Editor’s note: In case you haven’t been around, Devin is SG’s latest contributor. He likes to sign off his articles with “Game on.” a lot. Be nice!

OK: let’s talk about PC gaming for a minute. I’m a college student with a new laptop, not a ton of money, and precious little free time for gaming. What time I do have is mostly spent on PC gaming, which is a dramatic shift from the console gaming I grew familiar with in high school.

Not to say that I didn’t game on my PC: in high school it was a lot easier to sit on the couch and pick up a controller. Here, I’m in a small dorm that would fit in some closets, with nothing but a small little TV, my laptop, and iPhone to keep me busy.

I’ve noticed that PC gaming anymore mostly revolves around two things: the RTS, and more importantly, the MMO. So here’s a brief look at MMOs in general, and you can figure out why WoW is like a giant tortoise, after the jump…

Whether you’re an MMO player or not you’ll have heard of WoW. It is the king of MMOs, with over 11 million subscribers worldwide as of my last check. WoW keeps the title of “king” year after year because of broad appeal, simplified gameplay, and a polished system that just works.

I gave WoW a lot of play time, and finally quit after about a year around the time its second expansion released. In the animal kingdom, WoW would be a giant tortoise, with its expected lifespan at about 117 years. This game will not quit and anything that tries to outlast it or outclass it, as of this writing, simply can’t. WoW is definitely spec’d for tanking.

Then we have Warhammer. Months before its release, its fanboys claimed that WoW stood for “Waiting on Warhammer.” Now, around a year after release, the game has shut down and merged all but about six servers, each with mid-low population (as of my check this morning). I decided to give Warhammer a shot this week as something to hold me over for a month or so until I can find something better. Honestly, after some gameplay, I can only conclude that this game is the equivalent of a dog with three legs. No, scratch that. A dog with two legs.

War is fun to play with, “cute” to look at, but ultimately is a not-as-good imitation of something with four legs (aka WoW). Its life expectancy? Well, any day now…

Then we have Star Wars: Galaxies. No, this is not the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO that you’re all so excited for (OK, I’m excited for it too). This is the now-ancient Star Wars MMO that for the most part fell apart after a series of major overhauls. However, to my surprise, the game servers still survive somewhat today. I thought most would lose interest around the time myself and many veteran players did, but apparently sony has kept the game alive. So I guess that makes this the equivalent to the carnival gold fish that just won’t die, even if you don’t feed it for a month.

Next up, Tabula Rasa. Wait, what the hell is Tabula Rasa? This game is equivalent to the Mayfly, living no more than 48 hours- Tabula Rasa closed all its servers just months after opening them.

Finally…we have the rest of the MMO kingdom: newly ported Aion, Champions Online, the upcoming DC Universe Game, City of Heroes/Villains, DnD Online, LotRO… honestly its all blurred into one giant collage of shit.

I guess shit and modern art pretty much mean the same thing. Anyways, I’m not trying to say all of these games are bad.

Some of them bring some slightly different ideas to the table, but honestly most MMOs are some sort of rip-off of WoW, which is a rip-off of Everquest, which was the computer geeks way of playing DnD (Even though now they can just play DnD Online).

Honestly, someone needs to just come out and completely break the mold. I don’t want to have to choose from 8 or 9 “archetypes.” I don’t want to be stuck in one role or another. I want a skill-based MMO that just puts me in a realistic world and lets me go to town, ya know? Think Oblivion: The MMO. I really just want to see an MMO that has the balls of steel needed to pull away from the pack and give an alternative to the WoW style. Until that game is released, I guess you just have to pick your poison.

Game on.