MMORPGs, a Brand War

Now some of these are classics, and aren’t really in the war but, I wanted to review them anyway because they deserve to be mentioned here since they made me appreciate gaming. I’ve posted the approximate dates I played these games because content in MMOs is always changing and I wouldn’t want to tarnish any games if they’ve improved on something I’ve mentioned. Please feel free to comment if things have changed; I always welcome feedback. My guesstimates could have been longer or shorter, but it’s hard to specifically recall. My thoughts are random in that I’m writing as I’m recalling past experiences for the most part.

 What you should also note about me is that after Anarchy Online, my main has always been a healer class in every single game. My perspective is always as a priestess. Hah.

 Anarchy Online (2003 -2004) (for around 3-4 months)

Anarchy Online (AO) published and developed by FunCom was my very first MMO. It was released in 2001 but I played it a few years in. My then boyfriend now husband finally convinced me to give gaming a try, and am I ever glad I did. Anarchy Online was an eye opener; I realized just how much I enjoyed levelling up and improving my skills and defences. The game is very different from other MMOs due to its futuristic science fiction theme. It took a while longer to figure out the whole technology implants system, but it was cool. The game runs mainly on instances, and there isn’t a whole lot of exploring, but their instances were good enough to keep me interested from what I can remember. We decided to move on to different things because my husband had already played AO and wanted something new. We thus moved on to Everquest 2.

Everquest 2 (2004- 2005 for around 6-7 months or so)

Everquest 2 is a beautiful game by Sony Online Entertainment. This was my first character customization experience. I loved it! It’s practically my favourite part about MMOs. Clearly I’m a female, lol. Everquest’s sceneries were very picturesque, they never failed to amaze me. It’s basically a fantasyland, as it should be. Aside from my character’s beauty, and she was beautiful; the game was a lot of fun. There was always somewhere new to explore at least in the time that we played. I still wish we’d played it longer because there were still some unexplored areas. I also enjoyed the random gambling this game presented, and at far off places, such as on a boat- a random peddler offers you to gamble your hard earned money away. FUN. The quests in EQ2 never felt like grinds, at least not to me since it was so new. I loved the themed holidays in main cities. It gave the game a personal spirit of sorts. You knew the game developers played and were proud of their programming skills. I would be! As I recall they were good to rely on for help. Player housing is accessible to players from level 1. The more I write about EQ2, the more I want to play it again. It was a great game. Did I mention I love loot? Well, there’s a whole heck of surprising loot in this game. The music of this game is part of the whole experience. Well done Laura Karpman! – I can actually relate here due to 10+ years of piano playing and a tad of teaching. Beautiful sounds, you get drawn right into the themes. There is a lot of character races and classes which can really make your character an individual. What we found lacking at the time of our play was a good guild, or rather the means to find a good guild or talk to people. This is possibly due to the stage at which we joined the game, which was right at its inception. There didn’t seem to be a large presence, or perhaps we were on a non-busy or off-timed server. We never made it to any expansions. Overall this game holds a special place for me and I miss it.

 World of Warcraft (2005 – 2006 for around 9-10 months)

I think the most fun I’ve ever had with Player vs. Player (PvP) was in World of Warcraft (WoW) by Blizzard Entertainment It is what drove me to play it as long as I did. The PvP arenas were so much fun to me. I loved it. Even as a priestess I still like to think I played very well. The setting of WoW is quite similar to Everquest, in that it involves similar mythical creatures, but with definite differences. WoW was must first experience with VOIP and with joining a guild. VOIP was still done by using an outside program such as Ventrilo. I’m aware they’ve added in-game VOIP like LOTRO now. The questing in WoW was a lot of fun. As in all the MMOs I’ve played, I never bought any expansions. Either computer upgrades or school would get in the way of gaming and I’d have to stop playing. Not that I’m addicted or anything. I won’t get into too much details since this is the most known MMO. WoW was a great game and I would play it again some day.

Lord of the Rings Online (2006 – 2008 for a good year and a half)

I still hear that lute! If you know, then you know.

Lord of the Rings online by Turbine was a game that I was the most excited about playing prior to its release. I just loved Lord of the Rings Online. I knew the whole background of the story, and this is what really helped me get into it. They did a great job creating backyards to the storylines. The story was always ambitious, and challenging. I love challenges. As a healer you have to multitask to the fullest; and Lotro allowed me to do just that. In addition to the excellent gameplay and in-game VOIP from the start, Lotro had an excellent guild creation, likely due to VOIP. You automatically talk to people and form groups. What I also enjoyed about Lotro were its books and how you had to fulfill additional tasks or feats. This was fun and made helping lower leveled people worth it. I’ve always played MMOs as a duo, but with Lotro I knew I could always count on good groups.(gg!) I also had the most amazing guild in Lotro called Ring Guards of Rivendellon the Elendilmir server. Those people were a lot of fun, and most of them still play. I felt like part of a team. One thing that was lacking was great PvP and I do not like Monster Play. I always play good characters, and I don’t want to be a monster. Again, it must be a girl thing. I would most definitely play Lotro again. It was a tease when I played for 3 free days last May or June, and I was welcomed back with open arms. I will play this game again.

Age of Conan (2008 for 3 weeks)

Age of Conan by Funcom was the next promising game that I wanted to try. My husband’s computer had pretty much kicked it and that’s why we stopped playing LOTRO. We upgraded and bought new computers for AoC with Direct X10 and superior graphics. I gave AoC a very valiant chance because I was informed that its combat methods were very quite different and more involved than other MMOS. This considering that my character got stuck in the lower level realm for an additional 48 to 72 hours because of a technical quest glitch. So here I was all levelled and prepared for the next part of the game and I had to wait and roam the dark night streets aimlessly. So we had to wait. That did get solved though, and I did play a while longer. Why did I only play for three weeks? One word: instances. I dislike gaming solely or mainly based on instanced play. It’s boring, I like to explore and run off to do my own thing.

Funny quote from http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/egrr_4446_668336  :

“Well you are a woman so of course you do 25% less DPS than a male, that is why you’ve got boobies although what happened to your nipples? Surely a girl your age has bigger ones?”

Too funny, but I had no clue about the decreased DPS. How horrible! I always tried to make my tits realistic to me. Even if women are less strong than men in RL,  healers are not realistic thus this should not be allowed. This game was sexy, if you’re a male or if you’re not offended by it; but the game was not fun enough to keep playing. The graphics weren’t even that impressive; and it wasn’t a stingy upgrade.

 Warhammer Online (2008 for 2-3 months or so)

Warhammer Online (War) by Mythic Entertainment was initially not a game I was very inclined to play because it seemed dark and dreary. I of course gave it a chance anyways. Warhammer was very cool. It was different in that there was a lot more cooperation required. Unfortunately, this may have been the game’s downfall; at least in our case. I really liked the fact that you could enter the forbidden zones of your enemies and strike from behind like a coward, lol. I’m really not this evil. The problem was that there just weren’t enough people online for us, and we’d have to wait around or die trying to fight difficult quests alone when they’re meant for 10. It was a great idea though, and I’ll give them their credit. It would have been really neat to have really big battles. There were a few, but it was a rare chance it seemed. I’ve heard they’ve had to downsize their servers, so we might give it a chance again.

 Aion (2009 work in progress, too tired) 

One of my favourite songs that’s related by Basshunter!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OzWIFX8M-Y

~Darleya~