JRPGs

I was feeling a little nostalgic this week for the PS1 JRPGs which I loved so much back in the day. Of course Final Fantasy VII is the daddy and I played VIII, X and X-2 (cant remember why I missed IX) but I enjoyed Xenogears just as much, if not more.

I did some research to see if I caould get those babies running on my PC and it is possible with ePSXe or the like but that looks like so much hassle. Anyhoo, I was happy to see that Xenoblade Chronicles came out for the Wii a couple of years ago and may very well scratch that particular itch that has been niggling away for a while. Also it will be something more interesting to do with the Wii than using it a s a bookend and watching it collect dust.

Ohhh also, if you don't have a Wii/bookend you might like to check out The Last Remnant which is available on Steam.

Aion

Well, I have been playing Aion for a few weeks. It is a decent Diku, engaging from the start and a good size. Personally I'm not so keen on the "always on PVP" as getting pwn'ed whist trying to kill 10 kobolds and having to re-spawn a few minutes travel from the quest you were on is a little annoying. It has great visuals and I do like that there are 1, 2 and 6 man instances and the FTP model and in-game economy are well conceived. Shame it is such a grinder but really worth a play if you are looking for a gap filler if, like me, you are waiting for;

The Secret World
Guild Wars 2
Firefall

I hope one of those has the magic......

Also I cant seem to shake my addiction to Altitude for over a year now, specially the football map. Perhaps the simple things are really the best?

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?

Introduction

After spending more than 30 years playing games and a decent proportion of the last decade playing various MMOs and more recently reading the myriad of interesting opinions to be found via this media, I have undertaken to provide my own thoughts for your perusal and comment. It is my intention to add to the wealth of views, judgments, attitudes and ideas that have provoked hours of contemplation and reflection amongst us all (as well as provide you with something to read in place of what you should be doing).