Non-Eve Post! OMG!

Back in fall of '06 I was seduced by tales of adventure in deep space by friends in my then-extensive Warhammer 40K organization. Unbeknownst to me my best bud Andrew was getting started into the high adventure of World of Warcraft. A while later we discovered this and I always lamented a little bit that I hadn't know about his foray into WoW because there is a large percentage chance I would have passed on Eve and gone into WoW. Remember the motto: Do Things With People. And despite Andrew's poor choice in hobbies he is one of my peeps.

Flashforward through a couple years of good natured bickering about each other's MMO of choice and comparisions of the vast differences and few similarities. I would like to participate in a MMO with him and I think he reciporcates on the idea, but I have no interest in slogging through 80 levels of WoW and he considers Eve to be something akin to heroin den without the euphoric high.

So we need a neutral MMO to join together, one we can both agree looks fun and entertaining and worth our effort as our second game. Unfortunately, there are a few to pick from.

So I've been casually browsing other games and getting a feel for what Andrew likes in terms of genre, theme, and mechanics. I'm pretty flexible after all, and don't need a game emulating all of Eve's strong points in order to start playing it. High fantasy, apocalyptic, Sci-fi, etc all appeal to me in one way or another. Quality is a big sticking point for me; I want a game that looks good and plays fun.

A lot of people in the podcasts I listen to play LotRO and seem to really like it, but Andrew didn't seem all that impressed with the idea; he heard it was boring. He's also not into Comic Book Hero MMOs so DCUO and City Of X were out.

I didn't feel like Star Trek or Jump Gate Evolution even if Andrew had enthusiam for internet spaceships; I'm getting my fill from Eve thanks. We looked at some apocalypitic games like Earthrise and Fallen Earth but they appear to be more first person shooter type games and neither or us in into that.

Eventually we were able to settle on waiting for Star Wars: The Old Republic. I enjoyed the Knights of the Old Republic games and Andrew hasn't had all childhood memories smashed by the pulp that was the new triology, so it might be workable as a casual game we progress in together once or twice a week.

Now, just to wait until it comes out. *drums fingers*