Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Tough 2012 Schedule Continues

I hadn't really planned on spending the better part of two months working on the level cap in Star Trek Online, which has probably another month or so left of content in the game between missions on my Federation and Klingon characters.  This detour, marking the fifth MMO where I have a current level capped character - only drives home a point about how crowded the MMO marketplace is these days.
  • In LOTRO, I'm still working on Enedwaith, the pre-expansion content prior to the Isengard expansion.  Remaining in front of me are the entire Isengard expansion (which I already own access to) and the newly released pre-expansion content for this fall's Rohan expansion (which I would have to purchase with Turbine Points).  I hate to skip content in this game given that it's both high quality and relatively limited in quantity compared to other games.  That said, I'm already way over-level for Isengard as a result (currently 68 and climbing).  I'd say that finishing all of this content before Rohan hits is a top priority so that I can do the next expansion at the correct level. 
  • EQ2 is rolling out a new zone next month with a two level increase to the game's cap.  While I continue to have misgivings about the direction this game is going, this content is effectively free to me, as I have enough Station Cash to pay for unlocking the new gear that will mostly likely come with the inevitable gear reset. 
  • While I see no reason to be present for the inevitable week or so of bugs and issues with SWTOR's patch 1.2, that game remains high on my to do list.  I'm also still waiting for a graphics card, but again, high on my list.
  • Diablo III lands on May 15th, and, well-advised or not, I own access to this thing on launch day courtesy of the WoW annual pass.  It also seems reasonably likely that the Pandaria beta will kick off at some point in the near future (less clear is how quickly annual pass customers will get in), though that was a comparatively small consideration in my annual pass purchase, and I never intended to spend large amounts of time on this.  I do expect to continue to duck into Azeroth proper intermittently, and have a larger chunk of time penciled in for after the expansion launches. 
  • DDO's expansion lands in mid summer.  Realistically, I don't own a max level character in DDO, and I'm not near owning a max level character in DDO, so this is relatively a non-issue, but the emerging hoopla only reminds me that this game continues to be somewhere on my to do list. 
  • Games where I have max level characters not yet mentioned in this post and no immediate plans include DCUO (where I have some shared Station Cash balance with EQ2) and Rift (where I have a pending time card). 
  • Free to play or newly free to play games currently on my radar include Lineage 2, Aion, Allods, and possibly Forsaken World (or one of the other Perfect World F2P titles).  Major AAA releases scheduled for the remainder of the year include Guild Wars 2, Tera, Secret World, Wildstar, whatever they're calling Prime/Dominus these days, and Copernicus/Amalur. 
Overall, it's a pretty good time to be an MMO player, other than the potential for crippling indecision, and a really tough time to be competing for a share of players' attention.

6 comments:

  1. And there is so much potential for crippling indecision. Between Diablo III (and hopefully Torchlight II), Guild Wars 2, Mists of Pandaria, and every other MMO that I really need to get back to some day, I have some painful choices about how to spend my time here soon.

    Throw in my Xbox 360 and I may never sleep again.

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  2. Just a heads up: Forsaken World got old really fast. Maybe that's just because it's designed for a different market(?), but I spent as much time having fun with it as I did downloading it, then I was left with that feeling of restless un-relief.

    On the other hand, I eagerly look forward to you trying (and blogging about) Aion! Your reviews are so helpful in that they cover the EXPERIENCE you have, vs just the features that other people seem to list out. It's very nice to have a Green Armadillo review before I commit to a day-long download.

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  3. @Xax: Thanks for the kind words! :)

    Ironically, I have all the above and more that I haven't tried on my machine at the moment - I went on a downloading spree when I was testing my new computer. It's the time to try the games, even for the hour you mention, that's killing me, not the downloads (which I can leave overnight).

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  4. I'm with Xaxz... etc on Forsaken World.

    Didn't float my boat at all. Horses for courses, though, but if we didn't have anything in common, I'd not have been reading you for over 3 years ;-)

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  5. "Overall, it's a pretty good time to be an MMO player."

    Disagree. I don't think there has been a worse time to be an MMO player. With some exceptions, all of the titles you listed are really just uninspiring single player games that require an Internet connection to play.

    Mike.

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  6. Still better than the actual single-player games with DRM requiring an internet connection to work.

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