Those who know me know that I’m not the biggest fan of MMOs. The huge commitment that comes with playing them is just too great for a father of a toddler. However, I respective the genre. The stories I’ve heard over the years from players really makes me feel like I’ve been missing out on some of gaming’s biggest moments in history. That’s not to say I haven’t been into MMOs before, it’s just the older I’ve gotten the less time I seem to have with huge story driven games.
I remember growing up in the early 2000s playing the great Runescape. Now, it’s not the same as it is now. The game was even ugly back then, but my God did I love it. I made so many great friends on there, and honestly it taught me the basics of economics. The player driven economy was some of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in a video game. I would wake up on rainy summer morning, log into Runescape, mine for a few hours, craft some awesome loot, stand in the market square in Varrok, and sell my wares to REAL players for in-game currency. I truly believe that Runescape was the template for all player driven economies in future MMOs. Having such fond memories of the game, I downloaded Old School Runescape for mobile, but couldn’t get into it for the reasons above.
Me and my wife tried to get into Elder Scrolls Online, and throughly enjoyed it being huge Elder Scrolls fans, but we ultimately fell out of it due to lack of time. The Division 2 was the only MMO we could really push through simply because it never felt like an MMO. It felt like a standard looters shooter which I’m always here for. It played similarly to Ghost Recon Wildlands which we played the absolute mess out of, so the game made us feel right at home.
A colleague of mine over at PC Gamer wrote this awesome article telling of the last few moments of Star Wars Galaxies. It’s an absolutely heart breaking read, and really made me take a moment to rethink how I feel about MMOs. Maybe in my mind I think I don’t have time for MMOs, but in actuality the commitment just turns me off. Maybe it’s time to move on from that frame of mind. I honestly feel like I’m missing out on so many great memories.
So, it’s time to move on! So many great adventures await us in the MMO genre. We already have several on our radar, those being: Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76, Warframe, Destiny 2, and DC Universe Online. If there are any you can think of for PS4 that you’d like us to try, let us know in the comments below!
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