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Adjective: Fiercely loyal; resistant to change.
I used to think of myself as a hardcore gamer in that I'd find a game, play it to death, then move on. I've had stints at various online games that have taken up huge chunks of my life.
There was Final Fantasy 7. When that got released, I was in a dead-end job, going nowhere, so I decided to devote my next few months completing that game. 4 months later the objective got completed, but I loved it so much I started a new game from scratch and took another 3 months of playing to repeat my success. Then Driver came out, and the Employment Service started wondering if they'd ever get me off their books.
There was Planetarion, a tick based Universe domination game that chewed up a few months of my time a couple of years ago. It was the kind of game that to win, you either had to have some great scripting skills so that you could automate everything to save you logging in once and hour, or you could sit for hour on end linked up to your allies on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) discussing tactics for the next tick. The real hardcore players had whole websites devoted to just their alliances in the game, with tools to download to make calculations easier, and I sometimes wondered just what these people were like in real life.
Most recently there was Legend of Mir, a Massively Multiplayer Online RPG that hooked me during its Beta phase and I found it very hard to break free from. Eventually the hackers and script kiddies overran the game making it impossible to get anywhere just by sheer hard work, and the game changed, I moved on. The true hardcore players, with their websites devoted to their ingame Guilds, remain.
The PS2 changed everything. Hundreds of games, masses of genres to choose from, I was like a kid in a candy shop, not knowing which way to turn to find something I could stick at. So I dabbled here and there, building up a collection of some 27 games, all of them possible candidates for taking up more chunks of my life.
But maybe I've changed now too. I like dabbling. I like the fact that I can spend some time adding more cars to my memory card in Gran Turismo 3, then take a break and play Frequency for a while to chill out, before jumping into Final Fantasy X for a few minigames, before spending a few more hours getting to grips with the controls of Drakan: The Ancients' Gates. It's fun, I'm entertained.
But deep down inside I know I'm just waiting for that next hardcore attaction to get released, and there are many good candidates on the horizon.
I've recently installed Diablo II (again) on my PC, and ordered the Expansion Pack for it, allowing me to compete on Blizzards Battle.net against other online players. This time I'm forwarned, because I did some research. I know, for example, that in Hardcore mode that I shouldn't invite players into my game who I don't know, there are a lot of player killers out there. I know there are bugs allowing Druids very powerful poisoning spells which can wipe out high level Barbarians in seconds. I know there are trading scams for rare items. Many people go into these types of games expecting that everyone plays fairly, but unfortunately that's not the case. At least knowing this in advance I won't get my illusions shattered.
So recently I've been logging into Battle.net each day and levelling up my character, finding items, it's fun. But I'm not hardcore by any means, because I'm still dabbling. The Dreamcast gets a boot up every so often and I have a dabble amongst the 60 games I have for it, before switching back to be entertained by the PS2. But I'm still looking for that perfect game. The game that's going to involve chunks of my life again.
What strikes me as strange is that all the prosective candidates are now PC based, whereas I was always a console player in the past. Star Wars Galaxies is about to enter Beta testing, possibly one of the greatest MMORPGs ever to be released. I could get into Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Lineage, Baldur's Gate, Warcraft 3, the choices are endless. Maybe the online communities are what appeals to me, or maybe it's the roleplay opportunities, or maybe it's the competitive spirit in me wanting to beat humans instead of a processor.
Or maybe I'm just kidding myself and waiting patiently for Sony to finally announce that Final Fantasy XI Online is going to hit Europe. Because like XBox Live, the PS2 has great potential for online gaming, it's just a shame that Sony won't invest $2 billion dollars into getting things up and running, but then they don't have Bill Gates running their show. In the same way it was a shame that Sega didn't get very far with the Dreamcast's online capabilities in Europe.
Can you imagine what I'd be like today if I was living in the USA? 24/7 cable access, online gaming the norm, I'd be in gaming heaven. I'd also probably be very pale-faced from having my PC monitor as my only source of light for days on end.
So, until Sony get their act together, I'm determined to dabble, to be a casual gamer (albeit full-time casual). Does that still make me hardcore?
I used to think of myself as a hardcore gamer in that I'd find a game, play it to death, then move on. I've had stints at various online games that have taken up huge chunks of my life.
