Category: General

While we are in the middle of summer and *theoretically* I should have much more time on my hand, that’s only sporadically true. It’s been a busy summer and probably won’t slow down until mid-August… only to speed right back up in September. This situation hasn’t stopped me from listening to that inward call of other games I may like to play if time frees up and my interest swings harder that way.

So today I wanted to share a handful of titles I’m not playing but consider to be simmering on my backburner:

Dungeons and Dragons Online

I have a pretty fond past with DDO and wouldn’t be hugely adverse to going back again… someday. I tried last year and flamed out so fast. Still, with the new expansion and servers this summer, there’s a pull of that increased activity. Maybe? I might just pick up my old character and work through some expansions I haven’t done yet.

Guild Wars 2

New expansion on the way for October means increased enthusiasm for GW2 right now. It’s always a very easy game to slip back into, and every time I’ve tried, I’m so open to being fully sucked into this world once more. But the last few times, it hasn’t happened, and no without trying. Maybe? I could put this on my “dip back into this August” list and see if my GW2 battery has recharged enough that I want to really immerse myself into this.

RIFT

A (very little) bit of activity with RIFT’s patches this summer reminded me of this MMO and how much I miss it. I think I’m always holding back until that moment, which probably won’t happen, when something far more positive will emerge for the future of this title and give me the go-ahead to do a full run-through. Maybe I should just play anyway? But again, there’s that pesky “time” thing and so many other things to do in other games that are being actively developed…

Project Gorgon

Oh, Gorgon, how many times have I pledged to play thee? So many. So many. I suspect that there is a wealth of great MMO stories and experiences to be had in you.

Fallen Earth

This is a weird one, because it’s STILL offline every since February due to server situations. Little Orbit keeps making noise about bringing Fallen Earth back some day, and so I think that when that happens, it will beckon to me. How strong? I have no idea.

CRPG

Another possibility is to chew on one of the very meaty CRPGs I have lurking on my account — Cyberpunk 2077 is a high prospect, but so is Witcher 3, Mass Effect legendary edition, and a few others. But these are really time-intensive and tough to take in little sessions, as MMOs are, so I’ve found it more difficult to get back into them.

With shifting out of the holidays back into the regular routine, I’ve been musing about what I want to do with this year in online gaming. As always, it comes down to a mixture of time, interest, and the difficulty of “dabbling” in MMOs that you aren’t committing to playing for the long haul.

I don’t have answers for that. It’s often easier to keep my options limited, stay in comfortable territory, and not spread out too much. Perhaps that’s even better. After all, you can’t let FOMO rule your life, and you absolutely can’t play everything all at once.

That said, lists are easy to make and a good way to organize possibilities, so I started jotting down online titles that are, for various reasons, on my gaming backlog right now. It ended up being more than I thought! So here are my thoughts on 12 MMOs that are calling to me right now:

1. Path of Exile 2 — I don’t have the best history with ARPGs but I kinda liked the first Path of Exile and would like to check this out to satisfy my curiosity and see if it might lure me in. However, I’m a little too cheap to drop $40 on curiosity right now.
2. Palia — With many updates under its belt and the new Daybreak ownership, Palia is probably overdue for a check in. I really did like the housing and the general idea of a casual online life sim. It’d be pretty nice if this did end up as a side game, but it was far too rough when I last played it.
3. Project Gorgon — The eternal “shoulda woulda coulda” MMO. I should. I do love a lot of things about it. But I know I’ve been saying that for years, too.
4. Villagers and Heroes — I figured that if I was bouncing around to different games, this would be a pretty easy-going pick (with housing) to visit.
5. Fallout 76 — I didn’t get a lot of F76 gaming time last year, and I honestly miss it. But I also worry I’ve played it too much for me not to burn out on it if I did go back.
6. Guild Wars 2 — I’ve been bouncing off this pretty hard the last couple times I returned, but GW2 does remain an attractive idea for low cost, unexplored content, good cosmetics, and now housing.
7. Final Fantasy XIV — Mostly this is on the list because when I want a dose of cozy nostalgic JRPG vibes, this is as good a go-to as any. Plus, I’ve got the free version, so no worries about a sub… for now.
8. Elder Scrolls Online — I’m mildly curious how this year’s planned quality-of-life changes are going to impact the overall game. I like ESO. I have a good time playing it. I’m open to the idea of coming back. I just don’t want it to be in maintenance mode.
9. Elite Dangerous — MOP’s Chris was pretty effusive about how this space sim has really gotten better as of late. I like space sims and wrote this one off a long time ago. Maybe a second chance is needed.
10. No Man’s Sky — See “improved space sim” above. I like the *idea* of this game more than my initial experiences. But I’ve always felt that if I could buckle down and really get to know it, I’d like this one.
11. Albion Online — My last two entries are PvP MMOs, which obviously aren’t my bag, but Albion’s getting a nod because (a) I kind of liked it when I tried it out that one time and (b) I really respect how much content they’ve put out for it. Lively games being actively developed are attractive.
12. EVE Online — Maybe I’m just in the mood for a space sim. Maybe I should do a space sim month? That would be pretty wild, come to think of it. Start out with four MMOs, then every week I eliminate one until there’s only one left? Huh. Going to have to ponder that.

