I have several MMOs that I play and will play for a few months at a time and then swap it out for another one. World of Warcraft is getting a decent boost with Warlords of Draenor and has some nice new things to try out, most notably the Garrisons. This will definitely be a good for 3 to 4 months of play time before taking another break. SWTOR and their take on player housing seems pretty cool and gives people interested in that sort of thing a pretty neat way to show their progression by the way they decorate their pads and will also be adding more content at the end of the year.
I too am in a bit of a holding pattern with Landmark and waiting for it to fire. Something that is important to me though is that in both WoW and SWTOR if you stop playing for 6 months when you go back everything is where you left it,. The same, unfortunately, can't be said for Landmark and ArcheAge. Although, a lot may disagree being able to take a break is important to me and without harsh penalties. This is important enough to discourage me from going down the ArcheAge path and I would rather NOT bother than loose the farm.
Your Next: Not All Bad
Looking for reasons to like games you don't like.
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that it’s much easier to articulate what we don’t like about something than to express what we do like. ‘It’s broken’ is easy and ‘it works’ isn’t much of a quality judgement, but ‘it’s good’ takes a lot of qualifying. This could be part of the reason that critics who identify as ‘angry’, ‘grumpy’ or ‘cynical’ have attracted legions of followers, whereas I would struggle to name any critic who presented themselves as ‘optimistic’ or ‘enthusiastic’.
Now that I think about it, there is comic book vlogger Amy ‘Enthusiamy’ Dallen - while she doesn’t serve as much of an exception, she is super cool enough for a mention. Just doing my part to redress the balance.
While I try to maintain a default position of optimism I have been as quick to criticize some games as anyone else.
With all that in mind, I have decided to take another look at games I often disparage to find something I would like to see included in EverQuest Next or Landmark.
Destiny: To be fair, I haven’t even played this one so my opinion isn’t worth much either way. I would have looked at it out of curiosity, but I don’t own a console system and my friends are too gosh darn hipster for it. I give this game a hard time mostly because of its style over substance approach , but by all accounts the bedrock of the game mechanics are really well done. One thing I’ve seen reported, which for those of us who travel a lot or have friends and family on different continents, is that the game is just as playable with someone on the other side of the world as the other side of the road. A fantastic achievement for an online FPS and proof that the team took pride in their work.
Elder Scrolls Online: This one I’m really struggling with; to me, this game is such a mess of poor or seemingly random decision making that I’m sometimes surprised the whole thing hasn’t burst into flame. The build system has potential and the heavy phasing might allow them to do interesting things with the open world story, so we could see a slow burn of improvements. The lack of a centralized auction house demonstrates that these systems are not mandatory, and removing them presents those who like to play the economy with more opportunities and possibilities.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Much is made of the single player story of SWTOR, and while I personally believe that doesn’t translate into much merit for an MMO, it was interesting to see Bioware do their thing on this scale, and a lot of people got a lot out of that. For me, the way players could build relationships with companion characters was a far more interesting angle than the ‘you are the one hero’ schtick. So often in MMOs, and video games in general, we are asked to immediately care about an individual before dropping everything five minutes later as we move to the next quest hub. That came out a little more backhanded than I hoped, I’ll try to do better.
WildStar: Though I failed to become trapped in the gravitational pull of Planet Nexus, I’ll happily cheer Wildstar on from the sidelines. While it’s not something I’m looking for, the game is extremely well crafted and has a sense of fun and adventure the other games I’ve mentioned have omitted entirely. If you like faster paced gameplay and a hardcore raiding backbone I would recommend checking it out.
World of Warcraft: SInce this is the MMO I’ve been putting the most hours into recently, I suppose I should find something positive to say about it. It’s comfortable, accessible and a good platform for shared experiences with friends. There’s a great wealth of variety in the casual content, and the raiding and PvP scenes will go as hardcore as you can and then some.
If you’re like me, in a holding pattern in Landmark and excited for EQN, you’re probably looking for a place to pass the time with a few friends. The greatest thing about MMOs is that they can do what any great multiplayer game can do: give you something to do while you spend time with people. The dullest bar in the financial district can play host to some of your happiest memories, and there’s (almost) always something good around you if you’re willing to look.
So there it is, some kind words about MMOs I am sometimes a little harsh with and a ‘true meaning of Christmas’ style ending... I must be in a good mood. With a little luck we’ll have a ton of new systems coming to Landmark next week, so we’ll have even more things to be enthusiastic about.
LockSixTime