Quality Alternatives
Posted on July 12th, 2010 by Greg
Last week’s RealID fiascos with Activision/Blizzard started some people asking on what else is out there. I’ve decided to take some time and analyze alternatives to World of Warcraft.
Before you can analyze, you need to not only identify what the potential alternatives are, but what your questions are going to be.
So for this I turn to you, fellow game players, what questions should be asked of alternatives to World of Warcraft? What are those alternatives?
Post in the comments below your thoughts and ideas.
I would love to see a blending of a Dragon Age/Mass Effect style game and MMO. I left Wow for what I originally planned to just be a 1-2 month hiatus but I have not been back for several reasons. 1., My FPS averages out at 12 in a mostly empty world zone, 2. I had addiction problems in the past, and 3., I’d reached my endgame per se as I don’t raid and heroics are always a dice toss.
Obviously I need a new box with gaming capabilities if I do come back, but these whole real ID thing has made me question returning.
Getting back to alternatives. Like I said I’d love to see a Dragon Age and World of Warcraft hybrid. Lot of phasing, much more racial/class specific content, and an option to control a 5-man party of NPCs into instances (of course this would require a series of quest lines and some rich character build-up so your NPCs aren’t just cardboard throwaways). I loved the pause/queue up action style of fighting in Dragon Age. And you could mix this up however you like — your character and 4 npcs, or you and your friend controlling 1-2 more NPCs. Dual playing a healer and a tank would be what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity, I think.
A game like this would require a continent-shaking paradigm shift on the part of the “hardcore” player base, but honestly I couldn’t give 1/2 a shit about what hardcore players think. In fact their absence from such a style of game would be a good thing for the majority of players, the remaining 95%.
I’d sign up for something like this immediately if it ever got into the works. Combine the WOW model and Dragon Age model, beta and iron out the tons of inevitable game breaking kinks, and you have a winner.
Of course, if any of the Facebook/social media world merging crap rears its ugly head, I’d be history without looking back.
When I cancelled my account, I started thinking about what else I could do to stick with the community at some level. Of course, I’d probably still be reading the various guild and RP forums I already look at, and participate there. But even if there was a healthy forum RP environment out there (there may be, but I don’t know about it), I’m pretty sure most of the people I know don’t participate.
So that leaves games. What do I play? Not a whole lot, really. I have a LOTRO account, and it’s not too bad. I love how much lore and RP extras are built right into the game. The combat can be a bit clunky, and don’t get me started on healing aggro (argh), but all in all I had fun with it. Not to mention, you can pick up the game, the expansion and a 60 day game card for as little as $30.
I’ve also heard good (and bad) things about the new Star Wars mmo coming out, not sure how that will go. And I would type more but I have an instance to run. CIAO!
There are elements of what you’re talking about being planned for Star Wars: The Old Republic.