In the absence of Wrath of the Lich King, I decided to reactivate my Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) account. I stopped playing initially because it wasnt PSO (Phantasy Star Online). PSO and PSU are an alternative to the average online game. It’s kind of surprising that they are not more popular. I think many people fail to realize PSU has absolutely nothing to do with traditional Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). It’s not a true MMORPG and it should never be compared to World of Warcraft. I always called PSO an online hack and slash game.

The Phantasy Star Online games are for those who want to play an online game with others but do not want to get involved with the current structure. These things include the issues of playing solo, customize your character’s stats a particular way in order to be accepted by others, making sure your party always has the Tank/Healer/Nuker’ mold (oh please go away already! I have nightmares about people shouting “We need a ‘Tank for Heroic WTF!”). Don’t get me wrong, I love MMORPGs and definitely love World of Warcraft, but after playing a thousand games that follow the same structure, I tend to long for something that doesn’t exist; which is an MMORPG that doesn’t follow any of the current MMORPG rules. (more…)

The first true modern Multiplayer game I got into was Final Fantasy Online. I have been a fan of Squaresoft games (now Square-Enix) and figured an online game based on the series would have been, ideal. Unfortunatly, I was in for a rude awakening. I cant explain my experience playing Final Fantasy Online any less than calling it self torture software. I felt like every aspect of the game was built to take up hours and hours of my time achieving nothing and leaving me miserable. This is the only game I ever played where every time I stopped, it left me in such a bad mood I wished you never started playing. (more…)

I know it’s becoming an age old question at this point, but is there life after World of Warcraft (WoW)? In my opinion, WoW took some of the best ideas from all other online games, perfected them and put them in one package. Unfortunately, there still lies a few issues that even WoW hasn’t solved. I’ve dabbled in online role playing games ever since the days of MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons, yeah, that ages me doesn’t it). My next few blog posts will be on this subject. I have such a long history I had to break it up in parts.

My first graphical online game was the first one of it’s kind, Neverwinter Nights on America Online. Back then, the thrill of being online at all was exhilarating enough, let alone playing a role playing game with other people. America Online soon got to expensive for my part time job wages and I had to abandon Neverwinter Nights for good. (more…)