Editor's Voice: 2003 Games
Dialogue, 2003-12-29

While for the most part we try to stay somewhat unbiased, we here at MMORPGDot have to face facts: We're fans too. So here at the end of the year we're going to take a quick moment to highlight our opinions of the games of 2003. Today we have Ekim, Devin, and Hyrrix weighing in, with the rest of the staff throwing out their opinions on Friday.

Star Wars Galaxies icon remains on my desktop today. I have a love-hate relationship with Galaxies. I love the world (showing my age), but hate the technical issues the game exhibits from time to time. I hate pouring money into the Lucas machine that decided to kill some of my favorite single player games (goodbye Full Throttle 2, sniff, you sad stillborn. Sniff, I know you could have been something. Maybe you can meet Fallout 3 in heaven ... Awwwwwgawd ...{sounds of bawling}). Despite my abhorance of the "all things Star Wars" stance that LucasArts adopted, I do like a MMORPG that appeals to gamers over thirty. It is nice to see people name their characters using something other than gangsta speak or constantly chatting you to throw down yo. In conclusion, SWG ... Word!

Ekim (Editorial Writer & Editor)

There wasn't a whole lot to sink our teeth into this year. Unfortunately many titles got pushed back, but then I think that was a good thing. Patience always had its rewards. But this year I guess for me it went from bad, to not-so-bad, and then back again to bad. The year began with Asheron's Call 2, which isn't a bad game on its own only I rather think it fell on some dismal times. The lifelessness of it alone was enough to pull me out of the game. Then came Shadowbane and… well. No use in wasting any precious time on this one. The year got a little boost with the arrival of Star Wars Galaxies, which probably saved the year for me as far as mmorpgs go. Given the potential ironing out of a few more questionable features (that might have been fixed since the time I left), SWG might still eventually rank among the best games of the genre. As for the rest of the year, suffice to say that it's a pretty good thing there are single-player games to enjoy while the drought lasts. Then again, I have a feeling that next year will be quite the opposite, and maybe we'll have too many games. Until we see what happens next, I'll wish every mmorpg gamer a better year in 2004!

Hyrrix (Editor-in-chief)

It's been quite a busy year, without any real addictions for me. I finally quit playing Dark Age of Camelot in the beginning of 2003, and never went back to it. I had been playing it since early beta, and for some reason I always kept coming back to it. Next for me came Shadowbane. Since I expected them to take so long before releasing the game in Europe, I ordered it from the US and started playing with some friends. I'm sure some of my colleagues here at MMORPGDot will disagree with this, but I still think the game is a beauty. No, not literally, but speaking gameplay-wise. I'm not too fond of class-systems usually, but the one in Shadowbane really is yummie. Yes, the point and click is annoying, yes it was so laggy that I usually had to try looting a corpse twice before I could actually find where it was actually lying, but still... I liked it. Not only for its PvP options, but also for being one of the only mmorpg's out there that actually encourages role-playing with success. But I didn't stick to it. Maybe I tried it at the wrong times, I don't know.

So, what else did we have? Asheron's Call 2: played the beta for a while, didn't like it at all. After a time I actually started to hate the whole concept with a passion. If this was what the genre would bring us in the future, I was done with it. And why? I don't know. There was nothing wrong with it, or at least nothing I could put my finger on - but still it was empty. I decided not to buy into it. What else didn't I like? Star Wars Galaxies. I had some difficulties with it. It had good stuff... yes, the skill system was amazing, the customization of the characters, the housing, the crafting stuff was excellent. But I got bored very soon. The planets were empty and repetitive eye-candy, the economy was a bit dull, the PvP a bit too chaotic, the Jedi promises a bore and the missions a pain. A nice experience all in all for a short while, and I promised myself to come back in a few months. Still have to do that, but maybe I'll wait for the space expansion. We'll see. Then I played A Tale in the Desert. The surprise of the year, my favourite mmorpg and one that deserves respect. Undoubtly the most mature and interesting game in this genre that I have played since I quit fooling around with MUD's. I can see why people don't like it, and explaining what it is about often makes it sound dull or boring: building things in a desert. But in fact it's the most evolved version of virtual worlds that I've come across in years. Here's one eagerly looking forward to the Second Telling which will start somewhere next year.

Then there was Anarchy Online: Shadowlands. A very promising expansion, a nice storyline, a great gradual-progression theme and a very stable gameplay. The expansion delivered everything it promised, but it isn't revolutionary. All in all, I enjoyed it for a while, but the over-presence of powergamers and the sorrow state of the social structures (compared to the older days) of the game finally made me quit that one as well. The game that I'll be ending 2003 with is not yet finished and has just this month moved on to its first beta phases. The game's called "Wish", and you can rest assured that you'll be seeing quite some more content on that one in 2004!