There was Final Fantasy 7. When that got released, I was in a dead-end job, going nowhere, so I decided to devote my next few months completing that game. 4 months later the objective got completed, but I loved it so much I started a new game from scratch and took another 3 months of playing to repeat my success. Then Driver came out, and the Employment Service started wondering if they'd ever get me off their books.
There was Planetarion, a tick based Universe domination game that chewed up a few months of my time a couple of years ago. It was the kind of game that to win, you either had to have some great scripting skills so that you could automate everything to save you logging in once and hour, or you could sit for hour on end linked up to your allies on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) discussing tactics for the next tick. The real hardcore players had whole websites devoted to just their alliances in the game, with tools to download to make calculations easier, and I sometimes wondered just what these people were like in real life.
Most recently there was Legend of Mir, a Massively Multiplayer Online RPG that hooked me during its Beta phase and I found it very hard to break free from. Eventually the hackers and script kiddies overran the game making it impossible to get anywhere just by sheer hard work, and the game changed, I moved on. The true hardcore players, with their websites devoted to their ingame Guilds, remain.
The PS2 changed everything. Hundreds of games, masses of genres to choose from, I was like a kid in a candy shop, not knowing which way to turn to find something I could stick at. So I dabbled here and there, building up a collection of some 27 games, all of them possible candidates for taking up more chunks of my life.
But maybe I've changed now too. I like dabbling. I like the fact that I can spend some time adding more cars to my memory card in Gran Turismo 3, then take a break and play Frequency for a while to chill out, before jumping into Final Fantasy X for a few minigames, before spending a few more hours getting to grips with the controls of Drakan: The Ancients' Gates. It's fun, I'm entertained.
But deep down inside I know I'm just waiting for that next hardcore attaction to get released, and there are many good candidates on the horizon.
I've recently installed Diablo II (again) on my PC, and ordered the Expansion Pack for it, allowing me to compete on Blizzards Battle.net against other online players. This time I'm forwarned, because I did some research. I know, for example, that in Hardcore mode that I shouldn't invite players into my game who I don't know, there are a lot of player killers out there. I know there are bugs allowing Druids very powerful poisoning spells which can wipe out high level Barbarians in seconds. I know there are trading scams for rare items. Many people go into these types of games expecting that everyone plays fairly, but unfortunately that's not the case. At least knowing this in advance I won't get my illusions shattered.
So recently I've been logging into Battle.net each day and levelling up my character, finding items, it's fun. But I'm not hardcore by any means, because I'm still dabbling. The Dreamcast gets a boot up every so often and I have a dabble amongst the 60 games I have for it, before switching back to be entertained by the PS2. But I'm still looking for that perfect game. The game that's going to involve chunks of my life again.
What strikes me as strange is that all the prosective candidates are now PC based, whereas I was always a console player in the past. Star Wars Galaxies is about to enter Beta testing, possibly one of the greatest MMORPGs ever to be released. I could get into Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Lineage, Baldur's Gate, Warcraft 3, the choices are endless. Maybe the online communities are what appeals to me, or maybe it's the roleplay opportunities, or maybe it's the competitive spirit in me wanting to beat humans instead of a processor.
Or maybe I'm just kidding myself and waiting patiently for Sony to finally announce that Final Fantasy XI Online is going to hit Europe. Because like XBox Live, the PS2 has great potential for online gaming, it's just a shame that Sony won't invest $2 billion dollars into getting things up and running, but then they don't have Bill Gates running their show. In the same way it was a shame that Sega didn't get very far with the Dreamcast's online capabilities in Europe.
Can you imagine what I'd be like today if I was living in the USA? 24/7 cable access, online gaming the norm, I'd be in gaming heaven. I'd also probably be very pale-faced from having my PC monitor as my only source of light for days on end.
So, until Sony get their act together, I'm determined to dabble, to be a casual gamer (albeit full-time casual). Does that still make me hardcore?
I get what you are saying FM, however Star Wars won't be like that.. apparently.
Nope. I know for sure I won't be playing City of Heroes, and I don't want to upgrade my PC with a new graphics card just to play either. Diablo II has something both of them haven't got, being able to play without having to pay an ongoing subscription.
Plus when I've finished Diablo II, which could take a year or so, then I can move onto something else rather than think to myself "Oh dear, I'm bored with this game now but if I stop playing I'll lose my character that I've been paying for for the last year. And if I decide to come back later everyone else will be soooooooooo far ahead of me that I'll be a newbie again." etc...
