What Happened to the Greats?

With the news that Blizzard was cutting PvP in Diablo 3 from launch, my respect for the company went down yet another notch.  What happened to this formerly great studio?  What happened to the ‘it will release when it is ready philosophy’?

I will admit forthright, that I never liked Diablo 1 and 2, nor did I particularly enjoy any of the Warcraft series (prior to WoW) or the Starcraft series.  I admired them for their polish and attention to detail but the gameplay never appealed to me.  Blizzard was always a solid developer.  But, after the series of bad decisions after the release of the Burning Crusades, the horrible Wrath of the Lich King expansion, the even worse Cataclysm expansion and now this news, I can no longer fool myself into thinking Blizzard is a solid developer.

The same can be said of Bioware.  I loved Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate 2 and Icewind Dale.  I thought Knights of the Old Republic was fun, if a tad overrated compared to Baldur’s Gate.  Now Bioware is releasing junk like Dragon’s Age 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic and ripping off their customers with DLC on day of release in Mass Effect 3.

I feel the same way about Mythic.  They never had the long track record of great games that Blizzard and Bioware enjoyed but they made Dark Age of Camelot.  DAoC is, in my opinion, still the greatest MMO of all time.  Then they release Warhammer Online and it is an atrocity.  Now they are merged with Bioware and I doubt we will ever see greatness from them again.

The obvious answer to what happened to these studios are the merging with bigger publishers.  Blizzard with Activision and Bioware and Mythic to Electronic Arts.  It is amazing how quickly a studio can be ruined by a merge like this.  From a great studio, who cares about their customers and has great attention to detail, to a studio that rips off their customer’s with day one DLC and pulling  launch content to make a release date.

It is sad really.  These great studios are gone and will probably never return.  In their place is another soulless studio that is out to gouge money from their customer’s and cut content in search of the all-mighty dollar.

I Can Smell the Desperation….

Yesterday Blizzard expanded their ‘Scroll of Resurrection’ program and by expand it I mean they buffed it to old Ret Pally proportions.  What once was just a standard ‘Welcome Back’ type program, now gives the former player seven days of free playtime, one character boosted automagically to 80, free realm transfers, free faction transfers and a free copy of Cataclysm!

Say what?!?!

If this is not a desperation move by a company bleeding subs at an astounding rate, I don’t know what is.  The first move, giving away a free copy of Diablo 3 for a year WoW sub, was bad enough but this is taking it to an entire new level.  After two mediocre expansions and a design philosophy that has killed the old feeling of a living world, WoW is finally feeling the burn of bad decision after bad decision.

I don’t buy that SW:ToR, Rift or GW2 is killing WoW.  Blizzard did this all by their lonesome.  They are now reaping the consequences of killing ‘Vanilla’ WoW and changing it to what we see today; a game with no server community, no open world interaction, no server rivalries.  A game that has become a virtual chat room while waiting for the next mini-game to pop.

I could not be happier and the MMO world will be much better off for it.

 

Thoughts on the Guild Wars 2 Press Beta

No, I was not invited and for that I am sad.  But I have watched a few hours of footage, read a novels worth of impressions and kept up with nearly all the various forum arguments.  Through it all, I have continuously impressed by both Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet.  There has been some tremendous information that has come out in the last week and it almost has me frothing at the mouth.  Below, in no particular order, are random impressions from the Press Beta.

The Guild System

One would expect that a game called Guild Wars 2 might have a pretty robust guild system but this one takes the cake.  All the normal options are there; roster, ranks, guild messages etc. but they have also added a bit to the standard MMO guild interface.  Influence can be gained by every member by doing almost anything in the game.  PvE events, crafting, PvP and WvW all add influence to the guild the character is representing.  And that is where it gets interesting….

Influence can be used to buy everything from PvE political influence, to Keep upgrades in WvW, to Guild banks and Guild armor.  Each upgrade, once purchased, has a ‘build time’ of anywhere from a few days to a week or longer.  This can be reduced further by another influence purchase.

All in all the guild system looks pretty involved and gives a Guild leader plenty of ways to administer and grow his or her guild.  Check out this video for an in-depth look at the Guild system, courtesy of Guild Wars 2 Guru!

The Classes

The best thing I can say about the classes after watching video from the press event is that I am at an even further loss as to what class I want to play.  They all look very fun.  Heck, I hate mage style classes and the elementalist even looks fun to me.

