Dividing the Aun Couple with Polarizing MMORPGs
A list of the MMORPGs that My Wife & I Differed in Opinion The Most
MMORPGs and other virtual world, massive population games are designed to bring people together. Luckily, my beautiful wife Megan is a willing participant in my MMORPG adventures. I dig much deeper than the average Isparian for MMOs and Megan voluntarily comes along. Perhaps Megan can add that she completed all of the quests of Infernal Wizards and Bloodlines of Prima to her resume?
Despite the fun we’ve had playing Bloodlines of Prima, Infernal Wizards, Rebirth Online, Eternal Magic, and other very early access, low budget MMO, a relatively small set of MMORPGs were uniquely polarizing. One of us would be joyously exploring the world, completing quests, and having a blast, while the other would be nodding off, completely confused by the purpose of the game, or otherwise not enjoying the experience
#9 RIFT
A nostalgic adventure for one and an excuse to go to bed for the other.
In the early 2010s, I returned to Asheron’s Call after a relatively long absence. Morningthaw was quiet and barren. Darktide wasn’t much better. After questing and grinding to around level 120, I stopped playing out of boredom and sought out a new adventure. Ideally, it would be an MMORPG with a MacOS X client. The first two games I came across were Minions of Mirth and RIFT, with the latter requiring WINE to work.
My time with RIFT was relatively short but exciting, putting in about 20 hours of playtime on my first account. The rift mechanic was interesting and the map was awe-inspiring. The demands of graduate school and work returned and I abandoned my RIFT journey. Given Meg’s love of World of Warcraft Classic (WoW Classic) and other 3D fantasy MMORPGs like Asheron’s Call (AC), I assumed RIFT would be at least an average game, if not one she would actually enjoy. Meg found the quests to be relatively boring, the world map to be less interesting than WoW Classic or AC, and the selection of potential races to be underwhelming. Our adventure concluded after a couple of hours, with Meg being sleepy enough to go to bed much earlier than usual, which she attributed to RIFT being yet another bland 3D fantasy MMORPG.
Aun Egg: Recommended [B]
Aun Meg: Not Recommended [D]
#8 Dragon’s Prophet
Even dragon pets couldn’t redeem this one for Meg.
Time of Dragons is one of Meg’s favorite games, but it closed down without warning. Istaria is another of her favorites, mostly because she finds her playable dragon character quite cute. Dragon’s Prophet, despite having a wide variety of dragon forms to capture and relying on an action-based combat system seemingly similar to other titles she has enjoyed, is not on her list of beloved dragon games.
I’m willing to forgive more issues than the typical MMORPG player if a game offers a unique experience. The dragon capture system with a playable, skill-based mini-game, a large open world, and the somewhat broken but fluid combat mechanics drew me in. Gamigo announced closure of service in 14 days when I first decided to play, so I hurriedly obtained an account for Megan — ready to take her on an epic adventure with dragon pets and all. Our adventure barely left town. The wonky controls, laggy servers, and numerous bugs frustrated Megan to the point of not even wanting to stay logged in to watch. Even after she was able to play without significant lag spikes, she found the controls while flying on the dragon to be frustrating and the remainder of the game to be a typical fantasy MMORPG experience — and not typical in a good way.
Aun Egg: Highly Recommended [A]
Aun Meg: Mixed [C]
#7 The Legend of Pirates Online
A game that reminded me that it’s not pirates that Meg loves. It’s Johnny Depp.
The first movie Meg and I saw in theaters together was one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies with a group of her friends from work. This was during the Summer of 2006. Two years ago and after seven years of marriage, I suggested yet another pirate adventure — still baffled by why she often seemed to hate pirate-themed stuff despite her apparent love of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Legends of Pirates Online seems to take place in the Caribbeans and is loosely based on the Pirates of the Caribbean Online MMORPG, so it should have been a definite win. After it was obvious Meg hated this game, I questioned her apparent change-of-stance on the topic of pirates. “I don’t like pirates!” was the response I received. Further discussion uncovered that Johnny Depp apparently is, or at least was, a sexy man. Her husband, on the other hand, just makes her play subpar MMORPGs.
Aun Egg: Highly Recommended [A]
Aun Meg: Not Recommended [D]
#6 Darkfall: Rise of Agon
The game where stating “it’s the one with the raptors” narrows it down sufficiently and not in a good way.
RIFT doesn’t have Orcs. Meg hated it. WoW Classic has Orcs. Meg loved it once she was a hunter and not a warrior. Darkfall has Orcs. Should be a guaranteed good time, right? She also really likes OpenArena, Quake 3 Arena, Jedi Outcast & Academy, and Wheel of Time, and her favorite MMORPG is also Asheron’s Call. A game that plays somewhat similar to a Quake and Asheron’s Call hybrid with Orcs should be a guaranteed win, right? Not really.
Meg is about as casual as you can get when it comes to MMORPGs, with her only experience playing being as a result of me introducing them to her. She typically follows me around while I yell across the room what keys to press. “Hurry up and pick any destination from the flight master!!!” while I attempted to hold off an Alliance thug was a common occurrence in WoW Classic and if it occurred too often, it was also a deal-breaker for continuing the game for the night. Darkfall: Rise of Agon, a reboot of the classic hardcore PvP MMORPG, offers none of the structured lore and stories of Asheron’s Call nor the simple-to-learn controls of Quake. After getting killed multiple times by a raptor and then by another player, Meg called it quits in this game.
Darkfall is a flawed game that essentially requires a large population to be playable as intended, but the huge open map and areas to explore are sufficient to hold my attention between sieges and one-on-one encounters. Meg loved the world exploration and orcs but found the game itself to be too frustrating and aimless to play on a more regular basis.
