Regrets, I've Had A Few

(bonus article before I leave! enter the contest already!)

Although a lot of people refuse to see it or write it off as a conspiratoid mindset, every bit of released news and my entire gut is telling me that Blizzard is not writing off Warhammer Online as a minor threat -- a la Age of Conan. It's not just the eerily similar features that Blizz is just now announcing, but the pacing of the hype. Right now, there are just two games in the forefront of the MMOscape: WoW and WAR. Everything else, in terms of hype and news, is third and falling behind. And the conflict between these two titles is which can achieve the upperhand... that day. Which title has just released the latest bit of attention-grabbing headlines.

The conflict is real, because there's a concrete struggle for subscriber dollars: WoW wants to retain all of theirs (and get even more), and WAR wants to get a huge head start and launch into the million-plus subscriber club. This not being a perfect world, that means both companies see players as having to choose between one or the other -- WoW stands to lose some of theirs, and WAR stands to not gain as many as they ideally could.

In a perfect world, your average dedicated, hardcore MMO player would be able to play all the titles they desired for as many hours a week as they'd like. But that's not how MMOs go -- they reward monogamous relationships, and the more you play one title, the more you're rewarded for it and have invested in it.

WoW's latest "lookit me!" headline is their Lich King beta start and NDA drop. We can muse over whether or not this was done to preempt WAR's closely upcoming NDA drop (safe money says "yes"), but the fact is that right now, today, the hype-o-meter has swung in WoW's direction. And for many previous Warcraft players who are looking to play WAR (such as myself), this is a critical moment of hesitation.

The question pops up in my mind: "Will I regret switching to Warhammer and, for once, not playing the new Warcraft content when it comes out?" Maybe it's arisen in yours.

After all, from the player's point of view, MMOs are a serious investment. We invest part of our social lives in making friends and joining guilds, we invest effort and research to learn the game world and how to play it well, and, oh yeah, we invest time. Gobs and gobs of time. I myself -- and this is not to brag, at all -- have three 70's in WoW with pretty decent gear, with a couple more close to the current max level. That's nothing to sneeze at; it represents a few years' worth of my gaming life, all done with the mindset that I was building up my characters to face ever-greater challenges. You do the grind now to invest in a better character for the future, when you'll need it. And now that the future is almost here, it feels like I'm abandoning my battle-ready toons to oblivion, just because I want to start fresh in a world that looks more promising.

Don't get me wrong, no matter what new coats of paint WoW slaps on with expansions, the core gameplay is the same, and I've had my fill of that. I know, in my heart, that if for some reason I switched back to WoW this fall, I would engorge myself on the surface layers of a couple month's worth of polished content before hitting the same layer of gameplay duldrum that ran me out of the game in the first place. It doesn't mean it stops feeling like I'm abandoning Syp, Ghostfire, Snappi and my other cadre.

Blizzard is banking on this moment of hesitation to get their hook back in your mouth and reel you in for a promised good time. Some will bite, yes sir. Some will have the time and luxury to play both titles. And some will feel pangs of regret, but move on, knowing that it's for the best.

I don't know if I'll ever set foot in Azeroth again, but I don't see my investment as lost -- hours of great gameplay fun, stress relieving evenings, the making and growth of several awesome friendships, the saving of countless dollars I'd be spending on other games, and the stirring of my MMO passion pot.

I have a passion pot?

Um, I'm out of here. See you guys in a week!