T w e n t y S i d e d

Leslee Beldotti – who you may recognize from the comments around here – has started a blog chronicling her trip through various MMO’s. Serial MMOgamy.

It’s just started, but I love the idea.

I’m currently looking around, seeing what MMO I might tackle next once the Champs Online thing has run its course. I’m looking for something with a decent supply of plot, since there are only so many jokes you can make about, “I spent three hours killing rats, looking forward to next level when I can advance to dire rats.”

Star Trek Online is a must, but that doesn’t launch until March. Same goes for Old Republic.

I could probably enjoy Lord of the Rings Online, provided I could get myself into the right frame of mind. That lore and I have some history together, and I could probably get into that if I can avoid seeing its betrayals of the source material as a personal insult. See also: The movies.

Conan might be fun, although “it has boobs” is the only thing I know about it, which leaves me with the impression that the game is just a really convoluted and troublesome boob-viewer.

Aion is out. Too much PvP and too much grind.

From what I’ve read of D&D Online it sounds a little grind-y for my purposes. (And I am of the opinion that a great tabletop system makes for a bad videogame system, and vice-versa, so I see its D&D underpinnings as a drawback despite my affinity for the Pen & Paper system.)

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

People are raving about Torchlight. I haven’t picked it up yet, but I’m a bit confused by the buzz. The game is apparently:

1. A “Diablo clone”
2. Whimsical art style
3. You can have a cat or dog companion, who can help you fight, has inventory space, and who can run back to town and sell for you.
4. You can feed your pet certain fish in order to transform it into other creatures.
5. Skill-point based leveling system that lets you mix & match powers.
6. You can pay to have a shopkeeper add a random spell effect to an existing weapon or item.

So, didn’t we see this exact same game two years ago?

Torchlight is basically a clone of Fate. Yet Fate was obscure enough that nobody seems to remember it now (or they’d be making comparisons) and Torchlight is causing a big fuss. I’m sort of confused as to how this happened.

In the long run I found Fate to be a fun diversion, but lacking in long-term appeal. I wonder if Torchlight has some ingredient that was missing in Fate, or if Torchlight is just benefiting from better marketing. Or perhaps Fate was ahead of its time, and the audience wasn’t there for it yet.

I’m going to have to get Torchlight so that I can do a proper comparison.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.