Ranty...or not enough of it.

I have been in something of a writing funk as of late. I think I finally figured out why too. When I first started writing this thing, it was supposed to be about my thoughts on video games. Quickly though, things devolved into me simply reviewing games, which while fun, did become far to formulaic and hence, boring. What I need to do is get back into what I wanted to do with this deal, and write whatever comes to mind about video games. So here, I shall commence writing about whatever I damn well please.


I bought Rift some time ago, it's a damn pretty game. The advertising though, ya know, that tag-line that boldly proclaims "You're not in Azeroth anymore" is a god damn lie. The game is simply WoW 2.0, made by a company not as good as Blizzard. It was like everyone at Blizzard got drunk and outsourced the sequel to their cash-cow. I rolled a Paladin, a tank class. By level 10, I was throwing my shield like I was a medieval Captain America. Sounds oddly familiar. So questing along in the game is just as fun as it is in WoW, as the quests are the samey grind-fest. However, Rift decided to add something to break the monotony, the damn monsters attacking quest hubs. While a great idea on paper, it fucking sucks in practice. I get that it makes the world seem more alive, more vibrant. But the problem is, it also forces me to break stride in what I wanted to do to make sure I can turn in my quests later. So I am forced to run for miles back to the quest hub, pray other people are there also and do battle with the armies of darkness. While this is occasionally fun and actually offers tangible rewards, I never quite appreciate the whole idea of "If you do not do this lengthy process right now, key parts of the game will be closed off to you." On top of that it would not be nearly as bad if these incursions were not so constant. There really seems to be no respite from fighting fire goblins. If I try taking a respite from doing so, I see the world chat being spammed with people spewing their idiot talk plus I cannot hand in my quests.

In the end all this game did was make me go back to World of Warcraft, where I finally got my priest to level 85, and actually get him pretty decently geared. Still have not stepped into a hellish heroic with him yet, but I am at the item level to do so. Really just depends on when I want to be punished for wanting to get good gear. But see that? World of Warcraft lets me choose when I want to be punished, as opposed to having the bosses attack the Shrine of Avina. I get some people like the idea of world events happening around them completely out of their control. Rift is certainly a game for them, on a PvP server for maximum forced stress. As for me though, if I am going to play a game so much like World of Warcraft, but infinitely more stressful in a way I do not like, I will simply play World of Warcraft instead.