Call was first true, multiplayer FPS

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Run and Gun battles between archers and mages. Blades could never engage (until sticky melee). Started w/ message that someone cast a weakness on you to FIRE.

Two other MMO in timeframe were EverQuest and Ultima Online. They were truly bad time-sinks. Took WoW to allow the players to reach an end goal and then, as most did, start second and third characters of other classes.

Sure, there were many MMO that came and went. Dark Age of Camelot was supposed to be the PvP MMO, but it was silly compared to Call's DarkTide. Monthly campaign quests were solved first on PvPserver, even as rival guilds ganked each other.

From Web: "The Mercs achieved early game dominance. Dissolved and left the game when sticky melee was implemented in March. During their 4 and a half month reign, they controlled every important leveling ground. No other guild in the history of Darktide (or MMO) held such complete control of a server. Even more impressive was their continued refusal to mass recruit. They regularly purged their monarchies to keep them small and elite.

I recall running away from a Merc ganker on DarkTide over several regions, into portals, through towns, upstairs and out balconies, full forward arrow fury. Was Butch and Sundance -- Who is this guy (chasing me)? Until I realized I could enter a low level instance and hide inside. Log off and return a few hours later. Scary.

Yours,