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Why are MMORPG's so popular?
nickbrownell
Member Posts: 2
Hi all,
I'm a Product Design student currently working on a project involving new ways of communication in the year 2020. I was wondering if any of you could shed some light as to why MMORPG's are so popular? Is it the ability to meet people all over the world, perhaps live a more interesting life online or simply prove yourself to a wider audience?
What feelings do these games envoke? Are you more at ease, feel more suited to the specific worlds etc.
I would greatly appreciate your views on this matter, anything you think may be relevant please post it...
Cheers
Nick Brownell
Comments
I think that should pretty much cover it up. MMORPGs are a way to escape from this reality to another reality. While books, movies and singleplayer games offer us a good way to escape from reality, MMORPGs do it in a original way. They give us the community. And the good and bad sides that come with it.
I haven't found a mmorpg that would satisfy my needs, but am waiting for new releases, like Age of Conan for example. They have yet to offer something that I can't obtain by playing other kind of games.
Even to myself I'm a genius
Also longevity. I can play Diablo 2 with my friends, but when we finish it, what then? Playing it again is hardly as fun. You can play mmog's for months, if not years on end. Mmog's become compelling to me when there are exciting goals to reach, that can only be achieved with the cooperation of other players.
I think there are far to many reasons for myself even to list. Alot of people I seem to meet seem as if they may be a bit anti-social in society or shy of society in a whole. Many folks I would think just love the glory of the greed alot of mmo's are based on which can or can not be met in RL.
Many of my friends and myself are in there mid to up 30's in age and we travel alot for our careers and when we spend probably 200+ days in hotels it seems the only logical thing to do, mainly being that the few drinks daily at the local pub got a bit boring in the mid 20's. To add to this, the main reason a few co-workers and myself even got involved was the fact that in our travels we found 15/ month was better than 100 a week sitting at the bar, cost efficient friendships lol.
What your question has to do with your project is beyond me. Anyways i'll start by saying research your question a little more, perhaps by reading these boards, the boards of the games, editorials, ect. You simply can not ask for generic opinions on such a broad topic that the users themselves dont fully understand.
on to the questions to the best of my ability.
I was wondering if any of you could shed some light as to why MMORPG's are so popular?
To generic of a question.
Is it the ability to meet people all over the world?
One could say yes, i love that i can meet people all over the world, this isnt the full reason though. I meet people from all over the world online, in real life, ect and its not something i live for or exciting ........ i think its more like a meeting grounds for special intrest. Say you go to a car show and have no intrest in cars, you will look around and get bored, while someone who is into cars would stay there all day bs'n and learning new things. An mmo is like this, i play everquest and enjoy it becuase these are my kinda people, doesnt matter where they are from, we can always get along since we all share one common intrest.
perhaps live a more interesting life online or simply prove yourself to a wider audience?
This is rather difficult to answer in respects to being another general question. Taking my world of Norrath from everquest again as example ............... If eq was a singleplayer game it would be kinda drab yes. No one to talk to, no affiliations to help you through out the game. Interaction with others is a major part of MMO's, while proving yourself is an interesting task, i guess proving yourself to others would be more of a challenge then proving yourself to yourself.
What feelings do these games envoke?
Hmm ........ what feelings do they not invoke? To find this answer you yourself would have to play one of these many games. In these games are real people with real feelings, they will get hurt, become happy, be evil just as they would in real life. I would say to play any of these games to study more of why they get these feelings and how they are handled, ie intensity and so forth since this is a " fantasy" presence and not a real one.
Are you more at ease, feel more suited to the specific worlds etc.
Think i answered this with the hobbies and special intrest but ill ad to it real fast. I play everquest becuase i like in depth lore that makes the world come alive. I like that the game takes skill and patience becuase it keeps certain types of people away from it. Its a hobby, and i get to enjoy my hobby with other like minded people ........
Thanks for the quick and interesting responses.
Ok, there were points raised of social benefits to the interaction over these games with friends/colleagues which is interesting, the fact that this meeting place is as much about meeting the people than playing a game. It is this comfort in online meeting arena that I think would be utilised in future communications with colleagues, for example a small group working on a project. Forgetting about the game aspect for a second, would this online social interaction you participate in now be as forfilling/useful if incorporated into a 'physical' object(s)... imagine chess pieces each personalised by the colleague they represent.
Thank you for the comments on it as 'a meeting place for similar interests'... though my project doesn't look at gaming I am trying to way up a method of colleagues communicating other than MSN... a virtual office if you will.
Your thoughts are so I can elaborate on useability of this type of meeting ground.
Again, thanks for the posts... keep em coming if you've got anything to add.
Cheers
Nick
If you're thinking of an idea on communication. I could see there being an audience for online bars. You upload your face and/or body figure with your face and you upload that into a game and other people do that and then you go to some virtual bar and you sit around and socialize with other like-minded people.
They can see the pixel-you and you can talk via voice over chat or whatever and boom, you can go to a bar without paying for anything and from the comfort of your home.
Cryomatrix
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.