The Kool Aid

Poor Darren over at Common Sense Gamer. He does not think WAR is awesome. The sad thing is, he posted how he felt on his blog and now, people are upset. People are actually upset. I can't believe he would do that on his own blog, I mean offer an opinion that didn't conform to those of others.

Apparently, his position is that WAR is a good game, just not the answer to WoW. I can't actually believe he had the nerve to say that. That's like throwing yourself on a live hand grenade these days. Does he not know how rabid the gaming community is over WAR? Has he not seen the signs? The flood of WAR centric blogs, the videos, the podcasts that have been around since the game was just a whisper on the lips of Mythic. Has he not seen the Hype? My god, the man is in for it now. He's cut himself deep while treading in shark infested waters.

I mean, he clearly states that WAR is a good game, he enjoyed it, but it just didn't seem to capture enough of his attention in the beta to justify playing it full time. To top it all off, he actually said that he was looking forward to what SoE had to offer in the next year or so, saying that..

FreeRealms, DCU and Agency will offer MMO GAMEPLAY mechanics that are new and interesing.

and that...

...even though WAR is released in 2008, it is still a game caught in the past and, like it or not, with the same feature sets (…with some variations…) as WoW/EQ2/LOTRO. It still follows the definition of an MMO as set out by Blizzard in 2004 and as set out by Everquest in 1999. Same forumla. Same game. Different IP.

Games like DCU, FreeRealms, Agency, Wizard101…those are the future…

Since that little post, he has been accused of drinking the so called "SoE Koolaid". I mean the nerve to like something other than WAR and to say nice things about Sony in the same breathe is just, well, it's just blasphemy.

The sad hard truth is , he's probably right. I mean, so he doesn't like WAR and thinks SoE has a better shot of producing the next gen of MMO's. I don't like hockey and I'm sure a lot of hockey fans don't have a problem with that, as a matter of fact, I don't think they even care.

I'm sure the reason that Darren is in trouble is that people value his opinion about games. He has a huge following, me being one of them, and I think they expected him to get on board the WAR boat and sail the uncharted PQ seas.

Apparently, NOT!

I'm not saying they shouldn't be disappointed, he didn't like their game and now they are bummed, but come on, why attack a man because he has a different opinion than yours?

Do you really think he's drinking the SoE Kool Aid? Brent might be, but only because they turned him into a game card, but Darren?

I'm about to switch from WoW to WAR and people will probably be saying the same thing about me. I'm excited about WAR. Does that mean I think WoW sucks, no. I'm just tired of WoW. Blizzard did their job and had me entertained for a good 3 yrs and now I'm ready to try something else. Is it Blizzard's fault? No. I'm ready for a new experience and I'm hoping I can get it from WAR. Does that mean I'm drinking the Mythic Kool Aid? No!

I'm just saying it's madness to condemn someone because they aren't interested in your game. He didn't belittle WAR, he offered an opinion, that I honestly believe is correct. WAR has a lot of the same mechanics as a other MMO games, they just beefed them up and changed a little here and there. I'm still going to play it, because I'm ready to try something different. If it turns out to be a WoW clone...then, OK, its a WoW clone. I liked WoW, I should like WAR. I'm sure it will be different enough to capture my interest for a few months maybe even years, till the next thing comes a long.

I'm saying, just because they don't like your Kool Aid doesn't mean their drinking someone elses.