Out of Pod Experience

I'm currently playing AC2 as well. Not sure why you think it's a good game. The way the game is made it reminds me of City of Heroes/Villains. Just like CoX its a map with generic npcs and generic quests. Add some da Vinci code-type conspiracy mumbojumo to it and you have AC2.

If you read the articles about it, you'll see that they're dumping the online version down and making WoW/SWTOR clone - there's going to be experience points based levelling (instead of skill based), no realtime combat, instances/raids, predetermined classes, quickbars for spamming actions etc. So they're basically changing everything upside down from those single player The Elder Scrolls games - the backslash from fans is hilarious if you're reading their forums.

This is the sea of bullshit that the MMORPG market floats on.

Every MMO is just NPC's and quests. People just play the MMORPG that hits them right. SWTOR, CoH/V, STO, it's not about game mechanics it's about aesthetics, pacing, and it's not about story quality it's about story tone. Silly vs serious, ratio and proportion. Then the people need a reason to justify to themselves why they play it vs the others other than just what they like the style and feel of.

I can't do it anymore. I play CoH/V for my math fix because their new IO set system builds hits me right, and it has lots of customization so I can always look cool in my own eyes. But perpetual characters in and of themselves are no longer enough to satisfy me. I'm not going to keep buying all these new MMO's with fake hooks. Just going to keep messing around on CoH/V until something good comes along.

Watching TSW for it's community. It looks like their intentionally building a stable niche player base from the start, and massive scale PvP so I will buy that and try it. GW2 is trying team mechanics and twitch mechanics all at once. Definitely in on that. The rest can suck it.

I'm curious about The Secret World.

The theme is right up my alley, so i'm pretty curious as well. Already signed up for beta, but i think they're only choosing beta participants who play their browser game using facebook, and i'll never have a facebook page.

Vanilla skyrim is ok.

It's really all about the mods. If you aren't running at least 60 core mods you're doing it wrong.

There is a commonly held opinion that people don't want anything new, they want the same old **** tossed into a blender and forcefed to them.

Bullshit.

So, I was going to buy skyrim before I learned that it requires installing Steam. I don't like Valve for reasons that have nothing to do with this, so instead I bought and tried Assassin's Creed 2. Between my frequent afking for real life stuff, I really don't have much time on my hands as of late. So, as a single player RPG, it fits.

I'm absolutely loving it. My main problem with many RPGs (and, for that matter, MMORPGs - Hello, WoW, STO, SWG, SWTOR, AOC, etc) is that they build their enviroments as something that is "just there" as opposed to something the player interacts with - a means to an end - that make for things being possible that are quite interesting and in a sense, dynamic.

There is a commonly held opinion that people don't want anything new, they want the same old **** tossed into a blender and forcefed to them.

Bullshit.

The thing I like about Assassin's Creed is the fact that the world shaping allows for many different methods to solving a problem whereas, for example in something like Mass Effect, or KOTOR1/2.. you're led down a hallway with a facade of it having an impact on things. The problem, likewise with Starwars Galaxies was that the worlds were basically flat save for terrain modifications and buildings. You couldn't, for an absurd example, sit on top of the Wayfar cantina while waiting for someone. Likewise, body disposal in AC2 can be pretty easy, as far as just dumping people into rivers/oceans/ponds or whatever. EVE devs, take note: When WIS comes out, I've got a list of people I want to toss out of the airlock of my ship or the station I reside in - this isn't a must, but it would make me (and im sure many others) very, very happy.

Thats my other gripe, many MMORPGs are erring on the side of controlling/protecting players from other players and themselves. For example in SWG, you could actually manufacture houses and other stuff for use in world (kind of like starbases in EVE, except houses in SWG weren't a huge pain in the ass and having one was actually pretty cool at times). They do this for fear of the creative ways we can collectively come up with to screw with each other. In turn, this excessive control hurts them (Hello, WoW, SWTOR - and quite possibly EVE. Hi Greyscale - we'll see).

Point is, sandboxes are awesome and should be used more with functions that promote creative things being done to people by other people. Games like WoW or SWTOR are fun for some and could be enjoyable, if you're into them - I am, at times, I admit - but the more that tools and functions reside with the player being given as many choices as possible - game functionality and otherwise, the better.

Don't get me started on UI and modification, thats for another time, hahaha.