I think the clear winner coming out of the event was the Mesmer.  It looks so fun and fresh.  The abilities all have great animations and the stuff with the great sword is especially impressive.  It looks like a very unique class.  I think my favorite video I have seen with the mesmer is from mmogamer.es, which is a spanish language website.  The video is supposed to showcase some instanced PvP but there are a couple of one on ones with a thief that are just awesome.  Check it out and make sure to watch until the one vs. one starts!

There were a ton of other nice class videos out there and, after watching them all, I think I am still leaning toward the Ranger.  Unfortunately, there were few really good ranger vids out there.  I think the best was this one by Curse Network.

World vs. World

This is what I was most excited about by a long shot.  Thankfully I was not let down.  There was tons of video footage out there detailing WvW and most of it was fantastic.  On paper GW2 is closer to Dark Age of Camelot than anything we have seen, including Warhammer Online.  The maps are huge, the objectives are diverse and there is a lot of strategical depth to WvW.  I love that the walls of Keeps can be knocked down and not just the gate.  I love that the supply system adds some depth to sieges.  I love that there are objectives all over the map and not just Keeps.  I love that siege engines can be placed anywhere and not just on specified spots. I love the Relics masquerading as ‘Orbs of Power’.   I love the look of the map.  I love the trebuchets.  I love the supply caravans.  And I really, really love the siege Golems.

Of course, this is all on paper and reality will eventually rear its ugly head.  Will lag be too bad?  Will players ignore the intricacies of the supply system and just zerg?  Will the instanced PvP content take precedence and make WvW an afterthought for players?  Will players treat WvW like WAR players treated Keep sieges and only attack undefended Keeps?

All of the above are unfortunate possibilities but most of them are community problems and not real problems with the game.  Hopefully the systems in WvW will allow us to skip most of the above unpleasantries.

The biggest worry I have is lag.  There were a number of videos where lag was a major factor in WvW and nothing kills large-scale PvP like lag and performance issues.  Luckily ArenaNet has said that they are still heavily optimizing the engine and we should see major improvements by the next beta event.  Even with that fact, I did see some videos with a noticeable absence of lag.  The best probably being the one below from Yogscast.

I am going to wrap this post up for the night.  However, expect more from me tomorrow about Guild Wars 2 and focusing on PvE, Dynamic Events and the Tombs of Ascalon instance!

Rift and SWTOR

If you read my last post, you may have come away with the thought that I ended up disappointed in Rift.  To the contrary, I think Rift is the apex of post-2004 ‘WoW-Style’ MMOs.  I think Trion did a fantastic job with almost all aspects of Rift, while staying pretty much within the standard quest-hub leveling, raid endgame style of MMOs that we have all seen since the launch of WoW in 2004.

Indeed, Rift has everything one could want in a themepark MMO of this style.  The questing is standard MMO fare, the raids are at least as good as WoW, the instances are fun and plentiful, the graphics are solid.  To top it off, Trion is, without a doubt, able to get new content into the game faster than any other developers around right now.  The amount of content they have gotten into the game since release is astounding.  Simply astounding.

Trion was able to create a MMO that check marked all the proper boxes (questing, raids, instances, battlegrounds, crafting, dailies etc.) while adding some unique twists of their own (Rifts, Raid Rifts, PvP Rifts, Instant Action etc.).    I don’t think there is another themepark MMO out there that has as much pure value as Rift does.  If I was recommending a MMO to someone who had never played a themepark MMO before, I would recommend Rift.  Its quite simple the best themepark style MMO out right now.

I will continue to play Rift for quite a while, even after GW2 releases.  I still find the game fun and Trion is one of the few MMO devs that actually deserves to be supported.  They are a fantastic, hard-working company that seems to care about the product they are releasing and the fans who are buying it.

Trion certainly did not turn the themepark MMO world on its head when they released Rift.  It is too similar to other MMOs to be truly unique but they did create a very feature rich, quality MMO in its own right.  Which brings me to the polar opposite new release MMO: SW:ToR.

A few days ago I mentioned that I was going to enjoy the inevitable fail of Star Wars: The Old Republic and, of course, I had a few people on Facebook and such asking me exactly how I could think that a game that sold as many copies as SWToR could fail.  Quite simply, I believe it failed before it was even released.

Bioware took a mediocre single player game and tacked on a 2004-era MMO on to it and called it done.  The story told in SWToR is okay, I guess, though somewhat hokey and gets less compelling as the levels wear on.  The vaunted cut-scenes get old very fast and are skipped more often than not.  The story is certainly not enough to sustain long-term interest.  To hold a MMO player for any length of time you need a compelling end game and SWToR does not have that at all.