Going into the fall, I find myself in a strangely stable position when it comes to gaming. I’m pretty much only doing two titles these days — LOTRO and WoW — which adequately fill my time, interest, social needs, and MMO satisfaction. I feel that I’m in a very stable and enjoyable pattern, and I have no desire to shake things up or add more gaming to unbalance what’s happening.

In fact, it’s been a while since I even seriously thought about playing any other MMOs, unlike earlier this year when I was wildly casting about. And while I’m not trying to tempt myself into any changes, I figured it might be worth some brief reflection on the state of the rest of the field to see if there is anything out there (or anything on the way) that is of interest.

Starting with the latter, I can’t see myself even touching Throne & Liberty (just not my jam), but there’s a possibility that I’ll make some time for Corepunk, Pantheon, and Brighter Shores if and when they release later this year. There might be some finances to consider there, especially in light of the fact that I’ve got to set some money aside for the LOTRO expansion, but all three of those are at least curiosities to me that I’d like to experience over the winter.

So what about other past MMO favorites that have seen movement this year? FFXIV broke out Dawntrail, which I guess looks solid but my return to that game petered out just like it always does. There’s nothing much I get from that MMO that I want or need or don’t get better elsewhere, and I know I need to stop trying to make it happen.

DDO had a new expansion, which is… fine. But I’ve had no inclination to play DDO for a long time now. I mean, they’re launching a new 64-bit server later this year, so maybe that will be an attractive siren’s call for a fresh start character. Probably not.

RIFT? Too quiet and no positive signs. SWTOR? Some development, but unless they roll out a progression server or do something to shake up that game, it might sit there a while yet before I return. It is mildly tempting, though. Palia continues to shape up, but the cozy life sim thing doesn’t have a huge appeal right now. I’m in burnout mode with ESO, so that’s very much on the backburner for a while yet. New World is trying to drum up interest with this month’s Aeternum relaunch, so, again, a possibility but not a probability. That title’s never been super sticky with me.

I’m waiting to see what Blizzard might do with WoW Classic next after Season of Discovery. I’m open to a return there, but it’s got to be something new and special. Guild Wars 2’s housing didn’t end up pulling me back after all, and I am so incredibly neutral on this title that I can’t see anything tipping me over into engagement right now.

So yeah, there are some mild possibilities, but I’m pretty satisfied being exactly where I am right now. I don’t feel like I’m stretched too thin or missing out, and I’m very happy with my respective journeys. There’s still tons of The War Within to experience, and I’ll have the whole Legacy of Morgoth expansion this fall to enjoy in LOTRO.

Is it just me, or is this shaping up to be one of the craziest MMO summers in recent memory? There’s so much going on that I feel pulled in six different directions all at once. That’s both a good and a bad thing — good for choices and the best entertainment options, bad for being frustrated when I can’t do it all.

So I guess I’ll start out by saying what I’m not going to be focusing any attention or gaming time on, and that’s FFXIV’s Dawntrail. It’d be one thing if I was really hooked on the game, through the most recent expansion, and gun-ho for what’s to come next, but none of that is true. I occasionally float into this MMO’s sphere of interest, but it’s too formulaic and on-rails to keep my long-term interest, especially with so many other options on the table.

