I must admit I'm not a fan of MMORPGs in general. I played UO for over 3 years, burnt out, played DAoC for a while, TSO, and a few small ones. In some ways, I love the games - a little too well. They eat my life and cause me to not be a responsible adult. Better for me to just stay away from them. I also find there's a lot of ways to have fun online that don't involve the recurring expense. Plus, when I burned out on UO, part of it was because it was clear that they were making their decisions on the margin - how could they attract newbies and retain players. It had very little to do with overall game balance after a while. I'm not sure how WoW handles such matters (not being a player - sure, flame me for that if you wish), but given my past experiences in the genre and my own reasons it's best that I personally stay out of it. The managing life issues are my fault, though. Not trying to pass those off on WoW or any other game.
However, on that subject, I will note that people who DO have difficulty managing their lives tend to congregate in various online games. This may be anecdotal, but I knew one particular person in RL fairly well who supported his alcohol and weed habits by selling EQ stuff on EBay. He also happened to be a sperm donor (as opposed to an attentive father) to a 3 year old son (the mother isn't much better and the child is raised by Mr. Gamer's parents, but that's a whole other rant). I'm sure he's just the odd exception. It's not a matter of hating games like WoW, it's a matter of how they tend to attract some players who don't exactly know how to take care of their lives. If it wasn't WoW, it would be something else.
Loudly berate the game? Sometimes. Seeing RL references to it in what I feel are inappropriate locations (yeah, somebody probably reading this may know what I'm talking about) do bother me. Keep the online world online, already. If it's all everyone ever talks about in the office and people make it sound like that have no outside life... yeah, I'm probably going to think the game is what's responsible for making your existance pathetic. Otherwise, I'm content to smile and nod when you start up a conversation about it because I won't have a clue what you're talking about :).
This got entirely too long, but I hope this shows some educated thought into why games like WoW can be rationally disliked (as opposed to this lovely cow orker) without hating the players. Preferably without starting a flamewar while we're at it :).
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Date: 2006-05-16 04:52 am (UTC)However, on that subject, I will note that people who DO have difficulty managing their lives tend to congregate in various online games. This may be anecdotal, but I knew one particular person in RL fairly well who supported his alcohol and weed habits by selling EQ stuff on EBay. He also happened to be a sperm donor (as opposed to an attentive father) to a 3 year old son (the mother isn't much better and the child is raised by Mr. Gamer's parents, but that's a whole other rant). I'm sure he's just the odd exception. It's not a matter of hating games like WoW, it's a matter of how they tend to attract some players who don't exactly know how to take care of their lives. If it wasn't WoW, it would be something else.
Loudly berate the game? Sometimes. Seeing RL references to it in what I feel are inappropriate locations (yeah, somebody probably reading this may know what I'm talking about) do bother me. Keep the online world online, already. If it's all everyone ever talks about in the office and people make it sound like that have no outside life... yeah, I'm probably going to think the game is what's responsible for making your existance pathetic. Otherwise, I'm content to smile and nod when you start up a conversation about it because I won't have a clue what you're talking about :).
This got entirely too long, but I hope this shows some educated thought into why games like WoW can be rationally disliked (as opposed to this lovely cow orker) without hating the players. Preferably without starting a flamewar while we're at it :).