Friends, Foes and Fanboys

Naïma of http://wasdrage.blogspot.com/ sent me this awesome drawing upon request.

Hail rats and ratslayers.

It's been too long since last I updated this modest space of the internet - for this I apologize.

I even promised to come back with a full review on Rift, which quite obviously I haven't. In my defense, however, I said that I would do so as soon as I reached level 50, which I never did; pardon the roguish attitude.

I am decent enough to at least grant you an explanation for this uncouth behavior. A couple of weeks into playing Rift I went on holiday, also lasting nearly two weeks. Upon my arrival back home I realized I hadn't spared a single thought for the game at all - highly alarming for a MMORPG, I am sure you all agree - and this was enough for me to discontinue the subscription without hesitation.  In short, while Rift had some impressive features it wasn't enough to cancel out the general bland and uninspired feel of the game. In my view a MMORPG is supposed to pull you in, leave you spellbound - a task at which Rift failed miserably. I still had a week or so gametime left which I simply used during one evening to bid my farewell to whoever would listen.

Speaking of bidding one's farewell, when my WoW gametime ran out, I asked Grego to announce my departure on the forums for me. His post was deleted before long, as it mentioned that I was trying my luck in Rift. Despite myself I couldn't help but appreciate Blizzard's never faltering ability to moderate their forums and filter out inappropriate content, and indeed their great sense of task allocation and rational use of resources...

In either case, I have gone through my 2500 or so World of Warcraft screenshots and uploaded roughly 220 of them at http://zylvith.imgur.com/. They range from July 1st 2007 to February 15th 2011 and are divided into six categories for each significant guild I've been in.

Hallow's End  here back when we were blissfully unaware of the impending instance teleporting.

Let us get back to the present day. What have I been up to? Gaming-wise, not a lot, which unfortunately is the topic that this blog covers. Since I quit WoW, my appetite for MMOs hasn't quite recovered, something I regard with mixed sentiments. On one hand I welcome any extra spare time I can use to focus on things other than games, but on the other hand I earnestly miss my MMO friends and ganking rats.

I do not wish to appear sulky, however. In a not-too-distant future I may have enough free time to delve into the world of MMORPGs, should an interesting one surface. I am keeping my eyes peeled for a PvP-friendly title, but as of yet upcoming ones seem dreary, to be frank.

My perception of 'PvP-friendly'

This will seem rather off topic, but I just have to post a couple of screens of Joev's user interfaces. Some of you still run around with those hopeless UI packs with a centered minimap at the bottom of the screen, over a large black bottom panel covered in runes. Shame on you all.

 

So simple.


So, Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming up. This is exciting because:

a. It's Star Wars. Quite plainly, many people like Star Wars, it's a safe card.
b. It's a space MMO. Space equals potential for great freedom.

First off, I am not in the beta for this game. Despite a lack of first-hand experience with the game I am wary, however. From what I've heard and seen, it doesn't seem particularly interesting. Lack of good news about PvP aside, even the looks of the combat (not to mention general graphics) seem dry, and we mustn't forget that a Star Wars MMO is likely to bring out the worst kind of gamers - think besserwisser fanboys and neckbeards with Darth Maul face paint - these are the people we'd be playing with. On the bright side, we'd be able to gank scores of players with stupid Sith-inspired guild names.

I may very well try TOR when it is released, but I shall do so with the bitter knowledge that my fantasy of flying around in space with a small gang of gankers with an entire Galaxy at our feet will most likely remain just that, a fantasy.