A friend of mine commented on my recent MMO playing pattern as looking somewhat like that of a MMO whore.  Indeed, it seems as if I am sleeping around with more than one MMO at a time.  In the past four months, I’ve played Eve, EQ II, Lord of the Rings Online and now World of Warcraft.  The problem is that the real game I want to play, I can’t have, Ages of Athiria.  As such, I compensate by jumping from one MMO to the next hoping to find something that can fill the void. I’m sitting squarely in the target demographic identified for AoA, players that want more from an MMO than simply a static, theme park world.  To that end I share the frustrations of some of our fans over at the forums for AoA.

Eve didn’t do it for me because I’m just not into space based MMO games.  It’s why SWG and The Matrix Online were never something I wanted to play.  EQ II was fun but eventually it became quite a grind.  I was adventuring in zones 15 and 20 levels beneath me simply to be able to solo.  The world is quite empty and while their collection quests system is enough to bring out anyone’s inner OCD, the draw wore off after about a month of play.  That said, EQ II has the coolest player housing since Star Wars Galaxies.  I tried to go back to Lord of the Rings Online but I just can’t get past the grind that the game has become.  The legendary item system is not even a fun system because one can work at it for months and be absolutely no better off than when they had started.  The system relies so much on luck, that grinding endlessly quickly becomes an exercise in futility for me.

So here I sit, playing World of Warcraft again.  I feel like someone that broke up with a girlfriend because they wanted to see what was out there and then realized that the same old girlfriend was the best it would get.  Reluctantly you return but there’s always this idea that there’s something better out there so you justify it out of your mind by telling yourself just how comfortable it is to be around her.  It took me all of about three instance runs to get the hang of healing again to the point where the third one felt like an old pair of shoes that you just rediscovered under your closet shoe pile, comfortable and familiar.  That’s the way I feel about World of Warcraft.  I’m gone, the second someone creates an Eve style game in a sword and sorcery setting.  I’d prefer that someone to be me and Ages of Athiria but at this point, I’d be willing to see anyone create it just so that all the players sitting in the same boat as I am can move on from our old girlfriends.

Idea Festival is coming to Louisville soon and I’m supposed to meet a few potential contacts there.  Perhaps we get the funding necessary from it.  For now, I’m shacking up with a game that’s clearly moved into the friend zone for me, World of Warcraft.  I’m on Dalvengyr if you’re interested.  Scratch that, I'm now on Duskwood as of this evening.  Moved over to play with a couple of RL friends.