ReSubbed Episode 3: Anarchy Online
by Seraphina Brennan 
Dec 1st 2009 at 6:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, Anarchy Online, Opinion, Humor, ReSubbed
Tuesday's in the house and you know what that means -- it's ReSubbed time! This week on the show we're visiting the land of Rubi-Ka in Funcom's first MMO endeavor, Anarchy Online.
Joining Sera on the adventure this week is Shawn Schuster (podcaster extraordinaire) and the usual flavoring of Kyle Horner (columnist superhero.) What will this intrepid trio find on the shores of the tutorial zone? Will they understand the ancient and archaic skill system? Will one of them perish to the dangerous flora of a forbidden, sci-fi planet? (Spoiler: Ohhhhhh yeah.)
Well if any of this intrigues you (or you want to see what Anarchy Online looks like these days) jump on through the break and press that play button to be served with a brand new episode of ReSubbed!
Joining Sera on the adventure this week is Shawn Schuster (podcaster extraordinaire) and the usual flavoring of Kyle Horner (columnist superhero.) What will this intrepid trio find on the shores of the tutorial zone? Will they understand the ancient and archaic skill system? Will one of them perish to the dangerous flora of a forbidden, sci-fi planet? (Spoiler: Ohhhhhh yeah.)
Well if any of this intrigues you (or you want to see what Anarchy Online looks like these days) jump on through the break and press that play button to be served with a brand new episode of ReSubbed!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
crsh said on 6:48PM 12-01-2009
Good call, I too recently downloaded the client and logged on my free account; I believe the last time I logged in was in 2005. It's a little hard on the eyes given its age (tho AO never had state of the art graphics to begin with), and the UI feels very clunky (reminds me of EQ1), but I had a good clean fun evening in the starting area.
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danarchy said on 6:57PM 12-01-2009
I enjoy these as they let me see games I used to love but left at some point, and I wasn't aware AO was getting a graphics fix!!!! I loved the game itself im sure I will pick it up when that happens :)
On another note, watching your avatars stand around while you talk is a little...boring ;) Maybe play the game like you were a noobie and add then watch your fraps of it and do voice over it later :) im 10 mins in so far and you haven't even hit anything yet. I am very big on hitting things.
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Alarie said on 7:46PM 12-01-2009
I agree, little less standing around. Fight, quest, show off the world! Otherwise I love the series, just do a little less standing around please.
Lateris said on 7:55PM 12-01-2009
With the engine update does that mean avatars will be redone? I love these series.
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Venekor said on 8:11PM 12-01-2009
As Long as they don't do the NGE SWG... don't need that game being promoted after all the bullshit they did to us.
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CheesyTaco said on 9:21PM 12-01-2009
I think doing an episode on SWG would be interesting actually, to show all the disgruntled vets such as yourself some changes that have happened since the NGE hit and everybody quit.
Christian Williamson said on 9:02PM 12-01-2009
instead of resubbed you should call it (3 noobs play a game)
1) ive played on and off since launch. been gone for years but anyone that played a month knows that player housing has always been instanced, locked to an apartment key. The ONLY way to let someone else into your house is to team with them and enter your house. their own apartment key must be banked in order for them to enter your apartment.
2) there are HUGE differnces between the meta physicist and the bureaucrat. The MP is a pure pet class with light dps. MP's pet's are also limited and on timers. MP's play mechanic is based on having 2-3 pets up at once, 1 heal, 1 dps, and 1 crowd control. The crat's play mechanic is entirely different. they get one tanking permanent pet, but they also have charms. charms are the crats strength. they can charm mobs and use them as pets. their utility is xp percentage buffs. comon this is ao 101 stuff. with your comments on classes. im not flaming here. but its convinced me that you never played this game longer than a day or two. not even. these are all things you learn in a week of play. the crats main stat for charming is psychology. something you goofed on. that says it all right there. you didnt even know what the crats' main stat was. its all in the skill description text.
i could go on an on but. whats the point? its obvious to anyone thats played this game for a month that not one of you, not ever, played this game for a month.
you can get 1-100 in a month, EASILY.
theres just not one of you that ever resubbed.
this video should be called "first trial". its as simple as that.
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Cacheelma said on 12:41AM 12-02-2009
I think Christian's point is, why call this article "Resubbed" when it's pretty much just a first-timer short review of the game? Ok you said you played the game before back in 2001, but what differences does it make when you simply has no clue about the game whatsoever? "Oh sure I played Final Fantasy 1 back in.... hell I don't even know the year. I can't remember anything about the game either, sorry. But please call me FF vet because I want to be one." Please.
What I'd expected from this article is some kind of comparison as to what the game used to be like, how is the game today, what's improved, what got worse, what should be changed more, and finally should someone who used to play and love the game "RESUB" to the game today.
Don't you agree?
Christian Williamson said on 9:05PM 12-01-2009
p.s.
you guys claim to be ragnar fans, and you never brought up that ragnar wrote the story for AO. Wrote a novel in ao at launch as well called Prophet Without Honor.
he wrote all the quest text and story as well in both ao, notum wars, and shadowlands.
hes done light writing here and there ever since. rubi ka is ragnar's world. his and gaute godagers anyway.
wow..
