Denial, Waaagh and Revenge

So this is my third try at writing this post since the news about the redundancies at Mythic. I have gone through the classic symptoms of denial, Waaagh and revenge. The letter from Jeff Hickman did little to alleviate my concerns as it made no mention of that ‘still getting funding’, ‘hope for the future’ word… expansion.

My heart goes out to the staff that had to leave Mythic. But at least they can say (though I imagine it gives little too no comfort) they contributed in making War such a great product. Not many games released of late can say they contributed to the original ideas pool for MMO games.

I am not a maintenance mode player but for the moment I am staying on the roller coaster ride of War as the game is still a lot of fun for me. Saying that I actually think War has spoilt me with regards to my expectation of an MMO. I am no longer willing to accept playing through all the levels to reach an end game which is a totally different experience. War has shown you can have a game which is fun and accessible and does not necessarily need to change at level cap.

In resent months I have looked to see what has changed in the other games I used to play. I gave ‘Age of Conan’ and ‘World of Warcraft’ a month each, the later to play with my friends in instances, but I always just wanted to login back to War.

Like I said War has spoilt me, in those other games my choice of what to do is limited. I can quest, do their versions of scenarios (which are both limited) or wait around looking for a group in an instance. War for me at least offers so much more variation, and it is immediate! I can login for 20 minutes and feel like I have accomplished something. Whether it is getting my influence for a public quest or just 20 minutes of killing, the whole experience is friendly to the casual player.

So as I look across the MMO landscape I don’t seen much hope for other games which can offer the same accessible, fun experience like War. Aion looks nice, but I don’t fancy having to PvE through lots of levels to get the chance to PvP (before War I might have give it a go…).

I have tried Lord of the Rings but again I think I am tired of this generation’s type of PvE where quests are just a hub of exclamation marks. I only actually use quests in War while no RvR or scenarios are popping or I just plonk myself in a public quest. Even Eve Online which I consider to be the greatest MMO out there requires significant play time to be involved in PvP.

I hope EA know the gem of a game they have and continue to fund its expansion. With ‘Star Wars, The Old Republic’ for PvE and ‘Warhammer Online’ for PvP they could have two very cool offerings in their MMO portfolio.