Legends of Kesmai: The Best MMORPG The World Has Ever Known
This page is dedicated to the greatest Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game in the history of mankind: Legends of Kesmai. No game will ever be able to capture the coolness that this game had. No fancy 3D graphics or expensive expansion packs will ever be able to come close to how awesome LoK was. The graphics: simple yet functional. The community: Best online communtiy an RPG has ever known. Totally self-governing, no "scheduled" raids that you have to apply for, plenty of solo areas, hardly any "camping", and even less "farming". If you have not played this game before (there were barely more than 1,000 players at its peak), then you will never be able to fully grasp the sadness and anger I now express toward the corporate bastards at Electronic Arts for buying out Kesmai and shutting it down. Someday, when I make millions of dollars, I will find the original program on some dusty server somewhere, and hire some badass programers to bring her back to life. Yes, my friends. The time of deliverance is near. LoK will live again...someday. For the uncultured peoples of the world, here are a few screenshots of this once glorious game.
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See that rope there? Yeah, the rope to Kosh's lair. Kosh was a pretty hardcore dragon, but my martial artist (KarateWang.WAR) could kick the shit out of her any day. I had mad loot from her lair, and she was pretty much always up there, waiting for me to own her shit. As a level 18 Martial Artist, I had my Crystal Gauntlets and Free Fall boots, a bunch of cool resist stuff, and my own legion of Griffin and Tiger figurines that could do my bidding. I had a Thaum too...PriestWang.WAR. He could summon all kinds of Djinni to go wreck everyone.
The great thing about LoK was the fact that the whole world seemed large enough to get lost in, yet recall rings made everything so accessible. For the uneducated, recall rings were these rings that, once put on, would sort of "bind" you to that spot. Meaning, while your out adventuring, if you get into trouble, you can take off the ring and you will immediately find yourself back at the spot where you first put on the ring. Kind of badass, huh? Healing potions were readily available from the local priest for very little cash. These potions would heal you back to full health. Whereas games like EverQuest and whatnot encourage grouping and whatnot, LoK focused more on "the solo adventurer" who could bring his friends to kill larger beasts, but could do exp runs by himself.
Now, if only the basic formula for LoK could be applied to games like EverQuest, the world would be much better off. EverQuest was entertaining, but it did not have the same feel as LoK. EQ was a money pit, where endless time and effort brought nothing more than more levels and more riches. The cool thing about LoK was that there was a point where you pretty much cannot upgrade your equipment. Many people reached that point, and from there focused on the community and exploration and leveling. In EQ, it is an endless cycle of get stuff, level, get stuff, level, get stuff, and level. EQ was also too predictable. Too many creatures have designated spawn areas and will not move. This gives rise to camping, which totally kills any adventure aspect of the game. LoK provided a ton wilderness where stuff just pops up at random. The King Wolf in Axe Glacier comes to mind. There's no way to tell that you're fighting the King Wolf, as he looks like any other wolf. However, he hits way harder and can only be hurt by silver weapons. I've stumbled on him a few times...and had to own his ass. A cool idea would be to take the basic ideas of LoK and put them into the EQ world. For instance, totally eliminate teleportation. This totally ruins any game where traveling to and fro is half the fun, because you often get ambushed by unexpected things. This is called adventuring, and too many games have forgotten what that word means. In LoK, PKing was possible and there was nothing in the actual structure of the game to stop you from doing so. However, killing another player earned you a "mark". Three "marks" and you are banned from the game for like a month or so. Guild were also very powerful in LoK, and did not hesitate to flex their muscle should one guild begin enticing another. For the most part, however, things went smoothly.
Visit this link to find out more about how cool this game was