Aun Egg: Top Tier [S]
Aun Meg: Mixed [C]
#5 A tractor / The Universalist
The low resolution economic, civilization-building survival MMO where your playable character is a tractor for almost everyone. If you are Meg, your playable character is probably just dead.
A low resolution economic simulation MMO with city-building mechanics, numerous industries that are inter-related and require each other to advance, and the eventual option of going to space and potentially visiting player-created planets! I downloaded this believing it to be a joke and ended up loving the game during the remainder of it’s life in it’s most recent iteration. The server never made it to space, but I did manage to purchase a bi-plane I could fly around the map and was quite the successful trader of agricultural goods. Despite clearly being a hobbyist project by a single developer who works full-time in the industry, it was quite charming and it’s underlying systems were well-developed.
Meg hated it. I tried to explain that she could do whatever she wants to do and even purchased her house. Unfortunately, she fell asleep, ran out of gas, and starved to death.
Aun Egg: Highly Recommended [A]
Aun Meg: Not Recommended [D]
#4 City of Heroes
Egg’s favorite of the big three superhero MMORPGs is Meg’s least favorite.
Meg likes Champions Online and to a lesser-extent, DC Universe Online. City of Heroes, the best of the big three superhero MMORPGs, should have been a lock for a game she enjoys. Apparently not. The slow-paced gameplay, movement that is less fluid and responsive than the aforementioned titles, and missions that aren’t as interesting to her as the ones in Champions Online or DC Universe Online made this game significantly less enjoyable.
I love the character customization, graphical style, missions, and character and build customization. My history playing older MMORPG likely allows this title to be more tolerable than those who are new entrants to genre.
Aun Egg: Top Tier [S]
Aun Meg: Mixed [C]
#3 Lord of the Rings Online
Yet another quality MMORPG title originating from Turbine is definitely not Asheron’s Call from Meg’s perspective.
I fell asleep during The Hobbit in the theatre. Not once, but twice. Actually, it might have been three times. I was watching it with Meg and embarassed her. It was embarassing to me, too, but the movie was extremely boring and I hadn’t been sleeping well recently. Perhaps I could make it up to her by showing her a Lord of the Rings MMORPG.
Nope. “Who is Bilbo Boffins?!” Meg insisted the bulk of the residents in the towns were a joke, seemingly having no connection to the characters of her beloved films except surnames occasionally and the swapping of a few letters in other cases. The tutorial area was more than enough for her. The slow-paced combat and progression was a deal-breaker for her. It definitely wasn’t Asheron’s Call, a game she enjoys.
Aun Egg: Top Tier [S]
Aun Meg: Not Recommended [D]
#2 Star Wars Galaxies
Meg loves Star Wars, especially Chewbacca and Wookies in general. I’m rather indifferent toward the Star Wars universe but love Star Wars Galaxies. Perhaps Meg could teach me about Star Wars while we go epic adventures? Or we could hang out in a cantina on Dantoine. I assumed this was going to be our new Asheron’s Call or Anarchy Online, especially after I changed the default keybinds to match AC and AO. I was unfortunately quite mistaken.
Star Wars Galaxies is a sandbox MMORPG from the early 2000s focused heavily on sandbox roleplaying. You can be a dancer or musician, an architect, a bounty hunter, swordsman, pistoleer, and/or combine multiple skills and jobs to create your own unique character. Meg could be a gun slinging wookie while I could be the master entertainer with some combat skills, with my dancer and musician skills being capable of providing free buffs. I could make an alt that would be a bounty hunter working toward becoming a Jedi. So many plans were made and subsequently broken after less than 2 hours of play.
I described the game as “Anarchy Online except with more freedom and in the Star Wars universe”. Meg loves Star Wars and Anarchy Online. She doesn’t love awkward-to-control vehicles, low draw distance, or the painfully-slow early game combat, though. Meg lost me while following me, ended up getting attacked by a dragon-looking creature, and died. On her way back, her flying motorcycle blew up and some bandits killed her. That was enough for her.
Aun Egg: Top Tier [S] (4th favorite MMORPG of all-time)
Aun Meg: Not Recommended [D]
#1 Mortal Online
The only F on the list from Meg.
Mortal Online is a sandbox full-loot PvP MMORPG beloved by it’s small, niche community and mostly despised outside of it. It’s definitely a case of a highly ambitious and talented team aiming way too high given their moderate resources and to this day, the original Mortal Online runs rather poorly on many computers. Despite it’s rough-around-the-edges appearance, horrific tutorial, and lack of any meaningful quests or standard PvE content, the large open world to explore, first person combat, and crafting systems, coupled with it’s unique feel to the gameplay were enough to win me over. Megan tolerated following me around in Darkfall and Mortal Online is in the same subgenre, so I figured this would at least be a game Meg would potentially enjoy following me around for an hour or two. I was definitely mistaken.
Meg’s experience with Mortal Online started with multiple crashes at character creation, a character selection screen that took over 10 seconds to respond to anything and made little sense. I created Meg’s character for her and got her into the world, where she tried to follow me around, crashed, tried again, crashed, and finally tried one last time .. and crashed. After I had gone into work the next day, she accidentally alt-tabbed over to the Mortal Online window that hadn’t closed fully the previous day. Meg couldn’t get the laptop to respond to anything including holding the power button down to try to get it to turn off. The music from the game proceeded to randomly play throughout the day until I finally got home to turn it off — 25 hours later.
Hopefully the judge doesn’t force me to give up my prized zombie heads in the upcoming divorce hearing.
Aun Egg: Recommend [B] (Definitely a recommend to a targeted niche.)
Aun Meg: Awful / Garbage [F]