Plus when I've finished Diablo II, which could take a year or so, then I can move onto something else rather than think to myself "Oh dear, I'm bored with this game now but if I stop playing I'll lose my character that I've been paying for for the last year. And if I decide to come back later everyone else will be soooooooooo far ahead of me that I'll be a newbie again." etc...
Strange that. KnightofNi was my last guild that I built up then sold. All members did just go around shouting Ni and Shrubbary though. Such is life.
What about CityofHeros FM? or Star Wars Galaxies? Will I see a Hawkwynde in either of them?
What about CityofHeros FM? or Star Wars Galaxies? Will I see a Hawkwynde in either of them?
er-no wrote:
> What did you do with HawkWynde and co? Are they dormant without pay?
HawkWynde, FantasyMeister, WhackyWiz and KnightofNi were all deleted a few weeks back. Dormant 'with' pay you might say, the account was paid up until 30th November, but I doubt I'll be logging into it again. (Nobody ask me if they can borrow the account, the answer is 'no').
HawkWynde is now making a living killing Carvers in Diablo II (shortly he'll be making guest appearances in Lord of Destruction, the Diablo II expansion pack).
FantasyMeister is staying on the PS2, mainly setting new lap records on Gran Turismo 3 at present, but may become an Assassin in Diablo II Hardcore mode, depending on how well HawkWynde gets on.
WhackyWiz and KnightofNi may appear in another game in the future, but it's doubtful as they were only test characters. Having them as mule accounts in Diablo is an option.
> What did you do with HawkWynde and co? Are they dormant without pay?
HawkWynde, FantasyMeister, WhackyWiz and KnightofNi were all deleted a few weeks back. Dormant 'with' pay you might say, the account was paid up until 30th November, but I doubt I'll be logging into it again. (Nobody ask me if they can borrow the account, the answer is 'no').
HawkWynde is now making a living killing Carvers in Diablo II (shortly he'll be making guest appearances in Lord of Destruction, the Diablo II expansion pack).
FantasyMeister is staying on the PS2, mainly setting new lap records on Gran Turismo 3 at present, but may become an Assassin in Diablo II Hardcore mode, depending on how well HawkWynde gets on.
WhackyWiz and KnightofNi may appear in another game in the future, but it's doubtful as they were only test characters. Having them as mule accounts in Diablo is an option.
Fanta§yM€is†€® wrote:
> Most recently there was Legend of Mir, a Massively Multiplayer Online
> RPG that hooked me during its Beta phase and I found it very hard to
> break free from. Eventually the hackers and script kiddies overran
> the game making it impossible to get anywhere just by sheer hard work,
> and the game changed, I moved on. The true hardcore players, with
> their websites devoted to their ingame Guilds, remain.
>
I saw you in MIR. You are as hardcore as gamers get and that made me actually have respect for you because you still remain to have a great take on life and morals. I am one of those true hardcore players, I still seem to be playing MIR. Although only really for my guild and what I built from the first few days of playing it. What did you do with HawkWynde and co? Are they dormant without pay?
> Most recently there was Legend of Mir, a Massively Multiplayer Online
> RPG that hooked me during its Beta phase and I found it very hard to
> break free from. Eventually the hackers and script kiddies overran
> the game making it impossible to get anywhere just by sheer hard work,
> and the game changed, I moved on. The true hardcore players, with
> their websites devoted to their ingame Guilds, remain.
>
I saw you in MIR. You are as hardcore as gamers get and that made me actually have respect for you because you still remain to have a great take on life and morals. I am one of those true hardcore players, I still seem to be playing MIR. Although only really for my guild and what I built from the first few days of playing it. What did you do with HawkWynde and co? Are they dormant without pay?
And I thought that I was a hardcore gamer (although I would be if I have my way...).
I remember playing Planetarion with you.
It didn't go too badly at first. I never had time to go through all the meetings and IRC specials (seeing as my mum and dad pay the phone bill, they'd put heavy restrictions on how much I went on) but FM would always tell me as much as I needed to know...
I think what went wrong is that everyone got fed up.
Yaeger was doing well, but it turns out that was because he cheated.
It was either too quiet and boring or we'd log in one day to find the entire clan of IMMO was down upon us...
It came to Summer and I found I was going on a 2 week holiday.
Either my account was going to be deleted or I'd have to get someone to log in for me everynow and then - just to stop it being deleted.
