It's not me, it's you. And them too.

You’ve probably heard about the new pets that 1.4.4 has introduced to WAR. They’re about £10, give you a 5% boost to certain stats that remain active in RvR and as a (related) result I’ve cancelled my WAR sub. However, this is not quite the rage-quit it may appear, as my cancellation is actually far more of a considered decision than that. The pets are more a case of being the straw that broke the camel’s back, as I was getting a bit tired anyway.

The power pets
5% is not a gamebreaking amount, it’s about the same as a liniment or a couple of talismans, so it’s not pay2win just yet, but it is a step on that path. I do not like any pay2win options in a subscription based PvP MMO and I will never, ever support or promote that as a good thing. It’s 5% today, but who knows what will be the next option to appear in the cash shop? Further stat boosts? Higher DPS weapons? You may think not and I would hope not, but I don't know.

If WAR was F2P I would still not like it, but would probably stomach it as that goes with the territory, but as WAR has a full price MMO subs fee... no thanks. For what little my thoughts are worth I will not contribute a subs fee so you can develop things like this whilst the following issue remains.

Lack of new content
The lack of new content for WAR compared with almost every other MMO is a problem. I’m so bored of Dragonwake, Eataine et all, Christ on a bike, even the glorious Praag has worn thin. I understand that Mythic have bugger all resources and actually I think that James Casey, Steven and Keaven are doing the best they possibly can, particularly when considering how little they obviously have to work with,. Seriously those guys deserve more appreciation than they get and I still have plenty of time for those lads. However, as much as I appreciate what they’ve done, frankly it’s just not my problem. I invest my sub fees so that the games I like can continue to keep my interest and unfortunately right now I am tired of WAR’s same old scenery and there are other new things to look at elsewhere. When you look at the incredible amount of REAL new content added to Star Trek Online since launch, from an investment of my own money point of view, it becomes hard to justify paying the same monthly amount for WAR where major new content is ruled out. Those two games are of course being run within totally different financial situations, but again, that’s simply not my problem.

I have a very long list of things I want to see in WAR and actually there is a chance some of those might happen, which will probably bring me back if so, depending on when it happens. Expanded RvR lakes and/or PvP in the T4 side zones would do it for me, before even considering things like new playables. However, I’m not so sure forts are enough of a lure considering the competition. Whatever happens eventually, we won’t be getting any of that stuff anytime soon and I have a bad feeling that the time of the fortress patch is going to clash with the other big MMOs being released. As such, there’s little point carrying on paying to play a game with minimal development, when there are so many others great games to play right now and huge new MMOs around the corner.

Wrath of Heroes
I was disappointed with the whole situation when WoH was first revealed to me, but Mythic did spark my mood back up with their talk of the potential implications for WAR. I honestly think Wrath of Heroes will be a great success, just not with the PvP MMO audience. Despite it looking to be a good and very accessible game, it’s a game that isn’t made for or aimed at a true MMO gamer like me, which obviously means I find it hard to give a toss. Alas, I’m back to feeling disappointed. Sure, it may well have good end results for WAR, but that won’t be in the near future and unfortunately for my WAR subscription, the near future is all that matters.

The near future
And this is the main thing that makes a WAR sub pointless for me right now. Over the next few months I’ve got limited gaming time due to having a real life and somehow I’ve got to fit in:

• Deux Ex HR
• Spacemarine
• Football Manager 2012
• Skyrim
• Minecraft 1.8 (and beyond)
• Star Trek Online (going F2P)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic
• +whatever else strikes my fancy

I decided a little while back to drop my multi-sub-madness and I would only have 1 active MMO sub. I was spending too much money and never completing any single player games. So I’m sticking with the 1 sub thing from now on, which will of course tighten up what I play or not. Last night after cancelling WAR I reactivated my STO for a 1 month period. My reasoning being I can get my characters set up ready to downgrade to the silver F2P bit when that kicks in and in the meantime I can explore the HUGE amount of new content it already has. When that sub expires I’ll probably be up to my arse cheeks in Football Manager 2012 and Skyrim until SWTOR comes out.

In the new year I imagine SWTOR will keep me busy for at least a month or two, possibly much longer, depending on how well our Kill Frenzy SWTOR goes. After that there are of course more games on the horizon. Dust 514 is a definite one for me and I would sell your mother into slavery to play Planetside 2.

