It's the age old basement nerd argument. Don't be silly it's just games if you need games to make friends you probably failed in life anyways...
I won't discuss this because you don't usually get any worthwhile results out of these rants.
Let's not get into that. I did NOT make the argumetn. I merely say i do not play games to make friends. If you do, continue to do so. That is just another preference to me .. i won't judge you.
But:
The idea of "I get RL friends on to play together" is exactly what "other games" were for back when MMORPGs were MMORPGs. Like Diablo, Diablo 2, Duke Nukem 3D, C&C, Counterstrike 0.6... you name it. I got my friends together, we brought our PCs or met in a lobby and rolled away. There were no strangers in these matches/games and you just had a ton of fun...
Yes. And i play D3, Borderland and other MP games.
That's perfectly okay.
Things get bizarre though when people try to point this out as the all new shiny flavor of MMORPGs. MMORPGs were (and in part are) a place where you can play with your RL friends if you want, god knows i sometimes do, but beyond that allowed you to have a blast with total strangers. 40-man Vanilla WoW raids, merely 10 years ago, were one of the most fun things I've ever done in my gaming life. 40 people on vent, killing, getting killed, laughing... It was never about the grind oder the cumbersome repetitions, at least not for me, MMORPGs were about doing something with lots of people (massive) online...
There is no reason why MMORPG cannot fill that demand. It is just a MP game where more can be seen in a city. And who says you cannot play with strangers in other online games? People play with strangers every day in D3, LOL, Borderlands, and what-not. MMO has no claim on that.
Actually raids was not too much fun for me .. too much work. When you have to file an application to get into a raiding guild (and i did, and i raid hard mode for a while ... so it is not like i have not been there), it is too much for a game.
Nowadays, I install SWTOR and play it as an intermittend moba game. Group finder if necessary, battleground if bloodthirsty, single player game and story as the motivation to log on. I'm playing exactly as if i had a single player game with multiplayer option. And that's where it goes downhill. Because something unique, the MMORPG experience, is consumed by something that's been there since the dawn of the internet, online games.
Why downhill? If you find a game fun, it is all good. In fact, i play STO exactly the same way. There is no story mission based star trek rpg .. and i can play STO episodes like a SP game .. and a pretty good one at that (the gound battles are a bit less than the best, but the ship battle combat mechanics are a lot of fun .. best in space capital ship combat .. much better than Eve.
And i see it as huge progress. A single game STO .. capture people who want some SP story missions, and also star trek type ship pvp battles.
By my nature I am a competitive gamer and I really hate when someone has an advantage over me. Thus most P2W models absolutely suck for me and I stay away from them.
Free to play is fine and all but its generally not free to play with my mindset. Thus I perfer sub games for the most part.
Some F2P models are fine but the trend is certainly pay to win or pay for convenience.
I am completely fine with pay for content models but there is very few that stick to just that.
By my nature I am a competitive gamer and I really hate when someone has an advantage over me. Thus most P2W models absolutely suck for me and I stay away from them.
Free to play is fine and all but its generally not free to play with my mindset. Thus I perfer sub games for the most part.
Some F2P models are fine but the trend is certainly pay to win or pay for convenience.
I am completely fine with pay for content models but there is very few that stick to just that.
Well, i doubt you can escape p2w in pvp games. However, there is no p2w in pve .. unless you count gear-envy.
Personally, i do mostly pve, so f2p suits me well. And i actually don't mind some p2w. I play PS2 .. and so what if the paying customers have a slightly better sniper rifle faster .. it is not like i am not able to headshot enemies.
Comments
AH? Show off gear? Group to play in an instanced?
Can't do any of that playing batman, or mario, or Starcraft (except the instance part .. but no instanced dungeon runs).
Lots of reason to play MMOs .. and not to be part of the game world and meet others.
In fact, i have lots of example of experiences that i cannot get any other way but in a MMO.
For example, there is no modern Star Trek base RPG. If i want to play star trek mission, STO is it ... even if i play it like a single player game.
By my nature I am a competitive gamer and I really hate when someone has an advantage over me. Thus most P2W models absolutely suck for me and I stay away from them.
Free to play is fine and all but its generally not free to play with my mindset. Thus I perfer sub games for the most part.
Some F2P models are fine but the trend is certainly pay to win or pay for convenience.
I am completely fine with pay for content models but there is very few that stick to just that.
Well, i doubt you can escape p2w in pvp games. However, there is no p2w in pve .. unless you count gear-envy.
Personally, i do mostly pve, so f2p suits me well. And i actually don't mind some p2w. I play PS2 .. and so what if the paying customers have a slightly better sniper rifle faster .. it is not like i am not able to headshot enemies.