World of Warcraft

At the end of the day, I didn’t log back into Guild Wars. In fact, I downloaded the World of Warcraft demo. That night I went out and bought it and for the past five nights have been playing it every chance I get. It is a great disappointment to leave Guild Wars behind. But, as I mentioned in my last post, I don’t see the problems I have with the game ever being addressed. So, rather than complain, I will just move on.

I must say, I have quickly grown fond of World of Warcraft. Sure, my Elf Hunter isn’t half as hot as my Guild Wars Ranger was, but she sure is more talented. The profession system in WoW is fantastic. In addition to two professions of your choice, usually one supporting and one primary, you get three basic professions; Fishing, Cooking, and First Aid. I have decided to choose Skinning for my support profession and Leatherworking for my primary. While I’m not very fond of killing kitties, bunnies, and deer for my skins I think I am pleased with my choices. It was nice to create my own armor. I’m currently only level nine and you are not able to acquire a pet until you reach level ten. My intentions are to find a bear and tame it. I was very pleased to learn that one of the best classes to solo to level sixty with in WoW is the hunter class. Actually, I was pleased to learn that you can solo to level sixty.

That brings me to a question I was asked earlier. Why do I want to play an MMORPG if I don’t want to actually play with others? I feel that MMORPGs are the closest thing to the perfect video games. My idea of the perfect game is one in which the world lives and breathes on its own, independent of you or your actions. You simply interact with this world. No one has made the perfect game as of yet in my opinion. One of these days maybe someone will, but for now I have MMORPGs.

later,
-junc

The Guild Wars

Over the last two months I have been playing a lot of Guild Wars. It has been a lot of fun. A lot of monthly fee free fun. However, the past two weeks have been filled with sessions of play ending in frustration. Since my character has achieved level 20 the fun factor has been depleted. Mission after mission is filled with frustration, death, and vows to stop playing the game. The fact that I always go back is a testament to just how much I really do enjoy the game.

In the end though, there are just balance issues that I don’t see being resolved. All characters are capped at level 20 and you get to it very quickly. The reason for this, according to ArenaNet, is so that players don’t have to spend hours and hours playing in order to be competitive. While that is great for Player vs. Player it causes a lot of let downs with the Player vs. Environment portions of the game. When I enter a mission and am greeted by a horde of level 24 monsters I’m forced wonder how the heck that is possible. A level 20 cap on characters and the sky is the limit for your enemies. Yeah, that is just awesome.

On top of the inability to move any further ahead in the game I am constantly impoverished. Forget about the 10 platinum black dyes. I’m talking about runes, skills, and crafted weapons being outrageously priced. If I were to build up my character any more, in an attempt to compete with those level 24 baddies, it would cost me around 50 platinum.

So, after two months of play I believe I am nearing the end of the road. I won’t say I’m at the end of the road because I know that before the end of the day I will be logging in again.

later,
-junc

Guild Wars

Oh, that’s right, I have a website…

A few weeks ago jbob (who has a website that won’t load because he’s not hosted with ME!) introduced me to Dark age of Camelot. At first I really liked it. Over a few days though I began to slowly realize that it was all fighting with a lot of the post office game thrown in (take this to so and so and then report back to me). The crafting portion of the game, while it exists, lacks in game tutorials and is very under developed. I have been interested in trying out the MMORPG genre for some time now. However, the $15.00/month cost has been a bit of a turn off. After realizing that DAoC was all fighting I started wondering why I shouldn’t just be playing Guild Wars. So, I ditched Camelot and made the switch to Guild Wars.

Wow.

Guild Wars is one of the most beautiful and well thought out games I have played in a very long time. The fact that it is free to play also appeals to me immensely. The game is focused on fighting almost entirely. The quests are much like Camelots (yay post office). The one glaring difference though is in the way you are able to explore the world. The map has a fog of war over it and all areas are hidden until you visit them. Once you do you are able to travel instantly between certain hubs. The hubs make up the true multiplayer element of the game. It is here that you meet people and trade items. Once you have a party formed you enter the explorable areas which are inhabited by only you, your party, and the AI residents. The greatest twist to this for me is that while in the hub areas you are able to hire AI controlled henchmen to form your party. This eliminates the need to socialize with other players, which is just fantastic. When you are not fighting monsters and going on post office missions you can go on story missions. Basically, these are missions that advance the story line. While I haven’t played much the first advancement of the story line changed the environment completely. It went from this lush and beautiful landscape to a complete wasteland. Quite a shock. In between this story transition there were co-operative sessions with other real life players. It was pretty quick and no one really said anything, so it was bearable.

Factions, the expansion pack came out a few months ago and is set in an Asian world. I am very excited to purchase that game and move onto the next world. The third expansion appears to be set in an Ancient Egyptian world, which is almost equally as exciting. The system specs for Factions are exactly the same as the are for Guild Wars, which made me very happy. The specs are already pretty low. I’m hoping that I will be able to play the game on my laptop when I buy it.

later,
-junc