The Farstrider Scout

(Think of “Girls, Girls, Girls” by Mötley Crüe)

So yeah, right now is a really good (or bad, depending on your point of view) time to be a gamer… At least a PC gamer that is. Screw those console heathens. There’s a glut of newly released games and about to be released games, and for me, it’s really kind of an overload.

First off, you’ve got Dragon Age: Origins, which isn’t really a new release, as it came out last November, but for me, it only came out a month ago when I returned from my deployment. I still haven’t finished it, and have two different characters that I’m playing through with at the moment. It’s not that it’s a bad game – I love the gameplay and the story – it’s just that other games keep getting in the way, mostly because of beta testing.

Speaking of beta testing, two new MMO’s just finished their beta testing stage and are about to be birthed out into the open market – Global Agenda, and Star Trek: Online. I had the opportunity to beta test both, and while they really have no fear of competition from each other on the open market, when it comes to me, well… I can only play one game at a time.

And trust me, this is a problem, because not only do I have all those to choose from, but Mass Effect 2 just released, and I can’t really justify playing it until I play through the original on the character that I want to carry over… But I’ve also been playing EVE Online lately, and have actual commitments in that game, especially since our corporation is currently at war.

I think I just need to take leave again…

I seem to be at an impasse as far as games are concerned, and I feel that much of it is brought on by events that are, for some part, outside my realm of control.  Four months away from the rest of civilization has that effect, and just as it did last time, I think it may take me some time to readjust to having a civillian life as well, though there are vast differences from last time as well.

Yet still, it frustrates me to be at such a place.  In one direction lays World of Warcraft, the original inspiration for this blog, and despite the temptation of the new expansion, I cannot see myself returning to such a dysfunctional community. 

In another lies Warhammer, a wonderful game, yet so clearly in its last stages of life that I find myself unwilling to pick my characters back up where I left off four months ago.  It does not help that they closed the server that I played on, and now no roleplaying server exists for that game.  Such a sorry tragedy.

Before my return, I received an email regarding the latest EVE expansion, and imagined returning to that as well, plying my ship through the stars, mining, fighting, trading…  Or LotRO, finally pushing on past the roadblock that has stymied my wife and I for so long…  Or City of Heroes/Villians, smashing my way through hordes of enemies with superpowered strength.

Yet none of those hold any pull for me.  Dragon Age will last, for a time, and then Mass Effect 2 after that…  But what lies beyond that?  The Old Republic is a long way off, and there looks to be nothing else new on the horizon.

Indeed, there looks to be some dark days ahead of me.