Following last week’s misadventures with the Tuesday N00b Club, the gang met up at TNC’s guild hall and after a brief near-argument when I fired a few shots in Age of Conan’s direction, I was asked what game I’m most looking forward to next. Everyone knows I’ll be doing WAR, but I think I’ve made it obvious in my comments here and on other blogs that I am currently firmly on the “meh” side of the fence with respect to that game; I’m looking forward to the guild more than the game.
My answer seemed to take everyone, even Van Hemlock himself, by surprise though I honestly don’t know why. Perhaps they expected me to say some specific game I was was absolutely committed to playing and was in the process of working myself up into a fanboi frenzy over? Sorry to disappoint…
What I’m looking forward to is the true next generation of MMOGs (notice I didn’t specifically say MMORPG) such as The Agency, not because I will be playing them or not because I will even like them, but because what they finally represent: moving on from the standard Diku-based mechanics that are under the hood of nearly every MMOG anyone cares about except EVE. Everything from EQ to WAR has been first generation games with continuously refined systems covering the clunky jalopy engine underneath. The next generation is finally upon us and that is what excites me, not any particular title which may or may not be a part that next generation.
Tags: MMO Gaming
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I too am looking forward to the Agency and DC Universe. I just hope the combat is not like Conan’s however.
DC Universe definitely.. and Darkfall, and umm whatever else comes next
DCU sounds next-gen though I’ll admit I haven’t been paying much attention to it because DC just isn’t as cool as Marvel. Or even Image for that matter. But it seems to be quite free and sandboxy in letting players do nearly anything they can imagine with their powers.
Darkfall, on the other hand, is just about as first-gen as you can get. It’s quite literally Ultima Online (pre-Trammel) 3D. It isn’t using levels and classes (but then neither are Champions and Star Trek Online… a welcome trend?) but that was UO. And personally I’m only expecting the old-school UO fans to give a crap about
UO3DDarkfall. I’ll prognosticate that in the months following Darkfall’s release it settles with a total population roughly equal to UO’s current population: 75k.100% agree with ya.
My bad if it seemed like a leading question or anything; was genuinely interested. As I remember the conversation, you’d seemed not to be that bothered about any particular ‘Coming Soons’, so I was wondering if there were any that I’d missed that you might recommend. Your post explains why there weren’t any at all :)
Certainly not disappointed; if anything, the reverse. The Interweb could use less fanboys in general, I reckon. Personally, I’m looking forward to anything *different*, which probably isn’t the same as Better or Worse, hence my remarks about Jumpgate at the time.
I suppose I’ve played enough and have become jaded enough to not be as eager as so many others seem to be to abandon my current game to rush off to each and every “new shiny” that rolls down the pike. That mentality was sadly illustrated quite well when Keen was so happy on WAR’s head start launch day for standard edition pre-order when he carried on for several paragraphs how he’s been looking forward to WAR, how great it is, then in the final sentence wonders which game will replace it.
I’m looking forward to the next generation; I’m looking forward to “new” and “different” even if it means I don’t like or play the particular games that herald in the new era. But I’m also ok with choosing a current generation game or few and sticking with them.
GW is free, so no real sense in “quitting” it when I can play once a week with you guys. I have a lifetime membership to LOTRO so again, no real reason to “quit” when I can simply take a break should the need arise. WAR? I guess I’ll find out next week or so. I’m curious to see if the CoW guild is fun enough to actually get me to melee PvP even though I’m horrible at it, or if I’ll break down and roll a traditional healer (which I don’t really want to do) or just not be interested enough in the game overall? It would be great if both the game and the guild together are enough for me to have a second game for my off-nights from LOTRO, but with the PvP focus I’m doubting my own skills and concerned about having a predominantly asshattish community that PvP tends to draw like flies.
The Agency has me excited as well, but I’m still torn on things like Free Realms. They’re not meant for most core gamers, they’re meant for tweens.
The Agency on the other hand, looks to take what’s good about co-op shooters, and what’s good about team based shooters, and turn that into a persistent world MMOG. There’ll still be quests, and levels, and loot… and I’m fairly certain a lot of it will be a DIKU MMOG in a Spy v. Spy setting.
In the meantime, while they may be 10 years and counting, the traditional MMOG does work well, it is still being refined, and I’m glad we’re starting to see more trips into different venues. I just hope a few are successful. The last few to try something different haven’t done well, and that can likely be blamed on poor game design from the getgo.
I’ll be intrigued to see what BioWare does with KotoR. Will it play like everything else, but with a more intense story? Or will it actually do some things different, and try to recapture the old SWG days. With EA behind them, I’m betting the former. Why? Because market trends show that’s where the money is.
Agreed on Darkfall. If anything, I think its stable population is likely to be south of 75K, possibly well south.
I’m glad you rememered to mention EVE as the sole exception to the EQ template, at least among western examples. I’m not convinced that the Agency will be the next generation, but from what I’m hearing it has a shot, and I’m very curious to see how it pans out.
It’s true that some folks get hung up on ‘New’, but I also think many of us get hung up on ‘Not New Enough’ – especially the old, jaded types that have been doing this for several years. Not everybody finds themselves in that situation, however, and there are those who are still looking for a game to settle down for a couple of years in. I’m not sure if WAR will be that game for me, although I’m having fun so far; if it turns out to be, it may have at least as much to do with Casualties as anything in the game itself.
The measure of a game, old or new, is in how much fun it is to play, not whether it’s revolutionary or not.
It’s also important to not confuse “revolutionary” with fad, and the same with evolutionary.
Case and point? The Wii.