Wednesday, September 17, 2008

MMO Compromises

Playing with your significant other sometimes means compromises. We got our start in EQ1. While we were there for four years, I was quite ready to move on to something else. It's a game that I felt was very stressful on our relationship. When I heard EQ2 was being released and would be more casual, I packed my bags and moved. He wasn't quite ready to leave, but since I wasn't there and most all of our friends had moved on already, he did join me in EQ2.

He enjoyed himself reasonably enough in EQ2, but I wasn't happy there. I didn't like the access quests, the class quests, the crafter dependency, the group death penalties, among other things. After a couple months I moved on to World of Warcraft. He stayed a few weeks longer, but eventually joined me.

We reached level 60 after several months and I then moved on to SWG. I hooked up with some old friends from EQ1 there, and after watching me play for a few days, he left WoW behind as well. We both talked about trying something else after several months so we moved onto DAOC from there. After a year there with several maxed characters, we heard EQ2 had made some changes and decided to head back there.

When I heard LotRO was coming out, I knew I just had to try that. I was a huge fan of both the books and movies. While we were in beta, my husband knew fairly early on it wasn't for him. I kept hoping it would get better. But he stuck it out with me for five months before he decided to go back to EQ2. So I went back as well.

Aside from the games listed above, there were a few others I tried that he pretty much hated after the first day and just refused to play with me (CoH, DDO, Horizons). But aside from those few instances, if you noticed a trend here, my husband has been the one doing much of the compromising. So after returning to EQ2 for the third time, I decided to settle in for the long haul, as there likely wouldn't be another PvE MMO that offered so much that suits my interests.

But lately, he's been the one getting bored. He'd been trying to get me to play EQ1 again with him for several months. I tried on several occasions, but I can't play that way anymore. There is just nothing fun about it for me. And with all the cursing and banging of keyboards going on next to me, I have to wonder if he really is enjoying himself or enjoying a memory.

And then we spent a few days in the Warhammer Online beta. Although I knew it wasn't a game for me, I saw him enjoying himself. So now it's time for me to do some compromising. I'm still committed to EQ2, particularly because of the guild, but I will be dividiing some of my time up to spend in WAR with him. I'll be playing a healer type on Order. While I preferred the appearance of the warrior priest, I enjoyed the play style of the arch mage and rune priest better, so still undecided. He'll be playing the ironbreaker with me and something on the Destruction side for when he's on his own. Gamestop called to let us know our copies are in today. So off on another adventure tomorrow!

2 comments:

Elementalistly said...

This is a tough choice.
I play with my wife as well, and we must meet eye to eye.
I seemed to be ok with WAR, but it felt "meh"
The wife helped me finally decide.
She said it SUCKED.
And so we have been in Guild Wars, and just yesterday did Age of Conan, and have found a new home.
Seems the MMO market or genre is getting stale though, and AoC at least is unique enough for us.
We also see Chronicles of Spellborn on the horizon and November will see Fable II on the Xbox 360, which is CO-OP on the same screen..i.e: We can snuggle up on the couch together for some RPG fun.
If the game is meh, maybe sticxk to your guns this time.

Good luck

Aspendawn said...

Oh I'm definitely not giving up EQ2 yet and still spending most of my play time there. But I will give WAR at least a few months as he did LOTRO for me. He's already saying he doesn't anticipate staying beyond a couple months himself. But we'll see how it progresses.