MMOWTF: Behind the Madness

Just in case you can't get enough of my weekly published trash you can read all about the crap that never got it's own article. Enough hyperbole...read the blog.

Author: Danmann

The article we are going to look back on today was literally written in 20 min in Yahoo Mail. As I state in the article, I fried my poor PC with a little help from an insane space heater and faulty wiring. Needless to say it was really short, but missing a week wasn't an option.

I find it interesting that the overall quality and depth of the article has nothing to do with the response I get...which means I guess I just keep turning out more worthless drivel. Main screen turn on!

            Quitters Never Win

This recap is going to feature my article on MMO addiction. Even though I sum it up pretty well in the article the premise was basically: "Take some responsablity for yourself". Just hearing people cry about their chemical imbalances are the fault of anyone (other than their family tree DNA) makes me want to go off on a Dennis Leary "No Cure for Cancer" rant.

It won't cure your addiction and it definitely doesn't offer any solutions...which is the point. Everyone has their issues that we can't fix or are a symptom of the world we live in. Take a deep breath and deal with it. On a side note that "/chicken on you noob" was a Pure Pwnage and one of my personal favorites

As far as the article goes it was basically printed unchanged except for a few clarifying word switches. On with the show!

                  MMO-holic: The Architecture of Addiction

                  I’d like to welcome you all back to my little corner of MMORPG.com for the first real column of the new year. As always, there is no shortage of MMO related news to throw into the grinder and this weeks topic should get the ball rolling nicely. Today I decided to put my cross-hairs on one of the granddads of virtual plagues: MMO addiction. Is this a real addiction and who does it affect? Take a quick swig of some Pepto-Bismol and read on to find out!

There are plenty enough things in life to worry about without inventing new problems. Even health nuts admit every breath you take brings a lung full of cancer-causing material into your body and even fun activities like skiing can be dangerous if you happen to be a former Mayor of Palm Springs or the Governator of California. All kinds of drugs, prescription and otherwise, can create more medical problems than they solve. As if all this isn’t bad enough, some people can find unhealthy fixation with the games that are supposed to make us forget all the crap I just mentioned.

Some folks apparently have some problems letting go of the games they play because I’m hearing more and more about this so-called addiction to online games. You might have heard some stories taken right from the news about people leaving their infants to die while playing an MMO or stabbing their friends over stolen virtual property, but it’s nothing new. Better are still are all those urban legends from the older days when Dungeons and Dragons players were considered lures for Satanic cults and people were committing suicide over lost characters. What is the common element behind these stories? Without a doubt the answer would have to be mentally unbalanced people with addictive personalities. These kind of looneys can turn any hobby into a dangerous obsession and it looks as though they have found a home in our neck of the woods.

For the same reason violent people play violent games, listen to violent music, people that are  prone to addiction are drawn like a moths to flame by games that are addictive by design. For years criminals, sociopaths and people desperate for attention have been blaming the things which they enjoy for their own shortcomings and bad decisions. Would playing any kind of music or game non-stop turn a mild mannered person into a killer? No, but it could push some borderline psychos over the edge. It’s much easier to blame the music or game that we use as a vehicle for our obsessions rather that look at the real causes behind the problem.

MMOs are designed from the ground up to eat your life. They are filled with blatant time-sinks that are made to hook you into playing till the next *DING* and the genre is a perfect self-activated wreaking ball for your mundane existence. It’s no surprise that a majority of the people that play our type of game are the ones who desire a break from the nagging reality of everyday life. There is a reason the first EQ was dubbed ‘Evercrack’ by longtime players and it wasn’t because the economy was screwy.

I have no doubt that are there are probably a decent amount of people who really do have a true psychological dependence on the fictional adventures they have in MMORPGs across the globe. Should the designers of these hamster wheels share some of the blame for this problem? You could rationalize that the old-carrot-on-a-stick routine used by MMO Devs is no better than the shady tricks used by cigarette companies and drug dealers. Unlike other pushers though, developers can’t be called on to the carpet since their product doesn’t actually cause a physical addiction. No matter how far gone someone is into Neverland, they don’t actually need to play their game. Like any medical condition though, the results can be serious and long lasting. If you ever find yourself lying on a cot yelling “ /chicken on you noob lol” while flapping your arms I’d say your beyond the help of modern medicine.

