I Have A Week to Find A Better MMO

I chose to start a character in Runescape, which is a free online MMO. Runescape has a members portion, as well, which significantly expands the scope of the game. There is no opening sequence to speak of, except for a tutorial section for new players. The character I picked somewhat arbitrarily, as there is no racial bonus to certain characters, or whatever else would make one choose a certain character for reasons other than aesthetic value.

I understand many people do simply choose characters for aesthetic value, but it’s something that has never factored into how I play games, so the idea of presenting myself in a certain fashion (in a game, anyway) is a foreign concept to me. As far as names go, I ended up with Zeromus59, after discovering that all the screen names I usually cycle through were too long. I also hate having a random number after my screen name (I’m picky, I know), because as a writer I figure I should be able to come up with some combination of characters no one else on the server has. I believe Runescape includes random numbers by default, though. Zeromus is the final boss of Final Fantasy IV, by the way, and it was, again, the last obscure name I tried putting through before I gave up.

The interface is simple point-and-click. You click on something, and your character walks there, or asks what you want to do in a drop-down menu if there’s something interesting there. I have not discovered keyboard shortcuts for anything besides camera movement, which makes the interface somewhat inefficient. For example, to cast a spell you have to click into the spell menu, select the tiny icon that indicates a particular spell, and then click on what you want to use it on. In a battle, or any other time-dependent scenario, this is annoying, to say the least.

The experience system is nice, for me anyway, because it allows you to do pretty much anything and everything the game allows. So theoretically a character can gain maximum levels in all skills, which is not always true of an MMO, or any RPG, for that matter. Personally, I almost always play the most well-rounded character I can find, so I have the most options available and the greatest potential strength. When I stopped playing, I believe I had six ranks in wood-cutting, which I used more often than, say, attacking, in which I’m only second rank.

Unfortunately, that’s where the benefits of the skill set end. The game has no overarching goal or purpose, so you just bounce from quest to quest for the sake of it. The game map is enormous, yet your character moves at a frustratingly slow pace, even when running, which is a rare privilege. People in Runescape tire quickly. Combined with the clunky interface, it makes for a very long game with very few rewards.

Basically, my plan to avoid spending money on an MMO—a concept to which I object as a gamer and a human being—backfired spectacularly. If I’m going to get any sort of meaningful play or interaction, I’m going to need to buy a game that will hopefully strike the fine balance between giving me my money’s worth and eating my soul. One where I can have my own name. And not have to chop logs more frequently than fight something.