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Aion Online

I have played a lot of MMO’s in my time.. I feel I have a pretty good handle on the genre and have a very good idea of what makes a game good, and what makes a game bad.  Both in terms of what I personally feel, and as well as taking a broader view as a whole.  I can readily recognize why one game or another may not appeal to me, but be appealing to others.

What’s interesting is that I find that as time has gone on I have had to lower my expectations because none of contemporary games are ever as good as the now lofty memories of the games of old..

I fully realize that it’s not fair of me to compare a modern game to the memory of a previous game.  A memory full of good times, good people and fun events.  Memories that I generally cherish in some way, oh and there was a game involved too..

Aion Online is the first game in a long time that actually holds up under this scrutiny..  I was shocked..

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Wow versus War

I love the Warhammer universe.  I have been an avid player of the various table top miniature games as well as the couple RPG games in the same universe.   So when Warhammer Online came out a year ago, I was stoked!

I figured it would be pure liquid awesome and finally give me a computer version of the game world I have enjoyed playing in for so long.

Of course I was let down quite a bit in that the game was lacking..  but I get ahead of myself.

When I learned that Warhammer online was licensed to Mythic Entertainment, I was less than thrilled. Their only other game of note is Dark Age of Camelot which was a one trick pony (realm versus realm combat) that has no long term play associated with it.. And while the game is still around, it’s just not fun. There is nothing there to keep players like me playing the game.. I just don’t enjoy it nor does it have the massive fan base that it could have if they had bothered to keep innovating.

WoW on the other hand has gobs and gobs of things to do long term as well as lots of mindless achievements and other end game elements to keep players attention.  They are adding new content and new fun things to the game all the time and this is from a guy who really doesn’t like WoW..

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Shooting themselves in the foot? Mmm maybe.. I’m an avid MMO player and ever since Cryptic first announced City of Heroes back in 2002(?) I was in love with the idea of a super hero MMO. It really seems that all modern MMO’s are fantasy based, and I have said for a while that I’m pretty fantasy-ed out.

Cryptic had sold CoH to the masses as this do anything engine that would mirror “Champions” the role playing game, without actually saying the word champions. And to be honest, it turned out to be much less than champions. Still a good game, but not the freeform system that everyone envisioned. Lots of work and updates went into the game and it’s still pretty fun. I still play it.

In November of 2007 Cryptic sold their ownership of the CoH and City of Villains franchise to NCSoft so that they could work on their new super secret project!
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City of Heroes (and thus City of Villains) is one of those sleeper games that has a lot of hidden depth. I played CoH for almost a year starting back in Feb. 2005 when it first came out. I like to refer to it as MMO Lite.

It’s a good game, and a good starter game for those who aren’t really sure about the whole MMO scene. It’s very simple to play and enjoy, and doesn’t bog you down with many of the more complex MMO aspects. For new comers to the market, its perfect. It’s how I got my wife into MMO’s and now I can’t get her away from the computer.. heh (“I just have this one last quest to do..” “Uh huh.. sure honey.. ” heh) Read more…

I was asked the other day why I don’t update my website more often..    A fine question, and I can only offer one answer..  I just don’t want to..

Er let me amend that.. I do want to.. I mean I enjoy doing this stuff, but I do it all day long!   I’m one of those lucky guys who managed to turn a hobby into a career, but in so doing; I lost my hobby.

I program and work on computers, all.. day.. long..  I don’t much care to come home and do it some more.  Its the main reason some of my online projects are suffering.  It’s not that I don’t wish to make something of them, I just can’t get in the mood to do it. Read more…

So I have been playing Eve Online again a bit and have been thinking about it and what it does “wrong”. I’m trying to focus on what should have been done so that new games like Infinity Earth don’t fall into the same trap. I just hope the new games will listen and take note.

First let me start by saying that I think Eve Online is a beautiful game and can be fun once you get DEEP into the game, and it’s certainly challenging. However a new players experience is terrible and doesn’t give any clues as to what is to come later, more over the PVE aspect of the game is down right bad which means new players are forced to deal with experienced players in a PVP realm often resulting in repeated trouncings with no end in sight.

Is it any wonder that many new players leave pretty quick? Think of what kind of power house this game would be if it’s new player experience was just a bit better..

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