The waterfalls at Bastok(‘best’ screen shot I could find)I’m a big fan of MMOs in general, though for somewhat of an usual reason. See, as a general rule of thumb, I don’t like people (Editor’s note: indeed). That extends into video games doubly so because people tend to (if nothing else) act like idiots. I like playing with my friends, or if I can find them, the rare group of intelligent and skillful players. Of course, the problem with playing with your friends is that in many games, that isn’t enough for a full party. Guild Wars fixed this fantastically with “henchmen”, which is probably why we played it so much.
That all being said, the major reason I enjoy playing MMOs is to explore. I love them because there is just so much more to the games than regular single player editions. The content designers have so much more work to do, but tend to shine with small, but especially pleasing sights. My all time favorite sight was from the waterfall just south of (and on the way to) Bastok in FFXI. Ah, good times.
So on to the topic at hand, what MMOs are coming out that I think will be interesting, or worth playing this year:
- Global Agenda — February 1 — I’m hoping that this might be a potential PlanetSide replacement.
- Star Trek Online (STO) — February 2 — I love Star Trek, and if decently executed, this will be a fun game.
- Final Fantasty 14 (FFXIV) — I loved FFXI (as previously noted) and I cannot wait for XIV to come out.
- DC Universe Online (DCUO) — This is something John is interested in playing, while he doesn’t MMO much, he is a big comic book geek (Editor’s note: For serious).
- The Agency — I’m curious as to how this will turn out (as a stealth/shooter). It could be potentially interesting on its own or a worthy PlanetSide replacement.
- Huxely — Again, a potential PlanetSide Replacement.
- Jumpgate Evolution (JGE) — I never played the original Jumpgate, but I heard good things about it. I’m less excited about JGE but a Space MMO could have potential.
Star Wars: The Old Republic (SW:TOR) — I played and really enjoyed Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) right up till they killed it with NGE. Their “skill onion” as we called it was the best in any MMO ever. The Star Wars universe has previously been proven to be good for MMOs.So the day before this entry goes up, BioWare posted that SWTOR is now headed for 2011. Suck.- Guild Wars 2 (GW2) — Played the Original Guild Wars, even eventually bought all the expansions. While it wasn’t the “best” overall, it was definitely the best for casual play and the payment system was the greatest (ie no monthly fees, just a small store you could buy some things in).
- Stargate Worlds (SGW) — LOL, we’ll see if we even hear about this MMO again. It can’t hurt to hope though.
So as you can see, I’ve got quite the list of MMOs to play for the year. Some of them are on the “must buy” list (like STO, FFXIV, GW2, SW:TOR) where as the rest are wait and see. Getting in on the “Ground floor” of MMOs has it’s pros and cons, and while I’m willing to accept all those cons, I dislike spending money on a game that is crap or simply isn’t what I want.