A discussion chain has been rippling across the MMO blogosphere as of late, with writers reminiscing about online games that have lived and died since the launch of World of Warcraft and their personal experiences with them.
Paeroka fumed about the demise of Warhammer Online (“For me, it’s been the best open world PvP experience I have ever had”), Rakuno had kind words to say about Fallen Earth (“I loved traveling through this post apocalyptic world and just puttering around”), Nogamara remembered good times in WildStar (“They did a lot of things very right but apparently also enough things not right enough”), and Everwake struggled with Vanguard (“It always felt like a game made by people who like making systems instead of games”).
While that will fuel your online reading for a while, we have even more MMO blog essays below, including looks at SWTOR: Onslaught, FFXIV, Project Gorgon, and why it’s OK to play MMORPGs “wrong.”
SWTOR Commando: You are Nautolan, I am here with you
“While I’m always interested in new playable species, the new story and gearing system were way too interesting for me to even think about rolling up a new alt in the first couple of weeks, but now that we’re getting close to a full month of Onslaught, I decided to take the plunge and look at what life is like as a ‘noodlehead’ as I’ve seen some people fondly call them.”
“I believe that Ishgard Restoration, released with Patch 5.11, is helping to prove the results of their efforts so far. When you enter the Firmament, there are people all over the place. From endgame crafters in serious raid FCs all the way down to someone who literally just unlocked Culinarian and wants to make barbecue brisket. I’ve never seen so many people leveling up their crafters all at once, all in the same area. It’s really an inspiring sight to behold, even if it does kill my dying computer to try and see to begin with.”
Kaylriene: The value of playing ‘wrong’
“Modern games (it’s not just WoW in this regard) often strip players of this agency. The game design team would rather you have an easier time performing at par than giving you means to excel in fun and fascinating ways. The fun of bad builds (assuming you do them purposefully) is to test your upper limits as a player – to see how far you can exceed expectations.”
GamingSF: Common monsters in MMORPGs
“Everquest II has a very varied palette of monsters, but elemental or planar opponents are common I would say in many zones. Although this picture is from the most recent expansion which is planar focused, my favourite starter zone (Frostfang Sea) has ice elemental motes and rolling animate stones so you do not have to travel far in Norrath to find these types of creatures.”
This Week in Aurebesh: First impressions of Onslaught
“The story itself has a lighter touch than Fallen Empire, with a bit more humor and a focus on classic heroes and villains doing their thing against a familiar backdrop of Star Wars’ ancient conflict between the Jedi and the Sith. Onslaught features the long anticipated return of some favorite heroes and villains, but makes room for other familiar faces that I did not expect to encounter again.”
The Friendly Necromancer: Project Gorgon under the knife
“As cool as being a spider is (seriously, you can hatch spider babies inside your enemies), I don’t know if I want to go through the whole animal experience just yet, and as amazing as all the things that come bundled with the druid are, hmmm I can be a duck, meh… just not feeling it. Fighting with knives on the other hand is sexy! Am I right? It’s my fight-like-a-Stingite, sting-like-a-bee style!”
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.
