“Bah, logic,” Summer says lightly. “You want me to actually think about /reasons/ for not liking it? You’re a heathen.” Hitching Helios up again, she goes on, “if I was doing this by myself he would be in the cage, but he’s happier if he can see out, and that’s hard with the cage. It’ll be fine; don’t worry.”
After he unlocks the Jeep, she climbs in, easily managing the cat with one hand. It takes some switching of hands, and Helios attempts to get onto the dashboard, but she manages to buckle up and get them both settled before picking up the conversation again. “I’m instinctively put off by anything that’s defended that rabidly. I dunno, it just seems — it’s like the only reason it’s that popular, and the standard that everyone tries to meet, is because it was made by Blizzard. There’s so many other games out there that do things differently and they’re derided /because/ they do it differently.”
“I am.” Stiles agrees easily; sliding into the driver’s seat of the Jeep. “Completely heathenistic. Never been more of a heathen than me.” He doesn’t seem particularly apologetic, waiting for Summer to get herself buckled in before turning Roscoe over and starting on his way towards the clinic.
He snorts, glancing briefly towards Summer with that same amused expression. “I dunno if it’s that it was made by Blizzard that made it a big deal. I mean I know Starcraft and Diablo are also things but I think WoW is the standard just because it’s been accessible and thus wildly successful. Yeah, I do think it’s dumb that it’s the litmus test, though, especially since I figure game should focus more on being awesome than trying to kill WoW like WoW is something that needs killing. The Secret World is kind of awesome for that but it makes you use your brain a lot and some people don’t like that.”
“Because Everquest and Anarchy Online weren’t accessible? Or City of Heroes or Guild Wars which came out in the same year? What about Lineage II? Saying accessible is meaningless. It got a lot of attention because it’s Blizzard, and the size of the subscriber base means other companies follow their standard blindly, despite there being positive proof that other styles of games are at least as good, if not better, and that there are elements of the WoW-style MMO that could and have been improved upon — just not by WoW.” Summer pauses to take a deep breath after spilling all that out.
“I’ve basically tried them all, you know. Even if WoW has improved I can’t afford to be paying for another game, really.” She shrugs, bypassing that thought. “Did they put in anything like gear appearance customisation yet? Rift lets you assemble whole outfits that don’t affect your stats. Plus I didn’t like their teaming paradigm at all. But them I got really spoiled by City in that regard.” Helios marks her nose with the side of his face, and she chuckles a little and pushes him away. “Not for kitties.”