One of the reasons that people play MMOs is that people want to feel that they can change the world -- without dealing with annoying difficult people, or the risks that are involved with actual civic engagement.
I've been involved with actual world-changing politics (as the founding executive director of the Tor Project, for example) as well as being the CEO of an indy game studio, and I used to refer to my job as exec dir of Tor as being in an "international human rights LARP." It's only kind of a joke. People who work in the "fog of war" of real life politics are, really, working in a "sim" environment, but they are working with real risks and real rewards, and no do-overs.
As geeks, we love world-building fiction. We endlessly argue in web forums about petty details regarding retcons in our favorite lore or whatever. But in the greater world, the talents we build here are in high demand. If we spent a fraction of the time we spent in MMOs in our RL communities dealing with the asshats and difficult people, long meetings, boring committees (kind of like waiting for a raid to form up only different and so on -- as a whole, gamers -- who as a whole may not give a rat's patootie but a good subset of us are highly ethical and maybe overly so for the wider world nearly! -- could so scoop this society out of some subset of the messes it's in.
We so many of us want to change the world and that's why we game, but we don't feel we, as individuals, ourselves, could change the world.
You know what? You probably could change the world in your spare time. At least your piece of it. Game a little less. Get out of the ergonomic chair. Do something awesome for the people around you.
Because that will fire up the same yayas for a significant number of y'all, and eventually it will give you a number of achievements you can carry with you a lot longer than the MMO kind...:)
The opportunity to socialise (internationally) without being pre-judged aesthetically.
Playing: Darkfall New Dawn (and planning to play Fallout 76) Favourite games have included: UO, Lineage2, Darkfall, Lotro, Baldur's Gate, SSX, FF7 and yes the original Wizardry on an Apple IIe
Just to follow up on Marcust's point about not being pre-judged esthetically, aren't MMOs the one place where things just feel more equal, simpler to understand and predict despite still playing or "living" in a complex social system?
We put an effort and we get the right reward: we grow in level, gear and uberness and none of it is limited or denied based on our real race, age, gender or simply unfortunate set of circumstances. There is definitely something unique and pleasant in this certainty and I am sure that it draws a lot of us back to MMOs whether we realize it or not.
I used to play to be in a virtual world where we had a chance of being a hero or villain or just an ordinary person. I liked to explore and see what the world had to offer. This feel has been lost in games that are 100% percent achievement based games. Socialization and exploration have been marginalized and killing only serves as a vehicle for achievement.
If you talk about older games your best memories will be largely based on wonky things you or some player did. These days the best memories are based content based on snake in the can content that everyone does.
Why games all feel the same regardless of wrinkles and combat differences is that the goals are all the same. Defeat the content which is a single player styled and 1 of 7 quest and zip through player hubs which give most MMORPGs the same presentation of said content.
I would like a push more towards dynamic themepark and sandboxes. Let us do more then play single player content that I can do better in a offline games where I control my gameplay and my actions effect things.
Why do I play MMOs? That’s a good question. I constantly ask myself this question in order to make sure that I know what I want.
In terms of in-game interests, when I got my start in WoW and first entered Azeroth, I vividly remember what I felt: First, the in-game world felt so big to me. And I wanted to experience the adventure of exploring it. Second, as I felt the desire to explore, I vowed that, down the line, I would find a way to build up my character and stand out.
Well, as time progressed, I got a cold dose of reality. I quickly learned that there could be no sense of standing out in WoW because a significant amount of WoW players constantly harped about maintaining perfect player balance, providing equal access to all things for all people, and maximizing accessibility for even the most casual of players. While sounding good on paper and very politically correct, these rallying cries actually served to progressively homogenize the playerbase in WoW during BC and WotLK. And, even after eventually leaving WoW and looking into other MMOs, this phenomenon proved to be essentially inescapable for me.
After this, I quickly became a strict experientialist or, in other words, focused solely on enjoying the experiences of my in-game journey. I focus on taking in my surroundings, paying close attention to the details of my quests and quest objects, exploring every nook and cranny of the in-game land, braving dangerous frontiers, and, in general, seeing what I can enjoy “out there.” In particular, I crave the hunt for special, intelligent NPCs to kill “out there.” I crave the hunt for rare treasures “out there.” I crave ways to improve the in-game world “out there.” I guess, put another way and in a nutshell, I like the idea of standing out just as an accomplished, adventuring hunter in different respects, not as any kind of direct PvPer. Hence, I am LungingWolf, the opportunist hunter.
In terms of real life, I view MMOs as a great way to stimulate my imagination. The colors, the shapes, the intellectual concepts—they serve as great artistic inspiration. Otherwise, MMOs are great just for relaxing when I need a break. Simple as that.
Oh, yeah, and I play MMOs to save money on my gaming costs as well, LOL.
Waiting for:Citadel of Sorcery. Along the way, The Elder Scrolls Online (when it is F2P).
Keeping an eye on:www.play2crush.com (whatever is going on here).
