I never, ever, thought I would be wanting classes to start again. It dawned on me yesterday that I am actually wanting Summer to end. I can’t wait for August to be over and September to be on the way out. Obviously, I game in my free time. The summer has given me nothing but inordinate amounts of free time, but that does me absolutely no good when I’m in a gaming drought.
There are no MMORPGs that I want to play until September 20.  Call of Duty 4 (my go-to game in a drought) isn’t fun for more than short 20 min bursts. Heroes of Newerth is fun, and my current primary game, but due to the amount of time being invested I’m starting to feel fatigued when I play – that feeling of “I like this game, but I’d rather be watching TV”.
When I bounce between games I stop enjoying gaming. I need consistency, progression, effort leading to reward, and comfort in knowing that what I’ll play today will still be fun next week.
It’s that feeling I’ve come to call ‘Looking Forward To Syndrome’ where you could be happy playing what you have, but you’re looking forward to what’s coming out and become emotionally detached from what you currently have on your plate.
September 20-22 – Aion (MMORPG)
November 3 – Dragon Age: Origins
November 10 – Modern Warfare 2
Those are three titles that I will be playing (with release dates) for a long (barring any unforeseen change of opinion post-release) time.
Til then, it’s a drought for me. I’ll be trying to conserve and ration my fun with the games I can tolerate playing until it’s over. Side projects for the blog (that we’ll be introducing within a few days) will be a great distraction as well.
Does anyone else feel like we’re in a drought? I know a lot of people are currently enjoying some of the games out there, but for those of you that were not swept off your feet and dazzled, what are you currently playing? Feels like the industry as a whole is just trying to get by each day. Checking Massively (no offense to the EVE crowd, but when EVE is the biggest thing to talk about all day you know things are slow), Shacknews, and the other news sites daily shows a slow trend. I’m even uninspired to dig into and blog about mechanics or to analyze and theorycraft about the coming up games.  In a way, it feels like my muse went on a vacation and won’t be back for a few months.
Maybe it’s the calm before the storm…Â +1 Optimism!
spectating competitive games, quakecon, blizzcon and mlg all in a row. and http://www.quakelive.com
I’m still gaming over this summer, but at a reduced rate and I’ve taken an unplanned break from MMOs that just sorta happened.
November has a few games I’m interested in. Dragon Age as you mentioned, plus Left 4 Dead 2, a couple of others but those two alone are enough to keep me busy.
I’ve been kinda guessing that you’ll really enjoy Aion for the long haul, especially once the PvP really kicks in.
I’m gonna enjoy Champions but I’ll probably play it a bit more casually than other MMOs.
I don’t need a whole lot of upcoming games to keep me interested, but when I’m not playing something heavily right-now, I look ahead. And looking thru this Summer, yeah it’s been slow.
Im thinking of playing WAR again for a month, then quit and head for Aion ASAP. When i cant sleep im looking for news and movies of aion 🙁 and the more I see the less sure I am what class to play :s.
I quit WoW this sunday due to total lack of care, and am currently either lots on msn, watching loads of anime or play th highly anticipated (by me atleast) Tales of Vesperia.
Btw, what are your thoughts on it, you as a rpg fan, should atleast know of it’s existence. (Sorry if im wrong in any way about your preferences :p)
I should find a way to get WAR back on my pc first, then i’ll see what i’ll do.
Summer is really bad. CPU, GPU and HDD temperature are higher, almost alarming at times.
I blame all Americans for the greenhouse effect!
Well, to be a bit more serious: Fallout 3 + DLC content, Mass Effect… it does not need to be multiplayer all the time.
Mount & Blade, which would make an awesome template for better MMO combat, is going multiplayer, which is also something I am really looking forward to.
Hearts of Iron III was released three days ago …
You need new shinies.
[…] has an article up today that I feel captures what I’ve been feeling in gaming lately and I’d wager that […]
I’m really looking forward to Splinter Cell: Conviction aswell, but I highly doubt it’ll be out soon :(.
I’m definitely in a drought but under different circumstances. I lost my monitor due to a power surge a few weeks ago and finally got it back and setup. Once I put it in, I realized that the surge hit my video card as well. Everything is fine when in 2D mode, just browsing the web or whatever. But as soon as I start anything 3D (games, movies, etc) I get artifacts and screwed up textures out the yin-yang.
