm was something to do while you were chatting. There is some truth to that. Turned based combat allowed your party to decide who was going to do what, and let you catch up on a private chat. After you made your selection you could immediately go back to chatting, both on and off of chat channels, while the animations played out on screen.
I really have avoided specific dates because I would have to hook up two obselete computers sitting on the floor beside me to see when those characters were created. You could have 4 'toons per account, and any created 'toon (that you accepted) had a 7 day time period before you could delete it. This was to keep players from creating 'toons for days on end and making their main 'toon wealthy with starting gold.MergtheMerciless 21:00, 17 July 2007 (UTC)MergtheMerciless
[edit] Added a gameplay Section
I added a section on gameplay and one on the technical problems in the game.
Quoting "SirGoos" is not remotely a viable source of information, no matter how much he may be disappointed with PvP. Also, flooding of Norseman HQ may be worthy of inclusion, but only if it adds something substantial beyond mere commentary. Llanwar 06:59, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] As of June 17th 2007
Cleaned up the mess, removed the nonsense about George Bush, and updated with some information from Richard Bartle, as well as some from the messageboards of the Realm's website (all Norseman Games press releases). Should be better now.
[edit] As of September 17th 2007
Once again cleaned up the mess. This aspect of the game no longer exists, and as of 2007 its lore and characters were removed from the game by the owners, resulting in a large loss of overall game accounts. - I'd like to see someone provide proof that that outrageous lie is even slightly true, especially since there's no way to tell the current number of accounts active. Also removed the badmouthing of the links section. You might not like the links, but quit stopping other people from forming their own opinions. And try looking at the links occassionally, you'll notice the official site doesn't need you to sign in to see recent information IF YOU LOOK FOR IT. And corrected the problem with not being able to count the number of updates done recently. Even if we don't like them, they still DID them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.9.79.27 (talk) 15:34, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Marketing Nonsense
This article seems to have been hijacked by people seeking to advance the interests of the Realm moreso than actually contributing meaningful content to the article. Cleaning up the overly negative content is important; but it seems like there is a non NPOV voice trying to take over the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.53.203.229 (talk) 17:09, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Contest of 'Facts'
Can we please remove the following -
"Due to the lack of updates, nonexistent communication between Norseman Games and the players, and competition with newer, more complex, and technologically advanced games there continues to be a net decrease in players per month, with more people leaving than there are new subscribers coming in."
They've done updates this year, and they have numerous volunteer teams in the game world. The term 'Lack of updates' seems to imply none at all, which is untrue. The 'nonexistance' of the communication is pure fabrication. This is most likely work of ex-staff, as it is well noted within the community that a LOT of ex-staff left in less than admirable conditions and have taken steps to mud sling at the company repeatedly.
And, since they're a privately owned company and don't release customer records, how on earth can anyone actually know they're losing (Negative Churn)total players each month? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.9.79.27 (talk) 15:20, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
