My first exposure to Gears of War was a commercial that aired in late 2006 featuring Gary Jules’ cover of “Mad World”. It was an awkward insertion of a popular song for what appeared to be a grungy, blood spattered action game for emotionally stunted adult males. If I heard that song in, say, a Final Fantasy commercial, that would have been entirely justifiable – predictable even – for the series’ melodramatic tendencies. But watching these juiced-up football players bedecked in pock-marked bulky armor fight off what appeared to be zombies, or insects, or insect-zombies to such a mopey tune was a jarring spectacle. What message was the advertisement sending me? Was I supposed to feel sorry for these battle-weary soldiers pressing on in some city decimated by war to defend the human race? Were these men actually sensitive to the death and destruction around them? My first response was that it was merely a ruse to get me to think this game would be something different. It wouldn’t be about killing endless waves of the faceless alien invader; rather, it would explore the human condition and man’s response to being thrown into a war he didn’t want to fight, but was damn well expected to end.

After about two solid hours of playing the game, I stopped thinking so hard about this. Gears of War is not a statement about the atrocities of war in modern times. The arrangement between Gears of War and its player is much simpler. The game inscribes upon the player the desire to fire a gun – repeatedly and with extreme prejudice. It encourages hooting and hollering and much chest-thumping after each challenging firefight. It revels in the act of shooting a weapon so much that it becomes the only reason you come back to the game. And the game leaves you no other choice but to love it in return.

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Early group shot taken after completing the Deadmines as a five piece. No one knows what happened to the mysterious female Night Elf druid in the back row.

Over the past year and a half, I played World of Warcraft with some old friends from University. It started out as a twosome , turned into a threesome, and then a foursome with a person who had no idea what an MMORPG was. So we rolled back to a threesome again, because it’s no fun playing with someone who uses garbage drops as gear and doesn’t upgrade their skills. And so Hykrion the Night Elf Rogue, Firestars the Night Elf Warrior, and Beto the Dwarven Priest sought out the many trials of Azeroth.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I still think we could have made it to the endgame with these characters.

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In an incredibly obvious Diablo 3-like announcement, Bioware and LucasArts confirm that they are indeed working on a Star Wars MMORPG set in the age of The Old Repubilc that has probably been in development since Knights of the Old Republic.

Is it just me, or is there something inherently wrong with two massively multiplayer games from two different developers about the exact same subject, trying to appeal to the exact same audience, at the exact same time?

Wait, don’t answer that question.

But this isn’t the same as a fantasy setting being done hundreds of times with roughly equivalent results. This is the most recognizable setting in science fiction. This is Star Wars. With lightsabers for everyone.

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For the last nine months, I have considered myself a non-gamer. Not a reformed gamer, mind you, but someone who just hasn’t had the time to dedicate to playing games or keeping up with the industry. Once again I felt forced to contemplate my new lifestyle and how I could somehow re-insert my beloved hobby into a busy schedule. A good friend and I started talking about how this was possible now that we were parents. Eventually the topic of World of Warcraft came up. When I quit last year, I thought it was for good. I stopped writing because of that game, as I was too preoccupied with spending Talent points and obsessively trying to keep up with guild mates. It wasn’t healthy. And yet there was still something strangely appealing about the thought of playing again, in the context of a social activity for two new dads struggling to find ways to grasp hold of a hobby that would have otherwise slipped away. What better way to get back into gaming than playing something we already knew? My latest article at the Cultural Gutter describes the reactivation of my World of Warcraft account with a friend and fellow gamer, and how at this point in our lives, this really is the game for us.

I see that the rumour mill is once again in full effect saying that Blizzard is going “all MMORPG on the games industry” based on a slide taken out of context from a presentation to some pack of clueless businessmen. Regardless of whether this might actually be true (just look at the amount of backpedaling Gamespot has done!), I find it hard to believe this is coming as a surprise to anyone. There have been talks about Blizzard turning their three franchises into MMORPGs since World of Warcraft was released. What’s the big deal? It’s not like Blizzard had plans to create anything new…they’ve been milking their trinity of IP for almost eight years! Even if their new game wasn’t an MMORPG, what was it going to be? StarCraft 2?

The real surprise in all this is the lack of any snide commentary from Matt Gallant, who usually goes out of his way to slag off the gaming website community when they parrot frivolous rumours like this.