Luckily, this hit at a time when I could give a hoot about any of the new games out there right now myself. I’ve been feeling some nostalgia lately, so I’ve been trying to load up some old RTS titles for fun, but alas – a new video card is on my horizon.
I don’t know, games are always changing and always in a pretty good state. Try gaming 10 years ago!
I just hate the heat here. 100 degrees every day SUCKS.
Beau
I’m looking forward to Champions right now, havnt played a super hero mmo yet so this should be interesting.
Definitely not raining here. Interesting that CO is not on your list. Can’t wait to see your thoughts.
Fallen earth, september 9 i think.
I am in the same boat. I’m just killing time until AION. I recently embarked on a free trial expedition (AoC, EQ2, etc) but did not find anything I wanted to invest additional time into.
Definitely some drought here…
Completely bored with WoW, so canceled that; looking forward to Aion for my MMO fix. And I just finished Fallout 3, so…
In the meantime, lots of QuakeLive (too much!), getting back into ETQW, replaying FarCry 2 on the hardest difficulty setting, and occasionally some L4D…
Been in a rut for a LONG time. Got so bad I resubbed to WoW after a year+ absence, enjoyed the new content and was waiting for the 3.2 patch. Now its out and want to give all the new BGs a try but….
….then I started playing HoN and am loving it. I think I have a great advantage here because I didn’t play Dota and everything is new. Sure I’m getting my arse handed to me, but its not as much now as it used to be. First game in a long time I’ve enjoyed as much as this! And thank goodness because before this game i was HURTIN’! Thanks again for that Invite Romble!
How about Battlefield 1943 for the PC? The whole call of duty craze is a bit overrated anyway. Learn to fly an airplane people! Plus its only $15.
Keen have you played The Witcher? The enhanced edition came out last fall and I am trying it now. On sale from steam at 28$ right now. Wow this game is good. Reminds me a lot of a Bioware quality RPG. Definitely must play game.. quality game, story, voiceovers etc. Could keep you busy till September.
Oh hey your welcome Howdy… I have some other beta invites now I will probably give out soon
@Rakanishu: Forgot about BF1943. I’ll be getting that for sure. Good catch!
@Romble: I played The Witcher for a couple days but lost interest because of all the reasons…well..all the reasons they made an “enhanced edition” for. I got to try out the Enhanced Edition at E3 and it’s a good game. I’m not sure if I’ll drop $28 on it though.
Tons of HoN right now, best heroes for me are Pyromancer and Electrician (however you spell his name). That is taking up most of my time with some TF2 once in a while, I got a beta key from Massively.com today for Aion so I will give that a spin this weekend and in September.
In the none gaming category lots of Hulu and watching new shows I would not think I would like.
Can’t help but feel _exactly_ like you Keen, what the hell is going on?! Anyway, for me it’ll be Champions online Sep 1st, yeah I know kinda lost the “eagerness” for that but at least until Aion Sep 22 😛 – then who knows until what date those last!
I am just like you checking massively, shacknews each day, and it’s like “blah”.. Oh Borderlands is coming in October, could be worth checking out.
After that it’s whatever comes next, Starcraft 2, Diablo3 and SWTOR in a future far far away, feels like… tear. 🙁
Heh, those are the exact 3 titles I’ve pegged as must-buy this fall, Keen. Unless I hear horrible things about the writing in Dragon Age; preview video reviews were pretty mixed. I can’t imagine Infinity Ward screwing up COD after the job they did on COD4, though.
That’s pretty much it for the top tier this fall, huh…. That’s ok, each of those games has a massive amount of gameplay and I’ll be insanely busy anyway.
Know exactly what you mean! However Champs has pulled me out…having a blast!!! I LOVE the PvP matches and the game is still a baby so have a good while to grow still. I honestly think it may hold me for at least a year.
Some other games folks might be interested in coming out “soon” Have not played any of these so some might be utter crap.
