Listmania

It started at something called the F13 forums (via the Raphster); then Tipa went ahead and did her list of “best MMO’s”.    Rao followed next.    Keen took a break from WOW to post one too.   I sense a theme developing.

I was going to comment on Tipa’s then realized it’s more fair to at least give her, and the rest of yall, something of my own to take shots at.    (plus she wants her Technorati boost).

1. Everquest 2. This one’s easy. I’m convinced this game is 100 things to 100 different people, which is a critical aspect to it being a true virtual world.   A home in cyberspace for you to have all kinds of fun in.  For me, this is the ultimate achiever game where I will never run out of “things to do”.
2. Pirates of the Burning Sea. The novelty of piloting a ship around, sinking them and stealing their cargo, appeals quite a bit to me. I played the beta for a few weeks and I’m very impressed, although the PvP aspect still makes me a bit nervous.
3. Vanguard. The feeling of being in a gigantic open world is really nice, and the Everquest roots show in a different approach to the nitty-gritty details. Hang on for this one – I suspect that if it hadn’t been developed badly, it would be a worse game than EQ1. How’s that ? The original vision was EQ1 on steroids, making it a group-and-raid game for the hardcore. I’d have hated that.
4. Lord of the Rings Online. Why didn’t I ever play this past the preorder ? There’s too much other good stuff out there. Hitting the preorder brick wall of the level cap, oddly enough, made me log off for good. If I had time (heh) this one and Vanguard really deserve a second look from me.
5. Everquest 1. I sure played this for a long time; there’s a fair amount of stuff in there for an achiever to sink his teeth into. After I left, it became clear to me that it’s a mediocre game unless you play exclusively in group-and-raid mode.    But it was my first MMO.
6. Anarchy Online. I got an “Everquest in Space” feeling from this one. Why am I looking for a “dungeon” in a space game ? Admittedly, I only played a short time on my free account, many years after launch, but it didn’t grab me at all.
7. World of Warcraft. Oddly enough, the art was the game killer for me. I hated having a ‘toon, and not a character. But that wasn’t all. The quests sucked. PvP’ers enjoyed killing all the newb zone stuff. The maturity level was low. I joined mostly because of hype and friends playing it, but I hated it so much I left it to my pals to enjoy, before the free month was up. The commercial success of this thing makes me question the wisdom of crowds (More likely, I’m just an odd duck).

Games I’ll never play include

1. Eve Online. Nothing but PvP, reportedly. {Carebear shudders}
2. Dark Age of Camelot. I had a hard time looking info on this one up, and couldn’t find a trial version when I was digging.     It’s pretty old now to start in.
3. Second Life. I logged in once. I never did figure out what I was supposed to do in this thing. Apparently you have to get started by being a waiter, a sex slave, or a programmer ready to make things from some wire-mesh stuff. This ain’t my idea of fun – I play games to get away from real life activities. You know, like the sex slave stuff.

My favorite trenchant comment, while digging through all these lists, concerned World of Warcraft.    He rated it #2.

Because it’s the first MMO that felt like it was designed by professionals.

I thought about it, and I think he’s right.     It’s a mass-market kind of a game, where the established rules of the game are polished to a sparkling sheen and released to the Great Unwashed Masses.    By contrast, I’m enjoying living on the frontier where people are still trying out new things.