Opened Treasure chest in a field containing a ring!
Art personally created by me in MSPaint
Many newer MMORPGs seem to hand players high quality gear almost too quickly as opposed to letting the gear come naturally or by chance.
I've been playing some older MMORPGs recently for an experiment and had forgotten how hard it was to obtain 'decent' gear when starting out. I kept passing up armor and weapon vendors as I leveled thinking a quest would give me exactly what I needed or I would get an upgrade eventually but that is not what happened at all!
The levels kept being gained, the quests kept being completed, but the damage I was dealing was practically the same and the mobs were taking more time to bring down. I leafed through my quest journal to see which of the many quests I had accepted would give me a new gear piece and lo and behold there was nothing in the 'reward' slot besides some coin or a healing potion.
I had gotten somewhat spoiled with recent games and had totally forgotten that older MMORPGs were more unforgiving if the player wasn't on top of their gear, status, buffs, and a certain potion number in their inventory.
I checked the nearby weapon vendors and saw a few 'COMMON' quality items that, while not adding to any stats, had a significant increase in damage and armor. I bought and equipped them and ran back to the next questing spot and noticed an immediate improvement when engaging a mob.
The upgrades purchased were slight but still better than the paltry low level gear I had been using prior. I engaged a few more mobs and the gameplay become less 'Who will die first?' to 'I am finally finishing this quest on time!'.
The excitement I felt when a random mob dropped an actual 'UNCOMMON' piece of gear that had stats on it was almost indescribable. I scoured my bags and, even though the 'UNCOMMON' had a stat that was for casters, I didn't care because it was still an improvement over what I had equipped.
Level 5 gear to level 12 gear is a huge improvement!
Lord of the Rings Online Screenshot
I had forgotten how important gear, even if it was a slight upgrade, was in these early MMORPGs. I remember the feeling of finally receiving 'GREEN' quality gear from quests in The Barrens back in those early years of World of Warcraft and how every stat mattered in a dungeon or PVP engagement.
I'm glad these older MMORPGs are still around and while they have made the game 'easier' in terms of quality of life improvements, they haven't gotten rid of that core feeling of the MMORPG experience.
I've always been a sucker for MMORPG beginner experiences because seeing the character vastly improve feels like a better gameplay experience than the slight improvements endgame usually focuses on.
Thank you for reading!