MMO's. Your own decrepid and degenerate opinions on what you think of these

**Regantor** · 03-16-2012, 04:47 PM

I can hardly be insulting towards them, if I just admitted I skipped an entire year of school to play them with friends.

But yeah, neither is the most deep creation in the world. You have to admit that both share the sort of repetitiveness and straight-forward nature that alot of modern games are panned for, even if it was new at the time. Zerg rushes aren't news to many people. Doesn't even mean they are bad, that's not my intention at all... I'm just sort of acknowledging the fact they they share alot of the same gameplay elements that modern 'addictive' games have, in the same way that Doom and Wolfenstien share qualities with all modern FPS games. The 'moulds' are the same.

Edit; To build on what I was saying about 'grindy', since it's pretty relevant, I was talking about repetative games. In both Counterstrike and Starcraft, the only way you can really improve in 'skill' in either game is by memorising the level layouts, how you attain certain equipment, the best ways to win generally, all through repition... WoW, for instance, certainly shares more than a few of these qualities because of how memorising the "in-game knowlage" is just as important to winning the game as reaction times or team strategy...

Where a game epitomizes these elements it can even be considered a strength, like any of the Fallout games or Dwarf Fortress. Both games are things I'm sure more than a few people have pulled double-digit hour sessions on.

Nomatter how amazing and ingrossing the game is supposed to be, I've never heard of anyone addicted to Shadow of the Collosus. It lacks these repetive elements, for better or worse.

**GunZet** · 03-16-2012, 05:54 PM

Originally Posted by Regantor

Do you mean simply hoarding vast amounts of them, or is it hyped-up games that mosty catch your eye? Both can imply some pretty different things.

Nah, not hording them, cause I'd be broke by now. What I mean is like, I see a game that looks cool, and if the price isn't too high, I start doing massive amounts of research on what it is exactly, shaping whether I should get it or not, and hyping myself up in the process. I eventually buy it, play it, go 'omg this is awesome' for a few hours/days, then stop playing it when I find another game to buy, or play an older game I haven't touched for a while.
It's like looking for a new high. As a result, I have a lot of half-finished games sitting around, lol.

**T1B3R1U5** · 03-16-2012, 05:58 PM

That is an interesting way to look at it Reg, and I do agree. But to the 'addictive' game crap-a-tap, I have never had violent outbreaks of rage or murderous thoughts from playing violent video games or really bloody and gory games such as Bulletstorm, GoW (Includes Gears of War and God of War series), and whatever else is out there. I know that what I do in a game, will stay in the game. I have the...what to call it...knowledge, I guess, to know that things in games are just like in movies, fictious and impossible to actually do or complete. Some people just have mental, social, or emotional issues that causes the dysfunction of using the "Interactive Media" as a map to do something like the Columbine Shootings way back when. I'm not saying that everyone is like that, but some people just do things because they felt like doing it.

People are strange creatures. Me included. Personally, I love games, in whatever format they can be in. I don't let things form games phase me. Like in WoW, someone can come at me because I spec'd differently than they did for their class and I'll just say, "Meh." and walk away from it not being offended. I keep a level of respect for all gamers, regardless of whether they deserve it or not. And it's just how I am. Ask me for gold on WoW? I'll ask how much. And if I can't give it to you, I'll work my ass off to try and help out. But of course, I'm always aware of hackers and people who really don't know how to play a game correctly. Well, I think I can stop talking your guy's ears off.

@_@

**Regantor** · 03-16-2012, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by Gunzet

I eventually buy it, play it, go 'omg this is awesome' for a few hours/days, then stop playing it when I find another game to buy, or play an older game I haven't touched for a while.

Well you're probally alright if that's the worst you do, lol. I know a few people like this. Heck, I have both a Commodore 64 and a ZX Spectrum which I bought on whims, and are now just laying around whilst I try to find games for them.

Double heck, the guys who make the board game 40k practically pray on the type of people who are sucking into buying new armies every ten minutes (for a small fortune), and never get around to painting them/using them.

Originally Posted by Mr.Tiberius

But to the 'addictive' game crap-a-tap, I have never had violent outbreaks of rage or murderous thoughts from playing violent video games or really bloody and gory games such as Bulletstorm, GoW (Includes Gears of War and God of War series), and whatever else is out there.

Eh. Well it's always going to be impossible to know exactly what makes someone kill over a game in specific, since you don't know what mental problems they had in the first place. It could be something as simple as driving a car for a long journey, then getting out and having to remind youself not to turn corners like a car does. But I digress. The other posts were more about how people simply become addicted in seemingly straight forward games rather than complicated ones. For gorey games used as an outlet for inner rage, I more or less agree with you.

Perhaps if you still take things with a pinch of whimsy, like you seem to, this sort of thing isn't really going to be a problem (Alrough it would still be hilarious to find out about a serial killer who is obsessed with Tetris. *u*)

**T1B3R1U5** · 03-16-2012, 07:22 PM

Yeah, but I figured I'd give people a mental picture of the gamer I am with the last post I put up. And I saw that, and I highly doubt we will ever know what makes people do the things they do.

Anyways, I would like to see the same thing with the Tetris bit xD lolz.

**Matt** · 03-21-2012, 04:02 PM

For part of this discussion, I'll leave this here. Probably the best analysis of "game addiction" I've ever seen.

As for MMOs, I don't like them. Here's why:

1. Grinding is a stupid waste of life, and it runs pretty much every MMO. Every minute I spend clicking on a monster is a minute I could be spending on C++, writing, or art.
2. I hate online multiplayer in general because I can't stand the other players. I choose to distance myself from my classmates in real life because I don't want any part of them to influence me. The same applies to the general fanbase of any given MMO. Runescape was the worst, I'd say.
3. My Internet is terrible. This is also why I hate always-on DRM. It also explains why I have yet to play Assassin's Creed. Actually, just look at these:

Funny thing is, I liked Ubisoft at one point in my life. Rayman 3 was great. Also, packet loss is a constant problem. Pingtest didn't catch it, but because of it I can only download anything via torrent or some place supporting download resume. Read: barely anywhere.

**ClockHand** · 03-21-2012, 04:07 PM

Guild War 2. It's trying to bash grinding, making the leveling curve less retarded and giving more equal chances for players in pvp. Also plenty of stuffs people have discussed about mmorp's, they are trying to give a fix.

Dunno, but it sounds amazing.

**Matt** · 03-21-2012, 04:28 PM

Guild Wars 2 sounds like it'll be a step ahead of the competition. I probably won't get it till I move out in a few years (see reason 3 above), but I'll definitely get it at some point.

**Regantor** · 03-21-2012, 10:09 PM

Thanks for the imput Matt, pretty much agree with you on all accounts. That review was indeed the one Jubeh had mentioned, also.

Grinding is the absolute worst. There is just no effort involved at all, other than burning away some free time. MMOs generally don't even have the luxury of a strong story to keep you occupied, so... yeah. Terrible internet makes me cringe at DLC also. As for contact with other human beings... I think the thing that ruins things with that is it either completely destroys the fourth wall, or you find yourself in a group of borderline psychopaths who take the game much too seriously. My experience of PSO was both of these; Got kicked out of lobbies so often for just using a slightly unpopular face texture, that all I could be arsed teaming up with at the end of the day were random whimsical guys who just screwed around.

Lastly; Yeah, if I was going to join a MMO again, it probally would be Guild Wars. If nothing else, the artwork is incredibly consistent. I'd say that points to healthy developer souls if nothing else.