What about the thousands of people who are victims of this particularly crippling vice who still have to trudge though the workweek, burdened by this unquenchable desire to kill, loot and murder? My advise to keep doing what you do now: Arrive late, take long breaks and leave early. Just remember, before you crawl back to your electronic fix, check and make sure your insurance covers game addiction therapy.

In the grander scheme of things though, it’s hard to really take this kind of thing seriously. What would some of the less fortunate people on the planet have to say about our epidemic of convenience? I’m sure the folks that have to live everyday with the threat of bombs and masked men with guns wouldn’t have much sympathy for the poor MMORPG addicts among us, but then again, I’m just guessing. Back off guys, this violin is expensive.

I guess this is enough offensive rhetoric for one week. Check back next Monday to see who else’s toes I can step on. For those of you who are as addicted to forums as I am, you can get your fix by telling me off. Pile on!

- Dan Fortier

This tasty little tidbit is a look back at my first MMOWTF from this year. It was a mix between my real thoughts on the year to come and some obvious playful rhetoric about some games I hate. Ironically after doing a dance of vanity about being right about Auto Assault being the first to be canceled, hindsight in this case, makes me look a bit foolish.

This article give some predictions on the game to be released this year and beyond. Only two of the games I mention by name actually have been released so far this year so let's take a look:

Vanguard: SOH. Yes I actually said "While it probably will release and do well..." but the again I wasn't in Beta or I might have had a different opinion. My main pet peeve with games is that they are released WAY too early. For a game that wanted to be "Next Gen" they took a step backward in player trust by shipping a buggy product just to start making their money back. I can't be right all the time so I'll take it in stride.

Lord of the Rings Online: My 'review' of this title was little more than a hate rant disguised as a paragraph, but I still stand by my words. Despite doing very little to break the mold feature and content wise LotRO has done pretty well even by post-WoW standards, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. If this game sticks around several more years I'll be happy their PvE fans won't be flocking to anything I'll be playing.

Interestingly enough this episode was kept completely intact...Even Editors take a day off  I guess. Who knows?  Maybe Dana was warming to my style and forgave me for all my good natured Canadian jokes...Anyhoo ON WITH THE RECAP!

                                      Happy Newb Years:   A look ahead to 2007

        Ah. It’s so nice having a fresh clean slate to work with. The rest of the year is like a beautiful white carpet to drag my muddy boots across before plopping down to write more grammatical garbage for your amusement. I am taking this opportunity to throw out any sort of creative writing I might have planned in order to bring you a very special MMOWTF preview of the year to come. Just ignore the boring parades and turn off whatever Bowl game you’re watching and read on because your monthly subscription money might depend on it.

Many of your are glad to see that those festering pile of crap titles that got foisted on us last year  are now clearly in the rear view mirror. This new year brings no less than five big MMOs with release dates in the first half of the year so lets start by taking a closer look at them:

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: The self proclaimed `Third Generation' title from Sigil is still in Beta. Reading about the game you get the sense that they are trying to make it appeal to everyone and trying to include just about every goodie from games past. The devs are going to a lot of trouble to make the game seem to have universal appeal, but the basic game mechanics show otherwise. There are tons of interesting features including a seamless world with no loading and the ability to sail ships and use mounts even at lower levels. However I still see a High Fantasy level based grind based on high end items and content. While it's definitely going to launch and probably do well, it doesn't really doesn't deserve a `Next-Gen' moniker in my eyes. If your looking for the next giant faceless wonder, l33t dewds, look no further.

