Hudson's Hideout

Ramblings of a MMO player and Miniature wargamer http://1angrygamer.blogspot.com

Author: pvthudson01

Today is a good day to rant I think, simply because I am crabby and I don’t have any plans tonight and this makes Hudson angry.

The first thing I want to talk about is Tobold’s latest post on his blog. While he is right about many of the things he is saying, I want to make it perfectly clear that there are people beta testing high end stuff. That is all I will say. People need to remember that. The older testers are seeing the high end content and working through it so YES it is there. While Tobold is not doing this, other people that are spouting off about WAR compared to WoW’s end game need to stop. I mean of course WAR wont have 4 years of end game content when it releases, but it has a huge amount right now and you better believe it is in better shape than most the MMO’s we have seen launch since probably Lord of the Rings. Ok enough of that.

Next I want to talk about the XBOX 360 and why people like shooters on this damn console. Seriously, who in their right mind would prefer a right thumbstick and left thumbstick over a mouse and keyboard? How anyone plays like that simply boggles my mind. Not only do these punks play like that, they KICK MY ASS. This is mainly the reason I stay off of XBOX Live and avoid shooters on the console. You put me behind TF2 or CoD 4 on the PC and I will end you, but on the console I just cannot grasp the controls. The thumbstick is not precise enough. CoD4 I can tolerate because it does have a nice “kind of” auto aim system with the left trigger and a zoom in. Other games however like Perfect Dark Zero and Bad Company I spray bullets all over and hit everything BUT my target. Yes I have tried to adjust the speed of the thumbstick and all that garbage, but some games don’t even feature that. I figure in order to get good at these games I will have to UNlearn my old habits and completely get this thumbstick thing down after years of keyboard and mouse indoctrination. Folks, I just don't have time for that. After about the 18th time I take a head shot from some douche bag sitting on the roof of a barn half way across the map I am out.

Other than shooters I spent most the week playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Lost Odyssey (holy crap the Japanese RPG'ers sure like their cut scenes and dialogue), and Dead Rising. The XBOX is getting a total pounding lately and it is earning it's money. I am glad for that, for a while there I almost got rid of it. And nope, I still have NOT finished Gears of War 1.

So now last week I also realized that I should never ever ever buy stealth games. PC or console. I stink at them and have no patience to play them. I do not want to kill my enemies with great secrecy and avoid detection. I want to blow the largest hole in them I can then spin around and toss grenades everywhere to kill everyone that noticed it. Hence I have traded in Assassin’s Creed and gotten some other game, it was just not for me. Also it was a little drab. I also sold Splinter Cell Chaos Theory on EBAY a while back. The stealth games are not up my alley. The only one I was able to handle was Hitman, because you did have the option to go balls out if you wanted to. And he was bald, which was kind of cool. Just don’t watch the movie, it is terrible.

We all know that World of Warcraft was never meant to be a PVP game. It was a PVE game with mindless arena like PVP thrown in later on. World of Warcraft was meant to be a raiding game, and people simply dealt with the PVP system because WoW was their game and they really had nothing to do. What players needed was Alterac Valley that MATTERED. Well guess what, it is coming and what is bad for Blizzard is that it will be in another game with way better mechanics.

Open PVP server or not WoW's PVP has always been absolutely worthless. From the schlocky Gatorade sponsored (or whatever the sponsor is) arena tournaments to the terrible implementation of world PVP back into the game with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, WoW pvp'ers really have nothing to look forward to but more meaningless arena grinding and fancy new shoulder graphics.

All that is about to change however with the FIRST major MMO since WoW's release on the horizon that features PVP that is balanced and meaningful. So what does Warhammer Online's release mean for the mindless drones that PVP in WoW right now?

To me it means looking at two types of PVP'ers.

First, a majority of the PVP'ers in WoW will jump games ASAP and never look back. These are the skilled players that PVP and do so in an organized fashion that have been chomping at the bit to get into some content that matters. To them, the ability to win and CHANGE what is going on around them will be huge. These are the things that WoW lacks that they have yearned for. A mass exodus to Warhammer Online will probably be planned by these players and take place on a guild wide scale. They are already drawing battle lines and planning for the future. They can also have their cake and eat it to. When not sieging castles or attacking enemy cities, they can do scenarios and get their cheap "WoW type" PVP fill. Good thinking Mythic.

Our second type of PVP'er does not care about working together with anyone, and this is a large case of the World of Warcraft populace. These are the people that will make fun of WAR's Realm VS Realm and claim it is dumb. These are the people that form arena teams with names like "Tom Cruise Ownz YOU" or "Beep, beep, I'm a Jeep". These are the people that will hop games for about three weeks, realize that Warhammer Online requires you to SLOW DOWN, THINK and WORK TOGETHER then quickly leave the game to return to their little ESPN arena PVP. Mainly this will happen because they don't want to fight to help the greater cause, they fight to get a new pair of shoulders so they can stand around Iron Forge and dance on the mailbox.

To some extent I cannot wait to see the fallout of WoW pvper's that fail miserably in Warhammer Online and the WoW pvp'ers that do well because they KNOW that it will truly be a war out there. Not a 15 minute American Gladiator match.

Once you take away the people that hate WoW's PVP, you start to get a trickle effect of the people that are tired of WoW's endgame PVE look at Warhammer Online as well. Once they see the game is made for BOTH styles of play, what we could see here is the first REAL dent in the WoW population base. I would also think that every other game with poor mechanics and PVP that really means nothing (Age of Conan and Tabula Rasa) will start to empty out fast.

I will not go so far as to say that Warhammer Online will save us all, because it is a tedious turn based combat MMO that we all have grown a tad weary of, but there is ENOUGH THERE to change the way things are done in the future. I think that Mythic has taken the steps to make sure that this game will appeal to everyone and have MEANINGFUL results for what YOU DO in game. Really lately that has been all I have wanted.

I cannot break the NDA, I cannot discuss the little game mechanics that matter. Suffice it to say they are there and kick WoW in the pants for the most part. All I know is I spent time sieging castles and defending them and pouring boiling oil on people and using battering rams and firing catapults and it truly is massive on a scale that many people have not seen. AND I LOVED IT. many of my readers know how much I LOATHE PVP, but lately I have logged in to simply go hunting for the enemy and my time has never been more fun that it has been in this game.

A few more weeks and they all will know!

reposted from my blog at : http://hudshideout.blogspot.com/