FM refused because it was "baby-sitting" - cheating like being a multi (although I don't think saving my account from being deleted was like being a multi...), other people couldn't be bothered, I ended up leaving it in the hands of Yaeger, and came back to find that it wasn't really mine anymore, and that a fleet was attacking Venom in my name.
So I changed the password and left the account to rot.
I can see why FM got so disillusioned with it by the end.
After spending hours upon hours playing the game properly, he gets completely trashed on by cheats...
I didn't come back to it after that.
So what was the topic about? Oh yeah... hardcore gaming.
With N64 game having big gaps between releases and high price tags, I only got one once in a while and made the most out of it.
Goldeneye must've gotten tonnes of gameplay.
Not only did I finished every difficulty setting and unlock every cheat, I spent AGE's just messing around with the cheats and playing around with the guard's AI, not to mention hours, upon hours of multiplayer...
I remember playing Planetarion with you.
It didn't go too badly at first. I never had time to go through all the meetings and IRC specials (seeing as my mum and dad pay the phone bill, they'd put heavy restrictions on how much I went on) but FM would always tell me as much as I needed to know...
I think what went wrong is that everyone got fed up.
Yaeger was doing well, but it turns out that was because he cheated.
It was either too quiet and boring or we'd log in one day to find the entire clan of IMMO was down upon us...
It came to Summer and I found I was going on a 2 week holiday.
Either my account was going to be deleted or I'd have to get someone to log in for me everynow and then - just to stop it being deleted.
FM refused because it was "baby-sitting" - cheating like being a multi (although I don't think saving my account from being deleted was like being a multi...), other people couldn't be bothered, I ended up leaving it in the hands of Yaeger, and came back to find that it wasn't really mine anymore, and that a fleet was attacking Venom in my name.
So I changed the password and left the account to rot.
I can see why FM got so disillusioned with it by the end.
After spending hours upon hours playing the game properly, he gets completely trashed on by cheats...
I didn't come back to it after that.
So what was the topic about? Oh yeah... hardcore gaming.
With N64 game having big gaps between releases and high price tags, I only got one once in a while and made the most out of it.
Goldeneye must've gotten tonnes of gameplay.
Not only did I finished every difficulty setting and unlock every cheat, I spent AGE's just messing around with the cheats and playing around with the guard's AI, not to mention hours, upon hours of multiplayer...
I've seen loads of mmorpg go from free to P2P, it's a tactic I swear.
Market the game and offer free downloads and say it's free to play, wait a between a couple of years so that you gain an enormous, addicted fan base and slam a price tag on the game; it's a crime.
The most recent insult is that freeloader.com, the site that used to offer half-decent free games for over a year now have created a subscription fee for the games. THE IDEA WAS THAT THE GAMES ARE FREE......ahem.
Good post.
Market the game and offer free downloads and say it's free to play, wait a between a couple of years so that you gain an enormous, addicted fan base and slam a price tag on the game; it's a crime.
The most recent insult is that freeloader.com, the site that used to offer half-decent free games for over a year now have created a subscription fee for the games. THE IDEA WAS THAT THE GAMES ARE FREE......ahem.
Good post.
Infantry was a bit like Legend of Mir, both were fine until they went P2P, and then everything started going wrong. You'd think that once people started paying subscriptions for games instead of generating £0.001 every banner-click that games would start getting debugged, more updates, better staff and support. Why does it usually work the other way? Especially when you consider that Infantry is in the hands of Sony Online Entertainment, you'd think they'd put something more into it.
Fanta§yM€is†€® wrote:
> Or maybe I'm just kidding myself and waiting patiently for Sony to
> finally announce that Final Fantasy XI Online is going to hit Europe.
Japanese gamers are dissapointed with PS2 online as the cost is quite a bit, you just hope the price goes down when sony release it over here.
> Because like XBox Live, the PS2 has great potential for online gaming
Yup they both do
> So, until Sony get their act together, I'm determined to dabble, to be
> a casual gamer (albeit full-time casual). Does that still make me
> hardcore?
Any gamer is hardcore i guess!
I used to play a game called "Infantry" on the pc, which was free, i was hooked for around 2 years, then in may they decided to make it "Pay monthly 2 pay" so i said you can sod that, and i quit. God damn Sony Online >:(
> Or maybe I'm just kidding myself and waiting patiently for Sony to
> finally announce that Final Fantasy XI Online is going to hit Europe.
