Results tagged “Other games”

Thanks to a bit of reflection and study Andro's DPS has improved somewhat (though still plenty of room for improvement). However, due to a lack of bodies over the late summer period there haven't been any guild raids for the last couple of weeks (and next week is looking doubtful) and I've not had the motivation to do my usual pootling around levelling alts. Actually, there is one exception - a chunk of time gaining some levels (and crafting skills) for my hordeside Death Knight.

This malaise isn't a new thing - it seems to strike occasionally, usually when guild activity is at a low ebb and commonly late in an expansion's lifecycle when there's a desire for fresh material. How do I get round it? Usually, as mentioned previously, by playing another game for a while to provide a break from WOW (which I've been playing since Beta) but also by writing (fiction and game support material for tabletop games).

Originally, the "relief" game was EQ2 (which I actually played before WOW - it was where my old Star Wars Galaxies associates withdrew when that game went to pot). Guild Wars, Eve, Warhammer Online, Champions and Aion have also provided some distraction (though of those only Warhammer was more than a solo effort, it being the venue for a number of the guild taking a break from WOW in autumn 2008 prior to the launch of Wrath). None had lasting appeal though.

My current "relief" game (and my second-longest MMO play experience after WOW) is Lord of the Rings Online (more commonly called LOTRO) where, surprise surprise, I play a mage-like loremaster named Lorelai on the Laurelin-EU server. I've played LOTRO in fits and starts since Beta, usually a burst of intense activity and then a long lull. I did keep meaning to kill my account (as I mentioned previously) but as it was a low-cost 6-month plan it was a cheap option. In fact, I did close my account (with several months left to go) but the last 10 days or so have seen a rewal of my LOTRO activity though most of the Kinship (guild) I'm in are inactive (one of my WOW associates is playing though). However, the game goes free-to-play in a week's time so I'm expecting activity in the game to pick up and possibly some of my WOW associates to take a look-see at the game (or to resume play if they've already done so).

I am, however, expecting to become more active in WOW again once my mana batteries have had chance to recharge (and I'm still logging on regularly to check in on the guild). Raiding certainly is a draw and the arrival of Cataclysm later in the year (I'm betting on mid-November, probably 17th, pretty much exactly 2 years after Wrath) is a dead cert, but until then I plan to take it easy (and have the small matter of a book to write ...)

The Ravens haven't raided since before Christmas (a fact that has prompted a number of our more hardcore members to head off and form their own raid-focussed guild and after the pre-Christmas Heroic fest (and the completion of a number of Achievements) there's been a major attack of apathy. I sidestepped this for a while by levelling my baby hunter (not so baby now at lvl72) and doing some lowbie stuff but now I'm back at work I'm finding myself lacking the motivation do do much online.

On the one hand it's like the traditional seasonal overindulgence -  having gorged on the pre-Christmas additions to the game something of a break is called for - but there's also a measure of realization that we're once again in the endgame of a WOW expansion and the options (for Andro at least) are rather limited. She's about as geared as she'll be without raiding (a few additions left, but not stuff she's chasing madly) and she has minimal use for Emblems of Triumph. There's a couple of achievements left in reach, but PvP (BGs are a joke on Ruin) and Raiding form the bulk of those she has left to do, so the odds on completing them are slim - the Raven's are never going to be end-game raiders and I'm not going to move somewhere else.

Intstead I think it's going to be a quieter run up to Cataclysm that'll see Buliwyf (my Palatank) kitted out some more and my hunter and priest levelled to 80. I'll also finally get Eben, my Tauren Druid, to the level cap (he's languished around lvl40 since summer 2005!), but probably by bringing him Alliance-side so he can benefit from the resources of his Alliance cousins.

Assuming, that is, I don't get dragged into Star Trek online (seems unlikely) or one of the other MMO's out there (I am, in fact, contemplating dropping the LOTRO account I've had since Beta, though I may dip my toes into Eve once more). 2008's Wow challengers all proved to be damp squibs (Champions Online and Aion) and prior to that only Lotro and WAR held my interest fore more than a couple of weeks. Realistically, only Star Wars: Old Republic or Final Fantasy 14 have any chance of gaining a foothold (particularly as I still have Dragon Age to play), but you never know.

I decided to add Aion: Tower of Eternity  to my stable of "backup" games but have made an interesting discovery: The "Eternity" of the subtitle is the time taken to get on to the servers. Arriving home yesterday evening I decided to take my Assassin or Sorcerer out for a spin, only to find there was a 2 hour logon queue on the servers. Every server (believe me, I tried them all). Had I realized this before applying my Live serial number to my Aion account I'd have held off until there were enough servers to meet demand (or the demand had fallen off).

Now, I can understand their point of not having too many servers at launch (that then become ghost towns) but having 13 full servers, each with 2000 people waiting (after 2000, it doesn't let you queue) sends a pretty bad message at launch. As I mentioned the other week, Aion isn't a bad game (though it's no WOW), and is a darn site more fun that Age of Conan, but charging a premium for the game (it retails for £45, usually discounted to £30-35 compared to £20-25 for WOW or WAR, both usually available for £15-20) and then not giving people the chance to play is cheeky in the extreme.

