I mean, really.
Obligatory posts aside, Slog and I had an exchange in IRC just now:
<@spongslog> so
<@spongslog> front page has a January article
<@Rasputin> and?
<@spongslog> corp dead?
<@Rasputin> if I had something I wanted to write about, I'd write
<@Rasputin> people said they wanted to write some stuff
<@Rasputin> but I haven't gotten it
<@Rasputin> nobody wants to write anymore
<@Rasputin> the problem is that none of the MMOGs out now interest me
<@Rasputin> Tabula Rasa might
<@Rasputin> I hear it's Not Bad
<@Rasputin> but I think the biggest thing about it is that It's Not EverWarQuestCraftimaShadowGuard
<@Rasputin> I'm willing to admit I haven't tried Matrix Online, but the source doesn't interest me at all
<@spongslog> lets see what foh has to say about it!
<@Rasputin> it lost me after the last 2 movies
<@Rasputin> what FOH has to say about TR?
<@spongslog> yep
<@Rasputin> I'm sure they'll hate it
Like I said: Tabula Rasa interests me. I daresay my interest is piqued by it. But I don't know if that effect is because I find the promised features of the game engrossing, or because it's Not Swords and Sorcery.
I mean, really, how many non-fantasy MMOs have we had? Let's go down the list:
- Planetside (MMOFPS)
- Toontown Online
- Earth and Beyond (??)
- Jumpgate (MMO-Flight Sim)
- WW2OL *shudder* (MMOFPS)
- Puzzle Pirates (Puzzles! yarrr!)
- Auto Assault (MMOSUX)
- SWG (MMO-NO)
- EVE (MMO-Excel)
- City of Heroes/Villains (MMORPG-Action)
- ATITD (MM...something)
- AO (MMORPG)
- Matrix Online (MMORPG)
That's a short-ass list. Compare and contrast fantasy:
- UO
- AC
- AC2
- EQ
- EQ2
- WOW
- Dofus
- DDO
- FFXI
- Lineage
- Lineage II
- Runescape
- Ragnarok
- Shadowbane
- Mu Online
If we narrow the field to major players, the non-fantasy side gets left with SWG, COH and EVE. The other side keeps EQ, EQ2, FFXI, Lineage, Lineage II, Runescape, UO (to a point), and of course WOW.
Whether it's that Fantasy Sells or that people just can't do non-fantasy well, I don't know. The tidal wave of MMOs keep coming: LOTRO, Warhammer Online, and Conan. On the other hand we have Star Trek Online, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Stargate Worlds, and Tabula Rasa. And what the hell happened to Hero's Journey? We've been waiting for that for years.
Holding pattern. It's all a gigantic damned holding pattern: the Big Bosses see the money hats being produced by WoW and think that they can get a piece of that fat pie, if only they can clone it and just snap off a crumb. Hell, WAR is a clone and a half of WOW, except it's got potentially viable PvP.
That brings me to my next point: classic PvP as we used to know it, whether it was UO, EQ, AC or SB just flat out will never exist again. The closest you can get is a quick PvP match in Guild Wars, and even that's just fantasy Quake. And yeah, I know I left it off the list above. It's not an MMO.
Beats me. What the hell should I be interested in?
