I'd like to start by disclaiming this blog for anyone who reads this. The following is my opinion and everyone is open to their opinion so with that said enjoy!

So I bought a XBOX360 about a year or so ago, to this day I have not bought the wireless adaptor to allow my XBOX to jump online, I have however viewed friends playing on XboxLive so I have an idea of how it works. Recently I bought a PS3, I'd wanted one since launch day but the large crouds and heafty price drove me away and so I bought a Wii (hence I named my account back then King_Wii instead of King_PS3 lol).

So after playing on the PSN (Playstation Network) and being an avid PC MMO gamer I've come to the conclusion that I have a favorite system and its quickly pulling my attention away from my traditonal PC haunt. Now obviously you've figured out that my new favorite toy is indeed my PS3 but before I get ranting about it let me explain why I like it so much.

1) PSN: The PSN is the coolest network I've ever seen since SquareEnix did their PlayNow thingy, which I had always considered cool however I'd never gotten into it since only two games excist on that network. Now I've seen XboxLive and I have no quarell with it but in my opinion the presentation is extreamly well done on the PS3 and PSN. Home on its own (a vertual world found on the PSN) is extreamly neat and very interesting. You have all your games at your fingertips, a nice house and a wonderful atmosphere to hang out in and meet new people outside of games. The downside with home is that just walking around means you'll be exposed to the general public, as an MMO player I'm used to it. The downer however is that I'm a person who enjoys a veriaty of avatars, I do have an avatar that looks similar to me but I also play around with avatars which look nothing like me and in all honesty are the opposite gender (my friends notice I change avatars as much as I change clothing lol). So it gets annoying when some random person walks up when your trying on a "differnt" avatar and asks you "are you a girl?" My first respons was: Already moving on to our first date? and the guy promptly walked away lol. Overall PSN is a ton of fun, and the best part about PS3 is that you don't have to pay any money to get onto the network or home... its all free (unless you want more clothing and housing in home).

2) Games: Sadly this is where I have to break away from PS3. I won't deny that XBOX360 has a larger and at times better selection of games. Some of my favorite games are only found on the XBOX such as Mass Effect, Fable 2 and Halo 3. On the upside for PS3 fans however some of my new found favorites include LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, and I eagerly await the release of DC Online (the super hero MMO). Sadly I would like to see sony push harder in this area as they have lost a TON of their exclusive games. I'd say at least 90% of the games on PS3 can also be found on XBOX360 and exclusives often win wars. (Sony that means get some exclusive RPGs... yah you lost FF13 but get over it and find something ealse to publish lol).

System: Now moving back to PS3 I do have to admit I like the system better. Honestly the sleek black case and quiet home beat the 360. Now don't get me wrong I love my 360 but sadly it is a "louder" and "hotter" system than the PS3, also the PS3 dosn't have the red ring of death. Also when you log into the system it has a very sleek and stylish menu system which has a large number of options. At times I feel as though the Xbox menu is a bit cluncky and jumbled and so I do find the PS3 menu to be quite refreshing.

Graphics: Well graphicaly the two systems are nearly identical (aside from obvious differnces found in Gamespots test) but in the heat of battle its often hard to gawk at minor texture resolution differneces. Both systems win in this area in my mind but in the end my PC could beat them both hands down lol (if I had the money to buy two new graphics cards and SLI them... you know the one that has two built into one which means I'd be running 4... yah that one).

So there you have it thats my spin on the system wars. Obviously this is my opinion and I can't deny the fact that the PS3 feels good. The menus, look and feel scream awsomeness. Don't get me wrong I do love my Xbox360, I wouldn't have bought it if I didn't like it and in all honesty I'd love to see both a Xbox1080 and a PS4 (hopefuly Microsoft gets a better name going... 360 I dunno I never did like it much hopefuly next time they do Xbox Zero... no one has done a zero system seriously zero in mathmatical terms is a dangerous and cool number). So there you have it if you put games aside and judge the systems just on what they are I do have to say I like the PS3 better. The free netwrok, free wireless router and quiet and cool system makes for a great bit of hardwear, now lets just hope Sony can bring out some exclusives other than Killzone 2 this year.

