MMOs and Me

Sometime very recently Steam started pushing out free-to-play online games for all Steam users. The games had been around before Steam, of course, but were now advertised for gamers who may have never heard of them before. Out of boredom and free time I decided to check out Spiral Knights as well as try out Champions Online: Free for All again. While doing this, I started to recognize other MMO games and am currently in full swing of a MMO obsession.

Every once in a while I go through these phases. What's strange about it though is that for the most part I really hate MMOs. I tried World of Warcraft some years ago and could never get into it. The layout was alien to me and the quests were too boring. For a long time I felt bad about it though. Why was it that I couldn't like the game when millions of other players did? Obviously that was a silly worry though a there are tons of "popular" games I have no interest in. Either way, over the years I've come to find many online games are basically WoW clones which is probably why I dislike them so much.

For a while, I did enjoy Phantasy Star Online with a group of friends. I think it was the friends more than the game itself that kept me going. After that, I found I kind of enjoyed City of Heroes. Excitingly, that game is going free to play later this year. Most of the games though are samey Korean MMOs that fail to catch my interest. For the most part, I'd have written off MMOs from my gaming life. That is, until this most recent meeting with new ones.

Spiral Knights whetted my appetite. Then APB: Reloaded went free-to-play and I tried it and liked it. Now I'm trying out the 14 day free trial for EVE Online and I really, really like it. That's probably the most worrisome though since it's still a subscription-based game and I know I'd never actually subscribe. That's just a little too far for me. Regardless, I'm amazed at how much I am enjoying these games. I suppose it took 6 or so years of WoW domination to make companies start making their own original things. Speaking of which, Hellgate: London is being resurrected as free-to-play as well I think so I'm going to check that out sometime. Expect to see my impressions of each MMO this week.