Guild Wars 2’s newest living world episode seems to be grabbing the MMO community’s attention in a way that the season so far hasn’t. It is garnering quite a bit of praise, winning over even some of the game’s grumpier contingents.
“In recent episodes I’ve gotten used to groaning or shaking my head at some of the sloppy dialog, in-jokes and all-round loose writing,” wrote MMO blogger Bhagpuss. “This time, so far, there’s been none of that. Everyone sounds like they’re taking it seriously for once, which doesn’t mean there’s no humor and no jokes but that those there are seem to derive — fairly convincingly — from the characters and the situation. It’s a relief.”
Jeromai is equally effusive: “That’s perhaps the highest praise I can produce for whatever Anet is doing right in this episode, that I’m more happy to be playing and experiencing the content, than complaining or commentating on it because something broke or didn’t feel right […] It reads a bit like a love letter to some of our long ago wishes, hopes and dreams.”
Read on for another awesome tour of MMO essays, including a return to LOTRO, imagining living in an MMO, fun with Elder Scrolls Online, and more!
Moonshine Manor: BFA one month in
“Overall the leveling experience was pretty great. I was blown away with the storytelling and leveling in Legion, and BFA is at least as good, if not better. Now the real question is: What is there to do at the level cap, and is it fun?”
Tales of the Aggronaut: BFA — The good and the ugly
“This is not something I thought I would be into at all but I am shockingly loving it. Now some of that love will probably dissipate as the lure of 340 gear becomes less. I remember enjoying Alterac Valley back in Vanilla because it was about more than just fighting other players. The Warfronts are essentially all of those elements that I enjoyed divorced from the player versus player interactions I didn’t enjoy. Also did I mention 340 gear?”
GamingSF: A tentative return to Middle-earth
“Despite this, and returning now nothing has changed difficulty-wise, I am still happy to be back in Middle-earth. I spent a session like a plate-wearing ninja, carefully jogging or riding between more dangerous mobs, winding my way across the landscape to progress any quest I could that didn’t require me to take on something with over twice my character’s morale.”
MMO Gypsy: So long, cupcake! It was fun while it lasted.
“I don’t want to sound cynical when a game of such quality and promise gets shelved -– I think Carbine are one of the greater studios out there and they did some unique things with WildStar that I wish more people had experienced. WildStar was often unjustly compared to WoW when it really did its own thing. However, no MMO shuts down because it ‘didn’t have enough players.'”
Occasional Hero: MMO living conditions ranked worst to best
“A while back, my wife and I got into this anime called Log Horizon that involves thousands players getting trapped in an MMO world. Not in a virtual reality way, but actually physically there, having to work out how to navigate the intricacies and politics of a world where former players are apparently immortal. Since then, we’ve often joked about what it would be like to wake up one day in the various games that we play. Here are a few of the games that I play or have played over the years, ranked based on how much I would or would not want to live in them.”
Parallel Context: Fun with Elder Scrolls Online
“To be frank, Zenimax did what I thought to be impossible: stabilize a bad situation and return a game to the reputation that fans expected […] One Tamriel is credited with saving ESO from oblivion (or is it Oblivion?), but I have to admit that just about every single MMO I’ve ever played should take a serious look at what Zenimax accomplished with this update.”
Every day there are tons of terrific, insightful, and unusual articles posted across the MMO gaming blogosphere — and every day, Justin reads as many as he can. Global Chat is a sampling of noteworthy essays, rants, and guides from the past few weeks of MMO discourse.
