Help I’m easily distracted and I can’t play EQ2 anymore oh look fire!
GnomeQueen
The Lulz QueenMountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
GnomeQueen
The Lulz QueenMountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
Comments
Gathering people together and getting started usually took about 5 minutes.
what i really miss are the core group of people in my guild, my real life friends that are spread over the country. i miss shooting the breeze and laughing in officer chat. not the raid.
I love grinding in RPGs. I love managing inventory. I love running around with friends and slaying beasts. But for some reason, when that environment goes online, I suddenly hate it.
Plus, with the time crunch of my current life, it is much easier to jump into a few rounds of TF2 or a couple matches of SF4. That is certainly a good point, ADD or not
Its not that I would not like to play more involved games, a good example would be Fallout 3, I know it looks amazing, but I just fear I won't commit to it long enough to get my money's worth so I generally opt for games that are a little more "pick up and play" because I know I can play it for half an hour, put it down as my busy life dictates, and get back into it later on. I still play some single player shooters, but I am generally looking for an experience that is around ten to fifteen hours total commitment for a play through, any more than that I'm not sure where I will set aside the time to get all the way through it.
Sometimes less is more.
Dungeon Runners used to make things really easy for getting things done, you could just teleport directly to anyone in the party, etc. But it was kinda mediocre to play in my opinion. It recently went under for being "unprofitable" since it was free to play with an optional $5 "premium" subscription.
I'm starting to miss TF2 though, will have to play some again soon. But the fact that CO is subscription always makes me feel like I'm wasting money when I go back to another game.
My History:
- Played FFXI for ~2 years
- Played WoW for 4 years, occasionally taking a month or so of a break.
- Attempted to play Conan & LOTR online, didn't play them for very long.
- Currently not playing mmos.
Yes, mmos take a while but that is half the fun. When I'm running around, looking for people, waiting for stuff to happen, I'm socializing. In TF2 yes you can socialize, but its very fast paced and you spend your time playing the game to the point of just fun chat doesn't really go on. Everyone is too focused. In mmos its not the case. As everyone has to run around, your discussing the game, debating different builds, and getting to know one another.
The community you gain from playing with your Guild on a regular basis is awesome. As Gnome Queen stated in her article, this is one of the things she loves with EQ2. I've met many people who I've kept in contact with from WoW and FFXI, that have allowed me and being "anti-social" playing MMOs to make a fairly vast network of friends. I have friends in Australia, Europe, Canada, etc... as well as many friends around the US. These friends are also people who have helped me with my career, as they are able to give me advice and knowledge about industry I normally would not have obtained.
Basically, think of the MMO community like that of Icrontic. It is a game you play WHILE being social. That for me is the value of the game. Along with this is the ability to continually play a game that is quality, and has near endless content. Being able to progress, have something to show, along with the knowledge of a popular game that you can share and help others learn is a lot of fun.
Short blerb here:
I tend to think MMOs help with a lot of skills. Management of groups / items, leadership, working with the auction house resembles that of the stock market, figuring out efficiency of how to farm gold the fastest etc... These are things that benefit one's abilities greatly especially within that of Business. Traits not easily obtained with other activities while having a great deal of fun.
Well.. that is my short version... I'll leave it at that.
That's technically true, but here's a dash of perspective. I played TF2 a lot when it came out. TF2 led me to Icrontic, which led me to meet the crew in real life, which led me to twitter, which in the end completely changed how I socialize and interact with people, especially people that I've never met. All because I enjoyed talking and interacting with the IC people I was playing with in TF2. Granted your MMO discussions are probably a little more in depth than 'lol dickboat wtf so-and-so is drunk rofl FREAKIN' SCOUTS', but again, real friendships were made.
Oh, and I call bollocks on your quick blerb point. That's like saying FPS is better because I can learn about real world firearms and tactics, or flight sims are better because I can learn real world piloting procedures and aircraft operation and maintenance. Does it negate the point? No, I've learned a LOT about combat history and weaponry from the games I play. But I wouldn't claim myself to be an expert without the out-of-game studying I've done on the side. So it's either a moot point, or the same can be said of all genres.
Having an instant teleport option would be pretty great for most MMOs, I think, and I'm glad you brought it up. I remember having a discussion that a while ago with a friend of mine that is studying MMORPGs as literature. He claimed that having an instant teleportation option negated the purpose of having a large world- what's the point of having a large space if you can travel it in the blink of a second? I see what he's saying, but I have to hope that there's some sort of compromise there somewhere. Perhaps there could be a chance to do a quest to earn instant teleportation, or it could be a skill that you have to put points in to earn. I have to admit that EQ2 does have the ability to teleport for some classes, but it can only go to certain places, which are often still very far from the place you're trying to go. (My class is actually one of the ones with the most instant teleportation abilities)
I also have to agree with Lynx on Nemikan's "quick blerb point" as he called it. I personally think that almost all games can help you in some sort of way- FPS games can help your coordination and potentially your knowledge of firearms (I had a dream about zombies the other day, and when my shotgun ran out of ammo, I actually flashbacked to L4D and began melee-ing the zombies with it. So....L4D totally taught me something. *cough*) But almost any game has SOME sort of benefit, in my opinion. I've actually done a little bit of research on how games are being used in classrooms, and one of the best uses I saw of it was the use of World of Warcraft in a classroom, but not because it taught you things like managing money or things like that- schools are more commonly using SimCity for that- but because it provides a subject that's fun for students to write about where they can get instant and effective feedback. Think about the writing classes you've taken. In which of them did you get instant feedback about a subject that you actually had fun exploring? I have an English degree, and the instances in which I can remember that happening are pretty few and far between.
I do agree with you Nemikan in that a great way to fill dead space in MMOs is by socializing. I'm almost never in EQ2 unless I'm also in Vent. Perhaps the reason why I prefer the socialness of TF2 is because somewhat like Lynx said, I have a more direct and larger social web connecting that game than EQ2. I have met my guildies on several occasions, but we don't have anything like IRC or www.icrontic.com to keep us connected. Also, since my guild in EQ2 is family style and we have a large eclectic group, including children, we don't rag on each other or tell as dirty and hence amusing jokes as the IC kids tell. Perhaps those are the reasons why I prefer the social environment of TF2 to EQ2.
It wasn't an "its the only way!" its more of a mmos have a lot more value that people give it at first glance, and some of that is real world applications! Primarily I was talking about games being amazing :P not that MMOs exclusively were the only way. Games of all kinds have a ton of value. I can easily agree with you with what you said
I suppose it depends on the game. I've heard that a big part of Eve is building your ship and buying a bigger one because of mining and playing the market and so on (please correct me if I'm wrong) so I suppose perhaps a different MMO might offer more of a business model than what I'm used to.
In WoW, you grind, and grind, and grind. God I would love to be able to make any class start at level 55 once you have one level 80 like the Death Knight. But even starting at level 55, you gotta grind, grind, grind. PvP was fun for awhile, but only having 5 battlegrounds, that got old fast. Hopefully the new expansion will change up the game, but I know I'll never have the best gear like I did in Guild Wars.
TF2 and L4D you kill your friends. And then talk trash. Yes, I get bored with killing primesuspect 70 times over the course of time, and have left the game several times, but I always go back. Maybe because I love killing people I know, heh.
But I honestly can't compare these 4 different games apple to apple. It depends on my mood. Do I want to follow a story line? Do I want to do a 10-man twelve times to win on a drop? Do I want to kill people I know in real life?