The First Online Game I ever played was the MMORPG Tibia. The game was in its (now nostalgic and classic) Update 7.4.
In the 2004 Christmas, my family bought our first home computer. We already had one of those in my dad's office but, as a kid, I wasn't allowed to play on it.😢
I've spent my first months at the computer just playing singleplayer, offline games; my favourites were RollerCoaster Tycoon and Sim City 3000, both released in 1999. As the computer wasn't really powerful in terms of processing power, I definitely couldn't play the newer titles like GTA: San Andreas or Half-Life 2 (both released in 2004).
I had 2 cousins that were older and tech-savvy; they spent their days at the local Lan House. One day, they've started talking about an online game that everyone was playing...
Tibia
Tibia is one of the first MMORPGs to be released, mainly known (nowadays) for its total lack of sounds (there's literally no in-game sound!!) and its two-dimensional graphics that are somewhat...peculiar.
This fellow over here? He's a Rotworm. In theory, he should be a giant underground worm that dug the earth and attacked adventurers. But the pixel art was... I don't know? A mushy orange with a single pepperoni in the middle?
Source: TibiaWiki
The truth is that Tibia was a perfect game for a kid like me:
It was free. Kids have no money to purchase games, specially subscription-based ones like World of Warcraft. Also, the internet was still new and parents weren't willing to put their Credit Card numbers on a website for security reasons.
It was low-spec. It couldn't get lower-spec than that, the game could probably run on a potato. The game had really simple 2D graphics and no sounds.
It ran well on dial-up internet. Modern games had too much lag if you used dial-up; they were meant to be played on fast connections. But you could play Tibia without much problems even on a really slow internet.
When I downloaded the game, I was incredibly excited. It would be the FIRST time in my whole life that I would play with other people! REAL people!
Source: Core-Series
Also, have in mind that Tibia had just released its 7.4 Update, and the game was BOOMING. New servers were being launched every month as several thousands of new players were joining the game everyday and filling the world with people. Years later, the 7.4 Update would become the most famous, nostalgic Tibia update, being considered as the "True Classic Tibia".
In the next few days, I couldn't do anything else but play Tibia. As soon as I went home from school, I went straight to the computer to play Tibia. Left the shower? Tibia. Ate dinner? Tibia.
Tibia
In a few weeks, I had convinced everyone in my school to play Tibia. We would schedule to enter at the same time, so we could play together and face the challenges of this dangerous yet magical world of Tibia.
There's just one small detail...
I was just a small, innocent 10 years old kid. I barely knew how to read and write in English, as it's not my native language.
Source: (now-defunct) Tibia.de
This image up here is a map of Tibia. A big world, isn't it? A huge central continent surrounded by dozens of islands. Deserts, glaciers, swamps, dungeons, countless cities around the world including a dwarven city (Kazordoon) and an elven city (Ab'Dendriel)...
And I spent several months playing only on Rookgaard, the small Newbie Island, that was meant for players up to level 8. When you reached level 8, you could then talk to a NPC called "Oracle" to chose your starting city (Carlin, Venore or Thais) and your vocation (Knight, Sorcerer, Paladin or Druid).
I didn't knew any of this stuff. To me, Rookgaard was the whole game. That was it. I had no idea that one could reach level 8 and be teleported to another area, 100x bigger.
Source: TibiaWiki
Not only that, but actually reaching level 8 was incredibly difficult to me, as I had no idea of what was going on. I literally died dozens of times everyday.
I didn't knew that your character could only block attacks from 2 different monsters: if a 3rd one attacked you, he would directly hit your life.
I didn't knew that you could buy a rope to get out of a cave.
I didn't knew that you could sell loot from the monsters to get money and buy better equipment.
I didn't even knew HOW to trade items, as you had to actually talk to NPCs in English (if you wanted to buy a sword, you had to type "buy sword" and "yes").
I just walked around, attacked some monsters, and died. Then I respawned at the temple, and repeated this again and again.
And I was having a BLAST. Despite not knowing what I was doing, it was incredibly fun.
I played Tibia for several months, but ended up quitting it to play Gunbound, an online Worms-like game. Gunbound was really easier to play as a child, and it was translated to my native language. As I could actually progress in Gunbound, I eventually stopped playing Tibia.
But Tibia has a special place in my heart. It's the nostalgic game that I always end up coming back. Since this first experience, I've came back to Tibia for at least a dozen times.
Ah! I was able to leave the Newbie Island and go to the main continent! But just years later, when I was already a teenager!
Thanks for reading this post, and until next time!
Unless stated otherwise, all images are 1) created and owned by me; 2) from the game featured in the post; or 3) royalty-free and usable for both personal/commercial usage from Pexels, Pixabay or Unsplash.
