Ahh yes, The Elder Scrolls. A game where your character can master stealth, magic, lockpicking and just about anything you want, simply by practicing their desired field of expertise. Classes were more of an idea where you wanted to start, but the game allowed you to excel at anything you wanted through practice, until Skyrim abandoned the class system altogether. It was no longer necessary.
One thing I've been particularly fond of ever since Morrowind is modding the crap out of my game. Upgraded textures, enhanced immersion, custom-made characters, weapons and armor - sure, more than 90% of all the user-made stuff is utter shit, but once you filter that from the true gems out there, it can vastly enhance your gaming experience, if you so desire.
To me, TES has always been about immersion. A living, breathing game world that centers around me, because I'm the fucking hero, the Dragonborn, Sean Bean's errand boy, the Nerevarine, whatever the fuck kinda theme each game decided to go for.
I like my online games, comparing dicks, who's got the biggest sword and the most massive DPS, yada, yada, yada. But TES is different, it's mine, I shape this world any way I want and you can't fucking have it! Nobody else allowed in here! And now they've announced The Elder Scrolls Online ('TESO') and I should probably feel excited about the chance to play a Khajiit thief on the 'net, but all I can feel right now is my palm's imprint right on my forehead. It's Elder Scrolls minus the fucking Elder Scrolls!
I mean, look at the features here: Instead of the freeform character progression the series has established over the years, they're going with a traditional class system (i.e. fighter, mage, thief... yawn!). And with it being an MMO, modding is completely out of the window. What else is there? Oh yeah, a slightly more action-based combat system, which still mostly works like WoW and a personal storyline on top of the daily grind. Okay, so no more "do what you want" sandbox style gameplay, no custom-made items, characters, quests AND NOTHING TO SAVE ME FROM DARKSHÀDOPWNROXXOR4U AND HIS FUCKING ROFLSPAM IN PUBLIC CHAT!
I love TES, because there are no god damn drama queens, no religious/atheist/vegan assholes and no god damn fucking bronies. There, I said it. If you're a "brony" or a "pegasis" I fucking hate you and I hope you will die the fat, ugly, unloved virgin that you most probably are! And now the guys at Zenimax decide it's my greatest wish to put up with all these fucks in the next Elder Scrolls game! Hurray!
Seriously though - what is supposed to make me want to play this game, when they've already removed all of my favourite features? The possibility to play in a generic fantasy world with generic fantasy races? I love my orcs, elves and lizard people as much as the next dork, but you gotta offer a little more than that to get me hyped up. The world of Tamriel simply isn't that interesting! It's far from boring, but there is nothing to make it stand out in comparison to, say, Azeroth, Tyria or any other generic, derivative fantasy universe out there. I'm sure the personal storyline is a nice touch, that stuff made SWTOR and GW2 more fun, but that alone won't make me want to get into a new online game. It didn't stop TOR from becoming a commercial failure, either. And don't get me started on the toned-down graphics for the sake of performance. I mean, hey, Skyrim's visuals weren't a strong selling point or anything, right? Let's make it look juuust a little more like WoW from here, people love that shit. Yeah.
So, what else is new? I see more and more friends talking about how they're still crazy about new games like Torchlight 2 or Pandaria, but they're not gonna play as much, because "they have different priorities now". Yeah. It's all about the priorities today. Family, friends, work... you guys must have had the loneliest, laziest childhood! I dunno about you folks, but when I stayed up all night to play games in my teens, I still had to study for exams, do my homework, drag my ass to school every day. And if I wanted new games on the table, I had to get a fucking job in order to afford them! And unlike nowadays, where staying in touch with my friends means liking their stupid cat pictures on Facebook, I actually still had to talk to them. And I still managed to take part in raids. Priorities, my ass. You people are old! There is nothing wrong with getting old, it happens to most of us, but don't gimme that crap about how you're all grown up and mature now and real life is so much more important now. You're just too weak and too tired to compete over useless virtual shit as much as you used to.
Also, GW2. My ranger is approaching the level cap just as steadily as my motivation is approaching an end. I got my money's worth out of the game, but the whole "everything for everyone, you don't need to work for your stuff" approach doesn't do it for me. My first character has the mightiest items possible in every single slot, most of which I just grabbed from the tradepost ('auction house'), the rest I farmed in the dreadful, crappy dungeons. With the ranger I'm probably gonna do more or less the same thing and that's it for me. What else am I supposed to do? There are no rare mounts to camp, no epic gear to work for (unless you wanna count farming towards cosmetic legendary weapons, whose crafting-recipes are yet to be revealed) and the world vs world pvp is only playable if you don't mind spending 4 hours queued up waiting to get in. Not fun.
I love the game world and the music and the fast-paced combat and everything. Maybe I can get myself to power up a warrior or something, but that's definitely it. All my friends have already moved on to Torchlight 2 and Borderlands 2, the latter of which I don't really give a fuck about, and with every dragon slain, with every epic - sorry, exotic - piece of gear obtained, there isn't much to keep me entertained. Which is perfectly alright, mind. I had tons of fun and I can't wait for new content to be released, I'll happily grab whatever expansion packs they throw at me, but for the time being, I'm done.
Oh and let's cross all available fingers and toes for Claire and I to finally make our wedding official and everything, if only so I can change my name to Nicholson. It's one thing when a publisher asks me for an honest review on an incredibly shitty game, then adds the line, "it's still pretty fun!" without letting me know and there's my name and face next to the damn thing. Now I've been asked to count up ten things that WoW does better than GW2. The article has gone online, there's my name underneath and the mob of angry, drooling, entitled gamers has already begin burning their magazines in my name. It's fun how people on the internet only accept their own personal opinion as the one and only truth, the law, the word of god and anyone with a different opinion deserves to die. Not only aren't other forum-users and authors entitled to their own opinions - having a different opinion has to and always will be considered a personal insult.
It would he hilarious if it wasn't so stupid. I like GW2 better than WoW, actually. But when somebody asks me, "So, is there anything you think WoW does better than GW2" and I say, "Mounts?" I void my right to live. The internet is a cruel place full of morons.
-Cat
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