I feel a little like a relic at this moment. Everyone is talking about Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and Wrath of the Liche King, and I realized… I have no interest in any of them. I have a coworker in the AoC closed beta, but going around in gangs randomly ganking people wasn’t that fun in EQ2’s Nagafen from either end – seemed really pointless to me, though I did enjoy the feeling of danger and risk it brought to the game.

Still, they will rise or fall on their merits, and I’ll be watching from the sidelines. I have my EQ1 and EQ2. Mythos is coming out, Champions Online and Chronicles of Spellborn are on the horizon. I can spend my time anticipating those, while enjoying the good games I am already playing.

Flagship Studios is being incredibly responsive to its beta players, retooling Mythos at a fantastic rate to improve the game play and move it away from the “Diablo II”-clone label. It’s turning out to be something new to Western MMOs – a AAA-quality, Free to Play MMO with microtransactions. Dungeon Runners shares a lot of similar elements, and is released while Mythos is in beta, but it does not include microtransactions and has shown a greater reluctance to move in any significant away from the Diablo II model. Plus, I consider it rather dull. Mythos’ over the top, here’s a hundred mobs at once, edge-of-the-seat gameplay gets addicting after awhile.

Anyway, since I won’t be playing any of the current generation of MMOs as I wait for the next, here’s my quick takes on my hopes for them.

Age of Conan: This will be the EverQuest 2 of this generation. Few people will be able to play the game properly, but those who stick with it may find a fantastic game. It will follow the EQ2 arc. A quick burst of initial interest will give way to mass defections. AoC will fix the problems, get back on track, and in a year, the game will be where it should have been at launch and the players who stuck with them will be having fun.

Warhammer Online: The game can’t possibly match people’s expectations. EA Mythic may think that with enough money and marketing might that they can pull people away from WoW. Unfortunately, they are doing nearly nothing to lure non-WoW players to the game. They may think they can get a couple of million players without Blizzard noticing, but a lot of other companies have thought that in the past. It is impossible to drag WoW players away when they release a new expansion.

Wrath of the Liche King: I’ve seen the videos. This expansion is going to blow in the doors. AoC may struggle through because it is a significant departure from WoW, but Warhammer Online is going to be pounded. WoW will keep its crown for another year. By the time people finish the new content, Warhammer Online will seem like a has-been, and people will be more likely to wait for the next new shiny rather than give WAR a try. It’s all about the opening weekend – or free month. It is impossible to entice people to leave WoW unless Blizzard shoved them out the door first.

Why EA Mythic thought releasing against WoW would ever work… I dunno. Blizz was never going to give them an easy, uncontested launch. About the only thing EA Mythic can really do now is delay it a further six months and put in something so cool that the delay would be worth it.

There’s also SOE’s new MMOs, The Agency and Free Realms, coming out at some point, probably around the WAR and WotLK launches. The buzz on both these titles is so incredibly low, as are the expectations, that almost anything they can do will look like a success. If either game compromises the PC gameplay in favor of the PS3 gameplay, you might as well write them off right now. It won’t be these games that convince anyone to buy a PS3.

Anyway, I’m afraid all you’ll be seeing on the pages of this particular blog is more EQ, EQ2 and Mythos adventures for awhile. Mythos won the Mythos vs Dungeon Runners competition on my hard drive by virtue of not being boring. I am HOPING to get into the Spellborn beta (Spellborn devs, HINT HINT). I’m not sure I can talk about another beta I am in, but my high hopes for it were utterly crushed.

AoC, WAR and WotLK players – I’ll be looking forward to reading about your adventures :)