/facepalm
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Sam said on 10:05PM 12-01-2009
You don't seem to realize that Sera, Kyle and Shawn are multi-MMO players - expecting them to remember details about a certain long-ago-played MMO world is a little over the top, when each of them has 4-10 other MMOs installed at a time, and could be playing any number of them at once.
Iggy said on 11:34PM 12-01-2009
Holy nerd rage, batman. Chill out.
Seraphina Brennan said on 11:40PM 12-01-2009
Hi Christian!
Sorry to hear about your difficulties with ReSubbed this week. Yes, you're right, it is very much 3 Noobs Play A Game, but that's the point of ReSubbed -- to get both old and new eyes on a game and take a look at it again.
I was a player of Anarchy Online back long ago in 2001. I played off and on for 2 months, and never got into the intricacies of the game. This is my first time back in Rubi-Ka in, literally, 8 years since I first played.
Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to really get into the game with the depth you have. I also don't want ReSubbed to have that type of depth, as it's suppose to be an overview for the average person, not a hardcore review of the game.
Currently, my roster is full with Aion, Final Fantasy XI, Fallen Earth, Champions Online, Age of Conan, and EVE Online. I wish I had more time to really devote to my ReSubbed titles (as I do a new one of these every week) but I really just don't have that luxury.
With that said, I hope you stick around and check out some more of the series. While you are certainly very good with Rubi-Ka, we're going over many, many games and maybe you'll find something you didn't know about another title.
~Sera
Shawn Schuster said on 9:56AM 12-02-2009
I kinda assumed that people would get that reference, which is the whole reason I named my character RagnarT. A sense of humor can be your friend. Embrace it!
Skuz said on 11:55PM 12-01-2009
I wouldn't get too excited about the "graphics update" it's been in the works for years & they've not given any solid details on when it will go live, if ever.
It does need to move to dx9 though, the current dx7 engine is so bottlenecked being as its all cpu & no gpu, which dx9 would fix, likely that the game would gain a significant boost in speed.
I tried it out, but with no gamma/brightness setting on my crappy old monitor I just couldn't see a damn thing, so I didn't get far at all & gave up in frustration.
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Kaamos said on 1:41AM 12-02-2009
Sera,
If you want a veterans view of this game I can be of assistance, I loved this game for a long time, I have hundreds perhaps thousands of hours logged into this game. I have an inactive account and if you would like I would chat with you guys about the classes, zones, mid and to end game and how the game really works. I think the biggest thing you missed with this game that the player advancement is truly measured upon their ability to use the available equipment to twink a character and grind higher level npcs with higher level gear.
I for one was able to make level 110 in two weeks consistently with credits available, and a little planning. I used to run a service at a certain time every day and get people to level 40-50 in two hours. IF you wanna show em a good time start a Keeper and roll out of the shadowlands starting area, and then run into "Lord of the Void" mwahahaha. TOTW is a great dungeon/zone to present to players as an explorable dungeon, and to explain the pvp/pve environment.
I would also reccomend joining a player run Gridstream party at Reet Retreat or go to a bar brawl night and watch people occasionally hit the bartender. You'll find the game offers alot of non combat clothes for socializing as well. Go to Omni Trade and look at the Crazy Cyber Punked out players waiting for the next raid (every 6 hours) Explore Shadowlands at least!
Go to a Tarasque raid and watch 200 Omnis take down 200 Clansmen for the right to cut up a dragon >:D Also, you guys were unfair in the rough descriptions of the classes...
I understand that you dont want resubbed to be a deep interaction with the game, but you really arent offering people much more than what they can find out in the same 30 minutes they spend watching you play >< It pains me to watch this review because I love this game, you need a vet in there to lead you guys and/or show you with an already made character. To a small extent I feel like you guys are criticizing it to a point of being sarcastic, I think Ragnar did an equal amount of defending the game as it was being criticized :/
Anyway it was not as bad as I am making it out to be~ I am glad that people are still paying for this and paying attention to this, I sincerely hope Funcom consideres making an AO2 instead of upgrading the original, while its great, it could be reinvented to be a whole lot better... with better servers >:O
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Psychotic Storm said on 11:46AM 12-02-2009
AO is a game stuck in between development, I tried to resub, but it hurts the eyes especially if some of the new shoulder pads have more polygons and effects than the entire Avatars.
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Kaamos said on 1:47AM 12-02-2009
Bottom line: Grab a vet, with a played account from Massively (somehow) and get them to do the fraps while you follow on alts, or just him! Explore. Low level areas and characters are not often too interesting, and nothing anyone wants to strive for.
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Kaamos said on 1:51AM 12-02-2009
Also, this game isnt worth playing without Shadowlands, which unfortunatelly is $5 a month, versus the full game T_T
If you think Im being too critical, review eve online like this ;Z
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Venekor said on 9:39AM 12-02-2009
I've played it...
Still doesn't feel like Star Wars
Still has crap combat
Still is a battle of the buffs
Still has a horrible UI
Still has horrible movement
Still has horrible animations
Still has the shit classes instead of the great profession system it used to have.
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Seffrid said on 9:41AM 12-02-2009
Keep up the good work and resist all temptation to hand these videos over to those whose only aim is to show newcomers how to be power-levelled past the level cap in minus 10 minutes. No-one wants to know, frankly.
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