Launch Day

[Morreion]

Player Perspectives: Launch Day Hypocrisy (MMORPG.com)

So is it hope that turns us into virtual cheerleaders every time an MMO launches? Sometimes, it is. We hope to recapture the special feelings that MMOs once made us feel. We hope to see innovation. We hope to find something surprising and different that makes us pause and take a little more time to enjoy the game. So we'll put aside the negative feedback, the criticism, and cheer on another new contender in the ring, no matter how ugly or outclassed it is. Sometimes, though, it's blind faith that guides us into a trap of believing all the PR, all the hype, and thinking that a new game can't possibly be so bad as to deserve a silent welcome.

Of course, there are many among us who aren't cynics. Some are rookies to the MMO genre, inexperienced either in time or in games under the belt. These players ignore the predominant glum in the community and continue to enjoy new games as they come out. Others may be veterans, but are too stubborn to believe that every game is a poor clone of another, and press on. A precious few are true optimists who are happy to see the genre growing, no matter game quality or producer, and reassure the rest of us that one day, the right MMO will come along just for us.

As for me, I fall somewhere between the extreme lines of cynic and optimist. I believe every new game has something to offer the MMO community as a whole, and that every new game strives to be at least a little different in the crowd. That belief, though, is tempered with years of experience, years of seeing the same patterns repeating themselves from one game to the next. I remain open-minded, and while I may not get the cheerleader pompoms out very often myself, I'll give a little "here's hoping" every time an MMO server opens its virtual doors for the first time.

After all, one day, that special MMO is going to appear, on sparkly clouds and pulled by six unicorns, and offer to sweep me away to a land where everything is just as it should be.

Nice essay- launch day is a day of renewed hopes tapping into the belief that a better gaming experience lies ahead

[Regolyth]

You know, I've tried many times to get that feeling that I did when I first started MMOs. You can't. It's gone and sadly, won't return. I remember how fun and exciting UO was when I first started. DAoC was much the same when I played it, but that was within the first four years that I played MMOs. When I started WoW, I still had a little bit of that excitement and exploration (mostly because it was a great game), but not as much as DAoC or UO.

Then we come to Warhammer, where I never really had that excitement. Sure, i's a great game and I loved to play it, but it just didn't have that new feeling; mostly because I had been playing MMOs for over ten years at that point. There were a lot of MMOs I tried between UO and WAR to get that feeling, but they all pretty much failed to capture my attention as games.

[Morreion]

That's a good point. UO was an incredible rush, DAoC was great, WoW I had a bit of that wonder left, and now it's pretty much tapped out *laughs* Or it becomes tapped out after a month or two.

[dotty]

We're all jaded.