The Realm Online

[Manny]

Don't know if any of you have heard of this game. It's a classic MMORPG, started by sierra back in 1996. It's possibly one of the oldest online games, at least here in america. Goes back even farther then UO (which I believe was '97). It's gone through a couple of management changes over the years, once by Codemasters, and then by Norseman Games. I've been playing since 1998, and quit around 2000, then in 2002 I came back and my account has been active since, and have been playing off and on.
You have 4 character classes - Adventurer (lil of everything), Thief, Wizard, Warrior. and 3 races - Elf, Human, and Giant. The world has been growing and changing since it came out, though it has been relatively stagnant for the past couple years. The graphics are old skool, but the gameplay is great and unique. Though the game is unbalanced as of late, it's still fun to play and one of the most interesting MMORPGs out there. Combat is turn based, very similar to the combat style of the Lunar games. There are various weapon types ranging from daggers, to maces, to two-handers, even clubs. Magic is divided into 5 schools - Elementalism, Sorcery, Mysticism (mind magic), thaumaturgy (holy magic), and Necromancy. There's an active storyline that goes on which is great for those who love to RP. The storyline has an active staff for events and to help the story active. Storyline events takes place from time to time. Ingame events happen pretty often by an events staff.
Though the community is going through a rough patch disagreeing with the "new management" (i have my own opinions) the game is still great. Been into it lately, and I'm kinda bored so I decided to write about it.
If anyone is interested, the game site is
The Realm Online (http://www.realmserver.com) (first month is free, 4.95 / mo after, or 49.95 / year)
You can drop my main character a mail and I can help ya out. His name is Manny2000.
anyway that's about it
-manny

[Dechipher]

The graphics are strikingly similar to Runescape....
The gameplay any similar?

[Manny]

I haven't played runescape in an eternity (maybe 2001?) and when I played that it was crap. I hated it.
Combat is turn-based, a definate, more interesting turn.
There are around 20 skills to build up on, and you get build points based on level ups. Every level up you gain a build point. The amount of points determined to learn a skill are based on your base stats. All skills at level 1 only require 1 point.
The world is pretty large and you can have fun getting lost in it, and there are numerous dungeons to explore (20ish?).
Movement is point and click. I think there are about 100 spells or so to choose from, and spells are used by using mana crystals which are bought in stores (1 crystal = 5 gold).
Experience gained from monsters is some kind of percentage based on your level and the level of the monster.
That's pretty much the basic of things.
-manny

[Archibaldo]

Sounds pretty fun. I might check it out later. Is it tough to get started? I remember back when I played Runescape for a bit it was soo boring and hard to get started, it took forever to kill the most basic enemy.

[Manny]

nah bro, pretty easy. even without souping up a character, it takes minimal effort to take out a ratling. Plus combat is a little more RPG feeling (like Lunar) so it's not that bad. There are tons of monsters too, so its not hard to find something to hunt, and plenty of areas to look
-manny