Thursday, November 14, 2013

On the Joy of Not Caring About New Consoles

One of the nice things about having a diversity of interest is that no single thing necessarily dominates one's attention. In my case I've been far more excited about discovering 13th Age than I am about the imminent arrival of the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One. Given that I just bought a PS3 earlier this year that makes a bit of sense; I have 20+ games in my shelf backlog on that machine that I hardly have time to get to; the prospect of paying $400 right now for a PS4 just to play the new Killzone doesn't sound like a smart move...and all the other titles coming out are almost all cross-platform, including PC, which makes for very little incentive to pick up one of these consoles Day One.

Given that the 1st release of new consoles also comes with hideous uncertainties like fatal design flaws and unforeseen errors and other problems, it's sometimes a miracle that they can get such a high rate of adoption early on.  Still....a lot of people out there use the console as their primary gaming bread and butter, so I imagine there must be households out there where having one of these machines is both a necessity and a sign of prestige.

So in the midst of this consumer chaos I have opted out. I'm going to keep prepping for my 13th Age game (we're running one this Saturday!) while I enjoy my recently acquired Kindle Paperwhite (more about that later). And speaking of big spectacles, the recent World of Warcraft "Warlords of Draenor" announcement was enough to push me over the edge....after two years I have decided, shockingly, to not only resubscribe to WoW but to even get the Mists of Pandaria expansion....! So what did did I do with this return? Why, roll up a brand new level 1 human fighter, of course! I'll suffer through a pandaren later....but not a monk. I'll make something else a monk.

I don't know if it's nostalgia or just the video game equivalent of comfort food, but it is nice to return to WoW again. In the world of MMOs there's something rather pleasant and addictive about the way WoW does it's "thing" that the endless competitors keep missing. I'll play it for a while, probably lose interest eventually and then be ready for when the rather impressive sounding Warlords of Draenor finally arrives.


4 comments:

  1. We seem to be of the same mind on a lot of things here. I bought my xBox 360 about a year and a half ago. It's the first console I have had since my refurbished PS2 crapped out about 4 years ago. And I can't see myself replacing the 360 anytime soon.

    I was back into WoW for a month before my video card crapped out (I see a trend here), and I cancelled it again. But, the two older kids were getting into it, so now that I have a new card I may just re-up it.

    Btw, Panderans are cool, but feel awkward in a Horde setting, FYI. However, the Orc Monk kicks solid ass.

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    1. That cinches it, I'm going to do an orc monk! I make a pandaren rogue because the idea of a giant panda creeping around and ganking things has a special sort of comedy appeal to me...

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  2. I can attest to the joys of not playing (or caring about) MMOs anymore. I'll buy my PS4 when Fallout 4 comes out.

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    1. Fallout 4 will get my attention...although I hope it doesn't end up being an MMO.

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