Outside my PC MMO Box into Console Gaming

Two things inspired me to give MMOs a rest and step outside my PC gaming comfort zone into consoles.  First was an email from Sister Julie, asking advice on which game she might consider next for a breath of fresh air.  I didn't have any happy wisdom or insight to share, having been bereft of a long term MMO home myself for a very long time.  Second was catching up with Gary Gannon's Game Breaker podcast on his Game Breaker TV website.  At first, listening to Gary made me long for the old days.  Back then Brent was doing his CNN of gaming news, MOG Army their weekly show of shenanigans, I was in love with WOW, my son and I were raiding in a wonderful guild on Illidan and knuckling our way up the PVP honor rankings.  Well those days have come and gone and I've spent a lot of time wandering since.

After I got over my burst of nostalgic longing, I became increasingly more interested in the console games being discussed.  We have a Wii but it's primarily used for Wii Fit and playing family-oriented boardgames.  We had an XBOX, which might as well have been called the Halo console, since that's about the only time it was used.  Several months back, I donated our XBOX to a charity event seeking to raise funds for a summer program for low income children.  Listening to Gary discuss the immersion and strong story arcs in the newer generation of console games, made me decide to step outside of my, "I only play PC games and MMOs" mindset.  After all, that insistence was getting me very far these days.

I didn't think twice about which console to buy.  This is an XBOX household, especially with Halo Reach coming in the fall.  Oh and, The Sims 3 for the XBOX is arriving later this year too so 360 it is!  My first choice for games were to purchase the sequels to old favorites.  Fable II and Halo 3 went into the shopping basket.  Then I grabbed something I never would have considered a year ago, Red Dead Redemption.  I like westerns - movies.  The positive reviews and buzz about Red Dead had piqued my curiosity enough to give it a try.  There was one satisfying feeling when I purchased those three games.  I pay for the box and then I'm done.  I won't feel compelled to get my money's worth each month.  I've never cared about the cost of MMO subscriptions in the past.  But I've felt a lot of waste in box purchases and subscriptions the past few years, that it felt refreshing to know this was the only required cost and obligation for each game.  *shrug*

I wanted to buy a whodunit game too.  My youngest daughter is heavily into the crime dramas and we loved playing Clue with my nephew.  The only things I ran across however, were horror or spooky, which neither of us enjoy.  Can anyone recommend a sleuth title that's not gory?  We've hosted a couple of Murder Mystery dinners.  Something along those lines would be quite delicious as a family gaming night.  All MMO subscriptions have been canceled for the summer while we see what the XBOX 360 Fairy has to offer.

Comments

[Julie Whitefeather]

I have a few "homes" that I have been spending a bit of time in lately. Eve Online being the first, but missioning gets a bit repetitive. The rest are STO, Lotro and WoW where I am at or near the level cap.

After our conversation civilization four complete came up on our in box for sale for $9.00. Since then it has been "one more turn." I haven't had a console in a long time. This is perhaps of the very large cost of getting involved again.

The odd thing about my playing so much Civ4 is I often feel "alone in the world" in single player games (which is why I haven't played guild wars or ddo).

I still play a bit on WoW but the alliance side guild I am in is not very active. I guess it is possible to get bored after you role horde after all.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Feeling alone in a world is why I've been playing MMOs almost exclusively since I tripped across my first one. Even though I often solo, I still interactive with people in the world around me. I just prefer to quest on my own. My love of MMOs ruined me for The Sims franchise despite the fact that we continue to buy each generation. I can only play it for a week or so before I'm pining to see other sentient beings roaming the landscape.

We'll see how long I last in the console space. I'm going to see what XBOX Live is about this time - for the first time. I know Halo will get played by someone even if I bail and the board game bundle I have on my Amazon Wish List will be a good value when I buy it.

I'm just tired of bumping from MMO to MMO - subscribing, unsubscribing and re-subscribing. It all feels so meh right now. The only MMO on my horizon is GW2 which I've already pre-ordered. Beyond that nada.

[tox]

I have had a very similar experience. I started online gaming with xbox live however and had a blast playing tennis and football against live opponents. Then a buddy introduced to me to the world of mmo's (vanilla wow) and I was addicted.

What has followed is pretty sad. War, Aion, Allods, LoTro. At that point I said forget it and bought dragon age: origins followed by red dead.

Guild Wars 2 has been saying all the right things so far but I'm pretty jaded until I see it.

No interest in star wars? I like bioware but they don't seem to translate well to an mmo

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Tox - Hello and thanks for dropping by. I don't recognize your name as a previous commenter. My daughter and I are actually having fun with Fable 2 and Red Dead. She's further along than I am since college is already out for the summer. When I do play, she's there watching and vise versa when I'm off so it hasn't felt alone yet and the games are fun. She liking the console so much that she's talking about Diablo III, which I don't even know how she's aware of the game.

Not very interested in KOTOR. Star Wars isn't an IP that I find appealing as a virtual world. I've seen all of the movies multiple times but playing in that environment doesn't spark any desire. If however, people are fawning all over it because it's really good, then I'd give it a try.

[Tesh]

Might I recommend A Kingdom For Keflings and Band of Bugs? I worked on those ones, and it's good to see what people have to say about them... even if it's critical. ;)

I finally got a 360 last month, after working on 360 games for 4 years. It's interesting to play games I work on all day.

I'd also recommend Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey or even FFXIII for some "old school" RPG play. I've been digging into Blue Dragon lately, and it's a good solid game. None of those are MMOs or even MMO-tinged like FFXII, but still good gaming... and sub-free. I loooove that.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Hi Tesh. I'll give those a look. At the moment, we're all snorting Fable II and Red Dead Redemption, and cracking ourselves up.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Tesh. We really liked A Kingdom for Keiflings and purchased a copy after just a couple of hours on the demo. The problem we're having now is too many games and people wanting time on the console. *Sigh*

I planned to restart my kingdom this evening now that I realize the importance of placing the workshops conveniently but as I write this two are doing Fable II with another queued wanting to play RDR next. grrrrrrrrrr.

[Tesh]

*chuckle*

I know the feeling. Now I start out with my workshops set up *just so* to keep the flow smooth. It took a few tries to get a handle on it. (Imagine what it was like while the tech tree was still being worked on... oi.) Glad you're liking it! Thanks!

Oh, and for what it's worth, I like the DLC maps quite a bit too. The "Relic Kingdom" has a nice exploratory feel to it, with some ruins in the corner. ;)

[Tesh]

Oh, and we're working on a sequel to Keflings... this time with same-machine multiplayer. We're pretty happy about that. It might be good to cut down on the claims. :)

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

I went for the whole package when I bought it so we have the DLC maps already. My daughter attempted Relic but found it a bit too much for her first attempt. Thanks for the suggestions and good job!

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Woot, that's one thing we wished we could do was co-op. We went into multi-player on XBox Live but didn't really "get it".