The History Of EO - Wolfdog

The History Of Endless Online as written By - Wolfdog
Added Analogue (Final Section) - Picto.

This is truly a great read, it was incomplete so i added a bit, but it is truly worth reading, and you'll get that warm fuzzy feeling inside, as you take a step by step journey through endless online's history, as it were.

The History of Endless-Online as it stands can be divided into four distinct periods. These periods are the pre-v12 stage (The Period of Growth), v12-v14 (The reign of the oldbies/Golden Ages), v15-v18 (The change in era), and v19-the present (Recent History or Revenge of the Newbs).

The Period of Growth (pre-v12)

The events in this time frame were few and scarce. Clothing was added near the end of this era, but one needed to use the Dressbot service to use the clothing. The community was very small and tightly knit. It ranged from 9-12 people, which showed that the game was still getting started, and hadn't even gained much publicity.

The Reign of the Oldbies/Golden Ages (v12-v14)

The game slowly and steadily gained momentum. A basic battle system was introduced in v12, and with it came the paperdoll (ability to change your character's clothes by dragging and dropping clothes from your inventory onto the paperdoll). Monsters were now killable, and they dropped clothing and other items (some which were useless at the time [Potions, skulls, etc]). Monsters also gave experience, but levels weren't enabled at the time, so killing monsters for experience was useless.

Scamming came hand in hand with the growth in population. The Vikings (an official unofficial guild of scammers) made it their job to scam as many people as they could. They succeeded in scamming a good portion of the EO players, but their success rate died down when Mediators were introduced to the game. Mediators were ordinary players that were trusted by admins. Their job was to help the players of Endless Online by completing trades for them (Every mediator had their own method, but in the end it still prevented scams). Out of the ~20 mediators that were appointed, only 1 was corrupt, so the project was a success.

When v14 came out in October 2004, a very crucial update came with it: a trade system. This eliminated the need for Mediators, so they were disbanded. Skilled scammers were able to manipulate the trade system, but their new scams were shortlived because an upgrade was implemented shortly thereafter.

Endless Online grew more and more by the day, to the point where signups needed to be closed (v12) for a period of time. This resulted in angry forum members that were not able to sign up for the game. They stuck around on the forums for a bit, then either left, or cooperated.

Throughout this entire era, player run guilds were formed. Memorable guilds include The Vikings and Fallen Angels. They were groups of people that were joined by a common purpose. They communicated using free message boards (phpBB, InvisionFree, etc) and the ingame chat. There was a number of unofficial guilds near the end of v14, but only a handful stood the test of time. Those that survived were made official in v15 (read on to learn more).

Nearing the end of v14, EndlessRadio was created. It was an online radio station run by a few players of EO. It quickly became very popular, and eventually had DJs that were ingame admins and developers. The peak was 40 listeners, while there were only 60-70 players online. Some of the Disc Jockeys for this settlement included Mizzy, Sakurakur, Rexor, Myriad, Tale, Paper and many more less noteable players.


The Change in Era (v15-v18)

The introduction of version 15 represents a major shift in the community dynamics of Endless-Online. An increase in server capacity and an arguably unwarranted overpromotion of the game led to a drastic increase in the number of players. This created a lot of tension between the older players and the new players since the former were unable to absorb such a large group into their ranks.

Version 16 can be considered the Dark Age for Endless-Online. The version release coincided with the introduction of a brand new server hosting company. The server capacity was again increased and more functions were added to the game. This new version was short-lived, however, when the new server company walked away from its contractual agreements and approximately $800 of Vult-R's money. During this time there was a greater emphasis placed on the Endless-Online forums and the IRC where the Oldbie/Newbie community continued their hostilities.

Version 17 marked the return of Endless-Online after over a month. The return marked a number of changes to the game but a diminished server capacity. One of the features of this version was the guild option which allowed players to congregate. This development allowed for a couple of important developments. The first of these was the Organization (ORG). Started by the player Marluxia in version 15 it was the second guild to organize under the new system. The ORG represented the first new player uprising where many joined for the sense of belonging that the Oldbies would not afford them. The Organization would eventually crumble under the internal politics of the guild and the undermining of Marluxia's cult of personality.

The second important development was the Esgares Empire (EE). This guild was organized under the player Zemeckis and consisted of a core group of loyal players dedicated to pointing out the flaws in the game. The Empire took pride in finding the faults in the game and exploiting them for their own amusement. Most notable is their use of blocking to cause massive traffic jams within the game. This direct protest led to the introduction of the walkthrough function in the game. The Empire has since disbanded but some of the members are now considered to be legends within the community.

Certain other guilds (Fallen Angels, The Vikings) from previous versions were made official in this era. The Vikings didn't last long, due to the fact that scamming wasn't easy anymore, though they were successful in some instances. Members of the Vikings stuck around in the guild and used the Guild Chat to talk to their friends, and the guild turned into a shadow of what it once was. The Fallen Angels guild (an association of players that had been with the game since early on) lasted for a long time (v19) and some members spent most of their ingame time helping newer players (showing them places, giving them items to start off with, etc.), giving the guild a good reputation for a while.

Version 18 represented the end of this era. The Empire and the Organization were dwindling. The server situation was working itself out. The Revival of version 19 and the subsequent turmoil were just around the corner.

Version 19

Version 20 was kicked off with a nice summer event hosted by Tale and Laine. The event was the arrival of the Kitty Hat and The Toad Hat, both being very rare and valued items for quite some time. Many new areas were available which made the community skyrocket. Yet again, causing a hefty amount of social status between the "Newbies" and the "Oldbies".

Though, this was a great revolutionary time, as many ideas from the players of Endless-Online were taken into consideration.

A New Age Begins (v21 - Present) (By Picto.)

Shuddering away from what had been left behind, scamming, duping, glitches, endless online finally grew into the game it would become, as development took a turn from being about making the game playable, to adding new items and such. Arenabot left, devil costumes were but a mere memory, and endless online started to spread its wings, ready to leave it's nest and fly out into the world of online gaming. And as it became more advertised and successful, more joined, and so marked the beginning of the new age ; The coming of the newbs.

There were still many changes that endless online had yet to go through, such as new places and items. Admins left, people complained, blogs were set up, as endless online established itself as a proper game. And so the history died, no longer were the days of small communities were everyone knew everyone else, and the MMORPG effect came into play, as endless' players slowly drifted apart, and finally left.

And as they did, and new people came, the game fell into turmoil over and over. Sabanthrea died, Sakurakur left, arvid was hacked, and the new age signalled the most exciting and eventful period in eo's history ever. And as darkplug got deleted, and berdy and debstar left, endless finaly began to become what it now is, and will probably always be, until they day we look back at the duping, and the blue room, and see ourselves making the history, the history of the new age, of endless online...

-Picto, with great great thanks to Wolfdog