Japanese gamers are dissapointed with PS2 online as the cost is quite a bit, you just hope the price goes down when sony release it over here.
> Because like XBox Live, the PS2 has great potential for online gaming
Yup they both do
> So, until Sony get their act together, I'm determined to dabble, to be
> a casual gamer (albeit full-time casual). Does that still make me
> hardcore?
Any gamer is hardcore i guess!
I used to play a game called "Infantry" on the pc, which was free, i was hooked for around 2 years, then in may they decided to make it "Pay monthly 2 pay" so i said you can sod that, and i quit. God damn Sony Online >:(
Adjective: Fiercely loyal; resistant to change.
I used to think of myself as a hardcore gamer in that I'd find a game, play it to death, then move on. I've had stints at various online games that have taken up huge chunks of my life.
There was Final Fantasy 7. When that got released, I was in a dead-end job, going nowhere, so I decided to devote my next few months completing that game. 4 months later the objective got completed, but I loved it so much I started a new game from scratch and took another 3 months of playing to repeat my success. Then Driver came out, and the Employment Service started wondering if they'd ever get me off their books.
There was Planetarion, a tick based Universe domination game that chewed up a few months of my time a couple of years ago. It was the kind of game that to win, you either had to have some great scripting skills so that you could automate everything to save you logging in once and hour, or you could sit for hour on end linked up to your allies on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) discussing tactics for the next tick. The real hardcore players had whole websites devoted to just their alliances in the game, with tools to download to make calculations easier, and I sometimes wondered just what these people were like in real life.
Most recently there was Legend of Mir, a Massively Multiplayer Online RPG that hooked me during its Beta phase and I found it very hard to break free from. Eventually the hackers and script kiddies overran the game making it impossible to get anywhere just by sheer hard work, and the game changed, I moved on. The true hardcore players, with their websites devoted to their ingame Guilds, remain.
The PS2 changed everything. Hundreds of games, masses of genres to choose from, I was like a kid in a candy shop, not knowing which way to turn to find something I could stick at. So I dabbled here and there, building up a collection of some 27 games, all of them possible candidates for taking up more chunks of my life.
But maybe I've changed now too. I like dabbling. I like the fact that I can spend some time adding more cars to my memory card in Gran Turismo 3, then take a break and play Frequency for a while to chill out, before jumping into Final Fantasy X for a few minigames, before spending a few more hours getting to grips with the controls of Drakan: The Ancients' Gates. It's fun, I'm entertained.
But deep down inside I know I'm just waiting for that next hardcore attaction to get released, and there are many good candidates on the horizon.
I've recently installed Diablo II (again) on my PC, and ordered the Expansion Pack for it, allowing me to compete on Blizzards Battle.net against other online players. This time I'm forwarned, because I did some research. I know, for example, that in Hardcore mode that I shouldn't invite players into my game who I don't know, there are a lot of player killers out there. I know there are bugs allowing Druids very powerful poisoning spells which can wipe out high level Barbarians in seconds. I know there are trading scams for rare items. Many people go into these types of games expecting that everyone plays fairly, but unfortunately that's not the case. At least knowing this in advance I won't get my illusions shattered.
So recently I've been logging into Battle.net each day and levelling up my character, finding items, it's fun. But I'm not hardcore by any means, because I'm still dabbling. The Dreamcast gets a boot up every so often and I have a dabble amongst the 60 games I have for it, before switching back to be entertained by the PS2. But I'm still looking for that perfect game. The game that's going to involve chunks of my life again.
What strikes me as strange is that all the prosective candidates are now PC based, whereas I was always a console player in the past. Star Wars Galaxies is about to enter Beta testing, possibly one of the greatest MMORPGs ever to be released. I could get into Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Lineage, Baldur's Gate, Warcraft 3, the choices are endless. Maybe the online communities are what appeals to me, or maybe it's the roleplay opportunities, or maybe it's the competitive spirit in me wanting to beat humans instead of a processor.
Or maybe I'm just kidding myself and waiting patiently for Sony to finally announce that Final Fantasy XI Online is going to hit Europe. Because like XBox Live, the PS2 has great potential for online gaming, it's just a shame that Sony won't invest $2 billion dollars into getting things up and running, but then they don't have Bill Gates running their show. In the same way it was a shame that Sega didn't get very far with the Dreamcast's online capabilities in Europe.
