Tyranny of Heaven [ToH]

I haven't blogged here in a while. In fact, I haven't blogged anywhere in general for a while. But today feels somewhat significant because after some 3.5-4 years of playing WoW, I finally let my subscription lapse.

End game was fun for a while. The height of raiding, for me, was back in the old days of 40-man raids. But after a few years raiding, it just got way too repetitive. The rewards (which mainly consisted of pride of conquering new content... along with gear) were eventually overshadowed. Raiding was too much of a time sink (16 to 20 hours a week)... and it really became far too frustrating. I play to have fun, and I stopped having fun some time ago.

In fact, I "quit" around this time last year as well. But it was less permanent because I kept my subscription. (And when I met a few guildies at Blizzcon, I was inspired to return.) But even now, I'm planning my (temporary) return when the new expansion comes out. But I will probably never raid again, in WoW or any game.

Or rather, in general, I don't think I will ever spend such a huge chunk of time playing any single game.

Anyway, I don't regret it. I had my fun, made some new friends. And I got to see and experience more of WoW than I ever would have, had I just stuck to playing casually.

Nowadays, I play EVE Online and Age of Conan. EVE Online was a welcome change from the tired old mold of MMORPGs. I'm a bit bummed I didn't play earlier. (It always had my interest, but it never occurred to me to actually start playing. I finally took the plunge when it came to Steam...) Anyway, I think I really enjoy it precisely because it is not a time sink.

No experience points, no levels... but unfortunately, there's still a bit of grinding (for standings and for money). Being a fan of "garage"-type games, the whole offline gaming thing is also interesting to me (that is, coming up with training plans and ship fits).

Anyway, as I said, I'm also playing Age of Conan. Though I'm quickly being disenchanted by all the bugs and changes. I think it was released way too early and it feels like I'm participating in open beta or something.

Though for me, AoC is just a placeholder for Warhammer Online. Now there's a game I'm really looking forward to, a PvP game from the ground up that is also seemingly well thought-out. By all means, I'm no hardcore PvPer, but I find that I enjoy games that have PvP as their end game more. Even though I don't play it much anymore, I still loved the competitive (and non-gear based) PvP system in Guild Wars and I'm still looking forward to Guild Wars 2. And of course, there's the ruthless PvP system of EVE which I am also loving.

Anyhow, just an update. I'm still around and I'm still gaming.