Monday 21 September 2009

There Goes my Head Start

So I preordered Aion, collector's edition even, and yesterday was the head start for preorders. According to past experience I should have spent the night without sleep and should be level 20 by now or something. Well, I haven't even touched it yet and I likely won't for a while.

Now, one reason is that I have a major deadline on October the 1st and I can't afford much play time. I'm still playing though, and it's not Aion. So what am I playing that is so much more exciting than a new MMO? Not a lot really. I'm still raiding Coliseum hardmodes, but I can't say I'm overly fussed about it. I'm not one to leave the guild hanging whenever I try a new MMO, but I usually regret raiding when I could instead play that MMO. Not so with Aion.
I've also played a bit in the League of Legends beta, and it isn't bad. But it ain't no MMO. I'm somewhat bored in the games I am playing, I have a shiny new collectors edition and a head start in an MMO that actually doesn't seem terrible - and I still can't be bothered to even log on.

Tobold wrote that the MMO market might be saturated, as indicated by the lack of hype. I couldn't care less for the hype and I really want a new, good MMO.
No, the market isn't saturated for me - it is in fact very open. There are two reasons as to why I don't really care for Aion at the moment. For one, There's nothing spectacularly new about it that I must go see now. I've seen the purdy graphics and I would like to see the PvPvE endgame at some point, but it's not shiny enough to draw me in.

The second reason is the main one. I've started many MMOs before, but I never stayed in one that I didn't join with friends. I'm not an incredibly social person and I therefore tend to stay solo in an MMO if I don't already have some friends with me. Sure, I'll group if needed and I might even join a guild. Effectively I'll stay alone though. Why is this? Why would I value people so much that not having them around makes the game less fun while at the same time not wanting to play with others?

It's the community, stupid! Maybe it is. Maybe I just dislike your general gamer kid so much that I don't want the risk of having to deal with them. Maybe the horrible, horrible attitude of the League of Legends players (note: just play and ignore the chat) puts me off of wanting to get to know other players. I know there are great ones around (like all my readers!), but the terrible ones scare me away.

Why is it that we allow all those, for lack of a better word, idiots to ruin our gaming? Nobody does it in real life, but on the internets with anonymity everybody becomes an "OMG I pwnzor u n00b!"

Anyway, do you have similar feelings? Can you, like me just not be bothered to try something new alone? Do you have an idea how to fight or at least escape the repercussions of John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory?

UPDATE: LarĂ­sa, who incidentally plays on my server, has also posted a response to Tobold's article. It has content, wit, and a red line - you know, all that stuff that my post is missing.
The comments on there also lead me to this post by Spooner on Aion vs. WoW, and WoW fanboys praising WoW come hell or high water. He is really mostly right, except for the last paragraph. "Aion feels like WoW used to." he says. No, it doesn't.
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