Can you imagine what I'd be like today if I was living in the USA? 24/7 cable access, online gaming the norm, I'd be in gaming heaven. I'd also probably be very pale-faced from having my PC monitor as my only source of light for days on end.
So, until Sony get their act together, I'm determined to dabble, to be a casual gamer (albeit full-time casual). Does that still make me hardcore?
I used to think of myself as a hardcore gamer in that I'd find a game, play it to death, then move on. I've had stints at various online games that have taken up huge chunks of my life.
There was Final Fantasy 7. When that got released, I was in a dead-end job, going nowhere, so I decided to devote my next few months completing that game. 4 months later the objective got completed, but I loved it so much I started a new game from scratch and took another 3 months of playing to repeat my success. Then Driver came out, and the Employment Service started wondering if they'd ever get me off their books.
There was Planetarion, a tick based Universe domination game that chewed up a few months of my time a couple of years ago. It was the kind of game that to win, you either had to have some great scripting skills so that you could automate everything to save you logging in once and hour, or you could sit for hour on end linked up to your allies on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) discussing tactics for the next tick. The real hardcore players had whole websites devoted to just their alliances in the game, with tools to download to make calculations easier, and I sometimes wondered just what these people were like in real life.
Most recently there was Legend of Mir, a Massively Multiplayer Online RPG that hooked me during its Beta phase and I found it very hard to break free from. Eventually the hackers and script kiddies overran the game making it impossible to get anywhere just by sheer hard work, and the game changed, I moved on. The true hardcore players, with their websites devoted to their ingame Guilds, remain.
The PS2 changed everything. Hundreds of games, masses of genres to choose from, I was like a kid in a candy shop, not knowing which way to turn to find something I could stick at. So I dabbled here and there, building up a collection of some 27 games, all of them possible candidates for taking up more chunks of my life.
But maybe I've changed now too. I like dabbling. I like the fact that I can spend some time adding more cars to my memory card in Gran Turismo 3, then take a break and play Frequency for a while to chill out, before jumping into Final Fantasy X for a few minigames, before spending a few more hours getting to grips with the controls of Drakan: The Ancients' Gates. It's fun, I'm entertained.
But deep down inside I know I'm just waiting for that next hardcore attaction to get released, and there are many good candidates on the horizon.
I've recently installed Diablo II (again) on my PC, and ordered the Expansion Pack for it, allowing me to compete on Blizzards Battle.net against other online players. This time I'm forwarned, because I did some research. I know, for example, that in Hardcore mode that I shouldn't invite players into my game who I don't know, there are a lot of player killers out there. I know there are bugs allowing Druids very powerful poisoning spells which can wipe out high level Barbarians in seconds. I know there are trading scams for rare items. Many people go into these types of games expecting that everyone plays fairly, but unfortunately that's not the case. At least knowing this in advance I won't get my illusions shattered.
So recently I've been logging into Battle.net each day and levelling up my character, finding items, it's fun. But I'm not hardcore by any means, because I'm still dabbling. The Dreamcast gets a boot up every so often and I have a dabble amongst the 60 games I have for it, before switching back to be entertained by the PS2. But I'm still looking for that perfect game. The game that's going to involve chunks of my life again.
What strikes me as strange is that all the prosective candidates are now PC based, whereas I was always a console player in the past. Star Wars Galaxies is about to enter Beta testing, possibly one of the greatest MMORPGs ever to be released. I could get into Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Lineage, Baldur's Gate, Warcraft 3, the choices are endless. Maybe the online communities are what appeals to me, or maybe it's the roleplay opportunities, or maybe it's the competitive spirit in me wanting to beat humans instead of a processor.
Or maybe I'm just kidding myself and waiting patiently for Sony to finally announce that Final Fantasy XI Online is going to hit Europe. Because like XBox Live, the PS2 has great potential for online gaming, it's just a shame that Sony won't invest $2 billion dollars into getting things up and running, but then they don't have Bill Gates running their show. In the same way it was a shame that Sega didn't get very far with the Dreamcast's online capabilities in Europe.
Can you imagine what I'd be like today if I was living in the USA? 24/7 cable access, online gaming the norm, I'd be in gaming heaven. I'd also probably be very pale-faced from having my PC monitor as my only source of light for days on end.
So, until Sony get their act together, I'm determined to dabble, to be a casual gamer (albeit full-time casual). Does that still make me hardcore?