Player vs. Dev: So there I was on startrekonline.com's forums and I happened to get into a conversation about dynamic MMOs which quickly evolved into a conversation about players building things themselves. I happened to bring up topics like Little Big Planet and Second Life and how they were both created with the intent of having players build most of the game's content.

Its with that that I started thinking what type of game do I like? Well when I was in high school and my first two years of college I attempted to become a game designer, I even went to school for it but eventualy I found that I enjoyed playing more than creating (or rather that creating games often involved a lot of backstabbing and idea stealing as do most artistic jobs). So deep down inside of me I have this desire to create games if not on "true devloper" level. It was with that desire that I was drawn to Second Life for a short while.

Second Life: Though not officaly a game in any real way the whole online world is built by players for players. Real money is exchanged and people have actualy spent a large ammount of time on the game creating true money making positions (don't think its easy though as most people on SL will tell you its extreamly hard to get the position you need to create a money making venture and it even requires a small investment as well). Everything in SL is player created though, from the house you hang out in to the clothing your avatar wears. The client has a built in 3D rendering system which allows you to put shapes and textures together to create interesting objects.

Little Big Planet: I haven't played LBP yet but I'm looking forward to it, what makes this game interesting is that it ships with a whole game but at the same time the developers have given the players the ability to create their own levels. From what I've read/seen of the game you can design very complex levels for other people to experience and as some articles have stated "if you can think of it you can make it in LBP".

So which is better? Honestly this is obviously upto the player, if your an MMOer you'll note games such as Ultima Online (UO) and Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) and though they didn't have any built in systems to let you customize your own content they did have houses. I remember in both games players created some of the most intersting things out of objects within the game... it was like Junkyard Wars but with interior decoration and they did a great job with it. In UO a 2D game I saw people create fish tanks out of cut cloth placed on the floor with fish stacked ontop and visually it looked like a fish tank though the game registered it as fish ontop of cloth. The same things happened in SWG a 3D game where players would turn fountains into pools or baths for their avatars, these players literaly took what the devs gave them and ran with it.

The dark side of player made content is that not everyone is very creative... Second Life proves this for some sections of the game look bland or just plain ugly, I'm sure we'll see things like that in Little Big Planet when it hits the PS3 this fall.

Deep down inside I'm all for player created content even if its not on the scale of LBP or SL and honestly I think more games should have level editors and player design aspects within them, from time to time you find a gem of a level or map that you may have never seen anywhere ealse... I remember seeing some realy great stuff on Half Life online made by players.

Recently I've seen quite a few topics pop up about different complaints, some saying that sex and violence in gaming has gotten out of control, others saying that its "hidden" away forcing developers to hide such contents or cut them completely. To give you some examples of this I bring up the notorious GTA3, and the daring Mass Effect.

Both games have taken a ton of heat and in different areas, mass ban's, boycotts, and overall negative unrest follows in their wake. I'll start with GTA3, this game is obviously an M rated game, you kill, have sex, and do tons of horrid things. Personally I'm not for or against the game, why because I respect the M on the box. I know when I pop GTA3 into my system that I'm going to experience some rather dark topics, that the game will push the social limits of what is right and wrong (mostly wrong) and at the same time I know its just a game and when I walk away I'll be the same person that I was when I started to play it.

Now as mentioned above GTA in general has taken a beating due to its content, personally I think this is very unfair. To use another example lets throw in the TV show the Sopranos, or American Gangster. Both movie and show have tons of 'R' rated content, both have nudity on some level, blood and gore on some level, and crime elements on some level. Yet these two bits of modern media take significantly less flack than the game counterpart why is that?

Before I answer the question... in the most neutral way possible let me address my other example, Mass Effect. The game is rather innocent, aside from killing aliens in a rather gore-less way it has no major flaws, a few changes and it may have passed for 'T'. Yet in the game we find a sex scene, after watching it I realized it was no worse than anything I had seen in an 'R' rated movie, yet again the game takes a ton of flack (I won't even get into the alien on human scene that everyone is going crazy over... that's a blog for a different time).

So is it unfair that games take so much heat for following in the footsteps of their parents, movies and shows? I say yes it is, and I feel the major reason games are taking a beating is because respect for the 'M' rating is low. When I see a big 'M' on a box I think 'R', I know its not good stuff for kids, I know it may contain foul language, violence, and sexual themes and if your unsure they list it on the back of the box! So I fail to see why it is that games can't have all the uncensored violence and sexual content of a movie as long as they throw it on the box for all to see? Some say that kids may get into it, well my response is if your a good parent you'll sensor your child's viewing, if its to hard to do that then you explain what they are seeing to them, you cover the bases and give them a strong moral guide.

