I just want to point out that I LOVE RPG's, there, it's on the table. Take it however you want. But bullshit like World of Warcraft and other MMORPG's makes me wanna puke. Both things are wastes of time, no doubt about that, but one is definitely the worst of the two evils. And I'll be more than happy to explain why...
Maybe it was one of my roommates when I was in the Marine Corps staying up all night playing Everquest, maybe it was all of my techie friends that did nothing but game and go to the movies and various cons, maybe it's the simple fact that I hate paying over and over again for something I already bought to keep playing it; the fact of the matter is they friggin suck ass. Let's take into the concept how much time it continually takes to play it. A normal videogame has an end to it eventually. RPG's in particular have a structured story line that may stray off a linear path for other missions but never to far from it's main objective which is to continue to an epic end. MMO's however, seem to be an abyss of never ending suckatude that engulf it's prey in quests and quests that amount to nothing once their done, if they are ever done. Now I know that there was some kid a few years ago in Taiwan that "beat" WoW, but that was before Cataclysm came out and made more useless crap for the kid to try to complete. What's the point of playing to no end, the whole purpose of any game; from sports to videogames to friggin solitaire; there's a definitive end to declare whether someone won or lost. Or at worst case a stalemate, it ends at a decision. It shouldn't have to just be left with the players doing nothing when it ends. To be in videogame purgatory is a fate worse than game-glitch death.
Speaking of videogame purgatory, we as a gaming culture have from time to time leave our controllers and our keyboards for other recreational activities, such as watching a movie in a theater or even, *gasp*, human interaction. But from my experience that's not the case for the most part with MMOers; and while I'm at it, some hardcore gamers as well. I'm just saying it is pretty damn easy to do. You get up off your cardiac-arrest-waiting-to-happen ass, step outside of your home into the daylight (if you know what that is by that point), and breathe in some fresh air. Go out for a while, pick up a basketball game with people at a local park, go to a bar and have a beer or two with friends instead of resting in whatever virtual inn and restoring your avatars HP. This is a call to restore some of your HP; this is your panacea, your cure-all. Get a life outside of the raids and gold mining. Raid a house party or even throw one of your own. You'll be surprised that having a one bedroom apartment can hold more than one person at a time. Perhaps someone of the opposite sex (or not if you swing that way, but most gamers I know don't so take it however you want...)
And since I can't think of a good segway to talk about raids and other crap of that nature, I'll just get right into it. What the hell is it with needing to synchronize your schedule with other local players for a play date to complete a mission. It's kinda codependent of that group needing to do a medial task if you could just take the time, level up, and defeat it yourself and reap the rewards for yourself. I'm sorry if that sounds selfish, but I feel that if there's gonna be a symbiotic relationship in a videogame it should be between the player and the game in it's achievements, not between two people making the videogame it's proxy. Its kinda lame in my opinion. I come from the old school where if there were a videogame involved with multiple people, if was either a two player game or at most a LAN party. Good times bringing your tower or laptop to someones place, hook them up to the router and kick each others asses playing Counterstrike custom maps and maybe the occasional Diablo. (Now before you call me a hypocrite, Diablo and Diablo II were RPG's with a LAN-based element to enhance gameplay during the infancy of battle.net and the whole MMO uproar. You still reached an end point in the game where you could either win or lose. So thats my peace on that before you start pointing the finger).
The fact of the matter is that there were effort in coordinating it with people and playing together with people near by. You can see them, talk to them, cuss them out when they totally screw you in the game. There's little or none of that personal interaction with MMOs, which is another reason why I dislike them. I remember the glory days of multiplayer gaming where you actually were playing on the same damn screen, interacting with each other. When it was a phenomenal feat playing four players at once you had to have a four-tap or some other kind of adapter, and you were the godfather of videogames in your neighborhood because you had that. What ever happened to those times. Why can't we go to a friends house anymore and pick up a couple of controllers or at worse case scenario, bring back LAN parties. Get back to basics and start something that's home-brewed.
One more thing I just want to point out. This is a rant about the effects of MMORPGs to their players and how it corrupts any other means of assistance outside of it's symbiotic grip. Not at all an attack to the gamers themselves. So don't start the hating on me for that. It's an opinion piece that I see is an epidemic. Just stop and literally smell the friggin roses before they lay them on your casket. And find something else besides bitching about mis-scheduling of raids and lag on servers while your gold mining. I have plenty of friends that play, but they can turn the game off, can you?!?
BootLeG sampler.. signing out...