How do you say farewell to an MMO that meant a lot to you? With tears, sorrow, screenshots, and words. Lots and lots of words. MMO bloggers joined social media to bid goodbye to WildStar last month, and the consensus was that the industry was worse off for its loss.
“This was not an important game to me personally, in fact I struggled to figure out why everyone liked it so much,” wrote Tales of the Aggronaut. “That said I realize that it was a very important game for an awful lot of the people who I care about in my life.”
“It was a game with a huge amount of unused potential if you ask me,” said Nerdy Bookahs. And GamingSF dropped several pictures to mark the occasion.
Read on for more essays, including a look at LOTRO’s legendary servers, a Torchlight Frontiers alpha report, a late review for FFXIV Heavensward, and more!
FibroJedi: My thoughts on LOTRO’s legendary servers
“If you’re a VIP and you want a different way to engage with the community, then go for it. If you want a bit of a challenge, or to engage in Fellowship Quests that you never have before due to a lack of groupies, then it’s definitely for you. equally, if you like to level slower and engage in as many quests as possible and get rewards for doing so, then it suits your gameplay choice too.”
Me vs. Myself and I: Torchlight Frontiers alpha report
“Graphically you can tell this is still a Torchlight game, though it does seem to be more of a hand drawn art style rather than a low poly one like the original two games. I liked the look of the game, the areas were interesting and there was a decent variety of mobs. There were plenty of other people running around killing things too, and this feels like the closest thing to Marvel Heroes that we’ll have now that Marvel Heroes is gone.”
“Speaking of leapers, I’ve never had so much fun with another mount in any game than I had and still have with these. At the time they let me see all those old zones with new eyes because they jump really fricking high (and I couldn’t use flyers yet), but it’s also pure joy mechanically. Barely making the jump over a wide ravine or landing at the exact spot I aim at feels great and obviously isn’t half as fun with a flying mount.”
Mana Obscura: FFXIV Heavensward latecomer’s review
“One of my other gripes with the original game was this sense of continually jumping around the world, as if I was the only Miqo’te working for International Rescue. That’s also changed in Heavensward, with the Main Scenario taking a more linear approach. Voiced narration introduces each zone, emphasising the journey that I’m playing through. It means that the flow feels much more natural like I’m on an epic adventure rather than being a glorified firefighter.”
Superior Realities: Awakening my legacy in Aion
“Awakened Legacy is not without its controversy, and I fully understand why, as it not only changes but also straight up removes large swathes of content, but it seemed like an excellent opportunity to give Aion one more chance.”
GamingSF: Alts of the same class
“Other than those three examples, I can’t think of any other MMO where I’ve had any reason to consider a repeat character class. What other reasons are there for playing the same character again?”
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.
