After two days of nose-to-the-grindstone working@home during weekend (interrupted only by constructive procrastination into cleaning my room) to rush some handouts for teachers' workshops this coming week, I am finally over the major hurdle with only the task of 'build powerpoints according to already-planned lesson flow' left.
So I took some time out to read my neglected RSS feeds. And oh my god, the amount of sour-pussing from the MMO bloggers is making me feel like starting a lemonade stand.
It's so bad, I don't even want to write comments to their posts like I usually do.
The main question rattling around in my mind: Do they realize they're burned out?
This is the month of heaps of expansions and new releases, fer cryin' out loud. Surely there's one game that makes them feel excited. Sitting around poking holes and nitpicking games, suggesting a ton of "improvements" to alter the game to your personal taste - well, to me that implies a BOATLOAD of BURNOUT.
It seems that a number of them have gotten used to getting excited about the hype, and then getting let down when people start drifting away and then turn their attention to finding faults with the game.
Since I personally don't like WoW, I'm amusedly waiting for the next few months to pass so that people start getting antsy and bitching about WoTLK, and watching the fanbois overreact. Judging by how AoC and WAR went, I wouldn't surprised if WoTLK and MoM follow on in the same vein.
Still...
It's a game. It's not the one mind-blowing all-encompassing social world experience that provides a sandbox and things to do on rails all at the same time.
Perhaps in a time of limited supply (such as Ultima Online or Everquest or WoW), you could come close to it. These days, there are so many games to choose from that people have gotten pickier. And since people are all different, they are naturally going to prefer some games over others. You can't take ALL your friends with you, like it or not.
I find it rather ironic that some people are whining for the lost glories of EQ or FFXI or whatever - but they are not playing them now. Hello, these games are still in existence, go back if you miss 'em! What? They're not the same? No friends? Er, see above. And I'm not really a socializer type, so you'll excuse me for not being more sympathetic.
Dunno. I'm a dabbler. At a random guess, I have shortcut links on my desktop to about 30+ games, a few of which are MMOs, the rest singleplayer or Steam games.
Each, I know, is capable of being played to hardcore achievement levels because designers who want to be successful commercial design that in for those players who love to play one game addictively to extinction.
Each, is a game. Meaning that they have rulesets that set out the 'gameworld' to be a certain way, and a way for keeping 'score' or being successful or making 'progress' somehow. And you can't force the game into being something it isn't.
You can't make Call of Duty 4 play like an RTS. Company of Heroes is not a cinematic FPS. Need for Speed: Carbon is an arcade racer, not a vehicular crime sandbox like GTA4. Bioshock is not Mass Effect. A City of Heroes mastermind does not control his minions like how the Overlord (yay for $9.99 Steam weekend offers) can. Unsoweiter.
So why do people insist on wasting time sobbing about it for MMO games and kicking up a big dramatic fuss saying that they quit and are not resubscribing!?!
Are they hoping that some developer will read it and go, OMG, you are absolutely RIGHT and proceed to change it (cos MMOs can change to a greater extent than singleplayer patches)? Are they hoping that people will agree with them and join them in a mass orgy of peer-pressure quitting? Or are they are just seeking approval for their opinions and want to know that they aren't the only one feeling this way?
You know, I get that you don't like it personally. That's cool. We're all different. I don't mind that you state why you don't like it.
But I start getting a little bit grumpy when you start projecting your opinion onto others and soapboxing about all the changes which you think would make things better, or getting all snide about what other people like, implying that their tastes are inferior, or whatever...
I'll still tolerate a couple of posts in this vein cos y'know people are human, they've got bad days, and this is yer blog, but sheesh, when it becomes a routine habit, all the impression I'm getting is that you're headed into a cycle of depression and burnout and none of your posts are worth reading about anymore cos you're excited about nothing and your eye is too jaded.
Pfft.
Me, I'm chugging along with WAR. Not having played a standard MMO for four years helps. I'm spacing out the log-in times because I don't want the chore parts too bothersome.
I also have my heart set on progressing further with those 30 other games on my desktop. Crysis was on my list before this avalanche of work. I bought Sins of the Solar Empire and was trying to figure it out. Galactic Civilizations expansion would be good to explore. I have a racing wheel and racing games to make inroads and tire tracks and lots of crashes with. The Witcher enhanced edition was looking promising until it crashed midway through the prologue because I alt-tabbed too much. I have vague dreams about returning to Guild Wars at some point.
Steam games-wise: Overlord and Eets are hilarious puzzle-ish games.
And I am uber, uber excited about the Left 4 Dead release. I can't stop thinking about it. I love the whole cinematic aspect of it. Blowing up zombies is ridiculously fun. The PUG aspect and Director AI gives it the random enemy layout I was missing desperately in CoX. And I'm getting better and better at listening out for audio cues to identify zombie rushes and special zombies, and my play is improving in leaps and bounds because of that. Aim still leaves a bit to be desired, but that'll get better as I keep playing more of it.
Will L4D last? Of course not. Once the four episodes are played through enough times to be as good as I am with the demo levels now, it'll be time to wait until expansion or mod levels arrive.
Is that a bad thing? No. Lots of other games out in the ocean. How much playability does one game need? How many times do you need to watch a DVD?
Silly MMOs and the illusion they strive to set up - that they are the one game to rule them all.
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