MMO Roundup #9

A weekly diary of MMO news and observations.

It’s been a very unusual multi-game bonanza lately. Normally I stick with one game at a time, but I’ve been all over the place. This is not a good thing. It means that none of the games I’m currently playing are all that interesting to me, and I’m in that mood where I’m searching for The Next Big Thing.

I mentioned that I gave up on Kingdom Come: Deliverance until they released a patch. Well, they finally did release a patch last Friday. Unfortunately I’ve sort of lost interest in the game, but I’m trying to force myself to finish it before I put it away for years (or forever) and then have to start all over from the beginning.

I’ve basically abandoned RIFT Prime. I’ve played maybe an hour since Sunday. I was level 23 entering Iron Pine Peaks (the redesigned lower-level one, which I was looking forward to trying for the first time), but the quests there start at level 27. I have no real choice but to run dungeons over and over again to level up before I can continue questing, because rift and invasion experience is still a pittance, even after an alleged XP buff. I made it into one dungeon and reached level 24, then the group fell apart before the end, which is what I’ve seen in roughly 80% of my dungeon runs. I see no reason to think this pattern won’t continue all the way up to 50.

I finally started Guild Wars 2’s Living World Season 4, Episode 2, “A Bug in the System.” I haven’t played since I finished Episode 1 last year, so I think I missed some intervening content. Anyway, I can’t think of anything that isn’t incredibly sarcastic to say about it. All previous GW2 commentary still applies.

In Final Fantasy XIV, my gameplay pattern for weeks now goes like this: I log in and queue for the two instances I’m interested in-Rabanstre, to try to get the boots to complete my 330 armor set (not at all necessary, but it annoys me that my boots don’t match, and it’s an easy instance for me these days), and Deltascape V4.0, to get the last gizmo part I need to upgrade my bow to 330. The queue is anywhere from five minutes to a half hour. I watch the queue timer for one or two minutes, then realize I could actually be playing another game, and log off. (Update: While distracted by The X-Files Wednesday night I was able to wait out the queue timer so I got the 330 bow I should have gotten six months ago! It’s … ugly.)

I already mentioned that I bought Project: Gorgon on Steam Early Access. I haven’t played a huge amount but I’m becoming a master of Pathology, Psychology, and Compassion.

I’m debating trying out one or more of the Daybreak progression servers, particularly this new EverQuest one starting today. I’m almost positive it will be a waste of $15 though.

Other games I’ve played for very short amounts this week: Black Desert Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and even Fortnite’s Battle Royale.

Secret World Legends announced new content (finally). I fizzled out of SWL pretty early on. It’s not different enough from the original game to make grinding through the whole thing again enjoyable. It was hard enough the first time. Still, maybe I’ll try again. Maybe it’s The Next Big Thing. There’s got to be a morning afterrrrrrr…*

FFXIV launched the Eureka content this week. I assumed this would be similar to Palace of the Dead, and not a good match for me, but Aywren writes that it’s something completely different. It still doesn’t sound like a good match for me though.

ArcheAge is jumping on the progression bandwagon. Okay? ArcheAge was admittedly kind of fun at launch, but I’ve spent quite enough money on that game already to consider starting again.

* Late-breaking news: SWL isn’t The Next Big Thing.