I did this a while ago, and thought it should be a recurring feature — take the temperature of where I’m at in relation to current and upcoming MMOs.
HOT
- Star Wars: The Old Republic – We’ve officially shifted into second gear in terms of excitement, info, hype and speculation about this title. E3 was huge for TOR, blogs are springing up all over the place to talk about this title, and so far BioWare is rising to meet the (impossible) standards of Star Wars fans.
- Champions Online – With the release delay to September 1, I’ve let my enthusiasm wane a little bit as I prepare to hunker down for a summer of waiting. But everything points to an awesome fall full of superhero fun, and I can’t wait to roll my legion of champions.
WARM
- Dungeons and Dragons Online – I never thought this would be on my list, at least until they declared that a core part of the game would become free to play (with an optional subscription and a RMT store). Suddenly, I’m itching to get back into Turbine’s little MMO. Will it be enough to save the title? Let’s see…
- LOTRO – Still playing, still enjoying, although certainly not at the compulsive levels that I have in this and other titles. Getting to the Moria content is a long haul, especially for a part-time player. Pleased that Turbine (unlike some companies) are revisiting and adding to low level content even as a bulk of players are at the end game.
- Star Trek Online – Only because we’ve heard word that this’ll come out in early 2010, which means that next spring could be a fun time of giving this title a try. But I really don’t think it’ll stand much of a chance against Star Wars, unless it’s either way better than I anticipate, or TOR is way worse.
LUKEWARM
- Warhammer – I’ve since unsubscribed to the title that dominated over a year of my gaming attention, and while I wish it well (especially with their Land of the Dead gamble), I don’t see anything that’s going to entice me back into Mythic’s world.
- Aion – Despite Snaffy’s enthusiasm over it, and despite its success overseas and reportedly smooth gameplay, Asian MMOs are not appealing to me, and there’s nothing here (other than perhaps flying combat) that screams “Must play me!”
- Guild Wars – I’ve reinstalled this on my computer, but haven’t logged in once to give it another whirl. Someday. Perhaps.
- City of Heroes – The architect system came out to huge amounts of praise, then huge amounts of exploits, then huge amounts of devs lowering the boom. Would be interested in hearing about the expansion, but unless Champions is so horrible as to be repellant, I don’t think I’ll ever log into CoH again.
- World of Warcraft – It’s got a lot of players, to be sure, but the buzz is almost non-existent on this 4-year-old title. BlizzCon might do something to whip up the loyal fans, but with Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and an unnamed MMO on its way, it’s not as though WoW is the only thing they want people interested in.
COLD
- Darkfall – The more that some of the hardcore bloggers rave about it, the less I care. If it’s your thing, great, but there’s nothing there for me. And that company has set some kind of record for worst customer relations ever.
- Free Realm – Tasted it and spat it back out. Way too sugary, too unfocused and too kiddy for my appetite.
Pretty much agreed across the board. Except Star Trek is further down on my list. I just have no interest.
“But I really don’t think it’ll stand much of a chance against Star Wars, unless it’s either way better than I anticipate, or TOR is way worse.”
I’m not sure, it’s sounding more and more to me as though they are just different types of games. Somehow the appeal of being captain on a federation science vessel with a crew of my own to fly around the galaxy … it’s still cool in its own right.
But I’d also have put Jumpgate Evolution up on the list because it’s probably the one I’m most interested in this year. More of that flying around in space thing
Darkfall is brilliant in some ways and horrible in most of them. It is very much a niche game and I doubt you’d enjoy it, Syp. It’s a game for backstabbing opportunistic assholes.
I have been meaning to do another one of these. WAR is, of course, pretty hot on my list right now. That’s really about it though, as everything else seems so far off.
Hey, long time reader here. Anyways, wondering what your impressions on Mortal Online are. Recently they announced the preorder info and some hesitant data on the release date (Q4 2009). Maybe since it is in the same vein as darkfall it still won’t be your thing, but with some of the guys that worked on UO on the team and a better company in general it has got to peak your interest a little bit.
@ Serenikill – No thoughts on Mortal Online, haven’t really checked it out. Sorry!
@ Spinks – I agree, two very different types of games except for the scifi connection. I guess I was trying to say that I’m not planning on playing more than one scifi game at a time — same with fantasy, superhero, etc.
Where does Runes of Magic go on your list (I’m guessing cold lol)?
You seem to be a big Champions guy, are you aware of DCUO as well? It’s set to be its direct competitor, both are action focused superhero games that are set to come out on consoles (DCUO coming out on the PS3) but you rarely talk about it, granted, there’s not that much news. Where is it on your radar?
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Wow your hot/cold list is almost exactly the same as mine. Scary that. I’m more excited about Aeon, but only because I’ve always had a weakness for korean-drawn female avatars and the lingerie that habitually passes for armor for them. Purely superficial reasons.
I’m a long time fan of CoH, and have regularly maintained four accounts, for my entire family. I’m in the process of cancelling all of them. For me as well, Mission Architect and its ensuing debacle have sucked the life out of the game.
Also, the Atari Basic Programming cover is OUTSTANDING. Sadly, I actually recall asking my mom to get that for me..
Dlangar
I must be the only person in the world who is “meh” about the new Star Wars MMO.
@ Lars – Yes. Yes you are.
I’m suprised you didn’t put Aion hunder the Hot, or at least the Warm, category. Everyone seems to be going bananas over it atm.
I’d personally put Star Trek further up the list. It could potentially be very good, if they marry up the different elements. Star Wars seems to be the poster boy for hot new MMOs, but it doesn’t seem to be doing anything new, so the IP must be the big pull here.
@Lars – No. No you’re not