Can you believe it’s been 4 years since Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning was released? Where does the time go? WAR was one of those momentous games in my career as an MMO slacker. I played lots and lots of MMOs prior to it, but WAR was my first MMO I got truly hyped crazy about. I wasn’t much of a Warhammer franchise person. I never played table top games and I really never hung out with people that did. WAR was just that game I seemed to click with and want to be the best in the world. I think it had something to do with the fact that I loved Dark Age of Camelot. I hoped WAR was going to be DAoC 2.0.
I started blogging back when WAR was in beta. Back then I didn’t even know what a blog was. I just saw a bunch of people talking about WAR and I wanted to give them a piece of my mind too. Luckily, my girlfriend was very tech savvy and she told me all about blogs. So, I grabbed myself a “Blogging for Dummies” book and placed it in my bookshelf. That is all I needed to get my career as a blogger going. To this day I still haven’t read more than the front cover of that book.
Years and years passed and here I am now at MMORPG.com writing a humor (Editor’s Note: We don’t know if we can classify it as that…) column for the site. Yeah, most of you want to hear breaking news about a game and think there is no place for humor in serious business, but if you just take the time and relax enough to read what I write, you will know I am a certified jackass. I’m glad we can agree on that, and you may commence ripping me a new one in the comments.
Over those years of writing and following MMOs more closely, I became looser and looser with what games I played. So loose, I walk with a swagger now. You see, I used to be a huge World of Warcraft fan. In fact, I still love WoW for what it was to me even though I don’t play it. I stopped playing about a month after Cataclysm released. The game and I grew too loose together and that brought us a part. You can’t have a person and a game together that is like throwing a hotdog down a hallway (read: too easy). Nothing ever hits the sides and sticks.
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Anyway, after my long two weeks of playing WAR, I started looking on the horizon for the next best thing. I ping ponged between games for years and years. I was the champ of Ping Pong. I even bought some nice red paddles and fluffy balls to play with. Neither one of them had to do anything with the actually game of Ping Pong, but it made my girlfriend happy when I was being a bad, bad boy. That is another story for the other 50 Shades of Clear website I write for. As I was saying, I couldn’t find a game I really connected with, but I seemed to want to hype them all. I hyped them so much that I became horribly disappointed in them when I really played them. I can’t even count the disappointments I’ve had since WAR. I would list them, but that is mean and I would be fired for being a blatant jackass. So let’s just say… it’s almost all of them.
You see, I became a victim of the system. I read blogs and game websites that loved all games. I misconstrued their excitement and love of the genre for fanboy hype. I got caught up in the blind faith in others. I’m older and wiser now and a generation of MMOs is coming to an end. The sun is sinking over the horizon and there is nothing but darkness on the other side. Only Vin Diesel can see in this pitch blackness.
With Star Wars the Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, The Secret World, Mists of Pandaria, and Planetside 2 all releasing this year, there is nothing left for me to look forward to. There is no Titan holding up the sun for me to see through the pain and misery. I am alone with nothing to hype in the future. What I thrive on is fading in the distance. I need help finding my way.
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Right now Guild Wars 2, The Secret World, and Planetside 2 beta holds my attention, but I don’t know how much longer I can’t stay in those worlds without the mad thrusting of fanboys driving some game down my throat. It is sad to say, but I’m looking at the future of console games. I’m a PC gamer at heart, but without guidance, I’m going to be playing Call of Duty screaming obscenities at 12 year old morons (Note: if you are 12 and you are reading this, you are not a moron. CoD players can’t read.).
With MMOs changing the way we play from planting our feet and clicking until something dies, to dodging and moving all the time, the future would be exciting if there was anything to be excited for. I’m lost for words, when I think of the next big AAA MMO. I don’t see 2013-2014 as MMO years like 2008-2012 were. Is the genre burnt out on ideas? Is the scare of AAA MMOs going free to play in a matter of months scaring investors off? I want to know because the last 4 years has boomed for the MMO genre, but also resulted in disappointments, and now we are left wondering if we have to chew our own leg off for entertainment.
The future looks dark for new MMOs and even a bad actor with rippling muscles can’t save us… someone tell me I’m wrong, and point me to upcoming games to get excited for. I need it. Leave me a comment below!