Matter of fact, if you take the cut scenes out of ToR, you would have a MMO that would be regarded as laughable at best.  Very few features, mediocre instances and raids, boring combat, laughably balanced PvP, snoozefest crafting.  Everything about ToR in regards to the actual MMO side is horribly done but because its tacked on to a Bioware single player story it was overlooked…..at least at first.

That is quickly changing.  The general dissatisfaction with ToR is starting to border on hate among most MMO sites and forums I frequent.  People are starting to see what it truly is and are leaving in droves.

I said in my last post that you could take away Rift’s most unique feature (the Rift and invasion system) and you would still have a solid, feature rich MMO.  The same can not be said about ToR.  Take away its most unique feature (the story and cut scenes) and you would have a very, very poor-man’s MMO.

The biggest problem faced by Bioware now is how to address future content.  If they concentrate on releasing standard MMO content then the one feature that they have touted the most gets left by the wayside but if they focus on story the content releases will come much to slowly.  Nothing takes as much time to produce as fully voiced and cutscened story.  Funcom and Sony Online Entertainment both realized this quickly.  It simply takes to long to produce so they abandoned it.  Bioware will come to the same realization.  Either take their time to release the story content and piss off a lot of players with lack of true content or abandon the story content and abandon the one thing they have that separates them from WoW.

I think ToR will end up being the biggest disappointment in MMO history.  Players are already abandoning ship and it will just get worse over the next few months.  When Guild Wars 2 releases it will have a heavy story emphasis as well but it also has a fully featured MMO to support it.  The next few months will not be kind to SW:ToR.

 

 

Half Measures, Full Measures, Rift and Guild Wars 2

Breaking Bad is one of my favorite television shows.  Matter of fact, I would go on record as to call it one of the best shows of all time.  It is simply fantastic.

A couple of seasons ago, there was an episode titled “Half Measures“.  During this episode there was a long monologue by one of the characters (Mike, played by the great character actor Jonathan Banks).  In this monologue Mike talks about a situation he was in when he was a beat cop.

"No more half-measures, Walter"

In short, he found himself constantly called out to one certain address where he would find a wife who had been severely beaten by her husband.  After going there one too many times, he had finally had enough and, on the way to the police station with the husband, he pulled to the side of the road, got the husband out of the car, placed a gun to his head and told him that if he ever beat his wife again his life would be ended right there on the side of the road.  Of course, Mike found himself called back to the same house a few weeks later to find the wife beaten to death.

The moral of the story, according to Mike, was that by not killing the husband when he had the chance he took a “half measure” when he should have taken a “full measure”.  By holding back and not going all the way, he doomed the wife to die.

Now, you are probably wondering what the hell this has to do with MMOs in general and Rift and Guild Wars 2 in particular.  Well, I am about to answer that very question!

One year ago, Trion was kind enough to fly me to their studios in San Fransisco to interview them and take a tour of the studios.  One of the things that I heard about while on the trip was how Rift changed from his original inception of “Heroes of Telara” to the Rift that we finally saw on release day.  In its original version, Rift was much closer to Guild Wars 2 than it ended up being.  Dynamic Events were originally able to change the world in a much bigger way than what we see in modern-day Rift, where they are only a temporary change.  As time went on, Trion decided that the original idea would not make for a good MMO and changed everything, instead layering a pseudo-dynamic event on top of the standard WoW-style quest hub world.

By making the decision to keep the standard quest-hub to quest-hub style MMO Trion had to dramatically throttle down the effect that the Rifts could have on the open world.  Anyone who has played Rift can see why.  How many times have Rifts and invasions gotten in the way of your leveling?  If you have played Rift a lot, probably more than a few times.  When your number one option to level is the standard MMO quest-hub to quest-hub style, then anything that interferes with that can be a nuisance.  No longer could a Rift take over a quest hub for an extended period because it would make leveling too difficult.  The dynamic events originally envisioned, the ones that could radically change the world, were instead changed to events that had only a small and temporary effect on the world.

Simply put, Trion decided to scale back their original vision so that they could keep the standard MMO trappings that we have all known since WoW reared its head back in 2004.  In short, they took the “Half Measure”.

