2010 in Review pt. 2

I did well in my predictions for this past year, but how well did I do on my personal goals and resolutions for gaming and blogging?  Last year I set the following goals:

  1. Play more console games because I am missing far too many great titles showing innovation in the gaming industry by focusing so heavily on PC.
  2. Be more open with how I feel about games to try and communicate quicker how and why I feel a game is good or bad.
  3. Evaluate what I want in a MMORPG.


This past year I’m happy to report that I played quite a few console games.  The big titles that I played and beat were Halo Reach and Dead Rising 2.  I’m currently working on Fable 3 and plan to start Star Wars the Force Unleashed 2 then Assassin’s Creed 2 and Brotherhood.  Unfortunately I only have a Xbox 360 up at school so I have to wait until April when I’m home for the summer to play games like Aragorn’s Quest and Epic Mickey.

My year in writing was a good one.  I had some months that lacked an that will always be a constant struggle for me to balance school, writing, and gaming.  There have been a few key moments this year that I think I did some justice.  It started off with Allods Online when I was in beta.  I reported to you early on that the game was excellent for what it was and that if they handled the cash shop correctly it could not only remain a great game but change my mind on F2p.  Unfortunately, the cash shop destroyed the game and I did not shy away from making a very vocal stance against it.  Despite being in the good graces of the devs at the time and finally having some peace with the F2P community, I was straight up and changed my mind on the game.  No regrets.

Another notable point this year was the transition of LotRO to F2P.  The stance I took then is the same stance I take now.  LotRO was a great game when I played and beat all available content, and for all I know it may still be a great game.  However, I firmly believe that making the game free to play ruins games.  It may make them great businesses, but it makes them worse off as games.  The interests of the devs and players no longer align and the game changes to accommodate a new mentality.   Both sides have their arguments, but the bottom line is that AAA games aren’t being released as F2P — that’s how they retire or reinvent themselves as a plan B.

World of Warcraft… the love and hate relationship that I have maintained with this game confuses me.  Bottom line, it’s currently the best game out right now for me to spend money on where I can get non-stop polished and high quality content.  This year, back in April, I told you guys that I would be returning to the game simply to enjoy playing something that I could rely on to still be here in six months.  That sentiment really hit home for me because looking back at 2008 and 2007 we saw nothing but one failed launch after another.  I’m glad that I was able to convey this point well enough that many other jumped aboard and created our Keen and Graev community guild called Happy Fun Guyz.  It’s been one of the best guild experiences I’ve ever had in a MMO.    WoW remains the best thing to play, but 2011 is looking up.

Lastly, I set a goal to understand what I want in games.   I realized that I do not want just one type of game.  They don’t all have to be DAOC for me to enjoy them.  I don’t need strictly PvP or PvE.  I’m playing WoW, come on.  Having played WoW for the better part of this year, I have realized how much I miss a game centered around real PvP.  I know that’s what I ultimately want again, but I’ve also realized that I’m okay playing games like WoW so long as I’m enjoying them with friends.  If I could have WoW’s reliability in a DAOC sandbox then I would be set.

Stay tuned for our predictions for the year as well as some more indepth discussions about where we see this year’s MMORPG’s headed and my New Year’s gaming resolutions!

  • If anything I think WoW has made me, and others, question what they really want in a MMO. I still romanticize over EverQuest and want another game that “feels” like that… but I love WoW. It’s an amazing game and even though it is the poster child of Theme Park MMOs I’m having a blast.

    I guess the bottom line is I want to have fun. This next year is going to be a good one though for gamers. Diablo 3 should launch and we get to find out the details on Titan at Blizzcon.

  • Always fun to read your thoughts on games, keep it up!

    I had a moment of clarity on DAOC recently, it came to me that one huge factor that made it good was a large number of pve first rvr distant second players. These are the guys that made up the silent mass that is needed for a game like that to work.

    So in my new and improved perfect mmo picture: 3 sides rvr, NO INSTANCES, a ton of alt and pve content also with many altitist possibilities plus whatever.. oh and whoever makes it need to keep it under 10 mil or they will get screwed by trying to grab WoW market share (and FAIL spectacularly)

    BTW getting really excited for The Elder Skrolls: Skyrim for some reason

    happy new year

  • I’m hoping 2011 will be a good year for MMOs but it’s hard to tell. Rift looks good, SW:TOR will be a biggie (if it launches) and hopefully we’ll get some juicy news on new games like – fingers crossed – DAOC 2 😀

  • I got Epic Mickey for Christmas and played a bit then. I’m still not sure what I think of it. It’s puzzle/action mixed and the controls are kind of funky at times. My biggest beef was when it gave me options on how to get through a section, so I took “B” because it was different from what I had been doing so far. Well, when I got through the section it informed me that I failed my quest because I took “B”.

    As for LotRO being a failure now that it’s “free”? Why don’t you play it and find out? Then you’ll truly know either way. It is not like it would cost you anything. I will say that my computer was upgraded to Win7 – 64bit by my wonderful hubby over the holidays and LotRO is just amazing with this OS.

  • If you want PvP, you should give Warhammer Online another try. I resubscribed back in December (as I said I would), and I’ve been having a great time. There are still some lingering issues, but, bottom-line, the game works pretty well at this point, and the PvP dynamics are solid.

    Try it for 30 days and see if it doesn’t stir something inside from the DAoC days!