Gods and Heroes: A lot about this game reminds me of that PS2 game called Gladius. The game features an intriguing Squad based combat system where everyone can use a group of henchmen to aid them if they choose. It also has a Node-lock combat system that keeps the combat organized and as Mr. Garrison from South Park says "It locks you into place" so that the combat looks more realistic. The setting is historical and the henchmen system adds to the dynamic by turning every player into a group. This should be an interesting title for the combat freaks out there who like to solo without using a pet class. The instancing and lack of crafting make me think that is their target audience as well. For those of you who have ever wanted to be Bellerophon or Theseus, but fainted at the sight of a real sword wielded in anger, this could be the game for you.

The Chronicles of Spellborn: Making use of the Unreal engine, TCoS looks to offer a more active combat system that is faster paced and based upon skill `decks' that players can use to customize their combat abilities. The idea of playing a twitch combat system that doesn't involve strafing around like Robotron sounds great, but I'm concerned about crafting being dumped into NPC hands, the lack of a real death penalty and the fact there are only two races. On the bright side, they are producing the game themselves so if they screw up we can blame them directly rather than shaking our collective fists at the evil company behind the scenes.

Lord of the Rings Online: I'm beginning to get sick of this franchise and this time I can't fault the creator. Ever since the first movie came out developers from all platforms have been shoveling us a healthy diet of craptasic games stamped with the LotR logo. I'm not to sure what they were thinking, but turning Middle-earth into a PvE art book game was just about the worst thing they could have done. Not allowing a IP with such a huge back story of war to be played out by players on both sides is just lame. The lack of PvP won't doom this game obviously though, so I leave that task in Turbine's capable hands.

Age of Conan: Decapitation and partial nudity are mere sideshows to the other features that make AoC a good contender in 2007. Funcom has their plate full with pleasing the Conan fans of all ages and delivering all the content they have promised so far. From drunken brawls to player made cities and sieges they appear to have a solid direction for the game and the only question remains is `Will it be fun?". If I'm able to drive my enemies before me and hear the lamentations of the women, I'll be one happy Cimmerian.

Pirates of the Burning Sea: Is it just me or does this game seem to have been in development for a long time? I like being salty and robbing people as much as the next guy so here's hoping they can really capture the savagery of sea combat and being a pirate without forcing me to eat citrus. Ever since that accident on the offshore drilling rig I can't even bear to look at screen shots with water in them so I'm not to sure how this game is coming along. I guess I'll fall back on the ole standby phrase: "Point me toward the Open Beta!" Let's just hope after it's released these `patches' they are talking about aren't of the eye variety.

Warhammer Online (or WARas Mark Jacobs keeps reminding me) is set to release later on in the year, but even given the resources of EA and Mythic's experience in the genre, I don't think we will see it before 2008 so I'll reserve my opinion until later on. Hopefully we'll get to see more of this title as the year progresses as I'm eager to see more details about all the races and classes. Blood for the Blood God! Now that I've angered the fanboys, it's time to look into my cracked crystal ball and dish out a few predictions for this year:

- Atriarch will announce an Open Beta date of Feb 2010 followed six months later by another ten second video of one their avatars dancing. No one can claim they aren’t making progress right?

- Development of Darkfall is moved to another European country to `speed up the development process'. Months later, several former Razorwax employees are arrested for smuggling enriched uranium in order to fund their project.

- Dark and Light, Auto Assault, Roma Victor and Archlord all get canceled and no one notices. If a game is canceled and no one is playing it, does it make a sound?

- EVE Online announces the follow up expansion in the works. Following the trend of naming their major expansions after books of the bible, it is called Lamentations. It provides an in-game method for canceling your subscription instead of crying about people being able to `warp to 0 km.'

- World of Warcraft's Burning Crusade expansion is launched. Blizzard executives are seen panhandling on the streets of Irvine to make up for the lost revenue of a post-holiday season release.

- Bioware finally gives the details of their much debated MMORPG project. Unfortunately, since the press release is only available to current subscribers of Star Wars Galaxies, we may never know what it says.

Now that you're in the know about the next biggest things to hit the MMO fan in the next twelve months, you can amaze your friends and industry insiders. Hopefully we can look forward to year that brings more choices and hours of entertainment than the last. Fortune-telling is exhausting so I'm off to take a nap. Make sure to visit the link below and fill the rest of us in with your predictions.