The bottom line is, if a game has an 'M' rating than expect mature conetent, or if its easier for those who watch movies expect restricted content. Overall I feel that games in general are on the same level as movies and TV shows which both have rating systems now (movies before games), so why is it that games take such a beating? Because people haven't given the 'M' respect.

Now this is my first time blogging at all, so I'll make my personal intro realy quick. I'm a MMO gamer (been doing it for about 6 or 7 years now) though I do own a Wii and an Xbox 360 so I'm not a pure MMO gamer.

Well now that thats out of the way I'll start this off: Recently I just got into Lord of the Rings Online (LoTRO), its a great game, lots of neat stuff to do but as always it and many MMOs have disappointed. Its not the game-play is bad, and the world is very nice it makes me happy to run through the Shire and feel as if I'm a part of Tolkin's masterful world, but at the same time I get this dejavu feal that I've been here before. In reality I have, not this world, not this game but this type of game.

Before WoW the MMO world was an "underground" one, and often people said "you play MMOs... what is an MMO?" when you told them about it. Now that games like WoW has stormed the market and made MMOs "mainstream" even football players dable in the MMO world (often through WoW). Now this is great and all, I always figure the more people the better, means that the game is doing well, but with WoW I'm starting to see a tried and true formula poping up. Ever game after WoW has had some form of Wowisumin it. LoTRO is a perfect example of this, the game screams wow... from the leveling system to the crafting system they have transplanted WoW into Tolkin's world of Middle Earth. This isn't the worst thing I've ever seen and you can tell that lately developers are using WoWs success to fuel their own designs.

This is where the title of this blog comes in, before WoW when you developed a game you had to come up with ways to make your game "new" or "better" than your competetors. Often new MMOs were exciting because they tried new and daring formulas, many bombed but a few stayed strong and realy developed worlds and game-play styles that were unique and interesting. In our modern world of MMOs all you see are rehashes of WoW, just as Korean games are constantly turning out Lineage style games. Now you can't blame a company for going the "safe" path, and doing a WoW style game, but when will the line be drawn... how long will it take untill players get sick of the constant "WoW Effect" storming into there favorite MMOs (Heck SOE destroyed Star Wars Galaxies just to make it feel a little more like WoW).

Now this isn't to say that the MMO world is totaly bad right now, and I'll admit I think WoW is a great game, I just think that its sad that everyone is copying the game... I will admit I like LoTRO a bit better than WoW, but I can also tell you I may get sick of it real quick because it screams WoW so much. On the horizon we have some new and daring titles, games like Gods and Heroes, and Warhammer Online, heck even the Conan game looks like it could be vary promising. I can only hope that these titles stay true to there origonal formulas and don't submit to the the masses craze for WoW.

Aside from the WoW effect we've also got the general MMO formula. If its a level based game we've got your "tank", "DPS ranged or melee", and your "healer". It would be nice if a company out there could attempt to do a totaly new formula. After a while it gets boring to constantly seeing the same old classes redon with differnt names and differnt effects and armors and junk like that. A game that would do wonders for itself would be the one that steps back and says "lets try somthing differnt... somthing new!"

So with that said, it will be interesting to see how long the tried and true formula of MMOs lasts. It would be nice to see games like Ultima Online (UO) and Dark Ages (not DAoC... but the Nexon game) be relived. In UO you had housing that was in the world, constant player built content and adventures and crafting that felt it mattered. If you wanted to run a shop, you could the only downside is that they never got a city of village system for players to band togehter and make there housing area into a city with roads and lanterns and so forth (SWG attempted this, but in the end it was bland and under done). Dark Ages hand an interesting way of playing, you had gods that you could worship, you'd join there church, you could go to mass and hear a player priest give a sermon about that god or godess, and everyone got a nice chunck of EXP for it. You could run for mayor of a city, become a judge or a town guard. The world was run by the players and it was somthing we've yet to see reproduced in a more "mainstream" game. Hopefuly the future of MMOs will be a brighter one than our current era of bland WoW remakes.