The Long Hiatus

Babaoroody

Where have Baba and Friends been after going into suspended animation back in 2007?

In 2007 there were many new and flasher MMORPGS out there and I left AO to see if the grass was actually greener in those games. I tried many, played several for years and now after 13 years absence I realize Anarchy Online is my favorite MMORPG.

MMORPGS PLAYED WHILE AWAY 

Here is a brief rundown on the MMORPGs I played while away from AO:

• Guild Wars 2 2007 to 2009   In 2007 GW2 was new and flashy, inexpensive (buy to play, no sub), and had several interesting pet classes. I had the opportunity to play for free in an early beta version, and it hooked me.  It is a fun polished MMORPG.  
  
  The first year of the game World vs World mass PVP was incredibly fun, but second year server bandwagoning ruined WvW.  As WvW was my main focus, I stopped playing GW2.  I would return briefly to play new expansions, but after the Path of Fire expansion I called it quits, no more expansions for me.  
  
  Arenanet seemed to be putting more and more resources into designing jumping puzzles and other fluff-tent (mini games, cosmetics, collecting, and it’s to me silly single player scripted RPG story missions), than large interesting zones. 
  
  
• Perfect World 2008 to 2013   I started playing PW in 2008 just a few months after it started life.  It was a really fun well done game, I had a blast playing it that first year.  Territory Wars  (guild vs guild PVP) was insanely fun. The best group PVP I have seen in an MMORPG.  It has the best mounts of any MMORPG.  The graphics were exceptional for 2008.  There was something very pretty about how zones looked when the sun was fully out.
  
  

  

  Sunkissed Perfect World 
  

  I played on and off through 2013, but less and less often as Pay 2 Win was taking hold egregiously and a new totally overpowered class/race combo could solo just about any dungeon came out.
  
  
  
  
  Between the P2W power creep and the OP new class, Territory Wars ceased to be fun.  One opposing OP player could easily one shot every player on your side with impunity.
  
  

  
  

  Perfect World Flying Mount

  
  

  

  Favorite PW Flying Mount
  
  

  

  Favorite Ground Mount
  Yes I am a sucker for glowy flames
  
  

  
  
• Epic Perfect World (private server) 2016 -  I log in every now and then just to take my favorite mounts for a spin and revisit the gorgeous landscapes.  It’s still P2W but the economy version.  For a handful of dollars worth of bought gold, you can buy a bunch of the best mounts and pets and gear.
  
  
• World of Warcraft 2014 to 2016 -  After AO, my second favorite MMORPG.  I tried and leveled up a bunch of classes, but the one I really enjoyed was the Rogue class, so that was my main.   Leveling was fun and no one does zones, raids and dungeons better.  Sadly I did not care for the mass PVP provided in Warlords of Draenor, too much PVE.   
  
  
  

  

  One of My WOW Rogues
  

  
  Some time around the end of Warlords of Draenor and the Legion expansion they drastically reworked the Rogue class, and basically took away my favorite way of playing the Rogue.  That really put me off WOW. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Guild Wars One - 2018 to 2019 - Loved the world, the combat, the henchmen system (better than pets) and the totally flexible build system which also applies to your henchmen.

  

  GW 1's Great Build Scheme

  
  It still has a healthy player population, plenty of dungeon and raid activity there.   I think it has the best build system of any MMORPG. Left after getting several characters to max level and not wanting to do end game stuff like raids etc.  May return someday to try different builds/classes.
  
  
  
  
  
• Anarchy Online - Returned in 2019 for several months - Having found the grass was not greener, we started playing AO again on a new high powered laptop.  Got Babaengy and Babaempee to level 136.  Babaengy could cast a Slayerdroid Warden with Infuses from Babaempee and a Wrangle from our trader Tireen.  
  
  Was about to start blogging about it all when a spilled cup of coffee fried my gaming laptop.  I did not have backups of AO prefs, character spreadsheets, scripts, blog notes and graphics, so it was pretty demoralizing. The experience stung so much I needed some time to get over it before retrying AO.

Tried But Did Not Stick

I tried quite a few other MMORPGS and none of them were bad games, they just for one reason or another they did hold me for very long.

• Black Desert Online - Generic MMORPG fare with fairly recent generation graphics, but completely forgettable.
  
  
• Blade and Soul - Very generic and nothing that stood out to me.
  
  
• EVE Online -  It seemed to me that you spent most of your time staring at a control console and occasionally looking outside.  Just not my cup of tea.
  
  
• Everquest - The "world" just seemed to be a jumbled mish-mash of fantasy memes.  Character graphics were decent, but the zones, buildings, trees, etc. seemed amateurish and primitive.
  
  
• Hellgate London - Mostly a hub with just very linear mission levels. Imagine AO with only missions in dull drab colors.
  
  
• Kingdom of Loathing - a really nice change of pace when you have been taking your current MMORPG way to seriously. 
  
  

  

  Kingdom of Loathing Toon
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Lord of the Rings Online - It reminded me of WOW, but crude and unpolished. None of the classes clicked for me.
  
  
• Maple Story 2 - Nice idea about a market for player created skins, but way to dinky levels and mash one button style combat.
  
  
• MMORPG TYCOON 2 - You don't play in it, you run the MMORPG, very addictive and fun watching your players do quests, kill mobs, travel about. In early access, sadly the game grew too CPU/GPU heavy for my PC to handle.
  
  
• Neverwinter - Could not get past the wonky control scheme.
  
  
• Old School Runescape - Another one where I could not get past the wonky control scheme.
  
  
• Scarlet Blade - Fan service tourism.
  
  
• Star Wars Galaxies - I kept getting stuck in the landscape.
  
  
• Star Wars the Old Republic - The starting area and first part after leaving put me to sleep.
  
  
• Tera - Fantastic character models, but the world design was bland and generic and not that imaginative.  Nothing in the game grabbed me.
  
  
• World of Kings - A mobile WoW clone - fun at first but evolves into a grind/P2W/Gacha fest.