Ever since the GW2 update about the return of the Queen’s Pavilion and the Zephyrites, I have never logged in to GW2 after experiencing the “new twist” they’ve added into the returning contents. The Bazaar is still fun, but it had lost its magic because of the new reward system and on how absurd it is now compare to what it used to be. The Pavilion is even worst. It’s no longer a casual champion runs at raid difficulty, but it now requires a coordination of several groups taking all champions at the same time — else no reward. Utter bullshit mechanic to continue to push the bulk of their players away. A friend of mine was so pissed at the recent changes that she went all the way to uninstalling the game. That’s how bad it had gotten, no more appreciation for those casual gamers, whom in fact are the ones funding the game through purchases from the Gem Store. It dawned on me that it’s time to put this game to rest that I was in denial the whole time hoping and staying faithful to the IP, but what they are actually doing is to continue to push me and others like me away.
So tonight, I’ve finally decided to uninstall GW (both GW1 and GW2) from my PC and add something new to re-occupy the void. I have been playing game demos and games in beta trying to see which one will actually be the best replacement.
ESO was a flop in my opinion that it’s not worth the monthly fee. Bethesda would have made more money if they sold each faction as a separate standalone Elder Scroll game. Can you imagine playing the Dominion story line without the bots harassing your chat and glitching your dungeons? And can you imagine how many things you can own from the variety of items that an NPC is carrying with them? If someone ask me what’s the most memorable moment in ESO, I would have to say it’s the rampant uncontrolled existence of bots and gold farmers and the oh-so-many-bugs and glitches. So that’s a “no” on ESO.
I did enjoy playing Wildstar beta and the game has a lot of potential, however I do not believe that it has reasonable content to justify the monthly fee. If you ask anyone, the most common description of Wildstar is, it’s a futuristic World of Warcraft — the similarities are undeniable. The last game whom literally copied WoW went free to play a few months later (yes, I’m talking about RIFT), so for Wildstar to charge monthly fees would be short lived. Let’s see how long they will endure not going free to play, I mean Aion, which is also under the NCSoft umbrella is free to play. Not sure what convinced them to launch Wildstar as pay to play. Wildstar is a “no” for now.
I have reached level 55 with my Sith Marauder in SWTOR so that’s no longer something I’d like to do. Even though I’m still curious on how things unfolds for other classes, most of the game is static and gets old after a while. I’ve re-sub for just a month and I’m done with it.
I’ve also re-sub with WoW trying to experience the changes to the starting areas with my Pandaren and I did appreciate the new things. Unlike other MMO, for some reason, things in WoW doesn’t get old to me and the only real reason I stopped playing it is due to time constraints in playing other games. I might keep this sub, just because I can, but not really sure if I can put enough time to actually play the game.
Another game I’ve played in the past weeks is Hearthstone. I was an avid Magic: the Gathering player and used to own several thousand cards that mostly I have given away, but I have kept a few decks I’ve built that I’ve found fun to play. So Hearthstone is just a natural game that someone like me would play. I enjoyed playing ranks the last days of the month of May before the season ends, two days to be exact, and reaching rank 17 in the end. Not too shabby for a very low end collection. Low end because I only have one Legendary card compare to other players I’ve played with in ranks and it’s not even a great Legendary either. Since this is free to play outside the Arena, it’s something that might keep a lot of my playtime from now on. However, this is not an MMO.
So quickly looking at other alternatives;
1) Aion would be a “no” because the game is designed to be time consuming with little reward so that their online store can bring in cash.
2) RIFT is a big “no” because the game is simply not that great. It’s also designed to be time consuming with little reward.
3) DDO and LOTRO are big “no-no’s” because they are ran by Turbine and only those who are hardcore DnD and LOTR fans will endure all things that are horrible about those games. The sad part about LOTRO, I prefer to play a dead game than playing it, and I’m referring to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning — yep, that’s how horrible LOTRO to me is. And I rather play Neverwinter than play DDO, since I have paused from playing Neverwinter, you can see the chances of DDO will ever be installed in my computer.
4) FFXIV: a Realm Reborn might get a re-sub from me just to see what’s going on in game. However, the last patch about player housing really had me irritated since I don’t understand why they didn’t just made it just like what it is in FFXI. The whole Free Company controlled land doesn’t sit well with me. So this is a big “maybe” but definitely not a “no” since the developer are honest and good people — I like this kind of people.
5) TERA Rising is probably, and that’s a high probability, that I might continue playing. I did dust off my characters last night and I love all the things they’ve done to the game. The game play optimization is superb that I never once complain about lags or disconnects. Although the temporary 2D images they use while loading the characters is a bit out of place, but I get it, and the most important part is that it doesn’t bother me. Although TERA is a free to play game, they do offer a premium for a regular sub fee, so I might re-sub to this game if other alternatives didn’t work out.
So that’s what has been going on from the last time I’ve posted. I really hate to uninstall GW but there’s nothing I can do about a dead game that is hanging by a thread. It’s clear to me that the reason why ArenaNet shifted their focus on China is because that’s where their revenue will be coming from. And that decision came with a cost that all I can do is to wish them well that they have made the right decision and that the cost is worth it. Judging how fast the number of players have diminished just a little over a year, the Chinese players will definitely follow the same trend when they hit that ceiling when there’s nothing else to do. And if the Chinese followed that trend, GW2 will be just another over-hyped game and ArenaNet is the most dishonest developer.
