Flux this

At this stage -- the long stretch between launch and some modicum of a stable and rewarding game experience -- an MMO is a social experiment in flux. And whereas I have friends who've founded thriving guilds, gotten full suits of stormtrooper armor and their own personal AT-STs, or gone on lucrative hunting expeditions to Endor, I'm sitting in Theed with a full inventory of unwanted Air Cakes and I'm thinking, 'Hey, Medics don't have it so bad in comparison'. I'm a member of the failed group in this social experiment. This is the chef's dilemma.

But now here's the tough question and a partial explanation for why you won’t see a review of Galaxies on FiringSquad until December: even though I've poured a fair amount of time into developing this character, am I qualified to pass any sort of judgment on a game that has so much more to offer than a career as a chef? Where do we begin to evaluate or review or even discuss MMOs? Do we have to investigate the emergent social properties, the clans, the player organizations and politics? Do we address the missteps during the launch after they're ironed out or is that water under the bridge? We’ll see. Some publications have already reviewed Galaxies, based on the beta that was open to the press.

But we’re trying to hit a moving target here, one that progresses in fits and spurts and is liable to be dramatically different as time passes. I've experienced first hand how far Anarchy Online and World War II Online have come. After hours in Galaxies, I'm pretty frustrated, but who knows what kind of game it's going to be in another month, much less another year. Tune in this December and keep an eye on this space for occasional updates.

We spend a lot of time wondering what the next big thing will be. Well this is it. Massively multiplayer online games. The last big thing was 3D cards, which were a pretty self-contained and easy-to-understand phenomenon. Now it’s these huge inchoate blobs of crafting and economics and combat and guilds and respawning and who knows what, all defying review for months on end, progressing from beta to release to a little less beta to something like a final state maybe six months later, give or take six months. Until then, all of us – players, reviewers, disinterested readers, uninterested readers, innocent bystanders – are like the proverbial blind men each trying to describe an elephant. And right now, unfortunately, me and my aspiring chef are the blind guy at the elephant’s ass end.