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Have you known an mmo player who went through "the change?"
Amathe
Member LegendaryPosts: 7,630
The "change." I don't know what else to call it. Maybe the douchebagification but that may be too harsh. It's not new. I first encountered it in early original EQ and I have seen it in every game since.
Here's how it works.
You are playing an mmo. You meet someone and make friends. Your friend is nice. You chat regularly and play together often. You talk about lots of things - funny things in game, sports, girls, other games they have played, whatever. Your friend is like a real life friend. You talk about lots of stuff.
Then one day, the "change" takes place. All of a sudden, your friend has become obsessed with their gear and their stats. It's all they can talk about. It's all they will talk about. Pick a topic, and the next thing they are telling you about their crit rating. Pick another topic, and they tell you about their dps. They aren't a person anymore. They have become a gear zombie. The one and only thing about which you can engage them in conversation is what they have, what they plan to have, and what the numbers add up to.
This is usually followed by the realization that your "friend" now regards you as some type of second class person. They inspect you over and over and over and comment on what you don't have versus what they do. Then comes lots of unasked for advice. And criticism.
You can try to get the conversation back to a human level, but you can't.
Have you experienced this?
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Comments
one of the main reason I became a solo'er.
I like to have fun. I like nerdy allusions and geeky culture humor.
I like exploring. I rarely talk about real life things, and keep most of my ingame talk about the culture of the game itself.
except of course for the funny stuff.
T
not sure what you call it.. but it runs in the same family as most online activities.. people log on to the net for the very first time, or atleast to a new enviroment and rather it be chatrooms, forums, games etc etc, they become obsessed with that.. I've seen it in all aspects of the internet.. I guess it's just a natural progession the human mind has to go thru.. Some takes longer then others.. Normally, people will snap out of it in a few years.. LOL
Yes i have known several to go through the "change". I admit I have even gone through it on multiple games.... But hopefully like me they will come out the other side after coming to their senses and realize that it is just a game(regardless of which one) and you play it for entertainment. Don't let the numbers ruin the fun.
We all can only be who we are Nothing more nothing less.
it's their choice of what they want to talk about. nothing wrong with that.
he can say the same thing about you. Yepping about non game related topic when you should really go to a bar, internet chat room, or play some social games.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with talking about sports, politic in MMO. I'm just saying there's nothing wrong with yepping about "anything" you want.
Yes, in EQ1. It got so bad that the "friend" basically turned on me after months of pestering me to join his guild, I finally apply and asked him how it was going and he tells me "someone" said I needed to level more and needed gear before I could join. I asked who that was and he admitted, himself. O_o Biggest betrayal I've ever had in an MMO and it took me months to even TALK to another person in my next MMO due to that. I hated EQ1 and Sony for it and to this day still hate and blame EQ1 and Brad McQuaid for what happened. If it weren't for that greed driven POS game and its creator, I prolly would still have my friend.
Never again. I no longer own a single EQ1 CD as we threw them all out.
I don't *do* real guild BS now. I rarely group and prefer to duo or solo. I still make friends mind you, and some of them are min/maxers, but I'll argue til the cows come home that MY style of play is just as viable and enjoyable as theirs and given I'm a Leo, I always win the argument because I'm right or they realize I'm not gonna see things their way and stop arguing because, I'm right, so they give up. :P
Well, they weren't a friend then.
.
I'm in a casual raiding guild. We struggle with the entry level raids even.
.
But it's a nice group of people. Lot's of married couples. So I don't mind.
.
It's nice to substitute in a hardcore guild once in a while to see how the other half live. A guild where everyone knows what they are doing and mistakes are rarely made.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Yeah it's happened a few times. Most of the reason why I go solo or just group with people I know are casuals these days. Like someone else said it happens in everything though. Some guys get into cars and start doing it, or sports, music, politics, or anything else you can think of. I call it obsession syndrome. A lot of people like to think they are an expert at something. They think they are helping you by telling you what mobs you need to do and what gear you need and your stats. Maybe it makes them feel important? I don't know. I'm a casual gamer so when someone gets there I just smile and politely drift away. Sorry I like my game to be fun not an obsession.
Who r u to define what is fun and what is an obsession? It is perfect reasonable for some players to find fun in the numbers. Humans are natural optimizers. And there is nothing wrong to be a good player and know his/her class.
It is a game. People can find fun playing it different ways. That is why there are more hardcore guilds, and the casual ones. Just don't go to where you don't belong but the "other side" is not wrong.
same thing happened to me, then i started playing solo. been a happier person ever since.