- Dan Fortier

Yes, I called it. My pick for Most likely to be Cancelled in 2007 was of course Auto Assault which just recently threw in the towel. Did I jinx them or did they jinx themselves? It's kinda depressing that yet another somewhat orignal title is thrown to the wolves. Somewhere the God of Fantasy MMOs is cracking a wicked grin. Rest in Peace  AA.

Following my blockbuster MMOWTF Awards I decided to do a cliche-fest Year End Review. I spent literially 4 hours going back and reading all the major news stories for 2006 just top pick my favorites and make sure I didn't get any of the details wrong. The only major edit on this one was the bullet about "Sony confirms they are publishing Vanguard and mass suicides follow" which was rather blunt but a gag none the less. Funny how that ended up eh?

Let's take a look at the unedited version shall we? Stay tuned for the next Recap in a few days.

                                  MMOWTF 2006 Year in Review

 It’s Christmas time and you know what that means: Time to stuff some stockings! I’ve got some coal and candy canes to hand out this week while I review the year that is mercifully almost over. The end of the year is a time of reflection on the year that was and they say that those who don’t learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them. Pay close attention while I turn back the clock a bit since I know you all itching for some holiday cheers and jeers. Let’s get started!

The year started off with so much promise. Warhammer Online went from a cancelled vapor title into Mythic’s new flagship game. While Dark Age of Camelot had received a few graphical upgrades courtesy of a new expansion, it was clear that a RvR successor had been chosen. Shortly after April Fools day, Mark Jacobs, the CEO of Mythic, came out and told us that not only were they not selling out to EA, but that they weren’t even in talks with them about a merger/buyout. Imagine our surprise when a mere two and a half months later he inks a deal that puts EA in front of Mythic’s name. Paul Lee, the President of EA, was later seen doing a /chicken atop the Mythic HQ in Virginia, but all photos have since been bought or destroyed.

This wasn’t the only major businesses getting down and dirty this year either. Shadowbane unexpectedly became free to play shortly before its creator, Wolfpack Studios, shut their doors and fired their staff. Somehow the game survived by a thread as UbiSoft kept the game on life support before turning over the reigns to the newly formed Stray Bullet Games. If Shadowbane were a cat he would be looking both ways before crossing the street. To say that it has been an up and down year for this title and companies involved would be an understatement, but it’s still alive and that more than I can say for a few titles that had some high hopes during 2006.

Not all games managed to survive this year despite the odds though, as SEED was cancelled in it’s fourth month. Some folks said they saw it coming and that it was the only fate for an underfunded niche game. While the idea of a non-combat MMO is a somewhat ridiculous thought to me, I still hope that roleplayers will find a home someday in a playable game. While SEED was taking it’s last ragged gasps, Dark and Light and Horizons continued to run their respective traveling circus shows, each drawing shudders from audiences across the country with their sideshow tricks and snake oil salesman routine.

While neither game has worked right from the beginning, it takes a special kind of suck to surprise me and these two have succeeded. The developers of Horizons, Tulga games, was swallowed by EI Interactive in July which in turn was eaten by Pixel Magic just last month. Throw in some unsecured billing transactions and a PR smokescreen and you can’t do anything but shake your head. Dark and Light has had it’s share of bungles in the financial department this year too. Not only do they still not have a button to cancel on your account page, but they also charged hundreds of players that never signed up for a subscription. Throw in the return of Mourning...er..Thrones of Chaos and you’ve got an All-Star cast of people to blame for the lack of trust for independent Devs.

The biggest shocker this year would have to be the ‘Death of E3 as we know it’. Why wouldn’t game companies want to spend millions of dollars on booth babes, giant statues and multilevel bars to promote their games every year? Where else can all the gaming snobs and industry whores be seen all in the same place every year? Several of my internal organs shriveled up at the thought of not being able to drink martinis while rubbing elbows with self made celebrities and ultra-rich nerds. I guess eventually something had to give and perhaps we started to get too caught up in the glitz and glamour and lost focus about what game conventions are about...Nah. Damn E3, I’m gonna miss you.

