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TL;DR: Gaming Is way too fast anymore. Which games are there that you are enjoying right now that aren't spam 2 skills and repeat every ten seconds?
I'm a little bit saddened by the announced death of Vanguard. I played and I loved it, however it wasn't my only game because of the lack of support. Had it been expanded, I really believe it would have been a strong contender, but that would have been an issue for SOE and their development resources. So, I guess I understand.
The single best experience I've ever had tho was the Vanguard necromancer. It was incredible. You had a pet that you could augment and outfit to your liking with quite a few added pieces of equipment. You also had a strong character as long as they kept control of their surroundings and applied a strategy to their attacks. In fact, lots of characters had this feel in Vanguard.
I don't see much on the horizon for this type of gameplay. Even WoW way back when had a bit of this, which was decent. But, I heard recently that Rift was the premier MMO right now for fantasy and I cant bring myself to play the game. It's mind melting. No strategy, No plan, Just hit button 1, 2, 1, find a new NPC.
I understand this is the way of games, but they are going way too far. If I'm not alone, are there any interesting games on the horizon that include a good mix of the best newer features with old strategy? I don't consider Pantheon the new answer. That may or may not even get off the ground. EverquestNext may have some potential, but I think it is also trying to cash in on the quick style of gameplay that is far removed from eq1 and 2, seeing as their games have evolved that way anyway.
Comments
Are you asking about MMOs only? Just curious as you posted this in the General Gaming section (which is for discussion of all games non-MMOs) but only talked about MMOs in your OP.
If you are interested in only MMO talk, posting this in the Pub section will get your thread a lot more attention, and that's a general discussion only about MMOs
As for your post, I somewhat agree with you. But you can try Atlantica Online, as that's a turn based MMO with a party of up to 9 (8 mercs you control) and isn't like your standard MMO at all, although it's incredibly grindy.
Vanguard will always hold a special place in my heart. The epic quest chain for the Unicorn was the best in any MMO that I have played. It's too bad it released in the state that it did, with the still competition...it was simply doomed. The landscape of Vanguard really put to good use rising (high) elevation. I'm playing Darkfall right now and it to does the huge open world with really high landscapes.
Not sure I really understand what kind of strategy that you are looking for in a game.
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As far as non-MMOs go, there's plenty of "smart" ones. Dark Souls, The Witcher, turn-based games. Age of Wonders 3 comes out next monday and it'll hopefully be a strategy heaven.
MMOs just seem to have degraded into a genre for dumb people with lots of time on their hands. Even on these forums, you often see people confuse actual difficulty with pressing a button for an hour to get where you want to go.