Wowing again.

For a very very long time I resisted World of Warcraft. I’d played the original games on the PC and really enjoyed them.

For me the first real Multiplayer game I heard of was Ultima Online. I remember being incredibly exited by the prospect. I’d played Ultima IV on the Atari ST. It was a real time sink of a game, I lost hours in the world of Britannia.

The difference graphically between the two games was incredible, I so much wanted to play UO. Sadly my budget at the time would not cope with a monthly fee paying game. However, some years after its release I found an unopened second hand copy of Ultima Online: Renaissance which included 1 month of game play. I was hooked!

I had many niggles about the game, the lack of real roleplaying was the main one, however what I did find was a thing called Ultima Online shard emulation and through that the world of Mytharria. All the fun of a MMORPG without the annoying munchkins! People really roleplayed on Mytharria. Sadly Mytharria suffered a few setbacks and closed but reappeared again using Neverwinter Nights but then the server went poof (if I remeber correctly). It is good to see that the world of Mytharria is still being looked after by a dedicated few.

So my online roleplaying needs were being met when WOW first appeared, I dabbled with Earth & Beyond and palyed GuildWars .

Then I think Blizzard did a free trial and oh dear I downloaded it. Hooked!

Wow is simply fun. There are many things “wrong” with Wow but I’ll leave them to the many detractors on the various forums. I had big hopes for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and I do play it from time to time. My biggest criticism of WAR though is that it is too much like WOW. I was a big fan of the Warhammer wargame and roleplaying game years ago, so a MMORPG set in that world was very enticing. It just doesn’t feel right though. I’m not sure why.