Tri-Gaming

Back in June, Syp over at Bio Break decided he was going to continue playing his favorite three MMOs and came up with a three-quest plan, which he later revised to a time block plan per game.

I’ve been playing three MMOs lately myself — yes, me playing MMOs again! — and for now I’ve decided to stick with these three with occasional dips into a few others, plus my Xbox 360 gaming of course.

The MMOs I’m putting on the pedestal?

Star Trek Online, naturally, since it’s the one I write about most and probably my favorite game on PC at the moment. I don’t play STO “like an MMO” per se, meaning I don’t go into it necessarily with the same attitude that I would most other MMOs I decide to stick with. I can just jump into STO and do my dailies, or do some STFs or Fleet Events, chat or role-play and I’m good, no worrying about “MMO Stuff.”

TERA! I’m on the three-month subscription plan but – as predicted – all the blogger / Twitter / G+ people I played with that first month jumped ship when Guild Wars 2 started running their Beta Weekends, plus The Secret World was finishing up beta and they were all doing that as well. Last week I fired up TERA again, and ya know, despite being the linear Diku treadmill, I just really enjoy the game and I enjoy the hell out of the Lancer class. So I’m planning on sticking with it for now and reaching end-game.

The Secret World. This was an impulse purchase, namely because I’d been ignoring all the information about the game but in the end some of my online friends whose opinions I value most got the Lifetime so I broke down and got one too on launch day without so much as having watched a single video of gameplay. Totally sight-unseen. And… it’s… different. In a good way – no, in a great way! But… There’s always a “but…” isn’t there? I’m really not digging the combat or the faux “weapon combo = class” setup. I’d read on someone’s TSW beta blog (I could have swore it was Syp but he said it absolutely wasn’t) that Assault Rifle and Blade was a good combo so as soon as the game installed, that’s what I did. Afterwards, some Cabal-mates told me that might indeed be a good combo for one of the other factions (do skills differ between factions?) but not so much for Templars. I love shooters, so when I’m using an Assault Rifle the last thing I want to see is some slow action that fires a single shot. That’s what sniper rifles are for. My finishers were automatic, and they were fun if they worked and critted, but otherwise I totally was not enjoying the AR/Blade mix, it felt ineffective with very little survivability. So… a bunch of wasted Skill Points right there. Now I’m starting over with Blood magic but keeping Blades for now. So I’m still in Kingsmouth Town repeating every mission I can find to build up points in Blood, plus apparently I need to put points into my Talismans so I can equip better gear. TSW is already a very slow game, and aside from combat (at least the low / noob combat) not being very interesting or even fun, I feel like I’m spinning my wheels that I am not in any way, shape or form ready or able to progress to anything new yet so I have to repeat the same quests I did the first time. There are some other things I could complain about but really haven’t put them into coherent thoughts and words yet. But – another but! – when my Cabal is active and at least chatting TSW doesn’t seem as lonely and it’s definitely something I’m willing to continue for the story and seeing how Funcom and Ragnar Tornquist’s team put all the paranormal conspiracy theories and all sorts of horror literature into a single lore-filled world. I have to imagine that once I finally earn enough Skill Points and Ability Points, I’ll be able to put together some decks that start getting fun and useful. So in the end, I think I’ll be happy with the Lifetime purchase and do plan on sticking with TSW.