Blaugust 6th: Letting River Rest in Peace

Ever since River died I’ve been holding on to the things he loved most in his internet life. I’ve visited his blog weekly. I’ve thought about starting a character named after his character in Wow. I’ve thought of all kinds of ways to keep his memory alive. I don’t think he would appreciated it.

A couple weeks ago a co-worker died at work. He was as young as River and it was just as unexpected. As the days went on we told stories about him and there was a small memorial placed where he sat. Not being a big friend of the guy, I thought the memorial was a bit overkill and people needed to let go. Then, I thought about River and how I’ve been acting. I’m no better.

Recently, I thought about going back to WoW, actually I am going back to WoW because it won the poll. I thought it would be really cool to start a character in memory of River. No better than the silly memorial they have at work. Why would I play a game, River thought was fun for almost 10 years of his life just to ruin it by taking the fun out of the game? If I made a character named River I would have to look at the name every day I logged in and think about him being dead. I don’t think River would like that.  I need to play WoW for me and have the fun I want to. If I want to remember River properly, it should be by having fun. He is already immortalized in WoW by all the people he touched over a decade and all the people he pissed off. To me, that sounds a lot better. I truly can’t be the dick he was and love WoW as much as he did. I will play the game for me so I can have my own memories. There is no need for a memorial in his name.

That brings me to WoW and why I’m playing again. The poll showed WoW and Archeage tied in the end. I choose WoW because it is cheaper to get into and I know my time will be split between WoW, DCUO, and Warframe. Come September, I will be juggling Destiny. I’m not playing Wow because several of my other friends started playing again or because a new expansion is coming out; I’m playing it because it has always been a relaxing game to me. Every time I find myself floundering between MMOs, WoW is there to scratch the itch I’ve been having.

That doesn’t mean I’m done with other MMOs. I want to go back to Wildstar at some point, but right now I don’t have the “want to” feeling. I want to play DCUO and WoW right now. I thought I wanted to play FFXIV, but every time I want to play that game I remember how much I’d rather play WoW instead. Why play it if it’s just going to make me want to play WoW? Might as well get right to the roots and start there to watch my want grow. Of course sooner or later my want will die off and I’ll pollinate elsewhere.

The 10th Anniversary to WoW is coming and I’ve always said I want to be there for it because of the memories I have with the game. They are my memories and I wouldn’t want somebody posing as me to try to remember me in their own way. I would appreciate the thought, but play your own fucking game and have your own damn fun! This is your life enjoy it while you have it, because tomorrow you might not.

River would appreciate that more!

DCUO I LOVE YOU!

Growing up I was never a comic book fan. I never bought one until I was an adult and that was Spawn. I was a child of Hollywood. The first superhero movie I ever saw was Superman with Christopher Reeves. At the age of 5, I became an instant fan of Superman.

Looking back at my childhood and remembering all the superhero themed Underoos I owned, I would say I was a DC fan. Of course, The Hulk was my favorite superhero growing up, but I had more DC underwear in my dresser.

I think Marvel is a more popular franchise because they have a better public relations department. Disney knows how to hype their products better than anybody else. Before Disney took over, the Marvel movies were crap compared to the DC ones. Just comparing the movies prior to Disney you can see that. Because Disney produces good movies and great hype, the world is on a Marvel kick right now. It's easy to tell when you watch Man of Steel then go watch Ironman 3; obviously Man of Steel is a far superior movie, but Ironman 3 man more than twice the money, all because Disney.

Even though I seem like a DC fan, I'm really not. I'm a fan of the heroes and I think Marvel has better heroes overall. Yeah I jumped out of a tree thinking I was Superman and whenever I ran as a kid I though I was The Flash, but I liked Marvel overall better. Marvel just seems to have more heroes that humans can connect with. Most of them are just average people that became superhuman one way or another. I know both franchises have their alien heroes and their human/superhuman heroes, but the more popular superheroes are Marvel because of that more human connection. Even though I think I would enjoy a Marvel MMO a lot, DCUO is a great game. I'm sure 10 years from now DCUO will be the Christopher Reeves benchmark MMO, but we'll have hype induced Robert Downey Jr MMO out by then. But until then, I'll be playing DCUO and loving it.

I didn't always love DCUO. In fact, I've been struggling to play it since it released in 2011. I've tried it off and on for over 3 years never making it past level 17 and I only made it that high 6 months ago on the Playstation 4. Before that I never made it past level 8. I think my problem with the game was the console friendly controls. I'm a horrible console gamer and I think MMOs suck on consoles. Hence my distaste with DCUO. Recently a lot of MMOs have come out with the same action based combat DCUO helped pioneer and I think it's helped me grow accustomed to that console feeling of control.

Even though I tried DCUO on the PC in beta, I never bought the game. Later when it went free to play, I downloaded it on the Playstation 3 to try again. Of course, I didn't like the game again because I felt disoriented playing an MMO on a console. I made it to level 8 and shelved the game again. When they released DCUO for the PS4 I tried it again, mainly because there were no games for the PS4 and my son wanted to try and MMO. I played it with him for about a month before I quit... again. About 6 months ago DCUO had an awesome DLC released that caught my eyes and I tried it again for a month. You know what happened after that month, I quit.

Two weeks ago I started playing DCUO on my PC for the first time since beta. I really didn't have a reason to, I just felt like trying it again. So far, I'm loving it a lot more than I ever did on the console. I still think the social menus suck, but they're fixing those in their 39th free patch. Yes they have 10 paid DLCs, but they also update their game with large patches for free. They're not as robust as the DLCs, but they do need to make money somehow off a F2P game. Second to GW2, DCUO has an outstanding F2P model. Their team is small and very dedicated to making a quality game. Not to mention the story is amazing.

All that said, I made it to level 10 last night. I just have 8 more levels to beat my record. Will I quit again? Probably at sometime, but I'm subscribed for a month and I plan on reupping my subscription when it's up in 2 weeks. The good thing is, I don't have to if I don't want to. I can keep playing it for free with minor roadblocks.

Last night playing it I noticed how lively the game is. This is only the PC server I'm talking about; the PC people do not play with the console people. I wish they did, but they are separate. Logging into the Playstation it's just as packed. Some might chalk that up as a F2P phenomenon, but I've played dozens of F2P MMOs and they are not this packed. It makes me feel good the game is doing so great after a rocky start. It proves converting from a monthly subscription to a F2P model doesn't mean the death of a game. If done as good as DCUO, it means the life of a game.

I'm not guaranteeing I'll play DCUO for the next year, month,  or tomorrow, but I'm guaranteeing the game is fun to play for a lot of people. I know it's not for everybody and it is super hard to get into it, but once I found my proper platform, I've had fun. I'm at home with a keyboard and my G600 Logitech mouse with side hotkeys. I can now get on the Alliance of Awesome TeamSpeak server and chat with people while I play a game I enjoy, even if they're not playing with me. I'm having fun and while I get the social interaction I need.

If I reviewed DCUO 3 years ago I would've given it a poor score, but after years of stellar updates and hard work I'd give the game a great score now. I'm looking forward to their 39th free update and their 11th DLC coming out soon. The game just keeps getting better and better, even for a Marvel fan like myself.