… or so some people would lead you to believe.
What is with this angst I’m seeing all over the place towards people who try a game and don’t like it, then try it again and do or vice versa? Why is it taboo to form multiple opinions, even ones that contradict each other, over time? MMORPGs, and even a great deal of single-player games these days, receive content updates and changes regularly. Almost every MMORPG that I have ever played has started out feeling and playing one way and changed to something different after character progression. The first MMOs were pitched to gamers as ever-evolving and constantly changing worlds.
People quit and go back to WoW all the time. Players who originally found the very idea of EVE Online appalling now feel that it is the best MMO out there. Many games would never have lived past launch if opinions were set in stone. Player opinions aren’t the only thing that can change either. Everquest 2 did a complete 180 after launch. World of Warcraft changed the way players and the world alike looked at MMORPGs. “Flavor of the month”, immortalized by DAOC’s infamous class balancing, was a result of people embracing and abusing change. Change does not require drastic alteration though. I see people loving their Priest one day and hating her the next because of a simple mechanic change. Change can even be more subtle and based on perception, such as leveling up and having the newbie blinders removed.
To quote the old adage again, MMOs are ever-evolving and constantly changing worlds. The very notion that one can not change with them is close-minded and out of touch with reality.
I regularly follow and enjoy your blog, though I rarely leave comments. Having seen some of the comments others have left on here and being aware of the general atmosphere you are describing, I applaud your stance on this. I sometimes jump back and forth between games for various reasons, myself. Frankly, these are games. They are meant to be fun. If the fun stops for whatever reason, I usually move on.
So, you at least have one person who agrees with you.
It’s one thing to change your mind about a game because they patched something, it’s another because the “newness” wore off. Keen, you and I suffer from the same problem, the shiney new toy syndrome. We get ourselves built up with anticipation for a game and then when it comes out we refuse to admit it sucks until it beats us down again and again.
That’s why I don’t like to voice my opinions about a game until I’ve played it for awhile. Your optimism can alter your opinion.
This doesn’t work so much for a blogger such as yourself where your readers demand updates on what you are playing, even if you haven’t developed a fair opinion yet.
Explain “beyond broken”? Explain why when some point out to you that that’s not actually the case, you delete/spamtag them rather than support your statement?
It’s one of the beauties of MMOs that with the right development a dodgy one can evolve into a good one. As such there’s nothing wrong with trying them again and see if that evolution can change your opinions of the game. Even without development MMOs can change as players progress through the content and the game’s community develops.
I’m not so sure how much when Keen changes his mind it’s down to shiney new toy snydrome or just that it takes a long time to get know a lot of MMOs. For example with Warcraft being totally different at level 60/70/80, or Age of Conan after Tortage and so on. Plus with any MMO launch it takes months for the various facets of the community to take shape.
Regardless of why Keen (or any blogger) change their stance about a game, they rarely deserve the attacks of Troll Snipers. But that’s the internet for you 😛
I am guilty of this. I did the trail of wow and i believe after a few day i saw wow sucked and that i would never play it again..
And here i am a year or so later playing WoW and liking it.
Yo Boots 😀
Anyway, when a game is overhyped, like GTA IV for instance. It generates the same results. You try so hard to enjoy it, but in the end, it stays on your shelf for too long.
And it’s a good thing MMO’s change. Would you want to play a game over and over again and apart from scenery never see anything new?
A lot of people point the finger at bloggers as being wishy washy and quick to jump around and switch games. I get the finger (yeah, that one too) pointed at me all the time. I don’t think it’s because bloggers are more prone to this though. I think it’s because bloggers are very vocal and put their gaming schedule and thoughts out there for other people to see. I’m willing to bet that bloggers would fall right in line with the “average” gamer and that we don’t change games any more or less than anyone else.
“Shiny new toy syndrome” (or whatever you want to call it when something is appealing because it is new) is unavoidable for most people. I fall victim to it all the time because gaming is a business and marketing will advertise their games quite differently from how they actually play in order to draw a crowd. Being an early adopter, as a true fan of gaming, also comes back to bite me in the ass on a regular basis. Does that stop me? No. Why? Because this is my hobby and I don’t mind spending money on it.
The snobs who want to tell people how they’re allowed to think need a wake up call.
EVE Online is indeed the perfect example.
I needed several trials to really get into the game. I did not like it too much at first.
a) Stop reading syncaine’s blog, it’s trash
b) Sometimes it’s the MMO that has changed. More often, it’s an addict re-visiting an old addiction (i.e., being a loot whore)
@Melf_Himself
Syncaine just thrives off of conflict. Without gossiping or flaming someone else, he is largely unable to generate interesting, compelling articles by himself.
