On Friday you wrote: "In my opinion games are for entertainment, not to "work" towards some virtual achievement."

I respectfully disagree with you. I think a big part of why we play in virtual worlds is because we want virtual achievements and advancements. In fact I wrote an entire post about turning to virtual worlds for a sense of advancement because of reading your post.

Advancement is so hard to come by in the real world that we end up seeking it out in our virtual worlds instead. That is one of the reasons that so many MMOs feel like work, because they are modeled on work. We might struggle to advance in our personal careers but when we play an MMO the path to advancement is crystal clear. Anyone who invests enough time can attain the highest level and get the best gear.

So, I want to know what you think of my theory that we secretly like the fact that MMOs feel like work. I think it has some merit.
 

I randomly stumbled upon your blog while looking up some MMO information and it has been an enjoyable read for me since.

Just curious... do you have any free MMO suggestions?
 

Play warstorm any more?

I have to say, the facebook version has REALLY angered me due to it's design. Playing for free has run me into a corner where I can't advance at all, relatively early on. I understand making cash payments give a huge advantage, but making them a non-required requirement is silly.

To be specific, at some point you need a third hero for a third squad. But every hero I have gotten from packs has had 2 artifact or 2 spell slots...without ever including an artifact or spell. And if a hero has one of htose slots you HAVE to use it on the card type, meaning I can't play that hero. Meaning I can't make my third squad, meaning I can't advance in the campaign or defend my territories that got barbarianed, required more heros than 2.
 

To be specific, at some point you need a third hero for a third squad. But every hero I have gotten from packs has had 2 artifact or 2 spell slots...without ever including an artifact or spell. And if a hero has one of htose slots you HAVE to use it on the card type, meaning I can't play that hero. Meaning I can't make my third squad, meaning I can't advance in the campaign or defend my territories that got barbarianed, required more heros than 2.

According to the info I have on card sets there are artefacts and spells in the "expert" packs. And you can buy those packs for silver, you don't need real money for them. Did you buy any chance buy only novice packs if you didn't find any spells and artefacts?
 

Just curious... do you have any free MMO suggestions?

That depends very much on what you are looking for. If you are looking for a MMO which resembles closely World of Warcraft, just without a monthly fee, you could try Allods or Runes of Magic.

If you want a different game experience, there are lots of other free games, many of them quite good. For example Puzzle Pirates, or Wizard 101.

Then there are countless Asian free MMOs, like Luminary, or Atlantica Online, which all have their fun aspects, but are often considered a bit grindy over here.

And then of course most MMOs with monthly subscriptions, from huge World of Warcraft to small A Tale in the Desert, offer some form of free trial.

Ultimately, whether a game is "Free2Play" or offering a free trial, you will always sooner or later hit some sort of limitation, encouraging you to spend money on the game. Game developers need food on the table too!
 

In case you weren't aware yet, there's more information on Cataclysm.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/
 

If Blizzard pulled the plug on WoW tomorrow and cancelled their next MMORPG deciding to fully leave MMORPG world, what do you think will happen to the MMORPG market? Do you think that the ex-WoW players will jump to other MMORPGs? Or do you think that they will simply stop playing MMORPGs in general? Or other answer?
 

As per wowhead.com it looks like they've started ditching features on Cataclysm. What are your thoughts on this and how can Blizzard justify ditching features from an expansion that was (in theory) 2 years in the making?
 

I think that is called "development". You start building something, see how it works out, remove the stuff that doesn't work as you want, and add new stuff instead. You wouldn't even have noticed it if you had ignored the various Cataclysm announcements.
 

According to the info I have on card sets there are artefacts and spells in the "expert" packs. And you can buy those packs for silver, you don't need real money for them. Did you buy any chance buy only novice packs if you didn't find any spells and artefacts?

Actually I've been buying all expert packs. Yes, I can buy them with silver, but since there is only so much you can do I am getting about 1 expert pack every other day and after two weeksish I still haven't gotten my second artifact (or my first spell for that matter).

It's been long enough that the game has just killed my desire to play it. There is only so long you can be stuck in the exact same spot, promised the joys of advancing, and not being allowed to actually advance you can take.
 

Looking at 2011 when the Old Republic MMO launches, I think there's a good chance it will steal a chunk of WoW's subscribers. Let's assume that happens, or that Blizzard is assuming that might happen.

How do you think Blizzard will plan for this? I see no chance of a 2011 expansion for WoW, an event that always boosts numbers for a bit.

So my guess is Blizzard will add some significant free content in 2011, probably a couple of months after Old Republic launches. What do you think they might do?

I'm guessing that besides new raid dungeons, ala ICC, we might finally see a new hero class or two released.

(What I'd really like to see, and I doubt will happen, would be a true PvP server that lets you kill anyone anywhere and give you XP for the kill.)
 

I'm guessing that besides new raid dungeons, ala ICC, we might finally see a new hero class or two released.

No. Certainly not.
Blizzard already burned themselves with the DKs. :)

In the finely tuned raid game of WoW it is incredibly difficult to just add some class.
 

@ Mark Asher

Blizzard often seems to take certain aspects of competitive titles and implement them into WoW. Wintergrasp for example was heavily influenced by DAoC and WAR. The thing is, The Old Republic seems to have nothing special going for it besides multiplayer dialogue (hurrah for pointless innovation?) and a very meticulously crafted questing game. So content wise there isn’t a whole lot Blizzard could do to rival TOR besides just add more of the same. Maybe add even more phasing? Idk.

Most of TOR's draw is the fact that it's Star Wars and Bioware, and Blizzard can't emulate either of those factors into Wow.
 

I didn't mean that WoW should emulate the Old Republic in any way, but rather Blizzard may add significant new content to generate excitement about WoW.

And I agree adding a new class would be difficult to balance, but I don't see Blizzard shying away from doing so just because it's difficult.

New classes are surely one way of generating interest among former WoW players.

And it's probably easier at least to add a DPS class and balance it.