League of Legends Sep 30
Champions online Sep 1
Crimecraft Aug 29
Fallen Earth sep 9
Jumpgate Evolution 2009 (so they say)
Wolfenstein remake Aug 16
Section 8 Aug 29
red Faction Guerrila (PC) Sep 15
Resident Evil 5 (PC sep 15)
Batman Arkham Asylum Sep 15
I have to 100% agree with you.
Although I played a game with Graeve tonight in HoN, which somewhat made it more exciting.
I was in that gaming drought too, til I re-discovered Lotro. It still is pretty fun to play, and it doesn’t have that treadmill feeling hanging around it. Mature and friendly players, beautiful surroundings and epic quest lines. Should keep me busy til StarWars: The Old republic hits the shops! 😀
IMO, We shouldn’t put too much faith in Aion.
To me, it seems like all of the other MMORPG released in the last few years.
We will play it for around 3 months, then quit.
For the first month, we will give the game great reviews, and talk about everything that is working.
Toward the second month, we begin to notice the games flaws, and the hype somewhat dies.
But the 3rd month, we are yawning, and barely able to play it for more than 20 minutes at a time, and then quit.
You know those people who, immediately after ending a relationship, seek out another one, which ends up failing, and going onto another one all throughout their lives?
I think that is what we have turned to.
I am going to quit MMO’S for a bit.. Hopefully, the MMO Messiah might be announced sometime soon.. But, until then, I cannot cope with the Disappointment of leaving another MMORPG.
That is true Redfist but even for those first three months it is very fun hangin out with this crew. When I was playing Darkfall with them from the start is was hillarious! I will never forget that time.
I will not be playing Aion simply because it does remind me too much of previous mmos, just a bit more shine to it. I am heavily addicted to Champions Online but that is due to the fact that I’m a comic junky and it’s a GREAT way to help build comic heros for me and storylines.
I’ve got my hands full with AO until CO and Aion release. Yes that’s right AO :p All the talk lately of past MMO experiences and what the newer ones are missing today made me resub to my old friend Anarchy Online.
While I’m enjoying the complexity again (such a nice change), I’m amazed I had the time for this years ago.
At least I’ll be busy until CO open beta.
@ARedFist – You are absolutely right in your assumption about MMO’s=Rebound relationships but where Hopefully Aion succeeds and why many have such high hopes for it is because not only is it polished, it’s sparkling. Aion has been running successfully for i believe a year already overseas. It’s not like it’s a brand new game and is being newly developed. It’s being refined for US and EU. It has a year headstart over mmo’s of recent when it is launched for us, as opposed to starting fresh like other mmo’s. Yes i’m hoping, not for a wow killer, but for a good mmo i can sink my time into. From what i’ve experienced so far and on patch 1.0, i’m sold already, of course things can change for the worse come release, but at the same time, things can change for the better also! And as far as it reminding you of mmo’s of the past, that will be your answer for a majority of mmo’s that will be released from now until… what will be your reasoning behind not trying an mmo in 10 years? Will you not play it because it reminds you of previous mmo’s? You might as well just hang up your keyboard then…
I have been feeling this way too. I’ve gone through cycles of subbing and re-subbing to loads of different MMOs over the past couple of years and they all work for a while but not for long enough. It’s like I am always waiting for something perfect (never going to happen).
Therefore I was very surprised recently when I tried Vanguard. It’s a WoW style game, but oh, so much to do! Great graphics too, and fun quest storylines. The only problem with it is that it’s practically empty. It’s such a shame. I hear that it was so bugged on release that nobody bothered with it, but all that appears to have been fixed, and the game is a joy to play. If you are having a game drought, give VG a try I say. It will definitely fill the gap for a couple of months.
1 – Create Skald
2 – /level 20 at trainer
3 – go get Free lev20 armor in Jordheim
4 – go see main trainer in jordheim to get free very nice class specific chest armor lev20 and sweet jesus new free class specific 100%qual glowy level 20 weapon
5 – do 20-24 in Thief Dens dungeon just outside Kobold City in catacombs (farm mucho aurilite)
6 – Buy lev 30 Aurilte armor, cloak and miscs
7 – Port to Thidranki
8 – Run around with speed, join up with mids
9 – Win
Daoc Tease !
~Higgs