Our author Schuhmann looks back on his MMO year 2016. Between Black Desert, The Division, and Hearthstone, he realizes: Help, I’m a casual.
2016 feels at least like three years, rather like four. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older or because of Cortyn. Quite surely, it’s because of Cortyn. Since I met her, I count in dog years. And since I snatched the review copy of Overwatch from her… but we’ll get to that later.
Game of the Year: The Division
At first, I didn’t warm to The Division, then a little bit, afterward I found it really dumb and now I think it’s great again.
At the release, I was quite curious how the game would perform, whether it would really be “Destiny for PC” or “Diablo 3 as a shooter”: an exciting loot shooter that would bind me forever.
When I actually played it, however, I had the impression of running a mediocre game strictly following the Ubisoft formula. RPG elements and loot factor I found only in tiny doses.
However, what I already found great while leveling up was the story and atmosphere of the game. The little story snippets, the collectibles – I liked listening to them and following the downfall of New York in anecdotes.
With level 30 and the endgame, however, The Division was done for me; I had absolutely no desire to collect items with that system. The story and thus The Division were over for me at that point. Just like two years earlier with The Elder Scrolls Online: Boss dead, max level achieved, game over.
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During the year, I checked into The Division every now and then, but I could never find my footing. That only changed this December after all the changes.
I started again, suddenly found The Division motivating and exciting, leveled up to a gear score of 256 in a few evenings, and now I check in regularly to assemble the sets and find better weapons. Now the fights give me the adrenaline kick that I missed at the beginning of the year.
The Division is an example of why MMOs are so great. You can check back in after half a year and find a completely different, usually much better game.
My game that is actually good, but I can’t get into: Overwatch
With Overwatch I just couldn’t warm up. This may be because my colleague Cortyn insulted me as “dirty casual” about 400 times after I received a review copy (and she didn’t because she couldn’t wait and bought a game for herself). But probably it’s just because this type of game doesn’t really suit me.
I’m not a shooter player. While others played Counterstrike and Call of Duty, I was busy with Crusader Kings thinking about succession or dusting off Baldur’s Gate to play through it again. During my military service, I was a completely miserable shooter – that was enough for me.
Overwatch probably does everything right as a shooter, but I lack any progress system beyond merely collecting skins and emotes. I was already full early on. I didn’t make it past a single-digit level, which was brought up time and again by dear colleague Cortyn.
During the time when everyone was crazy about Overwatch, I played through Battleborn . It had its flaws but at least made me laugh with insane spider robots. With Overwatch, I only chuckle about the drama surrounding the game. I find this whole waifu and sex craze hilarious.
My game that would ruin my life if I weren’t too casual for it: Black Desert
The game I would have spent every free minute on ten years ago was definitely Black Desert.
The problem: I realized that if I wanted to play Black Desert ambitiously – and I do with these games, especially because there are leaderboards – then I need to engage with it, at least check in every two hours and do something. I need to keep Black Desert running all day on my computer, read guides and tips about it, and mentally deal with the game.
And that simply doesn’t work with the job I have. I noticed in the first few days that my boss got on my nerves when he wrote to me and wanted something from me so that I no longer felt like looking at “other” news about MMOs, and that the tasks I had suffered because I just found Black Desert so great.
The ambition to play Black Desert the “right” way could not be reconciled with my ambition to do the “job” properly. Because the job here – this is certainly an advantage and a disadvantage – is not as clearly separated from “personal life” as a traditional office job would be, but the transitions are fluid. Some may imagine this very well: “Play all day and get paid for it”, but in reality, it requires self-discipline and motivation.
This is not a problem with games like The Division at all. There I only have a desire for two hours in the evening, and otherwise, I don’t think about my agent, his equipment, and how to swap it all day. With Black Desert, it was different. To play such an endless game “on the side”, I somehow lack the gene. Surely after a while, after weeks or months, a routine would have developed and it would have gone “on the side”. But I didn’t want to take that risk.
http://youtu.be/mS75XlHmA2o
Then I checked back into Black Desert after months – like with The Division – but I was so out of the loop that everything about Black Desert, even just sorting the mail, totally overwhelmed me.
5 games I still have something to say about, and WoW, about which I have nothing to say
Besides that, due to my job, I have at least played a lot of MMOs and MMORPGs. A few remarks:
Armored Warfare performed well in 2016. Too bad that the game is going under against World of Tanks. It’s truly a surprise hit for me. Going tank hunting for an hour is really fun. Also, a fair free-to-play system.
Marvel Heroes is an interesting game that I have come back to several times. I’m curious if it will break through with the “simplifications” and a PS4 port. They are overdoing it with events and bonus stuff to such an extent that I feel it’s not worth playing if there’s no “super-duper event” active.
Blade and Soul left me cold. I found the Asian approach and different aesthetics interesting at first, but the appeal faded already in the mid-levels. However, I can understand that people are happy with it.
With Final Fantasy XIV , I often plan to play it intensively, and when I feel like it, I realize that the subscription has expired. I think you really need a guild and social bonds for that.
Guild Wars 2 with Heart of Thorns – I’m in the group that criticizes the “linear” gameplay with the expansion. I have always had the most fun with Guild Wars 2 when I could level freely and without direction. The whole thing with “Now comes the event and here is this jumping passage” always feels too gimmicky to me. GW2 seems to demand of me, I feel, to engage with the game in a different way than I actually want.
The game I have spent a lot of time on: Hearthstone
I used to wonder how my friends could play League of Legends for several hours every day for years without ever getting beyond the average. Today, I understand that because I play Hearthstone every day and don’t even have a spark of ambition to become “really better” than “just okay”.
Hearthstone is the ultimate “casual game” for me. Fun for five or six games a day. You complete your quests. Every two days you can open a pack, and every day there are matches that are really fun. When I feel: Now I’m losing every match in 3 rounds because Pirate Warriors are going crazy, then I just stop, and that’s it. It doesn’t stress me at all.
I also don’t buy card packs for real money, but I am disciplined and content with myself and the game.
However, Cortyn cannot understand how I can “get decks from others.” She builds all hers herself… this snob. I’m probably too much of a casual for that now.
But… I have the Overwatch review copy and I’m her boss… being a casual also has its advantages.
In the new year … I’m looking forward to these games:
Tom Clancy's The Division is an MMO shooter by Ubisoft. Players find themselves in a wintry New York, where people are fighting for their very survival. A virus...
