dungeons vs. warcraft

so here i am - stuck on two mmporpgs. i can't decide which i like better. is it world of warcraft, or dungeons & dragons online?

see, both have something going for them. wow is smooth, polished, and rather cartoony. you can run about smashing stuff with axes and hollering gleefully as you go. it's great eye candy and pretty much the usual simple stuff blizzard are well capable of dishing out. nothing complex - just dash in and smash away until stuff dies.

but, that can be a bit of a disadvantage, too. see, with blizzard, they seem to love making stuff hard to kill. so, you can run up to a simple little monster and spend half an hour killing it. sure, you're in no danger of dying. in fact, you could right click on it and walk away under normal blizzard circumstances. like in diablo, you could just pretty much hold the click mouse button down and watch tv until the monster died. don't get me wrong, i loved diablo. still do. but it's pretty annoying to spend an hour hacking away at something, sometimes.

ddo, though, you can kill stuff in one hit. one hit! bam! dead! i'm playing a rogue in ddo, though. i mean, i wanted to play a cute little elf chick (i kind of admit i love they way they slink along and how they look in cute little leather outfits. i'm sure the designers spent so much time designing elf chicks that it's the main reason the other races all look pretty ordinary...). so there i am, suited up to kill. i sneak along, pick locks and steal stuff and stab anything that moves. yay! and it dies. i mean, it's not easy. traps can kill you in an instant. creatures can kill you just as easy. in a way, it adds to the experience. you end up holding your breath as you wind yourself around a supposedly empty corridor, trying to see where a trap might be hidden, or hoping you're not spotted by that stupid creature up front.

my main problem, though, is i'm playing a mmorpg and i really don't like socialising. i like roleplaying, but not many people do that. they're so busy trying to up their stats or get some neat thing, or kill some boss, that they're not much interested in the roleplay side of the game, whereas i like to think of myself as some kind of zatoichi. in it for myself. just plodding along in the shadows. i'm one of those who firmly believes i have every right to pick the pockets of other players. i should be able to swipe a good bit of their booty. i'd like to go through a huge long dungeon crawl with everyone, pick the lock on a big chest of booty, and swipe the lot, leaving the dungeon before they got a chance to say "what the-?"

which is why in wow, i completely ignore anyone who suddenly whips up some invite in my face, or a challenge in my face without having had the plain courtesy to say hello. so far, only one person has said hello before whipping up an invite to group thing.

ddo, however, was a little more pleasant, but only a little. i was actually asked about a quest. very polite, too.

the thing is, i much prefer solo missions. i prefer squeezing myself down an alley without having to worry about what the guy behind me is doing. is he safe? can he handle that little monster i can't be bothered dealing with? and why the hell is he just standing there doing nothing throwing healing spells at me? i don't want to be healed. if i needed healing, i wouldn't be here. i'd be home wrapped up in my blankies. i'm quite capable of taking care of myself, so hey, take your fingers out of your wandhole and actually lend a hand killing!

i like playing warriors. warriors rock. wade in and kill. i love hanging out with other warriors, and we all wade in and kill stuff. i hate hanging out with healers. they're annoying. they whinge every time they die and don't really help out in the long run. sure, it's nice to get a bit of a heal during the heat of battle, but it's hardly necessary if you know what you're doing and actually planned your life that way to take care of yourself instead of relying on some idiot weakling who's going to prance about with a little biddy mace and toss little spells at you while you're doing all the hard work.

of course, my alltime favourite game this year has been oblivion. it's awesome. if it were a mmorpg, it'd do more than rock. it'd blow my mind. something so awe-inspiringly open as that deserves to be massive.

oh, what to stay with?

i want to build up some character, but i'm dividing my time between these two games. i'm thinking ddo is probably the one, despite its irritatingly amateur controls. pressed up against a wall, i can't see what i'm swinging at, and the creatures look stupid when they die on top of crates after shuddering themselves up there. floating in mid air.

and the camera doesn't swing around like it should, allowing you to get a good look of the action while you're doing your stabby business. wow is much smoother to play, but isn't as atmospheric or solo-friendly. i mean, i understand the concept of mmorpg, but i prefer ddo, where you can solo a lot, yet still get the benefits of a nice big dungeon crawl with a gang.

yes, ddo looks nicer. looks more creepy. looks more spooky. looks awesome.

though wow's voodoo-tim burton style is quite amusing at times, too.

oh, the choices. the evil choices. still. look at my elf chick. isn't she cute? quite the cutest elf chick in a computer game i've ever seen, and i was always fond of my oblivion one.

mind you, wow's orcs just look so cool. like little hulks. hulk smash!

jeez. i better go start making lasagne...