Last year tested me as a video game player and rewarded me as a tabletop player. I took me nearly the entire year to figure out that I wasn’t enjoying MMO’s as much as I did during the previous year and it took me even longer to figure out why.
Games I enjoyed included City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Free Realms, Champions, Lord of the Rings Online and of course Tabula Rasa which sadly closed in February 2009. 2 of those games I just mentioned I played in a regular static group which made them much more enjoyable in a social sense, but also this can unfortunately cause me problems in a game with not being able to keep up or level outside of a weekly play slot to get some experience gains. When i find i cannot partake or am holding back the rest of the group I often find myself returning to solo play and losing out on the social interaction which is why I love these games the most.
I looked at games I tried and left very quickly too in an attempt to work out what I didn’t like and avoid that problem in the future. I quickly realised that its the levelling and grinding i hate so much. Don;t get me wrong I am all about the journey, but being forced to gain experience to do more content doesn’t seem fun to me.
Games like champions, city of heroes and free realms let me drop in for as little or as long as I want and just get on with the enjoyment without pretending to be anything else. I carry out tasks, partake in social gatherings and explore. I simply ‘game’ without any pressure from anyone, I play with others when i feel like it and I enjoy it.
That’s all very well, but I still missed the static group, the band of brothers the formed posse of outlaws ready to take on the world! So I did something about it at the end of 2009. I contacted a few friends old & new and set about talking to them about the idea of a static group who didn’t play those characters unless everyone was on at the same time. Too simple? We all play at the same level for 2-3 hours on a Monday night. Nobody stays on late with that character or uses it to gain experience in the rest of the week. We all get to do the same content together and work as a team growing as one unit! We’ve found that it makes for more rounded character development. If i want to game when someone else is not on I can work on professions, crafting or exploring for achievements. I can play an alt toon and learn about another class. Honestly though I’m finding sticking to one character great and I get to learn everything all along the way its fantastic. Everyone in the group is happy to not leave anyone behind and goes of and plays other toons or does there thing until a Monday comes around when we are all available.
It’s unusual playing this way, normally a regular gaming group can want to forge on without a missing player and go off and do some solo quests and find themselves in a different level range, causing XP problems on the group or aggro issues due to too much power. We found a harmony a singularity that seems to work and I hope it lasts throughout 2010. I hope for the first time to reach a level cap this year. something I have never achieved!
So that’s my Static group fulfilled as for other social dabbling I plan to try Star Trek Online. Again playing with people I know, but with no self inflicted rules and not committing to a regular play session. Ever since Star Wars Galaxies I’ve craved the big I.P. game. I enjoyed SWG because it was exploration in a world I loved and that is all I want out of STO. I don’t care about mechanics i just want to pilot a ship and send an away team down to the planet surface in a world that feels both familiar and fantasy filled! It won’t be my holy grail of MMO’s but I’m sure it will be fun and that’s all I want out of it.
Tags: Champions, Games, MMO, star trek online, warcraft, wow