I wish I could find a good MMO

So I was looking for a distraction from school this one time and thought to myself, “Hey, an MMO would be nice!” Thus the search began to find a MMO that I could actually get into and wouldn’t abandon my characters after a month or so. What I found, however, was The Matrix Online.

I started actually playing this game during beta testing and thoroughly enjoyed it. What made it so fun was not necessarily the gameplay–it was more the community. There was one server running and all the beta testers knew each other. I guess this is a major reason people can ruin their lives over MMOs, but for me, even the best community won’t keep me playing an un-fun game. Once the game released, the shit hit the proverbial fan. First of all, I hate how MMOs are split onto different servers; don’t feed me that BS that it is the only technological way possible because I don’t care. Fix the problem network programmers. The game’s release also drastically changed the community, leveling at lower levels was different than what I had learned in beta, combat still absolutely sucked, and all I got was a plain black virtual t-shirt as recognition for beta testing. The new gang members in lower level areas were the worst: where you could experience the awesomeness of the movies kicking gangs’ asses earlier, now they could one hit kill you. Lame bitch tactics were the best solution. THAT’S NOT FUN MONOLITH (especially if you’re a newbie and that’s the first thing you encounter). It actually drains the fun from you. Crap, even with all the bugs in Enter the Matrix, it doesn’t drain you like MxO does. Why is it that The Matrix films (or any flicks, for that matter) can’t be converted into good games? Let’s hope Stargate Worlds doesn’t misfire, too. Please Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, learn from Monolith’s mistakes!

This isn’t just MxO though. I think the entire genre needs a revolutionary game that breaks away from all the mundane and “inherent” parts of leveling up, learning every aspect of the game, and not being able to put the game on hold for a while without doing major catch-ups later. I want to be able to pick up the game and immediately have the same kind of fun experience as the guy who hasn’t logged off for more than 20 minutes this week (it would’ve been 15 minutes, but his supply of Red Bull ran low). Hello? Are MMO developers reading this? Why aren’t there minigames or puzzles or even interactions with other people as well as market stuff that can give experience? I don’t want to spend 30 hours killing endless mobs, and I don’t want to find an exploit that will do it for me either! Why can’t the person’s gaming skill help determine level? Dammit, I hope they can make Starate Worlds a successful MMOFPS so skill is rewarded, not patience.

Enough of my continuing disappointments in MMOs and back to MxO. I stuck with it long enough for their combat revision to release, but I don’t know why. They lied when they said they were fixing multiple enemy engagements. Hell, single enemy engagements were still terrible. Leveling still didn’t make sense. Events were becoming exclusive to higher levels and people of “importance.” And my black beta t-shirt was still sitting in my inventory collecting dust. The only entertaining thing remaining: standing in a crowd running as many emotes as I could till somebody tossed their spare change into my hat on the sidewalk.

It wasn’t all painful, however. It really was a great community during beta. I made some friends, listened to the great online radio stations dedicated to MxO, and went to some surprisingly fun eRaves. The world builders did an amazing job creating Megacity (but a little more variety of buildings couldn’t hurt). It looked straight from The Matrix with all the clothing, events and main characters. And I did manage to ignore school for many hours per week. Not bad.

Not surprisingly, a movie game was disappointing–and doubly so for me since it’s an MMO. One of these days, someone will get it right, even if I have to do it myself. For now, you go on back to your Warcrack while I think of emails to send to Cheyenne Mountain threatening castration if they screw up. Nobody is gonna defile my Stargate… oh, and MxO gets a plain ol’ 2 out of 5.

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