NCSoft's advice so far has been "try another server" (though all are in the same boat that I can see) or "come back later" (great for those with a limited play time ...). I'm sure they'll get it sorted eventually, but at the cost of how many subscribers I wonder. 

Wow wasn't the first MMO I played (I dabbled very briefly with Ultima and EQ before playing Star Wars Galaxies for about six months and then EQII for a while) but it is the only one that's held my interest for a long period of time. I've occasionally dabbled with others when disenchanted (FF XI, Matrix, Eve, Conan, WAR, City of Heroes) but most haven't caught my attention.Some I really hated (Matrix, Conan) and others, while cool, didn't get me returning for more (FF, Eve, WAR). LOTRO is an exception and is the only "backup" MMO I return to semi-regularly (and is the only other MMO I've hit max-level in), but even that has never quite gripped me in the same way as Warcraft. After the disaster of Conan (and the nice, but ultimately unfulfilling WAR) there's been a bit of a dearth of new MMOs recently, but like buses suddenly several come along at once: Champions Online and Aion.

Champions is a superhero game, based on Steve Long's RPG of the same name. Character generation is pretty comprehensive and you can build yourself everything from a Hulk to Jean Gray, from Wolverine to a mini-gundam. Most of this is cosmetic - and some pretty wacky results are possible - though there are a range of custom "power templates" and the ability to create new ones by mixing and matching. I ended up creating one melee character, and one ranged spellcaster.

Things got off to a bad start with a host of server lag issues at launch though things seem to stabilize and I was able to give things a whirl. There's a single tutorial level before heading out into the wider world which I imagine might grate after a while, and upon completing the tutorial there are two principal areas you can visit - Canada (vs hordes of undead) and the South West (vs Mutants). Both have an initial campaign section that needs to be worked through before more of the zone opens up (rather like phasing in Wrath) which works fairly well. The level design seemed to work well with a broad range of powers and the quests, though following several broad themes, seemed to work well. However, the world design is such that there are high level mobs almost adjacent to low level ones - as I found out the hard way when my feral fox was chomped by a Wolf 20 levels higher than the ones she was hunting. All in all, it's not a bad game - and seems more forgiving that City of Heroes (whose XP debt I found really offputting). I do wonder about its longevity though - by the teen levels my enthusiasm was starting to wane, though someone who is more into superhero comics might get more out of it.

Aion is a fantasy MMO by NCsoft, the people who brought you Lineage II and Guild Wars. I Played in the Beta for this (rather than live play like Champions) but it was generally a smoother experience. In many regards it plays like Guild Wars, MMO edition - lots of very pretty characters but an oddly constrained world (it's a little odd to get to level 10 and be able to fly, only to find whole zones were flying is barred or to bounce off invisible walls in the air ... or to drown when going into water beyond chest deep). There's a strong EQII vibe too, with four broad classes available to each of the two factions (Mage, Rogue, Warrior, Cleric), each specializing into two classes after level 10 for a total of 8 plable roles. There didn't appear to be much in the way of non-cosmetic character diffentiation, beyond gear (limited choices) and "enchantments." Likewise, there doesn't seem to be any functional difference between the two factions (save in their physical appearance) though each has a distinct starter zone and possibly their other play regions. I only reached the teen levels so I don't know if it's possible to get into the other faction's regions or only into the contested "abyss". If you can't, it'll further shrink the world. Oddly, the use of the zones (in the starter regions at least) is patchy. Some are scarcely touched - you run through them (and they're very pretty) but there's little to encourage you to explore - and others are grossly overused. I think this is a side-effect of the westernization of the game -  the Korean original has been around since late 2008 and had, I gather, considerably fewer quests (presumably the ones that are the linked "campaign" ones). The lesser quests may be the additions for version 1.5 (the Westernized edition) to cut down on the grinding that is so prevalent in Korean games, hence the somewhat erratic use of the space. Nonetheless, character progression works well (though gear choice is very limited initially, but very pretty) and there were only a few points where things were challenging (and then often due to the need to get drops or for a kill to register ... one "kill 3 XX" quest turned into a "kill 20" because the third one wasn't recognized ... great fun).

Oh, and it's very pretty :p

In both Aion and Champions I didn't really progress to the meat of the game, but with Aion - unlike Champions - I did find myself being drawn into the setting and wanting to go further. I don't think either is a "WOW beater" (though there was plenty of WOW-dissing in Aion, much as there was in Conan and War, and bad-mouthing of "noobs" and the harrasment of others, which goes to show that Warcraft doesn't have a monopoly on bad behaviour) but I suspect Aion will get a substantial player base among those wanting something new and shiny (and pretty) to play (and exploring new settings is why I play other games), though whether it will rival Warcraft (with or without Cataclysm throwing a spanner in the works) is another matter - it just feels too constrained to me (though those enjoying PvP may have fun in the Abyss).