It’s been fairly quiet on the MMOG front here. Since moving on from Lord of the Rings Online a couple of months ago City of Heroes has been providing splendid weekly group-type fun, but nothing to really inspire bloggery (though some of the user-created content in the Mission Architect has at least raised an eyebrow…) While not exactly in danger of being dragged under the Slough of Despond, there’s a risk of losing a welly in the Fen of Listlessness at least.
After three years of hype I hadn’t exactly given up on Star Wars: The Old Republic, but had become inured to official cinematics and shakeycam footage from expos and had no great desire to jump into the recent beta, but the subsequent dropping of the NDA and tidal wave of blogging that followed rather piqued my interest. A good chunk of the blogroll over there headed off to a galaxy far, far away, and many splendid posts resulted; those of Spinks and Warsyde spring to mind, with apologies to the myriad other fine authors also available. It’s all sounding pretty good (in a balanced, genuine opinion about the (almost) final game sort of way, rather than a frothing extrapolation of a fuzzy screenshot and out-of-context quote into some idealised wündergame), so I’ve stuck a pre-order in.
I’d seen an occasional blog post before the beta complaining about the NDA, some suggesting that leaving it in place so close to launch was a clear sign of damage control, but the broadly positive impressions belie that. From my perspective at least it’s just sensible timing; with a month or so to go before a firm release date it’s all rather more tangible (as much as a digital download can be), if we’d had impressions over a series of developing builds for the past six months I imagine I’d be just as bored of them as official screenshots.
SWTOR seem to be showing, as with Manchester City, that if you throw enough money at an entertainment project you’ll end up with something worth watching.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve had a sceptical attitude towards SWTOR and it’s “fourth pillar” – I recall EQ2 launching with full voice and not being all that overwhelmed by it. Now I’ve had a chance to play, I do think that Bioware have produced something that’s genuinely different in kind from WoW. TOR is a game that’s actually built for the silent majority of players who spend their time enjoying the levelling experience rather than rushing to level cap and raiding where the fun allegedly begins, or pwnzoring the top of the PvP food chain.
If 2011 was the year of Rift, a game that says “we’re like WoW but better in every possible way”, then 2012 looks like the year of TOR, a game that says “move over achievers and killers, you’ve had your way too long, here’s a game for the other guys”.
I’d like to think that 2013 could then be the year of GW2, but so far all that game is saying to me is “listen to our hype, aren’t we awesome?” Maybe I’ll change my mind when I see that game in final betatoo.
@Stabs Now there’s an interesting set of analogies, If MMOGs Were Premiership Teams…
@Tremayne Your posts, and plenty of others that echo the sentiments, are just the antidote to the mass of hype out there, and the main reason I’ve opted to pre-order and get in for launch rather than leaving it on the “probably check out some time” list. Hopefully GW2 will generate similarly positive impressions once its time comes.
@Zoso – Great, no pressure there then. If you decide you don’t like SW:TOR after all, remember to blame Spinks and Warsyde :p
@Tremayne Fear not, I’ll blame the entire blag-u-spore equally ;)