Play More Than One MMO

I recently realized that MMOs are my favourite game genre, starting with my introduction to them in my younger days (looking at you, Maplestory!) These days I'm older, tired all the time, way too busy, and often suffering from "empty fridge" symptom when looking at my Steam library. Why then would I recommend playing more than one MMO?

MMOs are designed to keep you playing. There's always something to do, and once you're done with that, you can create an alt and experience it all again (hopefully differently). I desire sometimes to learn every inch of the virtual world I'm invested in, so creating an alt allows me to explore the world again through a different set of eyes, a different set of abilities, and maybe even a different path to the end. I've only done it once in WoW and thousands of time in Maplestory. Lately, however, rather than making multiple trips to the same world, or rather, having the desire to do so, I've been finding myself more inclined to experience different worlds, different games and titles.

Currently my time is spent in WoW, WildStar, ArcheAge, and some short tours into Trove. I could even include Assassin's Creed 2, but I recently completed that game, and that's not an MMO, but my point still stands: I rather experience MMOs rather than games or franchises. I recall a relevant phrase that I read during the early console wars, which was "I play games, not consoles." Well, I play MMOs, not an MMO.

My recent journey in WoW Legion is complicated. Let me go back to October/November 2016. At this time, I needed a new MMO. WoW was just not cutting it for me post Legion launch. I main a Shadowpriest, and having reached level 110, my ilevel stabilised around 790 and I found all mobs (yes, quest mobs) were far too difficult for me. This was conflicting with how I wanted to play the game, where I needed to complete all the quests before proceeding to the next level of content, Suramar. I was really enjoying PvP, however, which never happened until this expansion. But I needed that MMO feeling, so I started up a new character in WildStar. 

I've tried WildStar before but it didn't click with me at first. This time around, I tried a melee class and came to the realization that I prefer melee over ranged (it was reverse true for me in TERA - go figure). Around this time I was also playing Assassin's Creed 2, since I never played it before. The levelling experience in WildStar, coupled with Assassin's Creed 2, really made me remember why I play games in the first place: fun! I was just not having fun with WoW. 

ArcheAge's Revelation Expansion/Patch 3.0 came out around the time I beat Assassin's Creed 2, so I decided to return and give it another try, because, to be honest, dwarves. I wanted to see how they would be handled, and so far I'm loving it. I'm NOT playing on a fresh start server either. My thought process is that most people have moved to the fresh start servers, so I can try the game at peace, maybe planting gardens in a hidden location, maybe they won't get griefed, maybe, we'll see.

Thanks to some of my buddies who carried me through some Mythics, I'm now at a point in WoW where I can do what I want; I can queue for all sorts of content, so I have to get my satisfaction from other games. I've changed my attitude from "wasting my time" playing other games, instead of heavy gear grinding in WoW, to "time playing" other games. As long as I have fun doing it, I don't care. I can park my character in WildStar, come back in a week, do some quests, log out. I had fun, didn't I? 

The other advantage is that a "pay to win" game like ArcheAge now is just a "play to have fun" game. I'm not worrying about being super competitive. It's about the journey, about setting my own goals and meeting them. This is fun for me.

I believe a change in attitude from a majority of MMO players can only help the genre. We tend to get too demanding when content gets stale, or when there's an anti-consumer update (hey, Black Desert Online!) We players aren't entitled to anything except an enjoyable experience. Derive yours from more than one game, and you'll see, that "feeling" you used to get from MMOs comes back.

Assassin's Creed Movie Review

Assassin's Creed exceeded my expectations for a movie based upon the popular video game franchise. It was an entertaining film that stuck to the lore of the game closely. I have no serious complaints.

The movie borrows its plot heavily from the first game in the series. A man is taken by the Abstergo corporation to delve into his past using the Animus to locate the Apple of Eden. Fans of the game rejoice - it's all there!

With that said, I have to nitpick the beginning of the movie. It opens with crawling text, introducing the concepts of Assassins and Templars and the nature of the Apple of Eden. This was completely unnecessary as the plot actually explains the conflict in depth. This scene isn't too long, but I felt it confused rather than informed. As a fan of the games, I found myself thinking if this was accurate or not from the get go (it was, but I still had to think about it). This text was immediately followed by a scene of an Assassin's initiation (was it Fassbender's Assassin? I'm still not sure). The Assassin's speak Spanish and thus their dialogue is subtitled, which is a horrible way to begin a movie and disengage your audience right from the start. 

The Spanish speaking was a nice touch and I actually applaud the film for taking this route instead of having English speakers with bad accents, like the games. There were many unique cinematographic choices to note in this film, however, I have to disagree with some of them. They gave the film the feel of a student film - for example, a scene in which Fassbender's character has lighting coming in from different angles, highlighting and shadowing his face in multiple ways. I have no other complaints for this scene, since it actually fits the scene, but it did give the film an amateur feel. Other examples could be found in the delivery of the dialogue, in which sometimes it was rushed and sometimes it was too slow and lacked nuance.

The slow beginning was followed by a cohesive act, after Fassbender's character's first trip into the Animus. The result was a plot which was easy to follow for first-timers into Assassin's Creed lore. The action sequences, both in historic Spain and modern-day Abstergo, were brilliant, especially when they were faded into one another. I found myself squinting and squirming from the quick brutality of the fights, and this is a good thing. I found this to be an acceptable departure from the games; it would be difficult to show button mashing on the screen, so these fights in the film actually had style and depth. It was nice to watch.

Source: 20Th Century Fox

My final complaint is with some choices in editing. Along with the rushed dialogue, the scenes in historic Spain added too much rolling and drifting sand everywhere. I'm obviously not sure how historically accurate that is, but it was quite distracting. It reminds me of the lens flares in JJ Abram's first Trek film. We get it - Spain has sand. Move on, please.

Besides my gripes, I think Assassin's Creed is an enjoyable film for the holiday season. The movie doesn't end on a cliff hanger and the ending provided closure. Some things were not explained in this move that the saavy Asssassin's Creed fan will notice, which is a nice touch as well. It's an homage to the player not knowing everything after playing as Altair their first time. The lore has always been slow to reveal itself over the plethora of games the series now has to offer, and the film took a similar direction. I will conclude by saying Assassin's Creed is the movie to watch this season if you're in the mood for some old fashion B-Fantasy with an A-list cast.