Confessions of a MMO Addict

Hello, my name is Haggis. I am a Massive Multiplayer Online video game addict.

I’ve downloaded a couple trials of two of the more recent MMO games out there: Dungeons & Dragons: Stormreach and Lineage II. I’ve cracked out on World of Warcraft and City of Heroes/Villains in the past, so trying out new MMO’s is something I’m really enjoying.

I actually beta-tested D&D: Stormreach and was semi-impressed, but it was just too similar to WoW for me to actually want to purchase the game. I just read a review in Computer Gaming Monthly about Stormreach and it’s level-10 capping, so when I noticed a 7-day free trial (no credit card required!) on the official website I jumped at the chance to play for free. I’ll be playing on the Thelanis server under the name of Thantakos until next Thursday night.

For Lineage II, I have a 14 day Free Trial from when I bought City of Villains that i’ve never used. I’m currently trying to download the game, but their FTP site seems to be overloaded with users. When I finally get on stable financial ground again I’m thinking of trying Guild Wars next, mostly because there is no monthly membership.

That’s the rough part of playing these games; they’re fun and incredibly addicting, but justifying forking over the standard $15 monthly membership fee after you’ve already paid $50 just to play the game can be difficult. Sure they give you 30 days free when you buy it, but that’s just enough to make you feel guilty that you’ve wasted time if you don’t continue to pay after investing all those hours of gameplay.

The most I’ve stuck with MMO games is about six months before I get tired of the high-level grind. This is the stage of the game where you so close to the maximum progress you can make with your character as far as getting new powers or skills. When you get close to this point, it takes a long, long time to get to the next “level” which changes from game to game. Some like City of Heroes/Villains and World of Warcraft go to 50, while Guild Wars and D&D: Stormreach only to 20. When I get to that point, my interest starts to wander in the game because I’m no longer enjoying it. It’s almost become a job and that’s not exactly what i’m looking for in a video game.

If anyone wants to join me, go get the trial of Stormreach. The download is about 1.7gb so it may take a few hours just to download. Be sure not to activate the trial key they email you until the game is downloaded and installed, so you’ll have the full amount of time to play. Remember, create a character on the Thelanis server. Hope to see you there!