I make no secret of the fact that I’ve been exclusively playing Guild Wars as my MMO title for the past while. In light of that fact, I felt a slight makeover of my blog was in order, and with that, a new header image. I was surprised to find that although I have many Fraps folders full of lovely GW scenery, not many can be fully appreciated with a mere banner-strip of the view. Raisu Palace (or was it Raisu Pavillion? I don’t remember) turned out to be photogenic from just about every angle, though, so enjoy. It was either this or my character wearing a pumpkin hat.
While my excuse for neglecting my year-long subscription to Star Trek Online is the new War in Kryta content and my desire to acquire shiny things, my better half has been lured by one, then another, then another, single-player game. Having murdered the bad guys dead in Mass Effect 2, he is now taking a shot with ME1, being a villain and a scoundrel in Overlord, and has his eye turned to Mount & Blade next, as well as the Dragon Age DLC.
What happened to Star Trek Online? I’m not sure. After an exciting head start, we both lost momentum with the release of ME2 – the better half because he was playing it, and me because I put my character on hold while he played it (those pesky spousal leveling contracts will get you every time!). The first flaw I found with STO at the time was that due to the way content was funneled along a single path, I could not hope to run an alt during my downtime without exhausting content I’d just have to run with my partner all over again. So, strike one for Cryptic: no alternative content paths for leveling.
By the time we got back into playing with any regularity, I found my interest in space combat beginning to wane. I discovered that I don’t connect well to ships as avatars, and as a result I did not look forward to launching yet another mission and spending yet another 45 minutes in space shooting things up – even when it looks spectacular. I longed to do my exploring on foot rather than beam down for the conclusion or penultimate part of an episode, and since the only other way to spend most of my time on the ground was to do ground PvP exclusively, the appeal of the whole game went a bit south for me.
Meanwhile, my better half was tearing up PvP Klingon-side with his alt while I played Guild Wars, Wizard 101, Aika, Everquest 2, and made a few abortive attempts at LOTRO and DDO. For his part, PvP came down to one too many 9 vs. 1 battles, and one night he logged off and vowed not to return until Cryptic had found a way to balance the maps more effectively.
We continue to watch the updates and patches come in for STO with interest, and I did make a point of logging in and getting my proper Original Series shirt with the scoop collar, and proper wraparound skirt, thankyouverymuch (am I bothered that the uniform will now be available in the C-Store? Not at all; I decided that the content was worth $10 to me for the privilege of having at launch. Everyone else who wants it now can have at it!). It’s nice to know that since we have paid for the year, we can pop in whenever we like to sample the water. Cost of the yearly subscription aside, I can’t stress the value that freedom holds for me. If we’d had a monthly subscription, we likely would have canceled by 30 days and not returned at all, so anyone who’s still playing – you’re welcome; our money is helping you get content!
Alas, now our respective focii are elsewhere, so I retire my Lieutenant ship for the time being, and bring you Canthan palaces. Next, I bring you the tale of how I came to embrace the PvE meta of Guild Wars, kicking and screaming all the way.
Casual Is As Casual Does 
Lack of an alternate path for leveling was why I didn’t make an alt either, when my main was held back by my husband’s dawdling. Curse that spousal leveling contract!
At least you made it to max level eventually! I just plain tuckered out :).
I’ve never had much trouble identifying with inanimate objects. its more about thinking of them as precious possessions. like gollum after the ring.
Yeah, my gaming partner doesn’t have a problem with it either. For me, it’s rather as if LOTR were told from the viewpoint of the One Ring – I’d probably have tuned out if that were the case, heh. I want to be like Gollum and carry it around and pet it!
I didn’t enjoy the lack of alternate leveling paths either. As someone who enjoys having lots of alts to experiment with different styles of game play STO left me dreading doing some of the content over and over.
I also felt that space battles could be too long and tiresome. I don’t connect well with ships as avatars either.
It’s a real shame because what I did play of the game was enjoyable… I just wish there were more things to tinker around doing instead of ship combat. Maybe with Season 2 and more diplomacy/First Contact content we’ll get something different and more appealing to do.
Like the new header!
I really liked STO initially I think because it was so different from what I typically play. I’ve never been much of a fly in space person but I did enjoy the space combat. I just wish there was more. I never did reach max level. Got close, but just couldn’t stick it out.
That is a gorgeous header pic. ^_^
The recent Dragon Festival stuff made me realise that Shing Jea island is probably one of the most beautiful places in Cantha.
…then after your newbie life of beauty and happiness they plop you into Kaineng city. 😦
What’s with ANet’s habit of starting you off beautiful then chucking you into the Wilderness of Uglies? The only campaign that escapes that isn’t a campaign, but an expansion!
I remember I had to take a break from Guild Wars when I first landed in post-Searing. I knew the map was large and that in time I would get out of the area, but at the moment it was so overwhelming and depressing after being in Pre-searing I just lost all will to keep logging on ;_;….
I felt like I got out of Kaineng City relatively quickly comparatively!
Kourna wasn’t all that bad, though. Oh, wait, yes it was, what with the “aw, now we’re exiles” stuff to deal with. Nevermind -_-; Here’s hoping there’s no more ugly-land-dumping in Guild Wars 2?
Just started playing and instantly loved the space battles and hated the ground missions. Then recently as I started leveling up, I discovered there was a bit more to the ground missions, lots of strategy and decisions on what kit to use how to deploy your B.O and such that I like it the more I try it.
I bought a game card just on the off chance I didn’t like it, but its so not like WoW or any other MMO that I just can’t see myself leaving after 3 months is up. Maybe I’ll hit that cap everyone talks about and bail for a bit, but right now, it has me completely entertained.+