Re-reviewing some of the biggest MMOs out there…

Why would we do that? Because they’re just not the same games they started life as. The nature of a persistent online world is in constant flux. Only the biggest single-player sandbox worlds with large modding communities can match the physical changes an MMO experiences over several years, but these don’t come close to the sophistication and dynamism provided by a massive online community.

The first six months of an MMO’s life are the most telling: bolstered by hype, a new mainstream MMO’s population will remain artificially high until the free month or so that came in the retail box runs out, then it will lose players faster than an angry Sunday football league game. Usually around 50 per cent of the original population fails to commit to a subscription after the initial free play, so if an MMO is to be a success in this teething period, then numbers will stabilise over the following few months. While it’s still a pertinent policy to review an MMO in its early life – what with patches, updates, expansions and changes in the game community as forums and guilds are established and players rank up to fill out mid and end-game hubs – the chances are that a few years down the line the game won’t reflect the same one originally experienced by the reviewer. So we've taken a look at the current state of the biggest MMOs available today…

World Of Warcraft
Now more soothing than miraculous, WoW heads into its sixth year with a pleasantly world-weary élan
Details
GENRE Fantasy MMO | DEVELOPER Blizzard PUBLISHER Blizzard | WEB www.worldofwarcraft.com
Playing World Of Warcraft five years after its release is by turns detached and heartwarming – akin to seeing an old girlfriend whose looks have faded a bit and has little left to say that you haven’t heard already a thousand times – but whom upon actually seeing you realise that you do sort of miss. She’s so hard to stay mad at, and has been pretty good since the last breakup about giving you your space. Conversation is stilted and awkward at first, as you both ineffectually try to recapture the once miraculous alchemy that permeated even your shallowest discourse, but it was never about the conversation with this one.

… continued