My father always told me that "opinions are like arseholes, everyone's got one. But it doesn't mean you have to go sharing it".
Smart man, my father.
Opinions are formed through our experiences, be they good or bad. As we grow in years and our horizons broaden, we consider ourselves more and more capable of reaching conclusions based on these experiences.
Gamers are no different in this respect, especially when judging the latest releases. From your formative years, whether you were weened on Spyro and Sonic or Mario and Manic Miner, your first foray into the grown-up world of today's MMO's generally coincides with an interest in a genre.
I myself have been a Star Wars fan since I was about five. Christmas without Star Wars was like burgers without ketchup. Twenty-eight years later and I can still recall my father taking me to see Return of the Jedi at the old three screen cinema in my hometown (those were the days!). I can still happily sit in front of the television and watch those films with a quiet appreciation and not just a little bit of love and nostalgia.
...except episode 1.
Just don't...seriously.
I had to have counselling after that debacle.
...and don't even get me started on Jar Jar Binks.
/shudder
Anyway, it should therefore come as no surprise that I spent several years in a love affair with SOE's MMO set in George Lucas' brainchild. Having firmly established myself in your eyes as a lover of all things sci-fi, I'll get to my point.
I recently had an email conversation with a good friend of mine about gaming.
I know...shocker, right?
After several replies back and forth, he came out with a comment which kind of stuck in my mind and is particularly relevant to this post.
We gamers are nomads. We have no home, only temporary accommodation as we constantly journey along the virtual highway in search of the next big thing.
I spent some time considering this point long after we had called it a night/morning (he's on EST, I'm on GMT). Essentially he is right. As graphics engines improve and we come to demand more and more from the developers, we will eventually leave our current homes and move on to the next.
Here's the thing though, although gamers will occasionally stray from the sci-fi or fantasy path they started down, 9 times out of 10 they will get the craving to return to what they know and love sooner or later.
As I've previously mentioned, I left SWG when I lost faith in the SOE devs' ability to give a shit about what their playerbase wanted, ignoring their outcries as the new 'enhancements' were outlined. After returning from 4 months working abroad, I spent several more months looking at alternatives to SWG. I ended up dismissing several other recommendations as they either didn't measure up or give me the same buzz I used to get from the game I'd come to know and love before its premature demise.
One fateful day, on the recommendation of a work colleague, I decided to stray from the one true path and give WoW a shot (go ahead, crucify me!). I found, to my surprise, that I actually enjoyed it.
Looking back now I can clearly see that, at first, it was the community I found that got me considering staying longer than a few weeks in Azeroth. The aforementioned work colleague introduced me to a great bunch of people in a clan known as the Old Aged Pro's which were involved predominantly in CSS and WoW (in addition to several other lesser known online games, which they themselves hosted).
Now, 2 years on and 3 guilds later, although I am no longer a part of that clan, I am still in touch with several of those members and am glad to consider them my friends. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I would have stayed in Azeroth half as long had they not been around to quest along with me and join in the formation of my first WoW guild.
Anyway, after 2 + years in Warcraft I've started to get this craving for a more futuristic based MMO again. Hence why I find myself currently logging into Tabula Rasa instead of doing the dailies for obscene amounts of gold courtesy of the Shattered Sun Offensive.
In my previous posts you may notice my eager anticipation of the upcoming release of Age of Conan.
"This is not sci-fi" I hear you cry.
...and you would be correct.
Obviously.
"Then get to the point"
Almost there.
Promise.
I make no qualms about the fact that I do not consider TR to be my next temporary home. It's a great concept and has some almost groundbreaking game mechanics which make it worth a second look. But with no current endgame it isn't a place to go putting down your virtual roots.
...at least not yet.
It's a great game for when you have a couple of hours to kill. Hell, even four or five hours! A lot of the instances are soloable at the right level and you can still get decent XP and some decent loot from them. Compared to WoW, where you can sometimes end up logging in just to wait for over 45 minutes just to get a decent group together to get anything accomplished*. The game plays well to either the solo player or the social player with XP modifiers given to players in groups.
(*Disclaimer: server PUGs may vary in quality and wait time).
However, TR is a great stop-gap measure if you take it for what it is.
However, these aforementioned friends from both SWG and WoW currently feel the same as I do and are currently getting ready for an almighty push from the oceans of Azeroth to Hyboria in Omaha Beach Landing proportions.
Given the options currently available, it's not hard to see why. (I already have designs on raining down Necromancer related destruction on all who stand in my way...eventually!)
Although it means settling in for another serving of fantasy (albeit a bloodier, child-free portion of fantasy. Seriously, have you seen the decapitations?!), the alternative of waiting it out til the announcement of WotLK's release date doesn't even bear thinking about.
And with the exception of Stargate Worlds and Star Trek online, neither of which look set to grace our screens anytime soon, the options available become decidedly slim for our beloved sci-fi geek.
I was originally going to launch into a tirade about BioWare's rumoured MMO project which is apparently based on KotOR as the core of this post...
/happy dance
...but there has been no news on that front for a while.
Unfortunately. *sniff*
Anyway, I guess what I'm driving at is that you make do with what you've got available at the time.
As much as I'm dying to get back behind the yoke of a starfighter, before landing on some backwater alien planet to whack some poor indigenous semi-sentient creatures with a laser sword and a blaster, I guess I'll have to settle for casting fireballs and DoT'ing the hell out of heathens.