Originally posted by jeddak I'm not sure why I play any more. MMO's are a shadow of their former selves for someone who started with UO and EQ. Oh the games are ok most of the time but the folks playing them are not.
QFT, with the exception that i dont play anymore. MMO's are dead to me. EQ:Next was the nail in the coffin. I'm still kickstart funded on Camelot Unchained, but thats years out if it even comes to fruition /shrug.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
I think I use MMO's to escape the real world, although the song Escape is from long before there were MMO's it perfectly describes what I feel like when playing MMO's:
"Escape"
Feel no pain, but my life ain't easy I know I'm my best friend No one cares, but I'm so much stronger I'll fight until the end To escape from the true false world Undamaged destiny Can't get caught in the endless circle Ring of stupidity
Out of my own, out to be free One with my mind, they just can't see No need to hear things that they say Life's for my own to live my own way
Rape my mind and destroy my feelings Don't tell my what to do I don't care now, 'cause I'm on my side And I can see through you Feed my brain with your so called standards Who says that I ain't right Break away from your common fashion See through your blurry sight
Out of my own, out to be free One with my mind, they just can't see No need to hear things that they say Life's for my own to live my own way
See they try to bring the hammer down No damn chains can hold me to the ground Life's for my own to live my own way
Originally posted by Saryk Exploring! Ability to play solo or join family quickly to accomplish something.
Agree. Besides always evolving world, patches, regular expansion packs, .... After done leveling and enjoying with all my alts ... there is added value of end game.
When you play a single player RPG game, you get attached to your character but it ends. I think the idea of being able to continue adventures with your character and the journey need not end is the one that draws me to MMORPGs.
It isn't the story per se, but the story does help get me attached to my character. It is seeing my character progress and grow that sucks me in.
People can be an asset and a liability. I love logging on and talking to friends, but the constant ass hattery, trash talking, name calling, swearing you see that goes on pushes me away.
What happened to Escapism hasnt that always been one of the biggest reasons. I know it is for me.
The Story, no. Only a few MMOs that I ever played did I like the story. And not enough to play it just for the story.
The Social...yeah. I dont play it to make friends. But when I do make friends its those people that keep me coming back and playing and subbing longer than I would have.
Accomplishment, nah, not really. As example I dont care about reaching level cap. I dont need the newest raid gear, or the most pvp kills. I play MMOs for the enjoyment. The only time I feel a sense of accomplishment is when I learn to master my class, especially in pvp.
Shared Purpose, even less so. Heck really not at all. I guess mainly because the people that I game with have always had different times they'd play. So leveling together usally only worked for like 4-7 levels, and then one of us would get ahead. Which has always been a problem, and is porobably why I dont mind and even like solo-focused MMO's.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
Comments
One of the reasons that people play MMOs is that people want to feel that they can change the world -- without dealing with annoying difficult people, or the risks that are involved with actual civic engagement.
I've been involved with actual world-changing politics (as the founding executive director of the Tor Project, for example) as well as being the CEO of an indy game studio, and I used to refer to my job as exec dir of Tor as being in an "international human rights LARP." It's only kind of a joke. People who work in the "fog of war" of real life politics are, really, working in a "sim" environment, but they are working with real risks and real rewards, and no do-overs.
As geeks, we love world-building fiction. We endlessly argue in web forums about petty details regarding retcons in our favorite lore or whatever. But in the greater world, the talents we build here are in high demand. If we spent a fraction of the time we spent in MMOs in our RL communities dealing with the asshats and difficult people, long meetings, boring committees (kind of like waiting for a raid to form up only different
and so on -- as a whole, gamers -- who as a whole may not give a rat's patootie but a good subset of us are highly ethical and maybe overly so for the wider world nearly! -- could so scoop this society out of some subset of the messes it's in.
We so many of us want to change the world and that's why we game, but we don't feel we, as individuals, ourselves, could change the world.
You know what? You probably could change the world in your spare time. At least your piece of it. Game a little less. Get out of the ergonomic chair. Do something awesome for the people around you.
Because that will fire up the same yayas for a significant number of y'all, and eventually it will give you a number of achievements you can carry with you a lot longer than the MMO kind...:)
Sounds cheesy, but it works for me, anyway.
(and, hey, I game too!
Playing: Darkfall New Dawn (and planning to play Fallout 76)
Favourite games have included: UO, Lineage2, Darkfall, Lotro, Baldur's Gate, SSX, FF7 and yes the original Wizardry on an Apple IIe
Just to follow up on Marcust's point about not being pre-judged esthetically, aren't MMOs the one place where things just feel more equal, simpler to understand and predict despite still playing or "living" in a complex social system?
We put an effort and we get the right reward: we grow in level, gear and uberness and none of it is limited or denied based on our real race, age, gender or simply unfortunate set of circumstances. There is definitely something unique and pleasant in this certainty and I am sure that it draws a lot of us back to MMOs whether we realize it or not.
Dungeons, raids, and pvp
To be something we never will or got to be. And becuse we are becoing a anti social race
"believe me, mike.. i calculated the odds of this working against the odds that i was doing something incredibly stupid and i did it anyway!"
