Onward marching soliders...

2006...what was it good for??

It was not a great gaming year for MMOs. This year was mostly about WoW. If I had a dime for every WoW related article, podcast, and screen shot I would be a very rich man. Of course, this blog is very guilty of that as well. Can't blame us really and it does prove that 2006 was a dull MMO year if all we're talking about is one game. I'm hoping to keep the WoW chatter on this blog site to a minimum. I'll probably be only commenting on major news coming out of Blizzard and some stories of my adventures from 60-70...that's it. I hereby give you permission to virtually slap me for any WoW fluff that I put up here.

I restarted Eve Online and like I mentioned before, this game and I really did not like each other at first. That all changed when I got the point of the game...setting your own goals. My first goal of the game was to get a cruiser, and when I accomplished that first goal a giant light-bulb went on over my head. I'm not really "playing" Eve right now, just skilling up. I'm going to stick with this one because I really want to see the graphics upgrades and other goodies they put in when they finish up the Revelations patch.

Started playing EQ2 again in 2006. I first started it when it launched in 2004 and promptly left due to its bad execution. It was the first MMO that I joined a guild in...and I'm glad I did. The friendships that I made in that guild are still going on today. I started, stopped and restarted EQ2 a couple of times with the latest being the EoF expansion. The game is really good, but its just not sticking with me. I'm not sure if its because of the amount of time I'm spending in the two betas or if its the game itself, but something is missing. I think it comes down to the fact that I really don't have a solid group to play with in EQ2, so there really is no motivation to log in.

The Surprises of 2006

Ryzom was a nice surprise for me in 2006, even though I didn't end up signing up for it in the end. The game play was fresh but the character graphics and lore just didn't grab me. I'm very glad that this one came along to add some variety in this WoW dominated year.

I'm going to be keeping an eye on this game for 2007 as I may go back to see if it hooks me. I put this one in the same category as EQ2, i.e. I want this game to hook me and I'll give it every opportunity to do so.

Going Forward in 2007

Going forward in 2007 for MMOs, we've got an exciting year ahead of us. All of the blogs I frequent, the podcasts, we're all going to have a very good year in 2007...if everything works according to plan. We've got some big hitters coming out:

• Vanguard (Q1 2007)
• Age of Conan (Q2 2007)
• Warhammer Online (Q4 2007)
• Lord of the Rings Online (Q2 2007)
• Gods and Heroes (Q1 2007)
• WoW: Burning Crusade (Q1 2007)

I plan on hitting every one of those and post reviews here...but my plan is to really stick with only one plus Eve. Right now, I feel like an 8 year old with ADD...I'm jumping all over the place. The plan is to try each of these, and by the end of 2007, to have one MMO to rule them all.

The Gaming Resolution

Brent over at Virgin Worlds posted his latest show #45. The show has great interviews/commentary with almost all of the major players (as far as I'm concerned) in the MMO blog/podcast space. In the show, he asked everyone what their gaming new years resolution will be. It's a great idea and I had better follow suit since I'm a junior member of the community (Brent tends to beat those who don't comply.... :) )

So, my gaming resolution is to find one MMO and stick to it until I get max level. I've only got to max level in WoW...and thats really not a true MMO accomplishment. I do want this game to replace WoW so I'm hoping that one of the games on the list will be one to do it.

The Site

I reopened this site this year after a bad false start earlier in the year. The reason I didn't get it going earlier was a lack of focus on my part. Well...I've got that focus, i.e. MMO commentary/reviews with a bit of news and fun stuff. 95% gaming, 5% of stuff I see happening around me. I've gotten some great support from people like Brent (Virgin Worlds) and Bill Harris (Dubious) to help me get this site out there...without them, I think I'd still be talking to myself.

For the coming year, I'm going to put more solid content up. I've been mixing it up with link blogging and commentary and as I grow I want to try to get rid of the link blogging and put more commentary, editorials and reviews up. This will involve more work, but hey, I like doing this so it's something I look forward to.

As I mentioned before, I'm doing some developing on my spare time (such that it is). I would like to grow that into a site feature, where I step through my designs for a game, post the code and try to help others who would be interested. This is probably a 2008 resolution due to how long its going to take for me to really get proficient in C++ programming , but there it is.

So....2006 is almost behind us and we have 2007 lurking above the horizon like the monster that it is. I'm really excited about the future of MMOs and about the future growth of this site. Even if no one is reading in the end, I'll still write and continue to be a voice out there.

Talk to you soon.

D out