Yea EQ was good for the snobery on the gear. I can say that in the pursuit of the epic shinies I proabably joined right in on it. It was part of what kept you coming back to the game and wanting to accomplish the tough stuff that not many else had been able too. Now everything is handed to people on a silver platter. Why even bother to raid when any moron can figure out how to beat an epic event or worse yet get epic gear with little effort. It's the lack of the tough content and keyed instances that is what has watered down our MMOS.
I say bring back the tough stuff! Bring back flags and earning your keys through long and ardous quest lines! Give some sense of accomplishment other than kil one inconsequential boss and have your epic!
How is suffering through increased grind and artificial bottlenecks considered an "accomplishment"?? /boggle
I sat through a WEEKS worth of a Ragefire camp. On my server, we had a queue and if you wanted the next spot in the ragefire camp, you helped the previous Cleric camp theirs. I was one of the last on my server who had to go through this before they made the change and I'll tell you what. I didn't feel I'd accomplished any more than had I of done it the new, triggered way (no idea how it is done now but that was the change back in the day).
I felt nothing but tired, worn out, overwrought, stressed and over emotional.
I see nothing wrong with quest lines that take you through various content and require different levels of difficulty to earn something but I refuse to agree that EQ1s incessant grind and artificial bottlenecks was the *right* way to do things much less amounted in accomplishment. Key grinding? You have GOT to be kidding me.
Careful, your obsession is showing.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Same as the first reply, it's why I now prefer to solo, until I need to pug for end game content that is.
I've got 2 friends like that and they are brothers, I love them like they were my brothers and I've known them for over 10 years now and it's always the same shit. In the lag leading to a WoW expansion they will talk all this shit about how we are going to level together, make a guild together and raid together.
Then the WoW expansion comes out and they both somehow lose thier jobs. Next thing that happens I get home from work and they are levels beyond me and start pressuring me to level faster so we can do 5 mans together but since i have to work it takes me much longer to level.
A few days go by and they've reached cap and now want to try to do end game stuff. We get our guild set up, I rely on them to handle the specifics because they are not employed and have time that I don't to handle that stuff, one gets bored with it then the other starts raiding with a guild with geared and or experienced players.
Next thing I know we aren't doing anything except maybe 5 mans and dailies, then they start using some other peoples ventrillo and I have to beg them to come on mine and that's when I know I've lost them again.
I always go back and play with them because like I said I do love those guys but after 2 expansions and the cold shoulder bullshit that comes with it I'd rather just chat with them about casual stuff "how's the wife and kids doing?", or "the weather sure has been hot" and just keep it at that. I know that my "one for all and all for one" attitude is not the same as thiers but that's not exactly fair because one of them always includes me but the other does whatever he wants that will benefit him in the end and make lame excuses about why, but I always wind up forgiving and forgeting and playing the sucker again.
Obsession over a game like that isn't hard to fall for. I've called out of work some days just to level but as I'm getting closer to 40 I'm finding I'm getting less and less enjoyment out of games in general. They've got a ways to go before they get there but one day they will wake up and realise that they've lost out on a good part of their lives and ailienated their friends for nothing in the end really and that's the worst part of "the change".
I'll always consider them friends even though we've never met in person because I see and know the change, I just hope they see it for what it is too some time.
Putting up with in-game BS had a major influence on why I left MMOs.
Me and the wife used to belong to a semi-hardcore raid guild. Everyone got along, as we only apped those we knew to be of good character. There was a couple out of Canada we were good friends with, and grped with often.
Our guild leader had stepped down, and another took his place. He decided that quality of the app was no longer important, rather we would be more concerned with what they brought to the raid table.
Get an app in....within 2 weeks this person was making unwanted sexual comments towards my friends wife. I was unaware, and she brings it to my attention. I got pizzed as all get out, as she was really bothered by it and thinking of them leaving guild. I post on our guild site(app didnt have access to it yet in trial period) that they either dump the guy, or we were walking.
They didnt, and we left. It was just us though....Our Canadien "friends" hung around, rather than backing us when it was them bringing us into it in the first place. Wasnt my wife getting hit on.
That was when I knew I had enough of chit like that.
There was always something going on with EQ guilds, and I used to surf various EQ server brd cause there was always drama happening. Things like the Page 8 drama are something that cant be written about as classicly, as watching it unfold as it happens is the best popcorn material around.
