Has there ever been a year as good for games as 2004?  I don't think so.  It's been so good I haven't been able to pry myself away from playing to post, sorry.  :)

I did finally break down and play a bit of HL2 -- fun, and polished, but hasn't quite recaptured the magic of HL1 for me.  Of course, it is still an incredible game with some of the best production values I've seen.  My Steam pre-install of HL2 worked flawlessly and I played it with basically no waiting.  I do miss having a box for the shelves, though.  I'll ramble about it some other day but I think Steam (or something like it) is a powerful, disruptive technology in the games industry that is really going to shake things up.

The game that has sucked me in more than any other this season has proved to be World of Warcraft.  Yep, even more than my beloved San Andreas (which sadly, I am only at 60% on and not quite done with the main story missions).  World of Warcraft has really taken everything I love about online RPGs, stripped out all the not-fun stuff, and wrapped it all up with the polish and sheer fun-factor that Blizzard is well known for.   Some friends of mine described it as Diablo 3, only massively multiplayer, and that's not too far off a description.

You can read a ton of reviews out there that go into a lot more detail of why WoW is so great, so I won't bother with that here.

Instead, let me discuss my peculiar dilemma with WoW.  I like it so much I can't stick to just one character.  Seriously, I have some kind of character Attention Deficit Disorder, or something.  I've leveled a Hunter to 14, a Shaman to 15, a Druid to 17, a Priest to 18, and a Mage to 32.  All of this after having played through the starting areas a ton of times in the beta.

Aside from some specific characters I keep around only to play with friends, I've finally mostly stabilized on two characters, on two separate servers.  The usual "server dance" to try and be in the same place with one's buddies is even worse for me in WoW because there are not only server separations, but Alliance vs Horde separations, and PvP vs PvE vs RP separations!  Agh!

I'm primarily playing on Earthen Ring, an RP server.  That's where most of the characters listed above are, including my "main", a level 32 Mage ("Vyrian").  I had some doubts about going to an RP server, but that's where my DAOC guild (composed mostly of old MIT friends) decided to move to.  I was concerned it would be a lot of "prithee, sirrah, coudst thou casteth a buffe spelle?" but it hasn't been so bad.  It certainly helps cut down on the "killa999" type of players.  While I have had to sit through some painful "roleplaying" of people discussing the philosophy of various characters from the Warcraft backstory, for the most part it has been a surprisingly pleasant experience.

But the big problem with it, in my book, is that it isn't PvP.  I'm not a big fan of totally unlimited PvP, but even without rewards I find Blizzards system of Horde vs Alliance very compelling.  The few times I've engaged in PvP on Earthen Ring I enjoyed it a great deal.  Also, I wanted to see the Horde side of things more, so I jumped in with a bunch of friends from work on the Dethecus server, where I have Soulbinder, a level 18 Undead Priest.  I can't wait to cast Mind Control on someone and have them do the chicken dance before they jump off a cliff.  That alone will make any pains of being killed randomly ("ganked") on the PvP server worthwhile.

Of course, it's killing me to level all these characters and constantly be behind.  There are only so many hours in the day, even when I'm on vacation.  Eventually I suppose I might settle on one or the other, but with WoW's excellent "rest" system I'm always encouraged to come back for a little high-efficiency play time on whichever I'm not actively playing.  Yet another of the many excellent design decisions they've made. 

So, if you're on either of those servers, send me a tell!


WoW hasn't left a lot of time for other gaming, but I've managed to sneak in a little time on Knights of the Old Republic 2 as well.  What an incredible depth of content.  Like the original KotoR I'm really going to be tempted to go through and play a second time.  More thoughts on KotoR later, but I highly recommend it to anyone who likes RPGs with an interesting character and inter-personal dimension.


My postings may continue to be sporadic for a while as holidays, vacations, and general "getting back to work" chaos ramps up.  Merry Christmas to all, I hope you all have the time to play some of this unbelievable bumper crop of games!