Since I’ve been chatting about Pirates of the Burning Sea on other folks’ blogs for a while now (hi, Bildo and Keen & Graev! *waves*), I figured it was time to muse on the subject myself. But first, as context, a couple of thoughts on where my current MMORPG gaming lies:
City of Heroes/City of Villains: Currently I’m playing these two the most, although that’s mostly because they’re my most recent purchase and I’m rather expecting to end my subscription when I next decide to subscribe to another game, so I want to get my play-time in now. Love the highly individualized characters; love the faithful genre-feel; miss the ability to juggle 20-40 quests at a time.
LotRO: My current favorite of the games I play. I love to relax with this game, and can enjoy just about anything with it, from questing to deeds to crafting (yes, I even have a grand master cook). Love the deed system in particular, and the crafting is more complex and useful, IMO, than Warcraft’s. Of course I gather soloing gets rather tough at high levels, and it has the usual end-game “what now?” woes.
World of Warcraft: Warcraft is rather like an old friend who grows in a different direction than you do. You think of it fondly, you still hang out with it once in a while, but mostly you realize that you have very little in common with it any more—and that’s okay. Things change and eventually you just have to move on. Because of the way it’s designed, it really isn’t viable for them to push casual (i.e., non-raider, non-PvP) content much beyond the run it’s already had and keep it interesting and worth the expansion pack price of admission, IMO. But again, that’s okay. I had my more-than-two-years of fun with it, and I’m happy with that. I’m still subscribed for now, and I’ll continue to play now and then as long as it continues to be a way to hang out with distant friends, but eventually I expect to move on entirely.
This did, however, leave me wondering what would take its place, and then along came Pirates of the Burning Sea. Bildo in particular has been talking up how wonderful it is, and eventually I just had to overcome my inertia and go check it out.
What I saw didn’t just intrigue me; it made me immediately fill out a beta app and start babbling about game design details to my husband. I swear I check my inbox once an hour in the hope of getting a beta invite.
Sure, there’s a ton of very different stuff in the game, and that’s what intrigues me about it—it’s high time someone made a game that broke the mold, and this one looks like it’s broken almost all of them! The thing I truly can’t wait to play with, though? The entirely player-run economy. *rubs hands together with glee* Plots of land! Manufacturing! Resources! Trading! I swear, that could be the entire focus of the game and I’d be in heaven.
Okay, so there are ways this game could play out that might cause me to say, “well, it’s got awesome ideas, but it just isn’t for me.” However, I’m sure as hell going to give it the chance to impress me, because those ideas really are awesome.
Now… anyone got an inside track on a spare beta invite? Or maybe a Limited Wish spell lying around? 😀
If I had a way of getting you one, I’d toss it your way. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. if you want a feel for how the game sort of plays out, in a sigle-player way, try Sid Meier’s Pirates! demo from any site you can find it on. That’ll give you an idea if you’ll like it or not.
I also went and applied to the AoC beta today. I seem to be going beta app crazy all of a sudden. 🙂
MMO gamers in the dulldrums of “the wait” will often do that.
I’m applied to more games than I can remember. I’m in quite a few. Only 2 have held my interest, but I still attend the stress tests for the others when I can. Too much on my plate these days to devote as much time as I wish I could to gaming. So maybe I shouldn’t have applied to so many. :p
lol, I can understand that. I figure the odds of my getting into all the betas I’ve apped to aren’t that great, though, and I’ve only applied to a few, so what the heck. good luck getting everything done!
I’ve re-upped City of Heroes myself while in “wait mode.” I was toying with trying POTBS but I am not really sure I’m that into pirates. That SOE is now involved with it also dampens my appetite. I am not one of these rabid SOE “hatebois”, but some of their past practices definitely make me a bit leery. On the other hand I’m not sure what else is of any interest at all that is slated for either 07 or 08. It seems we are headed for a long drought in terms of orginality in MMOs — POTBS is certainly the most original of the ones on deck. But I think it will come down, as these things often do, to “are any of my friends playing it?” So far most of them are on the fence so we shall see.
Back to COH just briefly, since I am playing again, feel free to look me up if you want. Most of my former RP supergroup doesn’t play anymore (not surprising… they’ve been in and out of the game for 3 years, and even a game you love gets old after a while), but I might be able to scare up one or two others. My global handle is @fraktal (the name of my first COH character and my only level 50), and I am usually either playing Liberty Lass on Justice, or Night Osprey on Virtue… but I have tons of other characters at all levesl (I am an alt-aholic). If you want to team up let me know.
C
Chessack: Good to see you back! I hope the move went well!
I’ll definitely look for you in CoH, although lately I’ve been reading so much that I haven’t been playing so often.
Part of my motivation for trying POTBS is that I’m hearing such excitement coming from those who are beta-testing. They obviously can’t really say anything about the game, but they keep saying, “play it! play it!” so, gotta try it. 🙂 Besides, the crafting system alone has me drooling.