If the release schedules and expectations hold, 2010 will be an interesting year. There are the two huge science-fiction IP’s coming via Star Trek Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blizzard is doing something of a reboot of the Warcraft world, and the DC/SOE juggernaut is expected as well. SWTOR is also interesting since it marks Bioware’s entry into the MMO genre, and I’m very very interested to see how well they are able to bring a focus on story over to a massively multi-player environment.

My biggest concern for 2010 is a repeat of the Warhammer effect on SWTOR.  Warranted or not there seem to be a lot of players who are expecting SWTOR to revolutionize MMOs, kill WoW, and possibly cure cancer. I hope I’m wrong, but I think that most of the gamers disappointed with 2009 will also be disappointed with 2010.

So here are my bullet points for the coming year.

Coming Attractions

  • Star Trek Online: I like what I’ve read about it, and I plan to pre-order the game, but I haven’t decided yet on which of the many outlets to buy from. I expect to subscribe for at least a couple of months and it is possible this game will replace EVE for me on my regular subscriptions list.
  • Star Wars – The Old Republic: I like the emphasis on story. Going fully voiced will be an interesting experiment to see how players react and the impact on adding content. I’m sure I’ll buy this even if I don’t subscribe past the first month just to see for myself how Bioware did. Besides the original Knights of the Old Republic was one of my favorite games on the first Xbox.
  • World of Warcraft – Cataclysm: I’m impressed that Blizzard is recognizing a need to look at the old world, but I’m not sure it’ll be enough to draw me back. I’m going to wait and see on this one.
  • DC Universe Online: I love Batman but I’m not generally a DC fan. I’m treating this game similarly to how I handled Aion and Champions, which means reading anything I see on my normal news feeds but not seeking out any detail and I’ll decide close to launch if I want to pre-order or beta or not.

Current Releases

  • EVE: This game is on the edge of going in-active. I don’t PvP in the game and mostly play for the economic activities. STO will likely have a much stronger PvE game and I can very easily see dropping my EVE accounts (one is up in February and the other in June).
  • Lord of the Rings Online: I’m having lots of fun again between the new kinship, exploring Mirkwood, and skirmishes. I expect to keep this as one of my two primary games for the entire year. Being in a kinship also means I’m getting a chance to do something I’ve never done in MMOs before: raiding (although very casually). Should be an interesting experience.
  • Champions Online: It is nice to be playing a superhero game again. I’ve been enjoying my time in game and despite some rumors that its a ghost town, I’ve had no problems finding pickup groups when I wanted to. This will continue to be my other primary game for a good part of the year. Being much younger than LotRO there’s not as many secondary activities, so depending on what Cryptic does I can see taking a hiatus at some point, but I don’t plan on quitting.

Goals for Q1

After going scoring 0% on my gaming goals for 2009, I’m going to take it easy on myself for the first few months and leave it at this:

  1. Have fun and stop if it isn’t fun.
  2. Remember number 1.
Looking Forward to 2010
Tagged on:                                         

13 thoughts on “Looking Forward to 2010

  • January 2, 2010 at 8:37 pm
    Permalink

    I’m going to wait and see on this one.

    Wait and see? You’ll be back. We’ll all be back…

    • January 2, 2010 at 8:45 pm
      Permalink

      I thought that at one time, but after my last re-sub to the game I’m not so sure. It really depends on how big a revamp Cataclysm is and when it releases. Blizzard has released so little information at this point that I can’t say for sure.

    • January 2, 2010 at 10:09 pm
      Permalink

      They say we’d all be back with Wrath of the Lich King, too. But I haven’t gone back!

  • January 2, 2010 at 9:20 pm
    Permalink

    I stopped playing WoW a couple years ago, but from what I hear, Apoc will also bring along a Tauren Paladin type class. That will get at least a month long looksee from me!

  • January 2, 2010 at 9:23 pm
    Permalink

    Sounds like good goals to me.
    I’m looking forward to STO myself…

  • January 3, 2010 at 12:18 am
    Permalink

    If Star Wars, Star Trek, and DC are all we have to look forward to in 2010, it’s going to be a slow MMO year for me. I’ll be playing a lot of Champions and WoW.

    • January 3, 2010 at 4:53 pm
      Permalink

      There’s not really anything wrong with just playing those two either. Of course these are just the games I’m interested in that are scheduled for 2010 or just in development, there are tons of other games in various stages of beta planned for release this year. I’m pretty much ignoring fantasy games at this point, but that’s because LotRO is enough for me and not because I’m sick of elves and magic.

  • January 3, 2010 at 3:22 am
    Permalink

    I think we will see a number of people being disappointed with SWTOR whenever it is released – people continue to hype it as the next big thing. The game itself may be quite good still – for some people. But it will not be everything to everyone.
    I am also interested in seeing what they do with the story part – so far the best effort in my mind is Guild Wars.

    • January 3, 2010 at 4:54 pm
      Permalink

      Exactly my thinking, and I agree there are some similarities to Guild Wars (at least as far as I got in the main story).

  • Pingback:/AFK – The New Decade Edition « Bio Break

  • January 3, 2010 at 9:43 pm
    Permalink

    Excellent goals! I completely forgot about DC Online.

    • January 4, 2010 at 11:17 am
      Permalink

      SOE has been very quiet about both DCOU and the Agency, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad one.

  • Pingback:Hello Leveling, My Old Friend

Comments are closed.