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I recently resubbed and can concur with Tom above: the Blood Elf starting area is very good. It doesn’t have quite so strong a set of quests as the Draenei starting area (no tree disguises or jumping off cliffs attached to a pair of great golden wings, for example) but the overall ambience of the area is fabulous, with Sorceror’s Apprentice style animated brooms sweeping up dust from the streets and arcane golems standing guard in Silvermoon City… and most importantly, the Blood Elves have a better /dance animation.

But it’s in Outland where The Burning Crusade really reignited my love for the game, however. I was there on the first night as a newly-minted level 58 Night Elf Druid, with hundreds of players from both factions crowding around the portal in Blasted Lands, having a bit of impromptu PvP (that brought down the server, as there were so many people fighting) while we waited for midnight.

Then the portal opened and we all poured through, to be met with the sight of a massive Elite demon being fought off by the portal guards. That was it, the sense of wonder was back, and didn’t go until I’d plundered every map area. Yet I still marvel at the grandeur of some of the design – it’s a genuinely phenomenal game, and as long as Blizzard keep coming up with new areas like Netherstorm or Zangarmarsh, I’ll keep buying the expansion packs.

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FFXI has a cat people race called Mithra, all female for some bizarre reason, so guys playing Mithra are called “Manthras”, and have a leper like stigma attached to them. I find it interesting that mmorpgs allow you to be anything you want to be, but change your gender and your name is mud. Anybody want to comment on that?

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I almost failed my degree due to a Morrowind addiction, i’ll be damned if i’m going to lose my job to a game.

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They should just cut any pretext and call it ‘Pavlovian response’

Designing MMO’s, money for old rope i reckon

Cheeky fcuker :)

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Blizzard and Vegas have a lot to answer for.

Thing is I’ve never understood the appeal of RPGs.
I tried playing a few on the PSP and it was just a giant holding pattern.
You’d fight and gather stuff to level up but when you did level up you just fought and gathered stuff some more.

I have an idea for a game.
You [and a bunch of other people] click regenerating dots of various colours.
When you click a number of dots they drop power-ups which have various effects on the other dots [slow down...remove some...collect all the power ups].
Every so often the game would shift slighty so it looked slightly different but remain the same game.
People can band together to tackle the game as a group.
All within a very nice chat interface that allows you to put personal info up about yourself…

I’m going to make BILLIONS!
But feel shitty about doing it whilst I swim amongst my gold coins.

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Its not surprising really. MMO’s are addictive, i played Guild Wars a scary amount. Came very close to losing my girlfriend and failing my (5 year!) degree.

I guess the fact that it creeps up on you scary but when you think about it do you suppose alcoholics or drug addicts wake up one morning and decide “Thats the life for me!”

I nearly started playing EVE this week because i heard how fun it is and then i just thought: “Do i want this to be my life?” because in the end that is what it will come down to.

I vow to never play another MMO again nor will i join another competitive clan. Its the sense of purpose and the friendships formed thats addictive and its so hard to give it up because they are REAL firendships – but the game takes over too much.

I sometimes think that something is missing in our lives if we cannot get that sense of purpose and friendship from our day to day life…

To those of you enjoying yourselves with MMO’s ask yourself this: In 5 years time when you look back at what you have done do you want your greatest achievement to be having a full set of match gear in your drug of choice?

You may say that you can play an MMO and not become obsessed – fine but remember what i said about the alcoholic and drug user no one chooses to become an addict.

Be careful and try to keep some perspective is all i say.

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Also does that mean I was a wnaker but am ok now?

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Looking back on it what scares me the most is just how insidiously it crept up on us both, I mean we are both intelligent articulate people in our 30′s who just didn’t see how it was taking over our lives. Even without thinking about it some saturdays we would get up, put Wow on on before we were dressed, just to say hello to the guild. Next thing you know you’ve done two back to back AQ20′s its five in the afternoon and you haven’t got out of your dressing gown. At the time it seemed perfectly natural, now it gives me the creeps tbh.

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