I am always a huge fan of both writing and reading essays about why people simply love an MMORPG. Over at Tales from the Aggronaut, Belghast gave himself permission to gush at great length as to why he is in loooooove with Guild Wars 2.
“Guild Wars 2 has this wonderful way of allowing you to blend seamlessly with activities that are happening around you and give you the general feeling of doing bigger group things… without having to ever manage human interactions,” Bel writes. “I cannot tell you how immensely attractive this prospect is for me because it allows me to feel like I am doing something meaningful without also having to burn through my emotional and social energy.”
Read on for more MMO essays about SWTOR, LOTRO, WoW, Lost Ark, and FFXIV!
Going Commando had a few words to say about the state of operations in Star Wars: The Old Republic’s 7.0: “I can’t emphasize enough how enjoyable it’s been to actually be able to feel a difference in performance from gearing up again. During 7.0 launch week, we actually wiped to the first boss in 16-man Eternity Vault enraging on us… which I thought was absolutely hilarious.”
Contains Moderate Peril looked at LOTRO’s new Yondershire zone: “Yondershire is a large zone which maintains a sense of continuity with The Shire but also manages to feel more rustic and remote. I suspect this is SSG’s intention.”
Priest With a Cause mused about socializing — or lack thereof — in WoW Classic: “I was shocked then by how many of those social dynamics I saw getting lost in the transition to Burning Crusade Classic, because I honestly did not expect it. But smaller raid sizes meant cutting people out because efficiency won out over community, and instead of being grateful for every warm body that you could add to your roster to increase overall raid DPS, people started to pick and choose based on performance.”
Kaylriene connected a love for wrestling to a possible return to World of Warcraft: “In truth, the current moment is more of a WWE vs AEW metaphor than it is WWE vs WCW. I don’t think that WoW is going to fold, even as I see the fact that the game is arguably closer to that possibility than at any prior point. I think WoW having viable competition is a good thing, and the hope is that it pushes the genre as a whole to new heights.”
Inventory Full photo-documented the weird world of Lost Ark: “Here are some screenshots. I think they sum up just what a freakishly weird game Lost Ark is better than anything I could put into in words.”
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.
