CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Okay. So...here's the crisis:

My first taste of MMO was with City of Heroes. It was followed up by Lord of the Rings Online, and while I don't play it terribly often (I love my family and actually having a social life, no offense to any hardcore gamers out there), MMO's really appeal to me....my only wish being that the subject matter held more of my interest, and that quests or missions were much more engaging than "fetch this" or "kill 50 rats". I had decided for a time that LOTRO would remain as my mainstay, being the only one I had even a vague interest in, and that maybe Champions Online might sweep me off my feet once it hit the streets...other than CO, nothing exciting seemed on the horizon of MMO gaming.

But I was wrong. Oh so very, very wrong!


Dragonball Online: Having always been a closet DB/DBZ fan, this is a dream come true. I'll finally be able to create my own unique DBZ persona, find a master and train hard for the Tenkaichi Budokai, search for Dragon Balls, and later go back in time to participate in the series' greatest battles! Slight disappointment that you can't pick Saiya-jin as a race (though probably everyone and their uncle would choose to be so), but who knows what future expansions/revisions could bring? Being that Akira Toriyama has been personally involved in its art, setting and story...will this be the MMO that shoots a Kamehame-Ha through my heart?

Aion: This just looks fun, and has a strong fantasy element to it that appeals greatly to me. Combat from what I've seen looks incredibly satisfying and fast-paced, the armor and weapons are right out of a Final Fantasy game, and taking flight on angelic wings while engaging the enemy during a frenzied bout of aerial combat? That right there is full of WIN.

Star Wars - The Old Republic: Most impressive! I'm seriously considering making this my next MMO. While Star Wars Galaxies left a lot to be desired for many (from what research I did on it told), this seems to be shaping up to be the absolute best online gaming experience to date, and puts the former game to shame. Fully voiced over, dialog and action choices right out of KOTOR/Mass Effect, excellent graphics that are promised to show up even on my humble pc setup, the different classes that actually make me excited to pick something OTHER than a Jedi/Sith, and a possible conclusion to the events of KOTOR II, my favorite Star Wars-based game? The Force may have won me over on this one...

Star Trek Online - The thought of creating a character based off of a race of my very own creation, coming up with said character's complete back story, being the captain of my own ship and exploring new worlds, setting phasers to kill during away missions, battling the Borg or Klingons in space, I could go on and on....this game will be one no Star Trek fan could miss!


Argghh....how can I possibly pick just one? Should I just try each for a month? Should I stick to just 1 MMO or try my hand at juggling 2 at the same time? Will my friends and social life go permanently extinct? Who knows...either way, it's going to be a tough call.

Aion does look fun, but I swore off MMOs off not too long ago. XD

I probably wouldn't try to do more than one MMO. The other thing that is probably important is whether or not you'll be playing with any friends. I was choosing between EVE and WoW and WoW won out partially because I knew people in WoW.

As for the games themselves, I'm not too familiar with Aion. What's interesting about it? I hear a lot of people talking about it but I don't know anything about it.

All of the stuff I heard coming out of PAX about SWTOR is that it's like playing KOTOR.

Aion is fun, but for the first portion of the game it definitely feels very "more of the same." You've played this game before. This game is Lotro, this game is WoW, this game is Everquest.

Personally, I'm finding myself getting back into DDO. It definitely has the most interesting quests of any MMORPG I've played, and the combat system is quite fun -- a nice change from other games.

It seems to be kinda difficult to get into for most people though.

The fact that it's now free to download and free to play is nice, even if free accounts have some restrictions.


I'd like to try Aion (I got to talk personally with the lead developer for about 30 minutes at Sakura-con), but my PC doesn't even come close to the system specs necessary to run it.