Guild Wars 2 Impressions

Ok, I've played for 5 days, which is a story in itself, here goes...

The game arrive on Friday 24th from Amazon UK without a 1 day head start. I did quite a bit of anxious research and in the end bought a 1 day head start key for £1.50 from an on-line store called Gamesrocket (German I believe) which seemed to combine with my boxed game account ok so I started playing on Bank Holiday Monday which was a big relief.

It's good. It's very good. So far my general impressions is that its every bit as involved as WoW, Rift, and SWTOR and without the subscription fee that quite an achievement. I did play Aion for a while which was F2P but in order to access things like the Auction House you basically have to pay the equivalent of a sub so I felt kind of cheated. Now, the AH isn't working on GW2 so far, but I am willing to wait a week more to see if that feature is part and parcel of the business model and how good it is.

I have started a tiny guild with four of my old mates from WoW, which is really nice as we all seem to be a little more mature in our approach and in no particular rush to get to level cap so we are enjoying idle chit-chat and the crafting system as much as the game itself. One thing I have noticed is that, except for one or two personal quests ("Rumors of Trouble" Norn level 11 quest that means you) we have not really needed to help each other or play together. Its kind of a new experience being in the same chat room as your mates but playing extensively alone.

Overall I like the game a lot and can see that the cover price is more than justified. It's not feeling like a grind at all, it's really fun. Lets see what the next 50 levels has to offer...

Those Little Boxes

The pictures of little plastic boxes in the header of this blog are the ones on which I have spent thousands of hours over the vast majority of my life. Still got them all in the loft too. my prized possessions, love them to bits. Yes, I know there weren't any MMO's for the older ones but, well, I like the idea that they have all played a big part in my gaming life.

I wonder what an MMO on the 2600 would look like? 10 Pac-Men chasing after the same blue ghost? A Space Invaders where players moan at each other for shooting holes in the shields in the wrong place?

I turned the C64 on a couple of years ago. Never as good as the memories. Still works though. With a weight on the tape deck in the right place. Except for the joysticks, all broken from too much Daily Thompson's Decathlon.

Have a good weekend.

The WoW Hangover

We have all played it, well, almost all of us. It’s why many of us are currently feeling in an unfortunate state of prolonged limbo and experiencing various levels of disappointment and disillusion with the MMO genre.

I’d like to think that there will be game to come along with the ability to “turn back time” and give me that 2007 feeling (when I started playing WoW). I’m starting to realize that is not likely, but I have not given up just yet.

Is it the genre that has changed or is it me that has different expectations from this type of game? Is it my demograph moving on or another one moving in? Is it the designers and publishers doing it all wrong, or the players playing it all wrong? Was it a one in a million all the stars aligned sort of luck thing with WoW that cannot happen again? All of these questions have been asked and answered on the fine blogs linked on my blog roll, but I suspect it’s a bit of all of the above. I’d like to discuss those questions over the next few posts.

I’m playing SW:TOR at the moment, but my significant other isn’t, she has moved on from the whole shebang and happily pursues other interests that don’t require an internet connection. Maybe that’s why it’s doesn’t feel quite the same to me any more. I enjoyed playing with her immensely. I would tank and she would heal, we would shout at each other a lot and on occasion really not speak to each other for a day or so. Do I really miss that? .....Yup, sure do.

I think it’s because it was the excitement we shared when either of us discovered something new. The very first healing spell or green quest reward all the way up to running around all powerful at level cap and finishing current raid content when its valid, exactly how it was supposed to be played. Great senses of discovery and achievement are hard to come by IRL for less than a tenner a month.

Lots of virtual “friends” whom I genuinely believe are good and honest people and I miss them dearly (except one who is playing SW:TOR with me at the moment, I don’t miss him at all). I think you naturally find the people you are supposed to play with, it worked in the playground, works in MMOs.

It feels to me like a prolonged hangover from the mother of all parties that lasted several years. I hope the hangover doesn’t last quite a long as the party did. Anyone found a miracle cure for this hangover, Hair of the dog doesn’t seem to be working, or is it the wrong dog?