I remember when there was a command known as "showadmins" and it told you who was on RC. I remember back in 2010 when people would glitch off map, there were no admins on at the time and half the population was off exploring. It lead to a group of people known as "Jr. Admins" Jr. Admins weren't even real staff. They were a group of people poised as staff that had "rights" to go off map. A great deal of people believed in Jr. Admins and went off map to places with them. I remember how I used to think it was cool that my buddies and I would be off map thinking we had special permission because a "Jr. Admin" was giving us the grand tour of the map outside. Then I remember getting lost from the group then later getting PMs from my friends how one-by-one they were all separated and either jailed or sent back. I never got caught but I eventually unstuck out of fear I'd be next.  

Ha who gets scared from getting jailed.  

I remember thinking that players with the most hours were the pro - est players in Graal and would afk overnight just to gain hours.

I also remember when the Battle Arena was just released and people would grab the SuperNick dress option so that the colour of their gloves/skinon their hand would change, or something like that.  

Posted by Dusty

I don't remember much about my early days playing Classic. PC players have this superior outlook and think that iClassic is a mockery of what Classic used to be, but from what I remember it was very similar. I mean, there weren't hats, but roleplaying was just as popular as it is now. There were baby roleplayers, people roleplaying relationships/getting married, people pretending to be Kings and such. Ya, there were quests but my experience wasn't that great(this is pre-Graal The Adventure)... quests were buggy as ****, scripts weren't clientside so if someone else completed it recently you could just walk to the end of the dungeon. Most of the "puzzles" were horrible, horrible wastes of time. For example in Sardon's Tower you had to SLOWLY push a block to a button on the other side of the room while blocks spit rocks at you every .5 seconds. Almost all of the "challenge" on the quests back then were horribly favored against you like that. God help you if the scripts bugged out(which they did often) and you had to do it again later. Did I mention waiting rooms for bosses? Ya, you had to wait until another player was done with the boss before you could go in and fight... and there was no queue. Chances are though the boss didn't work at all

Anyways, that's my experience of what the gameplay offered, so really you DID fall back on community just like now, and you did quests because you had to, not because they were fun.

But I think the only thing I remember specifically were throne wars. Graal Castle had no actual King or Queen... or purpose. It was pretty empty, so there was a game players made up where they PKed in the throne room to take the throne. There was no winners or anything, but the goal was to get in the throne and stay there as long as you could.

S.S.³ Link, signing out.

Yeah; the old classic was not nearly as polished as iclassic is.

In regards to iclassic being seen as a joke - I think the micro transaction focused economy is what turns most people off; but they are still FAR better than the ridiculous pricing scheme that PC Graal uses. I really wish PC didn't go P2P, it killed the game.

It greatly saddens me to see what happened to The Adventure; which was one of my favorite servers ever. RIP Adventure

Posted by Rufus

Tony Montana's house was replaced by the pretty pointless housing building above Jesus Freaks. I'd add it back if I had a reason to do so!

I think that adding it back just because is reason enough :0  

Posted by Reece

I remember thinking that players with the most hours were the pro - est players in Graal and would afk overnight just to gain hours.

Still am even though I don't AFK anymore because I don't want to ruin my iPod.

I wish they'd bring back that Pachuka/Supernick box thing. I also remember when Supernick's brother used to be in that hidden area and gave a little backstory about how Nick got corrupt and all after he landed and built the Battle Arena above his ship.

Staff used to be way more relaxed and laid back back then. When they'd actually hang out with players and entertain them (because who ever thought being entertaining to players on a game would be such a bad thing?) by handing out special bombs. If you've ever used a staff bomb with a horse it's pretty frigging amazing, I'll tell you that. I remember when they used to just drag people onto rooftops just to hang out and chat. That cliff below the bank was where Jezzle I think used to just drag random people and have conversations with them for fun. To me, that was even more fun than the events they host nowadays. What ever happened to staff-to-player interaction?  

Staff are still very nonchalant, compared to other game's. They host events almost everyday, for crying out loud. I consider that to be staff-to-player interaction.  