So for me it’s WAR stuggling to compete and my subscription becoming untenable as result, yet really no matter which MMO you play right now, there’s a lot of competition for your attention coming. Not just from MMOs but from big games that eat up time. And hell, as much as I berate it now, maybe Guild Wars 2 won’t be a pile of wank after all. I’ll have a proper gaming crisis if that mutant space fantasy emo crap turns out to be good.

Games I give a toss about

As I sat pondering what to write about earlier today, I decided that it’s about time I put something up that wasn’t WAR related, but then I realised that there just aren’t a huge amount of games coming out this year that I give a toss about.

On the MMO side the only one in the near future I’m intrigued by is Star Wars: The Old Republic. Not because I’m expecting anything particularly great, innovative or wonderful, it’s simply because it’s Star Wars, made by Bioware and I quite like the idea of a more story driven game. So I think it should provide a nice, albeit temporary, distraction for a month or two. Other than that, there’s nothing grabbing me. Yeah I know people are going all hype monkey for Guild Wars 2, but I think it will be very average WoW style game with dubious looking hi fantasy nonsense, just like the first one. Actually, I’ll be blunt… I think it will be more of the same old shite, just like the first one. I don’t care what vids and other hype people go on about, I’ve not seen anything that impresses me and I certainly don’t consider a 1v1v1 server based PvP set up to be comparable with genuine 3 factions. Oh and the races look stupid. Crappy mutant gnome space alien rubbish. Sorry folks, it's gonna be all fur coat and no knickers. GW2 is just not working for me, apart from no sub fee of course.

What else is there this year MMO wise? The Secret World has some nice ideas, but it’s Funcom and since they’ve repeatedly smothered my hopes with a steaming pile of buggy, badly supported turd (Anarchy Online and Age of Conan I am looking at you!), I think I’m done with Funcom games. Honestly I really liked both of those games, but they were so badly supported and so broken for years that I just can’t be arsed with them anymore.

Oh there is one that could be good: Prime BFD. A brief summary of the game for me would be; small developer, big ideas, impressive development pace, but dodgy looking artwork. The whole Ben 10 alien style is not for me, but the gameplay is intriguing and this could be something worth watching.

On the single player side there’s again only a few games I’m interested in.:

Football Manager 2012 (a “soccer” game for those poor uneducated souls living in armoured handball land)
The games I’ve played more than anything else are the Football Manager series. Every year it’s updated and every year I end up addicted to it. That’s quite a common thing in the UK, as us Brits do love our football and the monstrous sales figures for these games say it all. Conveniently it’s one of the few games my wife doesn’t think is weird or stupid.

Space Marine
Relic’s face smushing Space Marine game will rock, even if it’s shit. You control a space marine, you have access to that most delightful armoury of doom in all Sci-Fi settings. Bolters, melta-guns plasma weapons, thunder hammers, power fists and so on. And you get to maim things and revel in gory 40k style mayhem. What’s not to like?

Mass Effect 3
Can’t remember when it’s out, but can’t wait. I LOVE these games.

Skyrim
I liked Daggerfall. I really enjoyed Morrowind. I absolutely loved Oblivion. Everything I’ve seen of Skyrim so far suggests Bethseda’s Elder Scrolls series will take yet another step towards gaming perfection and I might just explode in a squiggly mess of gaming man juice. I can’t bloody wait for this to come out, alas I must wait until November 11th. It’s pretty much a given that I will be having a break from all other games once this comes out.

And that’s about it. Now, you may notice that list doesn’t include Wrath of Heroes. I’ve not forgotten it; it’s just that I’m not that excited about playing it. I hope it does really well, but only so that WAR gets some benefits from it. Sure, I’m quite looking forward to trying it out and will do my bit with the beta, yet based purely on the type of game it is, I know long term I would only dabble with it in drips and drabs and then after a few months forget about it. That’s no slight on the game, it’s just I’d rather play a MMO and if WoH doesn’t result in WAR progressing, then in time I will have moved on and be busy with another MMO. I do like the few things coming WAR's way right now, but at the moment there isn't much exciting in my MMO future. That will change.