The Lonliness of MMOs: More Emo from Smelt

I've got MMO Attention Deficit Disorder (MMOAADD). How did I get this way? For over 2 years, I was in a monogamous MMO relationship. World of Warcraft held the key to my gaming heart. We had an amicable breakup, me and WoW. I agreed to go my own way and well, WoW has a million other players to keep it warm at night. But sometimes I miss WoW. I miss it's warm and fuzzy virtual comfort. But I think most of all, I miss my friends.

It's true that we still "hang out," we blog together, have regular chats over ventrilo, email and generally bug one another through whatever means possible. In fact, Rune and Pikky are still playing WoW, and the married in RL couple Tivy and Azzy are exploring Star Wars Galaxies together all over again. I suppose I'm the only one that's in this gaming fugue. Since letting my subscription lapse in Wow, I've played Age of Conan, Everquest 2, Warhammer, City of Heros, The Sims, Starcraft, various Xbox games and now...Runes of Magic.

What am I looking for? Well that's a good question. In terms of the MMOs, all the above listed games are at a minimum quite decent. In fact some of them have elements that are in my opinion, outstanding. But then, where they shine in one area they lack in another. Maybe I'm putting too much pressure on all these games? If you can afford it, maybe it's okay to have multiple subscriptions to multiple games? Am I just looking for the next WoW?

Honestly I think the answer is, "yes." I want the game to have the overall polish and be just as engaging and I want to be just as hooked as I was over 2 years ago. More than that, I want my friends to be just as hooked. I want to share the excitement and wonder and all the other possible gaming goodness with my little community. Yes, I know. It's a lot to ask for, but not impossible.

Make new friends in new games, you say? Meh. I suppose that would be the logical response if community means so much to me. However, behind the virtual avatars they are actually real people who live in real worlds and have real personalities. These are the people I click with and sometimes that is real hard to find. Beyond this central gaming fascination, we bond in other ways. Not so easy to replace if you know what I mean.

I suppose I will continue to wander around and try every new MMO that comes out - except Darkfall because that just seemed too hard-core for my crew. As of this writing, Tivy and I are playing Runes of Magic. I have to admit I was skeptical of "free" games, but this game is purty fun. I have level 11 warrior/priest. The game mechanics are very similiar to other MMOs so there's really no surprises. Right now I'm into seeing how many diamonds I can accumulate without actually putting any real life moolah into the game. We'll see how long that lasts. I'll update in future posts.

Beyond that, here are the next great hopes that will draw us all back to the same fold:

• Champions Online - Pikky is looking forward to this so I'll try it too, because I miss playing with my crotchety friend. I didn't really like City of Heros but the super hero genre definitely has an appeal.
  
• Star Wars The Old Republic - Azzy and myself are absolutely peeing ourselves over Star Wars Old Republic. I'm hoping that will be the next "big" game.
• Free Realms - Pirate puppies. Enough said.
• Aion - screenshots are stunningly gorgeous.
• Star Trek Online - obviously a ways from release date, but I'm interested.