If you talk about older games your best memories will be largely based on wonky things you or some player did. These days the best memories are based content based on snake in the can content that everyone does.
Why games all feel the same regardless of wrinkles and combat differences is that the goals are all the same. Defeat the content which is a single player styled and 1 of 7 quest and zip through player hubs which give most MMORPGs the same presentation of said content.
I would like a push more towards dynamic themepark and sandboxes. Let us do more then play single player content that I can do better in a offline games where I control my gameplay and my actions effect things.
Why do I play MMOs? That’s a good question. I constantly ask myself this question in order to make sure that I know what I want.
In terms of in-game interests, when I got my start in WoW and first entered Azeroth, I vividly remember what I felt: First, the in-game world felt so big to me. And I wanted to experience the adventure of exploring it. Second, as I felt the desire to explore, I vowed that, down the line, I would find a way to build up my character and stand out.
Well, as time progressed, I got a cold dose of reality. I quickly learned that there could be no sense of standing out in WoW because a significant amount of WoW players constantly harped about maintaining perfect player balance, providing equal access to all things for all people, and maximizing accessibility for even the most casual of players. While sounding good on paper and very politically correct, these rallying cries actually served to progressively homogenize the playerbase in WoW during BC and WotLK. And, even after eventually leaving WoW and looking into other MMOs, this phenomenon proved to be essentially inescapable for me.
After this, I quickly became a strict experientialist or, in other words, focused solely on enjoying the experiences of my in-game journey. I focus on taking in my surroundings, paying close attention to the details of my quests and quest objects, exploring every nook and cranny of the in-game land, braving dangerous frontiers, and, in general, seeing what I can enjoy “out there.” In particular, I crave the hunt for special, intelligent NPCs to kill “out there.” I crave the hunt for rare treasures “out there.” I crave ways to improve the in-game world “out there.” I guess, put another way and in a nutshell, I like the idea of standing out just as an accomplished, adventuring hunter in different respects, not as any kind of direct PvPer. Hence, I am LungingWolf, the opportunist hunter.
In terms of real life, I view MMOs as a great way to stimulate my imagination. The colors, the shapes, the intellectual concepts—they serve as great artistic inspiration. Otherwise, MMOs are great just for relaxing when I need a break. Simple as that.
Oh, yeah, and I play MMOs to save money on my gaming costs as well, LOL.
Waiting for: Citadel of Sorcery. Along the way, The Elder Scrolls Online (when it is F2P).
Keeping an eye on: www.play2crush.com (whatever is going on here).
QFT, with the exception that i dont play anymore. MMO's are dead to me. EQ:Next was the nail in the coffin. I'm still kickstart funded on Camelot Unchained, but thats years out if it even comes to fruition /shrug.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
I think I use MMO's to escape the real world, although the song Escape is from long before there were MMO's it perfectly describes what I feel like when playing MMO's:
"Escape"
Feel no pain, but my life ain't easy
I know I'm my best friend
No one cares, but I'm so much stronger
I'll fight until the end
To escape from the true false world
Undamaged destiny
Can't get caught in the endless circle
Ring of stupidity
Out of my own, out to be free
One with my mind, they just can't see
No need to hear things that they say
Life's for my own to live my own way
Rape my mind and destroy my feelings
Don't tell my what to do
I don't care now, 'cause I'm on my side
And I can see through you
Feed my brain with your so called standards
Who says that I ain't right
Break away from your common fashion
See through your blurry sight
Out of my own, out to be free
One with my mind, they just can't see
No need to hear things that they say
Life's for my own to live my own way
See they try to bring the hammer down
No damn chains can hold me to the ground
Life's for my own to live my own way
Agree. Besides always evolving world, patches, regular expansion packs, .... After done leveling and enjoying with all my alts ... there is added value of end game.
When you play a single player RPG game, you get attached to your character but it ends. I think the idea of being able to continue adventures with your character and the journey need not end is the one that draws me to MMORPGs.
It isn't the story per se, but the story does help get me attached to my character. It is seeing my character progress and grow that sucks me in.
People can be an asset and a liability. I love logging on and talking to friends, but the constant ass hattery, trash talking, name calling, swearing you see that goes on pushes me away.
What happened to Escapism hasnt that always been one of the biggest reasons. I know it is for me.
The Story, no. Only a few MMOs that I ever played did I like the story. And not enough to play it just for the story.
The Social...yeah. I dont play it to make friends. But when I do make friends its those people that keep me coming back and playing and subbing longer than I would have.
Accomplishment, nah, not really. As example I dont care about reaching level cap. I dont need the newest raid gear, or the most pvp kills. I play MMOs for the enjoyment. The only time I feel a sense of accomplishment is when I learn to master my class, especially in pvp.
Shared Purpose, even less so. Heck really not at all. I guess mainly because the people that I game with have always had different times they'd play. So leveling together usally only worked for like 4-7 levels, and then one of us would get ahead. Which has always been a problem, and is porobably why I dont mind and even like solo-focused MMO's.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."