Yeah but they do events because it's their job... Back then when they weren't busy working, they were having fun entertaining the community on their own time. I realize it may have made a few seem "stuck up" or "godlike" in a sense of being so conceded, but they were only making the game more fun just by interacting and answering questions they were allowed to answer.  

Staff interaction is not a sensible or sustainable means of maintaining the 'fun' in an online game. It's a can of worms.  

Yeah definitely the lightning baddies and bringing them into graal city. The 'guilds' also. They felt more like guilds somehow even though there was no official guild system. Maybe because I started making friends and getting involved in the community more when I joined clans. Sparring was also more fun when I first started. There were no such things as 'noob accounts' and more experienced players always expected me to be a terrible sparrer.

Posted by Rufus

Tony Montana's house was replaced by the pretty pointless housing building above Jesus Freaks. I'd add it back if I had a reason to do so!

How about for Lia's happiness? I'd actually really like to see it back. No harm in replacing a pointless building with another pointless building, right?  

Posted by Rufus

Staff interaction is not a sensible or sustainable means of maintaining the 'fun' in an online game. It's a can of worms.

It seems to be the highlight for everyone. These days there is a ridiculous lack of player to staff interaction, and I don't mean handing out special bombs or adding people, I mean somewhat useful stuff like how Azreal would always answer questions and take player suggestions on top of the bank. Now there's hardly any staff that'll bother to answer a pm.

Posted by Stryk

How about for Lia's happiness? I'd actually really like to see it back. No harm in replacing a pointless building with another pointless building, right?

That's one of the things I feel nostalgic about, the nice little places that didn't have a point but looked cool. Now it seems everyone is all about filling every little corner with something.  

Posted by MrSimons

It seems to be the highlight for everyone. These days there is a ridiculous lack of player to staff interaction, and I don't mean handing out special bombs or adding people, I mean somewhat useful stuff like how Azreal would always answer questions and take player suggestions on top of the bank. Now there's hardly any staff that'll bother to answer a pm.

It shouldn't be a highlight for anyone, that's not how a game works. In addition, I don't believe that the example you gave is useful at all. I feel as though it is just a showy attempt at saying, "Hey guys look at me, I'm doing something!" but maybe I'm just cynical. It's not like it resulted in anything though.  

Posted by Rufus

It shouldn't be a highlight for anyone, that's not how a game works. In addition, I don't believe that the example you gave is useful at all. I feel as though it is just a showy attempt at saying, "Hey guys look at me, I'm doing something!" but maybe I'm just cynical. It's not like it resulted in anything though.

It's an online game isn't it? And looking at the amount of content it had then (and even now really, it has improved but still has very little to do) one of the big aspects need to be social interaction, between all players. And I think that my example was more useful than most of the current GP's today. As it helps all players out and not just the ones on the staff member's friends list.  

Posted by MrSimons

It's an online game isn't it? And looking at the amount of content it had then (and even now really, it has improved but still has very little to do) one of the big aspects need to be social interaction, between all players. And I think that my example was more useful than most of the current GP's today. As it helps all players out and not just the ones on the staff member's friends list.

Yeah but what quality content came out of it?  

My opinion is that staff/player interaction is best in small doses. I actually interact with players personally quite a bit, but I do it sparingly. Why? Because in my opinion players(at least the sort of players that don't browse forums and interact with staff outside of the game) really appreciate and get a kick out of meeting an admin. When I need to work on fixing a bug or glitch typically I will test it out with players, and they really do enjoy it.

But... that charm goes away quick when it becomes a daily and casual thing. For one, staff shouldn't be doing it to get attention. I do it because I feel it brightens the players day, and in fact most people don't even know who I am or what I do. As far as players know I just tell them "I just do things." But if staff walked around all day visible, giving players hugs and casually talking... then it becomes the norm. Players no longer appreciate that random staff interaction, they expect it, and that's bad.

Also, interacting with players isn't always that fun. More than half the players are assholes and make me instantly regret unhiding. Many want bragging rights by killing an admin, and others just want to annoy/pester them. Too many players are just... annoying.

At least, that's how I approach interacting with players.  

Posted by Imprint

Yeah but what quality content came out of it?

None, but a PR's job isn't putting content into the game, it is helping with players.