Guild Wars 2 is also selling itself through its dynamic events.  The same ideas that made “Heroes of Telara” so compelling are present throughout Guild Wars 2 but, where Trion scaled them back, ArenaNet looks to have embraced them.  They went the Full Measure.  Instead of keeping the hub to hub, quest to quest MMO style that we are so used to, they threw out quests altogether.  They are making the dynamic events the star of the show.  They are attempting to revolutionize the way players look at leveling, classes and the endgame.

By throwing out questing, they can make their dynamic events have real and permanent consequences in the world.  They don’t have to worry that their newest dynamic event might inconvenience a player trying to get their quests done because the events are the quests.  They have a chance to take their dynamic event system further than Trion does.

Now, I can not say for sure that ArenaNet has done more with their event system than Trion did with Rift because the game is not out.  But I can say that without quests they certainly have more room to do more.  Only time will tell.

One last thing, I want to bring up.   ArenaNet has gambled much more on their dynamic events than Trion did with their system.  If the Rifts and invasions were a dud in Rift, you are still left with a very solid WoW-style MMO.  One that would have been moderately successful even without the dynamic-events.  However, if the dynamic events in GW2 are not fun, or boring or don’t work, well, you are left with nothing at all.  The events are GW2 and without them you have very little.

Yes, ArenaNet took the “Full Measure” but sometimes the full measure doesn’t work out the way you want it to…..

Just ask Walter White.

What Excites Me on the Horizon?

I am still having fun with Global Agenda but I am also waiting for a few other MMOs on the horizon.  2011 could shape up to be a pretty big year for MMOs.  Certainly the biggest since 2008 which, in hindsight, was very disappointing.  That was the year both AoC and WAR was released.  Both were to revolutionize the industry, both ended up being case-studies in how promising MMOs can go wrong.

Since then we have seen very few BIG MMO releases.  Aion was fairly large but was not as anticipated as WAR or AoC.  Other than that, I can think of no MMOs that have released since then that could be considered big, but please correct me if I am wrong.

Now, 2011 looks to be a different story.  Here is a short list of what I am looking forward to in 2011 (and, perhaps, beyond!).

5.  Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Yes, this is the one most are looking forward to the most but not me.  I love Star Wars and I love Bioware games, so I should be ecstatic about this one, right?  But I am not.  Sure, I want to give it a try but I am not holding out a lot of hope for it.  I think it will probably being too instanced for my tastes, I worry that the story will get in the way of gameplay and I have deep reservations about EA running the game properly.

Still, I hope they prove me wrong and make a great game.  I will give it a try no matter what but it would be nice to find a new long term MMO.

4.  Earthrise

This one is flying under the radar quite a bit.  A sandbox sci-fi game with no class restrictions that claims to be purely skill based.  Sounds very interesting but there are a lot of mistakes that could be made with this one as well.  Still, keeping a close eye on it and hoping I get into beta.

3. Guild Wars 2

I really did not like Guild Wars 1, so I pretty much ignored Guild Wars 2, but the more I hear about it, the more I get excited about it.  A persistent world, dynamic events and great graphics, all combine to make Guild Wars 2 a game worth watching.  The combat is GW1 was horrible, in my opinion.  I hated the “auto-move” to target and I hated not being able to jump.  Hopefully, both of these are removed in GW2.

2. Warhammer 40K

This one will probably not release in 2011.  I suspect 2012 but I am still highly anticipating it.  I love the Warhammer universe and it is a chance for a Warhammer MMO to redeem itself after the unfortunate fiasco of WAR.  This one worries me, however, I am very worried that it is going to follow the standard “tab-targeting” combat of WoW and that would be very unfortunate.  I was also very disappointed to find out that it was going to be a 2 faction game.  Why can no one follow DAoC’s example and make a 3 faction game?  It boggles the mind.

One thing I will suggest to the WH40k devs:  Pick up Global Agenda.  Play it.  Learn the combat.  Love the combat.  Put it in your game.

Global Agenda’s combat in a Warhammer 40k skin, in an open persistent world, with instances/raids and with a DAoC Frontier type endgame?  I would never play another game again.  Ever.

1.  Rifts: Planes of Telara

Rifts looks to be closer to a traditional MMO than the others on this list but the graphics and the lore are very strong.  The Rifts system is intriguing, although it may just be a Public Quest system dressed up in fancy clothes.

Still, I am putting this at the top of my list for the time being.  The character customization possibilities look enormous and they claim that they are making a strong effort to making a PvP system that is strong in its own right, though they are also going with a two faction system.

Warhammer Online and the recent billing issues.