Certainly not worth a response.
@Keen
People enjoying judging others on what they play or their taste in games. In the long run, none of it matters.
You’re playing games for yourself and for your enjoyment. Who cares what you choose to play? Its really none of anyone elses business. Even if you were to make a blog post about it, “Because I felt like playing it,” should be reason enough. You’re just deciding what games to play. It’s not like choosing a religion or something.
Hear Hear, Keen.
It would be a bit different if you didn’t do the exact same process with every single MMO that you play.
By the way, congrats, Keen, on pissing off Syncaine in a wonderful way–Syncaine kisses Darkfall’s ass every day, while you offer a fair and balanced assessment…and Darkfall links to you in a news release, not him. 😉
As far as you noting that bloggers fall victim to this all the time…the simple reason is the media. With normal reviews, you post the review–and then move on. As well, for reviews of non-MMOs, it’s easy to play through the game (all 20-60 hours, depending), form an opinion after playing the entirety of it, or the majority of it, and be done with it. MMOs cannot be finished in 60 hours, and a good MMO is always evolving. It’s unreasonable to expect anyone to have the exact same opinion 6 months into a MMO as they do after only a month. Some games grow better as time goes by, some get worse. As well, MMOs are very personal for opinions. Just because I don’t like PvP doesn’t make Darkfall any worse of a game–indeed, I’m happy to see a game go after that market. On the other hand, some people aren’t as enamored of crafting systems like Vanguard’s as I am.
The best way to handle reviews? Watch several blogs, not just one. You need the range–people like Syncaine, who believe that Darkfall is the best game out there, people like Keen, who start off enthusiastic, but become practical rather soon, and people who despise the game. That’s why the internet is great, and better than one-sided reviews in magazines–it’s filled with a wide variety of voices, and those not afraid to speak their mind–or change it.
I am guilty of this behavior myself. I swore to never go back to WoW, but I have. I was a huge fan of Darkfall, but now i can’t bring myself to log in.
Whatever the reason may be, I refuse to spend my hard earned money on something that isn’t giving me what I want. The fact of the matter is, what I want seems to change every so often. I am human, sue me.
Some bloggers like to attack players of certain games, because we must be complete idiots if we’re not playing what they are playing. I don’t feel that Keen and Graev operate in this manner. They simply blog about whatever they are, or not, enjoying atm.
I really like the fact that Keen offers constructive criticism of the games that he plays. If he doesn’t like the way something is working, he blogs about what he feels would be make the game better.
Lets face it; it would be an insult to the integrity of this blog if Keen and Graev were to sugar-coat everything they had to say, just to avoid negative feedback from the community.
@Centuri
Its the nature of playing games and being human. You get excited by something at first but once you’re used to it, the excitment fades and you begin to look for something else.
You don’t listen to the same CD endlessly or watch only one movie over and over, right?
So what if Keen moves from game to game as his interest suits him? Thats what we all do. Its easy to throw stones at him because he makes it so public on his blog. Coming here and attempting to paint a negitive picture of him based on this is hypocritical at best.
@Bartlebe
Actually my wife makes fun of me all the time because I DO listen to the same CD in my car. I’ve had the same 4 CDs in my car for about 2years now.
In terms of gaming though. The beef I think people have with bloggers reviews and comments…like the ones Keen makes…is that they surf the web looking for reviews of games they’re interested in. Alot of gamers don’t trust regular review sites like Gamespot or ign, and for MMOs they aren’t that applicable since the game gets reviewed basically once.
But when you read about Keen’s adventures in WAR for instance…he goes from loving it, to hating it, to loving it again.
There is also the issue with play time. Keen plays a ton more than I do. So when he comments about a game, its from the perspective of someone who is going through the content very quickly. So if he gets tired of a game in 2 months, it might take me 6 months to have put in the same amount of game time…and by that time, more content may have been added to spruce up the part of the game he got sick of and quit over.
In the end it really is the people reading the blogs who have no one to blame but themselves. They need to learn to take bloggers’ reviews with a grain of salt.
You can’t be a lemming and still get pissed when the lead lemming changes its mind halfway down the cliff.
I honestly don’t see why people get upset/complain about it. If you don’t like what you read you don’t need to go to the source. Simple.
I come here because generally (not always) I have the same feelings/opinions that Keen and other folks that post here.
I view the BLOG as a constant and living review. If the folks at IGN and/or Gamespot etc would rereview games every 2-3 months you would probably see the same type of stuff.
So to close, I TRULY appreciate when folks take the time to write about their experiences. Then this allows me to form opions for myself.
Keep up the good work.