Have you ever felt weirdly reluctant to go the full “dark side” in a video game that offers morality meters? MMO blogger Yeebo Fernbottom definitely relates to this in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sometimes, it’s way harder to be bad than be good.
“This leads to a problem I tend to have with dark side and evil choices in games that have dialogue trees,” Yeebo said. “They tend to make very little sense. It’s hard to imagine a realistic character that would kill every single person they can, be rude absolutely all the time, or NPCs that would want to have anything to do with them.”
Continue on for more MMO essays, including a scathing indictment of Blizzard Activision, glowing praise for Animal Crossing, the non-stop action of City of Heroes, and more!
Misdirections: The Candy Crush factor
“It was then that it began to dawn on me that this was something we would be living with forever in WoW, because Activision Blizzard was convinced that the Candy Crush model (from their acquisition of King) was part of the wave of future gaming, and by god, every franchise was going to get involved in it.”
Virtual Bastion: I still can’t get enough of Animal Crossing: New Horizons online
“I think the online portion of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the absolute best part of the game. Everything about the game is enhanced by plugging into the online Animal Crossing community. Ever since the game came out, I’ve been on there discovering all new possibilities for the game and enjoying interactions I never thought I’d have!”
Inventory Full: A little something on account
“All of which is a very long preamble to explain how it was that I came to be logging in seven accounts this morning, five of which haven’t seen daylight for several years. My goal was to secure for each of them the very excellent Great Escape Crate that I mentioned a couple of days ago. I’m not sure if the offer is time-limited but better safe than sorry. Wouldn’t want to miss out on something I’m never going to use on characters I’m never going to play. Forget the irony, just give me the stuff!”
Going Commando: Character boost
“Obviously I’m biased because I generally enjoy leveling, but my point is more that even if you don’t, time to level isn’t the only thing standing between you and that mythical fun at endgame: there’s also knowing how to play your class, feeling invested in your character and the game, and more, and none of those things are included with the price of that level-up token.”
Material Middle Earth: Happy anniversary
“It’s been a great time for LOTRO too, thanks to Minas Morgul. It might not be the perfect expansion, but it’s the best content LOTRO’s seen in ages. The landscape offers the right amount of challenge without discouraging casual players. The higher tiers of most endgame dungeons and raids have been very satisfying in the hardcore community.”
“Going from Lord of the Rings Online to City of Heroes is a very distinct change of pace. Even in the most intense moments – say in the instance I closed out my last run on – LOTRO is measured and methodical, certainly on the defensively spec’d warden I’ve been playing. City of Heroes is a very different experience. Especially on a Brute.”
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.
