I'll take you back to 2003, I'd just got a computer good enough to play proper 3d MMOs. I searched around upon the internet and found this little game - Everquest. I said to myself, that is me that is! Look at these forests they are immense! I have to try that. Well I bought the game eventually and started up my Ranger - I had this dream. I'd live off the land and avoid towns - work the fringes of society and explore the deep and dark places of the world.
Then I understood the truth of the world I inhabited and my dream died.
Then I left haven in Mortal Online 2 and stepped foot into the woods outside Moh-Ki.
I have been blown away - this is a forest, this is greatness. This is where that younger version of me's dream might be realized!
In a long and round about way I want to say - this games world is frighteningly immersive - well done.
As others have said, welcome. I'm in a similar boat, started playing online games in the late 90s when the internet was just getting started (after growing up playing story/roleplay focused D&D campaigns), with online multiplayer text adventures called MUDs. First online game was called "Avalon" (and later a branch off called "Achaea" which still runs today), which was a full loot PvP game where players could run towns, became gods of particular domains, classes/powers were gained by joining player created guilds, reputation mattered, you recognized people day after day and people dynamically roleplayed/became invested in the world.
Later on, Ultima Online was created and I thought, "At last, someone has added graphics to this idea of a living breathing world people are invested in, the future of these "MMO" games is bright." Yet what happened next is that UO was stripped back to a much less open and free game and MMOs in general went the direction of quests, level grinding and solo PvE, culminating in WoW which basically became synonymous with MMOs from there on out.
I remember being excited about the potential of games like MO1, Darkfall etc as moving back toward openness and player interaction based gameplay, but was less interested in focusing on immersion than just full loot PvP for the sake of PvP. Not to mention that because of that, they were always so rough and niche, nobody played.
I've played nearly every major MMO since that time and been pretty universally disappointed as they became more and more grindly single player games with other people around. There have been glimmers of innovation like Star Wars Galaxies, Eve, Anarchy Online etc but it's mostly been a very stale genre, especially since WoW set the mold. Again even games like Crowfall which are PvP centric completely miss the focus on immersion and player interaction based gameplay and think that Dark Age of Camelot was the pinnacle of MMO design just because it had large group PvP and that's it.
When I first started playing MO2 back in October 2020, I was floored by just the felt sense of being "in the world" they'd created in Unreal Engine 4, but was still concerned it would be a game that only contained deathmatch PvP and would remain niche and just fade away with only the "hardcore" left to kill each other rather than create the simulated fantasy world the creators talked about.
Since then I've seen them recognize the areas that MO1 was lacking to make it a broader success (new player orientation, stability and variety of gameplay beyond PvP) and delivered on it non-stop for the past 6+ months. It's quickly becoming that style of game that I always hoped MMOs would achieve, where you can sink into a fantasy world with thousands of other people, carve out a place for yourself, make a reputation, where people roleplay not for the sake of roleplaying but because the world itself is immersive enough that it begs for it. The idea of a D&D campaign with thousands of people, the world reacting realistically and immersive graphics and sound that I only dreamed would exist 25 years ago.
Proof is in the pudding, but as others have said, it feels like SV is the only company even aiming toward this goal and the have been during their entire existence, so here's hoping! I feel like there are a lot more of us (those who've felt left behind by the current definition of MMOs) as well as those who like MMOs who are looking for more than most people realize.