I’m also throttling back on Elder Scrolls Online, even as it just put out its Gold Road expansion. I have it, I can play it whenever, but it’s not driving my passion at the moment.

Later this week is Tarisland’s launch, which feels like the wild card of the summer. This could be a total non-starter for many reasons, but it’s a brand-new major MMO that’s had some strong word-of-mouth in beta, so I at least want to get in a couple weeks and see what’s what. It’s no bother to me if I end up really liking it or want to cast it aside for some more dependable gaming sources. Either way, I won’t be at a loss.

LOTRO’s big summer thing is Update 41 with the new Birding hobby. In light of everything else, this is a minor summer attraction, but it’ll still be something to put on my July calendar (which is when I assume this releases).

Playing Fallout 4 has primed me for a return to Fallout 76, as did the huge Skyline Valley map update that they just included. So that’s happening for me.

And then there’s Guild Wars 2 and its upcoming Janthir Wilds expansion in August. Right now I’m mapping with my Engineer and simply getting used to the game again. I am planning on getting the expansion, especially with the new housing system, and hopefully I’ll be in the right place for its arrival.

Finally, there’s World of Warcraft and it’s one-two punch of Pandaria Remix and The War Within. The former is helping me round out my roster of level 70s, but the latter’s arrival in late August promises to be the start of a new era of my involvement with the game. Having both GW2 and WoW release an expansion about a week apart is going to be fascinating, to say the least.

In LOTRO, there exists an anomaly in my gaming career — the fact that a Captain, technically a “tank” class — was my main for a very long time. I’ve been playing MMOs so long that it’s hard to make an absolute statement here, but I almost never play tanks. And I definitely never tank dungeons.

It’s not that I don’t see the appeal. The armor tends to look fantastic, especially if you want to present yourself as an unstoppable wall of metal, and the survivability is a breath of fresh air if you’re used to playing clothies. But usually tank classes get ruled out when I’m narrowing down choices because of two factors:

1. They typically are straight-forward, dull-as-dirt classes without much flavor, variety, or utility outside of tanking. Plus they do less DPS, which isn’t a huge selling point.
2. If you play a tank, you’re going to be asked to tank. And that’s not a role I like to play.

I’m sure I could figure out tanking and be a fine tank if I set my mind to it. Despite what you hear from boastful elitist players, MMOs aren’t *that* complicated. They’re designed to get the broadest possible spectrum of players into group content. And who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be hard up for new experiences and push myself into the tank life.

The reason why I don’t is that when I have time to play, it’s the end of the day and I’m looking to relax — not step into a second job. Tanking is the most mindful role in a dungeon, where you have to guide everyone around, handle the bosses, and manage aggro. There’s nothing relaxing in that for me. For adrenaline junkies, it’s pure fuel, of course.

The biggest exception I have to my usual boycott of tank classes is when one is a hybrid, which usually comes in the form of a Paladin or Paladin-like character (such as LOTRO’s Cappy). Mix in heals, utility, and even pets, and I’ll be tempted. I probably won’t tank group content, but I’ll be tempted.

One of my yearly duties at Massively OP is to do a comprehensive roundup of all of the in-development MMORPG projects and list the ones that look the most promising and the most imminent. It’s an encouraging and daunting task, as we’re talking about close to a hundred or so titles in various stages of development. That’s encouraging because it shows MMOs are far from dead and gives us a lot to look forward to. It’s daunting because it’s hard to sort through all that and prioritize them!

But something’s been weighing on my mind lately, and that’s a combination of two factors: my age and the fact that these games seem to be taking longer and longer to make it to release. I’m not quite at 50 yet, but I will be in a little over two years, and that seems significant to me. I’m not depressed about it, but I have started to think about my view of growing into my older middle age period and the mindset I want to have (mostly optimistic and thankful to God). I have no idea how many years or decades I have left, but I have a lot less than when I started to get into MMOs two decades ago (almost two decades exactly, come to think of it, if I mark City of Heroes as my real start to the genre).

I guess I simply want some of these games to come out soon. It’s not the agony of waiting — I can wait, I’m patient — but the mild concern that these games will never happen if they take too long and run out of money or lose everyone’s interest along the way. I want to see the next generation of MMORPGs before I get so fixed in my ways that I won’t adapt to them. I would like enough time to really enjoy them before I’m carted off to a nursing home without adequate wifi.

