Choose My Adventure: These are a few of my favorite things

By Shawn Schuster

It's good to be back in the Choose My Adventure seat, and I'm very excited about the MMOs I have up in the polls this time around.

In the past, I've always done Choose My Adventure as a roleplaying series and had fun doing it. I've been a glutton for punishment and stood to the challenges thrown at me by the readers (namely, playing "bad" games on purpose). This time, though, I've chosen a handful of my favorite games (that haven't already been written in a CMA since 2011), and I'm going to focus more on exploring the chosen game and giving my impressions of what I'm seeing. Not to say that this will be anything approaching a review, but I'm just looking forward to jumping in to one of these games and letting you know what treasures (or travesties) I find.

So follow me after the jump to read more on the games I've selected for nomination and to vote for how I'll spend the next six weeks in Choose My Adventure.

The rules are simple: I pick a handful of games that I wouldn't mind playing for six weeks, and you guide me through the chosen game. We generally like to pick new games for these, but we have an internal rule about putting a game up for nomination only if it hasn't been covered in the last three years. I may not have put your favorite game up for a vote, but keep in mind that it may be covered in a future Choose My Adventure article.

And one more point that we've just implemented: While we invite game communities to spread the word and push for their particular game to win in forums, social media, etc., we ask that you don't encourage cheating through the use of dupe accounts. We will disqualify those games that are found to be cheating in these polls. This is all for fun, after all!

I don't think it's any secret that I'm a big fan of Fallen Earth, and it was one of the first games I played for Choose My Adventure way back in 2009 when I started it up. But the statute of limitations has passed and I can now throw it back into the running for this edition of CMA. Admittedly, I haven't played the game in probably a year, but I'm excited to see how it fares with all the recent changes.

Age of Wushu released earlier this year, and I dabbled in it a tiny bit through the beta, but I found the depth almost overwhelming. I'd love to give this game another shot in a more controlled (i.e., your control!) environment.

I played Champions Online quite a bit when it first came out and always enjoyed it. But I haven't touched it since it went free-to-play, so I'm curious to see how it's doing now. I may spend my entire six weeks in the character creator, though. Just a warning!
APB: Reloaded is one of those games that I jump back into every time I remember how awesome it is. I have quite a history with this game, including a Why I Play article and a few livestreams that consist entirely of my troll-trucking it through other players' missions. Sadly, that's not a thing anymore.
Why choose what happens on the TV show when you can choose what happens to me in the game? I really enjoy Defiance and would welcome any adventure you could throw at me in this game.
Poor Allods Online. This game seems to have been in every Choose My Adventure poll since its open beta but has never been chosen. I think it's a solid game that deserves another good look, even after several years.
Oh, how I enjoy PlanetSide 2. It's a game that fulfills a side of me that just wants to run around in a giant group of space troopers defending bases. We all have that side, right?
Lord of the Rings Online is another game that's been covered before but is now ready for another look. The first time I played LotRO in a CMA, I invited the readers to join me in a kinship that I believe still plays together today (four years later!). A lot has changed since then, so I'm ready to jump right back in and see how F2P and the new content have affected the game.
I've played Pirate101 for only a few levels back in beta, but I think it's worth a deeper look. It's not as open-ended as most of the games on this list, but it could still work well for a CMA (as did its sister game, Wizard101).
The newly launched Neverwinter has been the target of critics after a rocky launch, but I'm ready to jump back in and see whether the dust has settled.
Vindictus would be another game that is almost too linear for a CMA, but I'm willing to test that theory because I really enjoy the game.
Wurm Online is the only other game on this list (aside from Planetside 2) that I play just about every day. It's the king of sandboxes, and with some very recent (major) improvements and an official launch back in December, the game is more ready than ever to be explored in a CMA.
If you've ever asked yourself whether Age of Conan is still around, it is. We may not hear as much about it anymore, but the game just celebrated its fifth anniversary and is (presumably) maintaining a steady playerbase after going free-to-play. I'd be very curious to jump back in and see what's changed in the last few years since I've played.

Poll

Make your choice in the poll below and guide my hand for the next six weeks through character creation, mission choices, and more. The poll closes on Monday, July 22nd, at 12 p.m. EDT.%Poll-83513%
It's Shawn's turn back in the driver's seat of Choose My Adventure with you as the co-pilot. It's going to be a rough ride, so put on your seat belt! If you want to read a full six weeks of farcical puns about cars and farming, be sure to tune in every Wednesday as the adventure continues to unfold.

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