Oh No! Not another MMO!

Lord of the Rings Online… Ok, it’s not super new or anything and I was in the beta where I had less than a stellar impression of the game, but a guild mate has been playing the free trial over the Thanksgiving holiday and says it’s much better than it was in beta and thinks it could hold our guild’s interest until Warhammer is released – unlike Hellgate. Don’t get me wrong, Hellgate is a blast, but it just doesn’t have the staying power that a “real MMO” has. It’s … Continue reading

Gender Bender

Another perennial topic that seems to pop up around the MMO world is whether folks exclusively play their own gender or if they’ve played the opposite gender.  I’m not too sure why this is such a “hot-topic,” but it does rear its head fairly frequently.  “Back in the Day,” you didn’t have a choice – if you wanted to play a big-time caster/nuker in D2 – you played a sorceress – period. Again in D2, if you wanted to be an archer/ranger type you played an Amazon – period. The … Continue reading

Is it an MMO?

Ok, so the question of whether a game is an MMO or not an MMO keeps cropping up, and I think it’s a symptom of the problem that the term is starting to become outdated. Traditionally MMO referred to games that would be correctly termed “virtual worlds,” like EQ, DAoC, WoW, etc. But with the introduction of centrally hosted, highly instanced network games (what I tend to refer to as “battlenet style” games) like Guild Wars, DDO, and Hellgate: London, the term MMO is beginning to lose its original meaning and is also becoming less … Continue reading

How many MMO’s have you played?

What actually prompted me to start writing this post was my thinking to myself (a dangerous thing), “Why do I hold DAoC in such high regard compared to other MMO’s that I’ve played? Is it just because it was my ‘first,’ or is there something else to that?”  Then I started wondering (oh oh, here’s trouble) what MMO did I play after DAoC that I really liked, and why didn’t it unseat DAoC from it’s top position. And then my stream of consciousness (OMG) continued wandering on to wonder just how … Continue reading

HG:L vs. GW (Part 2)

Ok, so yesterday I posted 3 (or 4) design elements where I think HG:L fails in the design department.  Where is it better than Guild Wars? Or where did Guild Wars’ design leave a bit to be desired? I’m glad you asked, ‘cuz I’m going to tell you my thoughts on the matter.  So without further delay – The Three biggest failures of Guild Wars: Number One: Forcing people to group for certain quests. And not just group, but to work with another group. Now I would be fine with this if … Continue reading