We also need some strong new blood in this genre to help alleviate the increasing burden that older titles have to shoulder as the wait for the newer ones grows ever longer. Every year we put more pressure on these long-running games to entertain us because there’s nothing really compelling coming out to share that. And these older games are only going to bear that for so long before… before something happens. A tipping point.

I don’t mean this to be a maudlin essay. Again, I’m VERY excited about what’s in the works. I just don’t want to wait until my 60s to see games like Ashes of Creation, Riot’s MMO, or EverQuest 3.

Traditionally, the fall is a very strong and nostalgic period of MMORPG gaming for me. I think it is the combination of (a) a whole lot of releases usually happening late August and September and (b) the shift to being indoors while the weather cools off. There’s something about getting immersed in an MMO during this season that’s incredibly cozy.

My problem — maybe my ongoing problem — is a form of “decision paralysis.” There are a whole lot of attractive and potential options out there, and with only so much time to play, I can’t indulge in everything. So I’m once again feeling about for which games might be my autumnal companions, and putting them down in a blog post often helps with that decision-making process.

LOTRO: This is a gimme, as it’s my anchor MMO and has both a new expansion and class coming out. My only concern is not wanting to lean on it exclusively and risk burning out on it, even with the new content.

New World: This month’s expansion is a big siren’s call for any fan, with a new weapon type and the addition of mounts. I’ve not seen most of the world, but I do enjoy the moment-to-moment questing and farming. It’s a strong prospect, but it’s proven less sticky than I’d like (see: Elder Scrolls Online). I haven’t even found a guild in there yet. In any case, it’s a top prospect.

Hardcore Classic: Breaking down World of Warcraft’s three options, let’s start with the one I’m actually playing. This is a whole lot of fun, but it’s a completely different kind of rogue-like entertainment where progression and persistence have to be tossed out the window. I like playing it NOW, but I can’t see myself playing it continually. My biggest point of engagement is a rather excellent guild that I found there.

Wrath Classic: I’ve actually been thinking about starting a new character on a regular Classic server and taking her all the way up. At least they got the dungeon finder in the game, and I haven’t actually maxed out a toon on these shards. I’m sort of waffling on this, as it’ll require a subscription and I’m waiting to see what Blizzard’s official plans are for Classic when BlizzCon hits. If we hear news of Classic Plus, then that’ll be a powerful incentive to do this. If it’s Cataclysm Classic, then my interest will entirely evaporate.

World of Warcraft retail: This would be the obvious choice for comfort gaming, considering my history with WoW, but Dragonflight has been anything but sticky with me. Lots of content left to do, but my enthusiasm for retail is very, very low. Again, BlizzCon announcements may affect my feelings about this, but I’m not holding my breath.

Elder Scrolls Online: There’s still a whole lot of this game world left to see, and I do genuinely like questing and mapping. But without any meaningful progression and that same-old combat, I keep bouncing off every time I return. However, it has been a while since I last played.

Dungeons and Dragons Online: I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a new character, but the pull isn’t there right now. I might have to put this one back on the shelf for another year before evaluating it again.

No Man’s Sky: Never had much luck getting into this despite some strong attempts to do so. It’s possible, sure, but I worry that I could spend a whole lot of time simply trying to get the feel for the game only to end up not liking it much at all. It’s so sandboxy that it freaks me out a bit.

Fallout 76: Another strong contender and a past favorite, I like the idea of returning to the wasteland, building a house, and maybe pushing into content I’ve never seen yet. On the negative side, the lack of an in-game community is a big drawback, and I don’t feel that much enthusiasm. I’m sure I’d have fun, but stick around for a while? I doubt it.

SWTOR: This is another case of wait-and-see, particularly as Broadsword takes over the operation and the dev team restructures. I want to hear what they’re going to be doing with the game and have a sense of its future before re-committing. But I do love me some SWTOR and miss it from time to time.

Star Trek Online: I have a character and a ship that I like, and maybe this would be a great candidate for a once-a-week play session rather than every day. There are several episodes at the top I haven’t seen yet. Could be fun to blog through, and it will piggyback on some recent Star Trek TV watching I’m doing.