For all the good a local EQ community could be, the bad always seemed to come from something pertaining to loot/guild internal issues. Definitly not something I miss about EQ, and why I find SPG s much more fun these days. I dont need online friends, as the 7 guys in my local 15 yr running fantasy football I have known for 20 yrs plus. One I have known since I was about 5.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
Sometimes I like to inspect players to see what they have. It feels kind of obnoxious though when a person is going on an on about this stat and that stat, and oooh....look how big and uber cool their sword is....
What is really bad is when they have all this uber gear and several levels on you but they want to duel you to prove how great they are, lol.
Some people are so freakin' obnoxious and they either have no clue or don't care. /shrug
Well i've had many friends go through the change and some do change back to normal and some don't including myself i've gone through the change on afew games but i changed back to normal but to make sure i don't do that again i usually quit that game for abit to focus on something else or quit entirely such as the case with me and WoW lol.
i've been playing CoH/CoV which solves many of these problems because there is no gear,plenty of nice people and stuff.
PSN-SlyFox5679
Xfire-Slyfox5679
raptr-slygamer1979
They used to be called self-righteous with delusions of grandeur. But no longer. They are NOW called "MMO Professionals".
As they improve their toons skills and gear, there is a transformation beyond the comprehension of mere "players"...
They become CYBER - GODS.
Bow down to them. They EXPECT it.
Accept their (unsolicited) wisdom with the greatest of gratitude. They DESERVE it.
My son met a kid in SWG and they were getting to be really close friends. They were the same age, played the same sports, and were calling each other every weekend. Then...my son had to take a 2 month break from the game because of his studies. And when he went back to SWG, his friend was level 90 and wanted nothing to do with my son anymore since my son was level 70 and couldn't run with him.
It really bothered my son and he was asking me how someone could go from being close with you to not wanting anything else to do with you. I did the dad thing and told him that maybe the kid was going through something and to not judge him. I wanted to tell my son that people are convenience friends sometimes and that you shouldn't find yourself relying on internet friendship.
I'm a 47 year old woman with a 49 year old female partner. I know TWO MMO players who "went through the change," but somehow I don't think that you meant what I thought.......
So....nevermind.
During my WoW years I've seen a friends mom tell him his gear sucks and how to play his class while everybody lol'd at him
LOL that is just too funny man.
AT OP
Yes I agree. This is the main problem I have with helping low lvl players in WoW for example.
I help them, just to be nice, but they constantly nag me afterwards (even if I give them the warning before hand, not to ask me for help ever again unless I say ask if anybody need help)
they still PM me, asking them to run them.
They dont understand that iam a Casual player without a raiding guild, and iam PvP BG focused and no real life friends. So I try to spend most of my time gearing up, so I can stand a chance against Arena geared players (hard to do with BG gear).
I just dont have much time to run people in low lvl dungeons. I dont mean to be rude to them or anything. But sometimes I am in the mood to run low lvls in dungeons.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
I haven't experienced this myself for a specific reason, I simply don't play my games to make "friends" I actually loathe talking about myself or even real life topics in game and have for the most part avoided it. My first mmo was SWG and due to it's socal nature I can admit I was pulled into this kind of socialization which even then I felt uncomfortable about. I had a crew of some ten or so in game "friends" and within a month things started to go pretty bad, the first two people I met in game told some pretty profound lies and through all of that drama one of them left the game. From there I was foolish enough to allow myself to stay in that pattern but far too often found myself compromising my true self to appease these in game friends only to have two more of them create more major league drama. Luckily for me right after the second major blow up the CU took place and my more informed friends began to talk about the NGE and the fact that they were going to leave the game soon, these were the only "friends" I had left in game that hadn't turned out to be total drama queens but my lesson had been learned and I took it as a sign that my earlier instinct was right from then I moved on to another game can't remember if it was WOW first or COH but at any rate I never allowed myself to break that rule again if folks spoke about real life I just ignore it.
While I don't see anything wrong with people making friends in a video game my friendship and trust is not easy to earn and even more difficult when I can for the most part not even verify that what I'm often being told is true. I am also a musician so face to face friends are many and I personally don't long for more than I have. I've since met quite a few people in game who by character name will always be respected but I could pass them on the street and not even know it and I'm actually fine with that again I'm comfortable with the great real life friends that I have.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
haha good one.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
This is almost normal behavior ive seen this so many times first they talk normal but when they reach higher lvl or become more vetran they suddenly experst who dont talk other then gear stats related.
Ive never had this urge to do same even tho im rather fanatic gamer myself i still have eye and ears for other things then talk about how uber i maybe am hehe.
Im also ver good listner but if someone only can talk about gear stats im offen suddenly AFK and then do my own thing dont wanne listend wholeday long to this nonsens:P
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.