I am sure most of you have heard about the recent billing issues that Mythic has had with its Warhammer Online game.  Last week multiple accounts (even a few canceled accounts) were charged multiple monthly fees at one time.  In some cases, up to 53 times.  Mythic immediately issued an apology and gave instructions on how to begin processing a refund for these charges and for the overdraft fees that may have occurred because of them.  In many cases, the charges have already been rectified and were within 24 hours of notification.  Others, however, are still waiting.

Look, I am not going to sugar-coat this, it is bad.  It was a bad mistake and caused enormous stress to all involved.  It caused missed payments, lack of funds and untold headaches to everyone affected.   There is no doubt, this was bad.

But, some people are just taking it too far.  I really enjoy Syp’s Bio-Break blog, he is one of my favorite bloggers, but this post is BS.  Mythic did not steal from these people.   It was a mistake and one that Mythic is attempting to rectify.

Stealing requires intent or it would require Mythic to attempt to keep the money after they realized their mistake.  Mythic did neither of those things.  Take a look at this explanation from Wikipedia:

The actus reus of theft is usually defined as an unauthorised taking, keeping or using of another’s property which must be accompanied by a mens rea of dishonesty and/or the intent to permanently deprive the owner or the person with rightful possession of that property or its use.

For example, if X goes to a restaurant and, by mistake, takes Y’s scarf instead of her own, she has physically deprived Y of the use of the property (which is the actus reus) but the mistake prevents X from forming the mens rea (i.e. because she believes that she is the owner, she is not dishonest and does not intend to deprive the “owner” of it) so no crime has been committed at this point. But if she realises the mistake when she gets home and could return the scarf to Y, she will steal the scarf if she dishonestly keeps it. Note that there may be civil liability for the torts of trespass to chattels or conversion in either eventuality.

Mythic had no intent here.  It was a very unfortunate mistake and, to top it off, was probably done by a third party billing company and not by Mythic themselves.  I have no doubt that this will hurt Mythic badly and at a time when Mythic can not afford much in the way of mistakes.  It is sad that this occurred just when they were getting a bit of momentum behind them and Warhammer Online.  This stops all momentum dead in its tracks.

The post by Syp is not the only thing that is fogging up the waters in this situation either, the official forums are going nuts.  I understand the frustration and the anger but do you really have to start another new thread on this every two seconds?  Mythic has asked that everyone affected post in a single post but, no, everyone feels they have to start their own because, you know, their situation is special. Ridiculous.

Along with the legitimate anger, comes the ludicrous claims such as this one.  Really?!?  You lost your house?  Oh, come ON!!! Are you one of the ones bitching because it takes Mythic and your bank so long to refund a charge that happened instantaneously?  Want to know why?  That post is why.  That right there.

I can guarantee that for every legitimate claim about this, there is at least one that is total BS.  People see an opening and they attempt to take advantage of it, they bog down the system and they make the legitimate claims take that much longer to process.  It happens every time.  Sucks for the honest folk but that is exactly what happens.

My advice to those affected?  Call Mythic, be angry at them, ask demand everything that is rightfully yours and any fees accrued because of this situation.  Be persistent but do so in the right way.  Post in the thread that is provided, don’t start a new one just because.  Keep your demands and statements in context. This is not theft, Mythic did not steal from you.  They made a mistake and one that needs to be paid for and rectified but don’t make this into something that it’s not.  This is not liquor store theft, this is a mistake.  Period.

Has a MMO finally beaten WoW’s Hunter Pet System?

Okay, I am on a posting frenzy right now but I keep finding stuff I want to talk about.  So, you will just have to deal with it!!

In perusing all the AoC expansion news from the last post I came across something incredibly cool.  The new AoC pet/mount system.  Let me explain it a bit:

• Two of the 10 or so factions in RotGS have a quest that involves picking up a tiger cub or wolf pup.
• Once you get that pup or cub, you continue on quests that slowly “grow” him/her over time.
• They eventually arrive at a time when they become actual combat pets.
• At this point, you can stop their growth and use them as a combat pet permanently.
  

  I really like the tiger.....

• Alternatively, you can continue along their “growth” system and they will eventually grow into a mount.
• If you choose for them to be a mount, they can no longer be a combat pet.

Okay, this is cool.  I loved the WoW pet system for hunters.  Actually going out, picking a pet, training it and then growing it to be more powerful was an incredibly cool experience for me.  It certainly beat having a pet arbitrarily assigned to you and was one reason why I thought the hunter and his pets were much cooler than the Warlock and his.

but I am a wolf kinda guy!!!