Palia: It’s too broken right now for me to play it seriously, but I’m not giving up on it either. I think I’m going to table this until the winter and then give it another serious go.

Wayfinder: I still need to buy this, a convenient excuse to drag my feet a bit. I’m hearing good-to-mixed things and am wondering if it might just be smarter to wait until free-to-play and a more fleshed-out product.

Dark Horses: There are always some titles that remain interesting outliers that you never know. EVE Online, because I like spaceships. Wizard101, because I like colorful worlds and card battlers. Project Gorgon, because I like its goofy attitude and skill system. Old School RuneScape, because I have an affinity for older style MMOs and never played this. City of Heroes, because of nostalgia.

So that’s something like 18 different options right there that hold some sort of appeal to me. Now the question is, which would suck me in the most and be the best use of my gaming time? Other than LOTRO, I honestly can’t tell you.

Recently our family went on our summer vacation. As a people of modest means, we decided a few years ago that we weren’t about major tourist destinations that were probably very expensive. Rather, we pick an area of the country we’ve never been to, find an Airbnb for the week, and spend time exploring that area — parks, museums, whatever looks fun and interesting. It’s actually been a great fit for us and a way to expand my children’s horizons.

So this summer’s tour was the city of Louisville, KY, which my wife had heard was a really great family destination. Turned out… this was true. Great city, lots to do, very nice all in all. We hit up tons of thrift stores (because a new city = new thrift stores), went to the zoo, took the kids to a Mega Cavern and science museum, and had a fun day at an amusement park. The only downside was the Airbnb, which was one of the first really disappointing ones we’ve ever had — really, just a corrugated steel shed that was converted into a one-room (!) loft that we crammed six people into for a week. No cell phone service and shoddy wifi made it not quite as enjoyable as it could’ve been, but oh well.

But on trips like this, my entertainment habits change greatly. I usually leave MMOs and most gaming behind, skewing more toward vacationy activities like reading and lazy TV watching. This is reflected in what tech I brought with me. This time around, I went with the iPad as my primary device, as it could multitask as a Kindle reader, music player, and movie viewer. It’s been a long time since I just read this much, but every evening that week when everyone else went to sleep, I spent a couple of hours going through my novels backlog and listening to tunes at the same time.

I did leave all my iPods at home, electing instead to bring my handy little SanDisk Clip with me instead. This is such a great travel device, with an insanely good battery, hardy form factor, surprisingly decent sound, and a handy little clip to snap onto my clothes while I was cooking.

A laptop was a necessity for work-related reasons, but I kept using this to a minimum. My bluetooth mouse decided that this was a good week to glitch out on me and die, so an emergency run to Target was called for to get a replacement.

The way I look at it, tech on vacations should be there solely to fill in the little gaps of waiting and downtime rather than an attempt to bring your entire techno-cocoon with you. I feel that this was accomplished.

After several months earlier this year where we heard nothing but delays in the MMO space, now we’ve gotten a bevy of release dates for titles, expansions, and patches. So while July is a relatively calm month for me in gaming, it’s about to get really crazy, really fast. So I thought it might be beneficial to map out a possible course for the rest of the year:

• July: My big focus in LOTRO is zipping my Lore-master through the rest of the epic so that she’s fully caught up and I can backbench her until the expansion.
• Early August: We just got the official word that Palia is going into closed beta on the 2nd and open beta/soft launch on the 11th — and I am definitely going to be there for this cozy MMO as early as I can.
• Late August: Then Guild Wars 2 is coming out with its latest (smallish) expansion. I won’t lie, it’s having a magnetic effect to draw me back in. I may need to test the waters of interest with this once more. I won’t be buying the expansion until I get the other ones done, in any case, but it’s more the increased focus and community buzz that’s the attraction.
• Late Summer: It doesn’t let up! WoW Classic is coming out with official Hardcore Classic somewhere in Aug/Sept. I’m not quite as optimistic that Blizzard is taking the best approach here, and so I’m not quite as on board with this as I thought I would be. But I’m not saying “no,” either. And then there’s Wayfinder, which should be coming out around this period in early access. That one I’d have to buy into, but unless I’m seeing big red flags, I probably will.
• Fall: Coming back around to LOTRO is the expansion and new class. I’m going to try my darndest to hold off from rolling any new characters until then, because maybe I can get the 1-2-3 shot of new legendary server-new race-new class. No matter what, a fresh roll is going to happen — I just have to keep from going crazy with it.
• And that’s not including Starfield, which is a September release that I think will be impossible to ignore. And Colony Ship, a CRPG I’ve been keeping my eye on.

