Wardo

@LordPoncho You're just flat wrong on so many counts. BF3 has sold as well on the consoles, perhaps even better by now. We know that is passed the 8 million mark, and as of early November, 4mil of those were for the 360 and PS3. So yeah, the PC version is hardly crushing the consoles, if it's even leading at all.

If you really think people won't buy the Witcher 2 on the consoles than I just can't help you. RPG fans have been feeling very neglected this cycle and the presence of such a solid RPG on the console will drive sales. A lot of people don't have have computers that can play TW2 so they will pick it up for the console and enjoy what they can get.

Civ5...Really? The most panned release of a Civ game yet, lauded as the most dumbed-down and mind-numbingly boring of the series. The game has been on permanent sale since it's second month of release.

I know PC fanboys can't help themselves but seriously, to argue those three titles as evidence that consoles are fading? That's just plain stupid.

It's funny how even a little game targeted at families, minding its own business with no claims to be an anything-killer, manages to have negative comments here from some posters. As for how many play on a normal basis...As was mentioned above, every time I log in, the place is packed. So it seems to be doing just fine. It's a fun distraction.

My biggest disagreement with this article is that in my experience, it is usually the tanks who are control freaks. I can't even count the number of times I've started a run (in various games) and the tank has said something along the lines of "I'm the tank, you go where I go and do what I do or you die. Don't like it? Leave." and has proceeded to run the dungeon in whichever way they choose, regardless of the group's wishes.

In some ways, the trinity system gives the tank the most power. Sure, the healer can let the tank die if s/he is being too obnoxious, but then the group can't progress very easily. My experience is that players who tank tend to take advantage of that reality.

@JasonA

My feeling is you couldn't be more wrong about the first part of your post, and sadly more right about the second part. I can only speak to the circles of friends I have, but yes we have gotten older. And many of us have found significant others with whom we love to play games.

Gamers who are married and play games together have a pathetic selection this generation. It's mostly playing CoN or Baldur's Gate from the PS2 days, Sacred 2, Borderlands, and Lego games. That's about it for in-home co-op and I know a lot of people around me who long to have more options to play with their spouses/fiances. It seems to me there is a large market for local co-op play.

But sadly, I believe that yes you are right that the companies want to make more money, which means limiting ways that people can play without buying another copy of the game.

@51O Andy

You can call BS all you want, but the same has been happening to me for months. It's gotten so absurd that I have taken to copying my queue to a Word doc the day that they record my latest return. Without fail, for the past two months, I have gotten games far down my queue while games much higher sit at "Available Now."

And before anyone throws out the asinine argument about only putting the games you most want on your list...Yeah sure and then I have to spend two weeks getting emails from Gamefly telling me to add games onto my queue because I don't have anything listed.

Gamefly has some strengths but right now, but their process is fundamentally flawed. It still saves me money at this point, so I'm staying subscribed. But I imagine once I burn through the backlog of games I've wanted to play for a while, I'll be ending my sub.

@Jade Effect

Except that the monk in that picture is nothing like the sexualization that is on display elsewhere. First, her breasts are entirely covered and completely downplayed in that outfit and second, the tattoos do more to cover her than most of the outfits in Aion or Tera.

Also consider that the monk in the GW picture actually has real life equivalents in our world. There are many tribes throughout the world where warriors still wear loincloths and that's pretty much it. So that monk is much more believable.

On the other hand, why would a knight bother to put on an absurdly heavy suit of armor and then cut away parts of the suit that actually protect the vital organs? It makes no sense as a design. That's why it's so obvious in some cases. I don't mind sexing up characters in the slightest, but for crying out loud don't dress them so stupidly. It just makes it obvious that it's about selling sex at that point.

Finally, consider the GW monk's animations. Nothing sexual about them at all. Contrast that to some of the animations we've seen from Tera and it's even more obvious that they are simply catering to teenage boy's (and emotionally stunted grown men's) libidos.

For me, it's all about relationships. When I get into a new MMO, I find a clan/guild/group to run with and pretty much that's my circle. Once that circle dies, it's time for me to move on. I just don't feel like taking the energy to form a second set of bonds with a new set of players to keep going.

I have to say that LOTRO is one of the biggest disappointments for me, compared to what I had always heard. I gave it a shot and ended up subbing based on the game, which I enjoy. But so far, in Landroval, I've seen things on a daily basis in the various chats every bit as bad as anything I ever read in WoW in two years there.

Every day, it's a few random people debating something stupid on Advice, which I admit is annoying. Then the chat police come on and it's "Take it to OCC" which of course, they won't. Then there is a stupid debate going on, plus another stupid debate starts about who has the "right" to insist on what channels people use. Then of course, you have the older player who pops up and insists that this is all the fault of the F2P people who ruined their perfect community. Then you get some other older player who insists that everything is pretty much the same as they remember it ever being. So then they, and five other people with nothing better to do, start arguing about that...In Advice chat. Meanwhile OCC is full of randomness, GLFF is usually a cesspool but I chose to be a part of that so yeah.

Then you add in all the boss kill stealing types and the resource stealing types (You know, the ones who see you fighting the enemy you have to clear to get to the node, so they run up and farm it while you'll fighting off the enemy or they kill the boss while you're clearing the room right before him)

And finally, the fact that it's like pulling teeth to find a group for anything beyond GB runs. I'm hoping that at level cap, it gets better. But I'm not holding my breath. So yeah...I like the game but the community is nothing like was billed.

Well, on the bright side...I'm pretty sure that it would have to at least be better than the other game I'm aware of from this company, Blade Wars. That game's presentation was so awful that it's turned me off to any ChangYou game.

Well...That's dissapointing. I have really been enjoying the beta. =(