It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.
Smart man, my father.
Opinions are formed through our experiences, be they good or bad. As we grow in years and our horizons broaden, we consider ourselves more and more capable of reaching conclusions based on these experiences.
Gamers are no different in this respect, especially when judging the latest releases. From your formative years, whether you were weened on Spyro and Sonic or Mario and Manic Miner, your first foray into the grown-up world of today's MMO's generally coincides with an interest in a genre.
I myself have been a Star Wars fan since I was about five. Christmas without Star Wars was like burgers without ketchup. Twenty-eight years later and I can still recall my father taking me to see Return of the Jedi at the old three screen cinema in my hometown (those were the days!). I can still happily sit in front of the television and watch those films with a quiet appreciation and not just a little bit of love and nostalgia.
...except episode 1.
Just don't...seriously.
I had to have counselling after that debacle.
...and don't even get me started on Jar Jar Binks.
/shudder
Anyway, it should therefore come as no surprise that I spent several years in a love affair with SOE's MMO set in George Lucas' brainchild. Having firmly established myself in your eyes as a lover of all things sci-fi, I'll get to my point.
I recently had an email conversation with a good friend of mine about gaming.
I know...shocker, right?
After several replies back and forth, he came out with a comment which kind of stuck in my mind and is particularly relevant to this post.
We gamers are nomads. We have no home, only temporary accommodation as we constantly journey along the virtual highway in search of the next big thing.
I spent some time considering this point long after we had called it a night/morning (he's on EST, I'm on GMT). Essentially he is right. As graphics engines improve and we come to demand more and more from the developers, we will eventually leave our current homes and move on to the next.
Here's the thing though, although gamers will occasionally stray from the sci-fi or fantasy path they started down, 9 times out of 10 they will get the craving to return to what they know and love sooner or later.
As I've previously mentioned, I left SWG when I lost faith in the SOE devs' ability to give a shit about what their playerbase wanted, ignoring their outcries as the new 'enhancements' were outlined. After returning from 4 months working abroad, I spent several more months looking at alternatives to SWG. I ended up dismissing several other recommendations as they either didn't measure up or give me the same buzz I used to get from the game I'd come to know and love before its premature demise.
One fateful day, on the recommendation of a work colleague, I decided to stray from the one true path and give WoW a shot (go ahead, crucify me!). I found, to my surprise, that I actually enjoyed it.
Looking back now I can clearly see that, at first, it was the community I found that got me considering staying longer than a few weeks in Azeroth. The aforementioned work colleague introduced me to a great bunch of people in a clan known as the Old Aged Pro's which were involved predominantly in CSS and WoW (in addition to several other lesser known online games, which they themselves hosted).
Now, 2 years on and 3 guilds later, although I am no longer a part of that clan, I am still in touch with several of those members and am glad to consider them my friends. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I would have stayed in Azeroth half as long had they not been around to quest along with me and join in the formation of my first WoW guild.
Anyway, after 2 + years in Warcraft I've started to get this craving for a more futuristic based MMO again. Hence why I find myself currently logging into Tabula Rasa instead of doing the dailies for obscene amounts of gold courtesy of the Shattered Sun Offensive.
In my previous posts you may notice my eager anticipation of the upcoming release of Age of Conan.
"This is not sci-fi" I hear you cry.
...and you would be correct.
Obviously.
"Then get to the point"
Almost there.
Promise.
I make no qualms about the fact that I do not consider TR to be my next temporary home. It's a great concept and has some almost groundbreaking game mechanics which make it worth a second look. But with no current endgame it isn't a place to go putting down your virtual roots.
...at least not yet.
It's a great game for when you have a couple of hours to kill. Hell, even four or five hours! A lot of the instances are soloable at the right level and you can still get decent XP and some decent loot from them. Compared to WoW, where you can sometimes end up logging in just to wait for over 45 minutes just to get a decent group together to get anything accomplished*. The game plays well to either the solo player or the social player with XP modifiers given to players in groups.
(*Disclaimer: server PUGs may vary in quality and wait time).
However, TR is a great stop-gap measure if you take it for what it is.
However, these aforementioned friends from both SWG and WoW currently feel the same as I do and are currently getting ready for an almighty push from the oceans of Azeroth to Hyboria in Omaha Beach Landing proportions.
Given the options currently available, it's not hard to see why. (I already have designs on raining down Necromancer related destruction on all who stand in my way...eventually!)
Although it means settling in for another serving of fantasy (albeit a bloodier, child-free portion of fantasy. Seriously, have you seen the decapitations?!), the alternative of waiting it out til the announcement of WotLK's release date doesn't even bear thinking about.
And with the exception of Stargate Worlds and Star Trek online, neither of which look set to grace our screens anytime soon, the options available become decidedly slim for our beloved sci-fi geek.
I was originally going to launch into a tirade about BioWare's rumoured MMO project which is apparently based on KotOR as the core of this post...
/happy dance
...but there has been no news on that front for a while.
Unfortunately. *sniff*
Anyway, I guess what I'm driving at is that you make do with what you've got available at the time.
As much as I'm dying to get back behind the yoke of a starfighter, before landing on some backwater alien planet to whack some poor indigenous semi-sentient creatures with a laser sword and a blaster, I guess I'll have to settle for casting fireballs and DoT'ing the hell out of heathens.
It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.
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