I decided to revisit my gaming homeland to share a little of the experiences I've had in the past 3 or 4 months in my travels to another far away and very different land of gaming called Planetside 2, but first a little backstory.

DDO was a game I had waited for years to be developed. I never had a doubt that one day D&D would be made into an MMO, even before there were MMOs. While I'm at it might as well go ahead and throw out a big thanks to Turbine for taking the first step to making that dream a reality. I call it a first step because it simply isn't broad enough, big enough, varied enough to cover all that imagination and a set of pnp rules could create and because I don't want it to be the last step. NWO from what I've been told in these forums and from what I've seen of it's gameplay can't be called a step unless perhaps a step backward. I enjoyed playing in this dream come true from 2006-2013.

When MOTU came out it became apparent my old system simply couldn't hack it. The lag created by my old system's inability to deal with the new content basically forced me to buy a new one. At the time DDO was the only real game it could handle at all and that was only up to endgame content which became unplayable. I had already needed a new system but in the end MOTU forced my hand and was what broke me down and made me buy another. Once again a heartfelt thanks goes out to Turbine, I love my new one and I probably wouldn't have gotten it without that final push. You helped push me out of the nest to spread my wings and fly freely around the wonderful world of gaming, thank you so very, very much.

Where my wings took me first, and I say first because I don't intend to ever settle down as permanently as I did here again, was planetside 2. I'd been looking into other games for a while and there was nothing, and I do mean nothing, out there I believe to be better than DDO in the fantasy/D&D type genre so I left the swords & sorcery behind. There could be something out there new or I didn't properly appreciate from an overview or review but I believe DDO to be the best game of it's kind, so far.

Planetside 2 is a war, a constant war. A war not of teams but of empires. three empires to be exact. It's a fps in a future type of setting and it has every way to die you can think of. Aircraft, armor, bullets, mines, rockets, and powered armored suits called maxes like tanks on two legs. In the 4 months I've played I've been killed over 5 thousand time. What can I say, it's my 1st fps, I suck but I'm getting better. The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful, not as good as battlefield 4 maybe but then it's a scifi world not a realistic rendition of modern urban warfare. The environment of the battles if you aren't used to this kind of game is enough to almost give you shell shock and will definitely get the adrenalin pumping. I'm having a blast at it, sometimes literally, can't tell you how many claymores, bouncing bettys, and proximity mines I've stepped on grrr, hate those things.

Ah but to the point and the best thing that has come out of this experience. I get to hear a whole different game of people complain about nerfs, what is OP, and how the devs are screwing things up. I take part in it of course but without the feeling that true attachment gives. I enjoy the game a lot but this time it's just a game to me. I was attached to this one. It was more than just a game, it was something I had waited years to come and because of this I really got angry when the devs or Turbine did something to MY game that I didn't approve of. One thing I don't hear about in planetside though is pay to win because there isn't any, there is also no grind. You kill the other players, get points for it, spend the points to get stuff. Starting gear is enough to accomplish all of this although it is easier once you have gotten further it isn't impossibly hard in the beginning and if you are familiar with fps games it probably isn't hard at all. The only thing you really have to pay cash for are cosmetics and a sub gives you cash for that and an experience/points boost. The players are the content and you can go anywhere in the game. There isn't any grind (at least to my way of seeing things) because killing the other players is the point of playing and that is what gives you items. Most of all though I love the AI of the enemies because the intelligence isn't artificial, it's real, and you can't get the challenge nerfed no matter how much you complain on the forums.