This takes that awesome pet system in WoW and upstages it.  Frankly, I think it might even just blow it away.  The fact that every class can have the combat pet is also very cool.  I can not wait to see my Bear Shaman with his trusty wolf by his side.

Oh, but the terrible choice:  the mount or the pet?!?!  That will take some time to decide!

Oh, Derek. You never change do you?

So, my post the other day concerning Alganon and its new leadership under the illustrious Derek Smart detailed how refreshing a bit of honesty is coming from a MMO developer. Telling it like it is, pulling no punches and trying out honesty, for once, instead of evasion.

But, Derek Smart just couldn’t leave it at that, could he?   As per his normal MO, he is now airing out dirty laundry and getting into arguments with posters on message boards.  Derek will never, ever change.

Take a look at this quote from the posts located here:

Even so, this has nothing to do with recommendations. HR managers are not idiots – especially in our industry. So the three of you can tool around with each other all day long, but my guess is that given how competitive the industry has become and how it is now focused (now more than ever) on hiring based on experience in *shipping* games, you guys will most likely never – ever – work in this industry again.

Or how about this one:

So this goes beyond the mistakes made with the **game**. It has to do with fraud, embezzlement and mismanagement and everything else in between. I stand by those words and any one of you three is more than welcome to sue me for saying it. I’ll be waiting.

There are police and FBI complaints filed by the investors, there is a lawsuit in the works etc. Go ahead, tell me you didn’t know anything about that. Nor the fact that not only was he siphoning money in order to overpay himself and his buddies, but also had an inexperienced family member – with *zero* industry qualifications – on the team *and* being paid higher than any other person *with* industry experience and qualifications. I fired that person as well as you well know.

Or this one (italics and emphasis mine!):

Tell you what, I’m just going to write a Post Mortem blog about it from start to finish since thats the industry norm. I’m not interested in airing dirty laundry or making problems for you three if I don’t have to. But when the investors filed a police complaint (in Chandler, AZ) it became public knowledge. When you three started scratching each other’s backs on LinkedIn and elsewhere, taking potshots at the folks you leave behind to clean up your mess etc, you drew a line in the stand. The mistake you’re all making is that you clearly forget just *who* it is you’re dealing with.

Now, I am not a lawyer but Derek seems to be dangling very close to lawsuit material here, is he not?  Hell, companies now a days are scared to give references for former employees over fear of being sued!  Now, Derek is airing it out on a comment section of a news post?

Yeah, that’s smart.

Well, it may not be smart but it is entertaining.  That is one thing you have to give to Derek, he certainly entertains!

Realistic or Stylized

One of the biggest differences between Age of Conan and other MMOs, such as WoW, is their dedication to a realistic look in armor and weaponry.  Funcom went for a purely realistic look in AoC and they achieved it.  Armor is rendered in muted browns, reds and blacks.  Weaponry is of a realistic size and actually looks like something a medieval warrior would wield.    This is in sharp contrast to the fantastical looking armor and weapons in WoW, Aion or even Warhammer.

Do you prefer this...

I liked most of the armor and weapons in WoW but there were some that just went over the top.  For instance, I liked the design of the old Dragonslayer Hunter armor from Vanilla WoW but, come on, gold and purple?  Really?!?!  Hunters are supposed to be nature like and blend in.  Not stand out with garish armor like a pimp on a street corner!  Some of the various doodads, skulls and such that stuck out of your armor were out of place too.  I really do not need a huge globe of light dangling over my shoulders…thank you very much.

or this??

Aion was even worse.  I don’t like Anime to begin with, so Aion really pushed my buttons.  Come now, a guy who probably doesn’t weigh 105lbs, yet he is carrying an axe that is three times his size and probably weighs 300lbs?  Not only is he carrying it but he is doing flips with it?  Nope.  Not for me.

Most MMOs fall squarely in one of those two camps.  Either realistic or fantastical.  WoW, Aion, Allods, FF11 and Tera Online all go the fantastical route.  DAoC, AoC, Darkfall and, from what I have seen, all go the realistic route.  There are some overlaps, however, with EQ2 and Warhammer having a mix of both.

So, the question is; which do you prefer?  Do you like the fantastical armor of WoW or do you prefer the gritty realism of AoC?  The pictures above are not a fair comparison.  The AoC engine is obviously better but, all things being equal, if they were both rendered in the same engine, with the same detail, which would you prefer?