Not all was gloom and doom this year though. EVE Online continued to break the record for most players on a single server instance moving past 32 thousand just recently and joining forces with White Wolf. World War Two Online celebrated it’s fifth year proving that people still play MMOFPS. Guild Wars managed to squeeze in two stand alone expansions to their popular game and World of Warcraft showed it can bulldoze it’s way into TV as a setting for a largely popular South Park episode. It doesn’t matter if you see these as a sign of the Apocalypse like me or are just thankful to play a working game you have to at least tip your hat to the guys that can make a working product.

Rounding out the ‘Best of the Rest’ are some other highs and lows from the headlines of 2006:

• - Back in February Sony Online Entertainment asks current and former Star Wars Galaxies testers to participate in a focus testing group and pays them $125 for two hours just to prove that they made the right decision after all

• - A ganker was banned and crucified for all to see in Roma Victor. Perhaps he was driven to a life of crime by the wretchedly pixilated graphics...Now we’ll never know.

• - Blizzard announced they were getting into the fast food business to in an April Fools gag. Sadly, they never confirmed whether Children’s Week was a farce. I mean, isn’t that an ongoing attraction?

• - Sony confirms they will be publishing Vanguard and mass suicides follow.

• - POSSe Entertainment give notice they will be making a WoW-killing MMO called Dragons and Legends. Call me pessimistic, but I am dubious that a company that begins with POS can make a great game.

• - Cryptic cuts a deal to make a Marvel MMO. As much as I’d like to see another Super Hero title, why would you try and compete with yourself?

• - The FBI recently busted an illegal Lineage 2 operation called L2Extreme. It’s good to know that beating up some hackers takes precedence over other investigations that involve the security of the entire country. Good job keeping your priorities straight guys.

That’s a wrap folks, I’ve had my say and I’m sure I missed pointing out a lot of great highlights so feel free to remind us all why 2006 will never be forgotten, at least until next year. Happy Holidays to all and see you next year when I’ll look ahead to 2007. Don’t forget to make like Methane47 and spam your way to victory in the forums!
 
- Dan Fortier

I don't think I've ever thrown about so much venom in a piece of literature as I did with this article. This was also perhaps one of the most edited of anything I've written for the site. All sorted various barbs and jibes were glossed over, but even the edited version pulls no punches.

As I promised I counted all the forum votes and announced the top 3 vote getters in each category followed by my personal pick. I have to admit even I was shocked at the results nearly a year after the NGE fiasco put a big dent in SWG's sub numbers. The effect is magnified here for some reason and the Awards really proved how cool it was to hate SOE last year.

Before I reprint the original I want to discuss a bit why I made the choices I did for each category with the benefit of hindsight.

WORST GRAPHICS: Roma Victor

It's hard to remember the last time I looked at a game this bad. Some guy posted a Roma Victor fight scene and it made me gag with disgust While the guys behind Dark and Light were obviously less talented artist, Red Bedlam's guys were probably working with animation tools from the 1980's. Sure there are probably some worse graphics if you look really hard but none were released in 2006...anyway I'm not sorry.

LEAST FUN: Dark and Light

One of the quickest ways to lose my interest is to have bugs that only show up after you have invested a long ass time into an aspect of a game. Dark and Light took the cake in this regard. Most of the system were flawed, like crafting, but the bugs were so frustrating because you wouldn't discover the item you made was screwed up until much later, like when trying to repair it. for example. Combine this with the most inept programming staff to ever touch a keyboard and you've got a game that make you want to become a serial killer.

MOST DESOLATE: Dark Age of Camelot

I spent a lot of time in DAoC on the same server so when you go back after a six month break and notice everyone you fought against is gone, it pretty obvious the game is going downhill. I could probably have picked a game like DnL that couldn't even hold a hundred people on it's sever without crashing, but the whole connection with DAoC made it jump right up in my mind when I wrote the piece.

