Why WoW players should stay away from Rift.

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World of Warcraft players, Rift isn’t made for you. Now that you know that, you can stop telling me how much Rift is like WoW. Maybe that it’s an inferior copy. That if you compare it to WoW, Rift comes off really, really crappy. It fills you with ‘meh’. 7/10. I get it. But you’re … Read more

Daily Blogroll 1/6: Fair and Balanced edition

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Soooo…. how about that Massively article? Did it make you mad as hell?
Meh. I had a look at my site analytics today, just to see if people were coming here to read about the so-called controversy and you know? More people came to read my view of Velious through frost-covered glasses. That reinforces what I’ve always known about MMO fans. We just want to get online and PLAY GOOD GAMES.
The article did spark a lot of good discussions about Rift itself and the general desire (or lack of desire) for games that follow the World of Warcraft model vs those that are more original. You’d think those people hungering for originality would have appreciated Star Trek Online more… but oh yes, they did.
2011 will bring a fair amount of non-WoW-like MMOs (Mythos, APB Reloaded, TERA Online) and a few WoW-like MMOs (Rift, Star Wars: The Old Republic). (well, maybe not Mythos). Time will tell which people prefer.
On to the blogroll.

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Daily Blogroll 1/5 – Epic Win edition

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If you want to hear about the huge controversy over Jef Reahard’s one hour dismissal of Rift, well, I’ve already said all I’m going to say about it. There’s lots of MMOs, like Kung FOO, Fists of Fu, and Mabinogi that I played for an hour or two and felt no attachment. If someone had come up to me and asked me how I felt about those games after that hour or two playing them, I’d have told them what I thought.
Anyway, what I wanted to talk about on this first blogroll of the new year is: what makes an MMO polished? A comment on one of Beau’s posts on Facebook (warning: link goes to Facebook) turned into a discussion between me and a person who probably won’t friend me now that, among other things, a serious, polished MMO would, or would not, have full voiceovers.
My view: The more voice-overs you have in your game, the more streamlined the game must be, and the less room players will have to leave the guided tour and strike out on their own. And for me, playing an MMO is all about being set free to live in the MMO’s world. While this does mean that I don’t consider Star Wars: The Old Republic to be what I would necessarily consider an MMO — being fully voiced with set paths from start to finish — that does not mean I don’t think it will be a fun online game, because I do. I love Bioware games! It’s just that SWTOR isn’t what I think of when I think “MMO”.
More mucking about in the latest MMO bloggery after the break.

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1 Hour Review of: Your Life

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After an hour, I still couldn’t pick you out from the other babies. Wrinkled, wet, head shaped weird, crying… I’d seen it before. I’m thinking this whole baby nonsense has run its course. There’s plenty of adults around that can drive cars, climb trees, and feed themselves. I can’t really see what a baby that … Read more

EverQuest: I can admit to myself that I like Velious now.

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Even in a California summer, the icy blankness of Velious’ frozen wastes could make me feel chilly. EverQuest was always immersive for me in that way; the first time we raided the underwater dungeon of Kedge Keep, I thought I might drown, I was so short of breath.
Every race had its own starting zone, with plenty of things to do up to around till around level 10 or so without ever having to encounter another race — which, in most cases, would mean braving some dangerous encounters. The total immersion was what I loved most about EQ.

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