Cut you in half, see how you're feeling now...
So after finishing Planescape: Torment, I sort of bounced around between games for a little while. Imagine a game that's so good that you don't know how any other game is going to satisfy you again. I craved more input, more deliciously thought-provoking moral conundra and nobly tormented characters. I tried playing Jade Empire, and that was a mistake. BioWare games are, for me, like the Spider-Man movies: they are thrilling and fun when I see them in the theatre, but they come off as silly and forced if I ever watch them again. The power of that first-time experience to overwhelm your sense of disbelief is powerful. I thought about KOTOR II, that being another Chris Avellone game, but the trouble there is that the opening segment is just so long and boring (much like the first game) after you've played it the first time that it renders the rest of the game more or less inaccessible. Even those times that I've managed to get through it, I'm invariably so exhausted that I leave off playing and never come back. And of course, if you let a save game get cold, there's no using that one next time - no, you have to start over again. That's the rule.
So, I went back to playing WoW.
In fairness I never actually stopped plaing World of Warcraft. I have my weekly guild meeting, and Becca's weekly guild meeting, and between the two of those that's at least 4-5 hours logged in per week. But my main character, Varun, is a level 60 and I already have my long-coveted horse, so there's not a lot for me to do there except hang around Stormwind waiting for someone to need an RP extra. So I decided to start a new character on the Horde side, cut off from existing continuity of my other characters. I knew that I wanted to play a Tauren, because the Tauren are my favorite race in the game; the only reason I didn't play one from the start is because early on Becca and I had planned on getting Amy to play, and we figured she wouldn't want to play Horde. Thanks a LOT, Amy :P
Anyway, rolled a Tauren druid. I had only previously played a druid for a very short while, and found it not really to my liking. I guess when I did I forgot that the druid's thing is that it can change into other classes. At early levels it's just a weak caster, and I don't care for caster classes - but get to level 10 and you get the ability to shapeshift into a bear (warrior). So, in other words, you're an armored tank with decent damage-dealing abilities and you can HEAL YOURSELF. I must have missed that part last time.
Now, after playing for like a week, I'm level 20. I can change into a bear, a cat (rogue), and some freakish demon sea lion from hell. This allows me to skim through the water to some remote location, go into stealth mode and sneak onto shore to reach my target, and flip over to tank and bash my target into the ground. I'm like mother nature's Delta Force.
After I don't know how many hundreds of hours I've logged on this game, it's shocking to find such a fresh experience hiding in here. Just goes to show what legs this game has. To all other MMOs live and in development: Just give up, guys. It's over, Blizzard won. Invent a new genre and don't invite Blizzard or it's just going to pwn that one too. Maybe it's time to herald a new golden era in single-player games? I'm just throwing out ideas here. Maybe there's some interest left in pinball machines. Basically, what I'm saying is, don't bother making any more Tolkeinesque orcs-vs-humans fantasy MMOGs. There is nothing to improve upon.
So, I went back to playing WoW.
In fairness I never actually stopped plaing World of Warcraft. I have my weekly guild meeting, and Becca's weekly guild meeting, and between the two of those that's at least 4-5 hours logged in per week. But my main character, Varun, is a level 60 and I already have my long-coveted horse, so there's not a lot for me to do there except hang around Stormwind waiting for someone to need an RP extra. So I decided to start a new character on the Horde side, cut off from existing continuity of my other characters. I knew that I wanted to play a Tauren, because the Tauren are my favorite race in the game; the only reason I didn't play one from the start is because early on Becca and I had planned on getting Amy to play, and we figured she wouldn't want to play Horde. Thanks a LOT, Amy :P
Anyway, rolled a Tauren druid. I had only previously played a druid for a very short while, and found it not really to my liking. I guess when I did I forgot that the druid's thing is that it can change into other classes. At early levels it's just a weak caster, and I don't care for caster classes - but get to level 10 and you get the ability to shapeshift into a bear (warrior). So, in other words, you're an armored tank with decent damage-dealing abilities and you can HEAL YOURSELF. I must have missed that part last time.
Now, after playing for like a week, I'm level 20. I can change into a bear, a cat (rogue), and some freakish demon sea lion from hell. This allows me to skim through the water to some remote location, go into stealth mode and sneak onto shore to reach my target, and flip over to tank and bash my target into the ground. I'm like mother nature's Delta Force.
After I don't know how many hundreds of hours I've logged on this game, it's shocking to find such a fresh experience hiding in here. Just goes to show what legs this game has. To all other MMOs live and in development: Just give up, guys. It's over, Blizzard won. Invent a new genre and don't invite Blizzard or it's just going to pwn that one too. Maybe it's time to herald a new golden era in single-player games? I'm just throwing out ideas here. Maybe there's some interest left in pinball machines. Basically, what I'm saying is, don't bother making any more Tolkeinesque orcs-vs-humans fantasy MMOGs. There is nothing to improve upon.