WORST USE OF A POPULAR IP: Dungeons and Dragons Online

Eberron and 3rd Edition FTL. nuff said. Freaking 3-tards shouldn't shit on a proud genre.

MOST SHAMELESS DEVELOPER: NP Cube

An NDA still up 2 years after launch? Developers who tell you that they won't give you all the tools to test it at once because they know better than you? Assholes who promise the world and deliver a turd? The lead dev who tries to convince me at a gaming convention that SOG is NOT the DARK and LIGHT BETA when I know for a fact it is? These guys deserve everything bad that happens to them from now on plus some.

MOST LIKELY TO BE CANCELLED: Auto Assault

While a definitely don't think this game deserves to die it really can't comeback when the devs themselves declare it dead. Its funny how we keep hearing: WTF! dewd stop making teh stupid Fantasy games!" but they still sell like Sims 2. (ironically the popularity of The Sims didn't help it's online version in the slightest) The game isn't cancelled yet, but I can't imagine a Free-to-play model is far off.

BIGGEST STINKER: Dark and Light

*For details on this see EVERY SINGLE REVIEW OF THIS GAME ON THE INTERNET*

Now on with the ORIGINAL and UNEDITED MMOWTF Award winners

                                              2006 MMOWTF AWARD WINNERS:
                                                   The Best of the Worst

 Welcome back to the 2006 MMOWTF Awards. Despite a weak grasp of the English language and plummeting approval ratings I’m still your host of this weekly jaunt into forbidden territory. This week we tally up all the votes that you placed and give out some punk cards to the losers in each category. I painstakingly counted each and every post/ballot and finished a mere couple of hours before the forums were the victim of a database failure. Each of the categories will show the game you voted for followed by my choice. Now without further ado, lets see how you voted:

WORST GRAPHICS: DARK AND LIGHT
With a healthy 38% of the votes, Dark and Light won by a decent margin over the runner ups Roma Victor (21%) and World of Warcraft (8%). This game met all my requirements for truly awful graphics with its melted wax hills and mountains, horrible avatars and poorly placed structures. Congrats DnL, I hope we never see your like again.

MY PICK: ROMA VICTOR
There are so many choices here that it’s hard to select one from the bunch. Narrowing it down to the games that are 3D and that look bad even on their released screen shots makes it a bit easier though. I’d have to say that Roma Victor is the worst simply because it is brand new and looks equally as bad even on the highest settings. Iron poisoning and barbarians were downfall of the real Rome but these graphics will be the undoing of the Roma Victor version. Et tu RedBedlam?

LEAST FUN: STAR WARS GALAXIES
Star Wars has no trouble beating out the other games nominated in this field taking 37% of the votes when compared to Dark and Light (16%) and RF Online (11%). Obviously our voters are still a tad bit upset over the giant overhaul of the combat and class system last year. It is more fun than picking the fleas off a Wookie or potty training an Ewok? Who knows, but I’m not in hurry to experience any of the three anytime soon.

MY PICK: DARK AND LIGHT
How much fun can you have in a game that crashes every ten minutes, has ridiculously poor design and game breaking bugs? Not much, if any, I assure you. Why not hop on a Dragon and soar through the sky? Make sure to avoid looking at the ground if you enjoy getting more than 10 FPS. Take a hot air balloon ride across the massive landscape? If you do then everyone within 2 km will crash out as soon as you hop aboard then be told they are already logged in when they try and restart! I wouldn’t recommend this ‘game’ even to a masochist.

MOST DESOLATE: STAR WARS GALAXIES
Once again, the majority spoke and gave SWG another dubious award gaining 51% of the votes for this category. Coming in at second place was Dark and Light (23%) followed by Dark Age of Camelot (9%) at a distant third. In my introduction to the voting last week I suggested giving preference to game whose population had dropped rapidly rather than a game that never had the big numbers so I’m not too surprised at this outcome. Maybe by this time next year, everyone will be over it, or playing a new Star Wars game. Either way, Galaxies comes away with the Golden Tumbleweed here.