Obviously, all of this doesn’t have to be played at the moment of release, but there is a case to be made for the excitement of a launch period and getting in on the ground floor.

It’s a bevy of riches, and kind of nicely spread out for once. Let’s do this!

The other day I stumbled across a list I made back in 2013 of my 27 most wanted games. Because blogging can be a time machine this way, I thought it’d be interesting to pull up that list and see which of those games (a) released and (b) I got and enjoyed. Also, we get to point and laugh at my foolish longing for projects that turned out to be disasters or vaporware.

Here we go!

1. WildStar – Released and absolutely loved this game, even though its group content (dungeons, raids) were too technically difficult for casual players. Housing and world and characters were the best, and I am still a massive fan of its cosmetic system. Sadly, F2P and subsequent content releases didn’t do much to turn the downward trend of the game, and it was closed.

2. EverQuest Next – Never launched. I still give Daybreak the evil eye over giving up on this project. Seriously, we could be five years into playing this by now!

3. Wasteland 2 – I actually own this but haven’t really played it, mostly due to reports of its difficulty level and overall polish. Heard Wasteland 3 is much better, but haven’t gotten that yet.

4. The Walking Dead Season 2 – I was a die-hard fan of the Telltale Games back in the day, so I definitely played through this and the other entries. Can’t remember much about it, unlike the first season.

5. Dreamfall Chapters – The Longest Journey was and is one of my all-time favorite adventure games. Dreamfall was… OK. The Chapters were less-than-OK.

6. The Sims 4 – Have it, played it last week, still like it a lot even though I do wish they’d move on to Sims 5 already.

7. EverQuest Next Landmark – I mean, this came out at least. Wasn’t really my thing as a very unstructured sandbox, but I liked the visuals and cheered on the community.

8. Shroud of the Avatar – HAHAHAHAHA what was I thinking

9. Star Citizen – And 10 years later, we’re still waiting. Not anticipating any more, though.

10. Starbound – I played this for a few hours back in the day. I just never got into these Terraria-like games, sadly.

11. The Long Dark – Another launch and purchase from me. I liked the world-building and some of the survival aspects, although the story really didn’t impress me and the difficulty was sometimes too brutal.

12. Cube World – When Trove came out, I didn’t need this any longer. And I didn’t really need Trove that long, either.

13. Out There – I was hoping for a strong FTL-like experience and felt let down with the end result. This was a single-session try for me.

14. Wasteland (remastered) – I guess I was really into the Wasteland games — or the idea of them back in 2013?

15. The Repopulation – Yeah, this MMO crashed and burned so hard. Such a sad, long, messy dev process.

16. Wizards & Warp Drives – Looked interesting when I saw it at PAX, but it never launched.

17. Firefly Online – Was barely even a concept… and also never launched.

18. Spacebase DF-9 – Double Fine did the space base sim concept very dirty. Had a horrible release, I never touched it.

19. Broken Age – This Double Fine adventure game got a better reception, but the final package didn’t look appealing to me for whatever reason.

20. City of Titans – Oh, we’re never going to see this superhero MMO launch. Never.

21. DayZ Standalone – I guess when H1Z1 and State of Decay came along, I quickly got my fill of the zombie-survival trend.

22. TUG – If I recall, TUG ended up vaporizing into nothingness. No big loss.

23. Elite: Dangerous – Launched, yet I simply couldn’t get into this. It looked and felt empty, and the controls weren’t that much fun to fight against.

24.The Elder Scrolls Online – Hey, here’s one that released and I’ve enjoyed for a very long time over a period of many years now. So a win!

25. Tablet versions of FTL and Hearthstone – Yup, played both. Probably Hearthstone more. Don’t play them any more, though

26. Project Eternity – This became Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity, which I played and liked an awful lot.

27. Torment: Tides of Numenera – Obsidian’s PlaneScape Torment spiritual successor was a huge letdown, but I did get pretty far in it.