Thanksgiving

PVD got me thinking about how things have changed, in both MMOs and off-line games, and I have some things I'm thankful for that I think every game or MMO should do:

1. Free Preview

Recently I was on Steam and tried out a few demos, it only took time to download these demos, and once I had them I was able to get a taste of what the games were like.

Thanks to the free preview I learned that Gyromancer is not a game for me, that L4D2 is hella hard, and I need to practice more on L4D(1) before I decide I'm awesome enough for 2. But I also discovered a game that will be joining my collection soon: Zombie Shooter 2.

Free Previews allow the consumer to more appropriately find the game that they want, and in the case of Zombie Shooter 2, allows me to give a smaller indi game, a chance.

2. Expansions

There are plenty of games out there that we love, and we play through once. We might re-play it, to relive some moments in a story (in the case of RPGs or Adventure games). An expansion would allow us to have more of the same (which quite honestly, would cut back on the 5 million Megaman games out there).

Essentially, in the model of Megaman in particular, is that you would add more bosses, and more Wily Castles. When you finally come up with something different enough (sliding, rush, power armor), that you would make a sequel for it.

3. My Avatar is better than me

I first saw this in Kotor, and again in Wow. Let's take a game like God of War, and I can dodge on my own, but, Kratoes, in all his bad-assery, also avoids getting hit on his own. I press to block but on his own he deflects attacks. I want more of this in games.

4. Any Race, any Class

D&D 4e, finally allows this to happen, and though you can be any class/race combination, it's not always ideal. In the end, it's about player choice, and restricting that in a game that's not all voice over, just feels silly.

5. Voice choices

Dragon Age Character Creator, allowed me to select my character's voice, and EQ2 also let's you do that. From an "RP" stand point it allows added immersion for your character.

6. Downloadable games

As time goes on, my desire for cheap, good games that are just a download away increases. I recently downloaded the new Excitebike for Wii, and I'm looking forward to playing through Zomebie Shooter 2. I got my wife Mario 64 as well. Having the choice to download old favorites is great for me, and is honestly something I've wanted to have legally for a long time.

Now if only they'd get more of the backlog collection onto the DSi library so that I could play Super Mario Bros. 3 on it.