MY PICK: DARK AGE OF CAMELOT
It’s truly a sad state of affairs when even the mighty zerg army of Albion is reduced to a couple eight man groups during peak hours. While it never quite had the numbers the SWG enjoyed, its demise is more significant to me because it represents the downfall of one of the best PvP games in the last ten years. All good things must come to an end though, so out with old and in with the new.

WORST USE OF A POPULAR IP OR LICENSE: STAR WARS GALAXIES
Seeing a trend here? With 63% of the votes, Star Wars beat out Dungeons and Dragons Online (37%) and The Matrix Online (4%) for the worst of the MMOG conversions. I’m pretty sure that no permanent damage was done to the franchise, but for most of the voters SWG betrayed the original concept of the movie, much like the newest Trilogy did. DDO has fallen pretty far from last year when it won “Most Anticipated for 2006”. Shows how much you can trust award votes.

MY PICK: DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS ONLINE
This was a tough call since I was torn between DDO and Lord of the Rings. Being an old PnP gamer who still keeps 1st edition books I was appalled at the shallow gameplay and simplistic mechanics which are totally at odds with the flavor of the AD&D system. Why pay monthly for a poor mans’s Guild Wars when you can just log on to a NWN Persistent World for free and get better Modules to boot?

MOST SHAMELESS DEVELOPER: SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT
With a staggering 77% of the votes SOE won in a blowout and the next closest was Dark and Light’s very own NP Cube (16%) followed by Turbine (3%). What can you say? When the gibbering hordes have spoken all you can do it stand aside and watch them play ‘Pin the Punk Card’. Keep your chin up Sony, at least the PS3 works great right?

MY PICK: NP CUBE
Sony may have their enemies, but for me I have to give the nod in this category to the guys from Reunion Island. Without comparing lies, mismanagement, and audience alienation stories, I can safely say that NP Cube has done more than anyone else to damage to the reputation of small time Devs everywhere. When you hurt the folks with little pockets it means a lot more in my book. Plan on dropping that NDA sometime guys?

MOST LIKELY TO BE CANCELLED IN 2007: STAR WARS GALAXIES
Star Wars wins it’s fourth award tonight in a close fought battle of bargain-bin hopefuls taking 29% of the votes edging out it’s faithful runner up Dark and Light (17%) and Archlord (15%). The voters continued to vent their rage on their favorite meat puppet and SWG beat out some other games on the chopping block with less than a tenth of their subscribers. I can only hope that by the time next year’s awards roll around we won’t have to look at any of the games that received votes here.

MY PICK: AUTO ASSAULT
How much longer can you go on with a handful of subscriptions and server merges before you call it quits? NetDevil may just choose to skate along on the razor edge of profit margin, but MMOs are only worth running if you love your own game. I don’t think any amount of extra work can turn this title into a money maker however.

BIGGEST STINKER: STAR WARS GALAXIES
For some reason space opera games seem to win all the awards, good or bad here. Once again, Star Wars crapped it’s way past the competition gaining 40% of the overall votes. In at a close second, Dark and Light claimed 29% followed by Dungeons and Dragons Online (10%). This year the old school Pre-CU/NGE gangstas came out in ‘force’ and sent a message. Are they just Rebel scum without a cause? Will something good ever come of this franchise? Will I ever stop causing trouble by provoking die-hard fans?  Difficult to answer, these questions are...uncertain the future is.

MY PICK: DARK AND LIGHT
Once again I’m in the minority here, but as far as I’m concerned this is the worst game top to bottom that I’ve ever had the displeasure to play. When this title is gone the MMO world will be a better place. When you have to hire an exorcist to uninstall something from your computer you’ll truly feel my pain.

Well there you have it, After all is said and done we still aren’t any closer to original, fun and engaging titles than we were last year. Let’s all wish upon a star that 2007 brings me a reason to stop these Awards all together. When your done washing out your drool cup I’ll be waiting for your comments in the Forums. Till next time.

- Dan Fortier