The Runes, the are a changin’

http://tinyurl.com/5nh7t6

I remember that time, like days of lore. To be honest, I do not even recall signing up for it, but well blogged was the day I received my invitation to round 3 of the World of Warcraft closed beta - right before Hunters and mounts were introduced, and the level cap was in the 30s.

I dare not claim my excitement had nothing to do with the “closed beta” portion of the game at the time, regardless, fun was had. But by round 4 I had totally forgotten about the game. After my near-half-year stay at the hospital, I was excited again (possibly an effect of amnesia?) for the land of Azeroth. It took me a few weeks of hard-grinding for me to realize that paying for 6 months, up front, was a disastrous waste of money. And as cheap as it may make me sound, I hated how paying that monthly fee gave me the constant feeling I was wasting money not playing it, feeling obliged to get bored somewhere else.

Guild Wars just didn’t work, some account problem.

That was many moons ago, many a ‘coons age, if you will. I have seen the rise, the fall and the lack of either from various MMORPGs, but the MMO market seems not one that is easily shifted (considering the hours and money invested into their level 70 Gnome with a Paladin’s mount). Lord of the Rings, a beta I was invited to, but didn’t bother too, seems to have taken the MMO fanbase community that isn’t playing WoW - no doubt helped by the license backing it. But that was really it. Star Trek and Stargate MMOs are in the works, but save for the respective television shows, I could not care much less.

It was an article on Kotaku a while ago.  It brings something never before seen in the MMO genre: something never before seen in the MMO genre.  And that was a colon there for a reason.  MMOs have been a less released form of the FPS genre lately, especially the plethora of WWII ones - the same damn thing.  Rune’s actually addresses some of my qualms over the genre, be it the fact that only high-level players’ outfits match (its not gay, okay?) and being stuck in a single character-class.  When I read that alone, I was interested, the Rune system sounded really interesting, as well did the multi-class one - I hated being stuck with one style of game play, especially for how long MMO accounts last.

But then I read how Runes will bring a better social aspect to the game.  Be it a personal living-space, a la Fable; Server wars and Guild wars; Dynamic Dungeons; as well as the apparent ‘dress dummy’;

By far the neatest function of player housing in Runes of Magic is the dress dummy. Place it in your home, equip it with a set of armor, and then with the click of a button you can swap out your equipment with what the dummy is wearing. Perfect for those who consistently change primary classes, as well as anyone who has ever played a WoW druid. You can set up as many dummies as you need, and the same functionality works with wall-mounted weapon sets.
— Mike Fahey @ Kotaku

Oh, and it’s damn free.  Although it makes me wonder how they plan on making money, be that as it may, its still damn free.

Tags: kotaku, mmo, runes of magic, wow

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