Profile: damian7
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• • How I got converted to Soloism today ><

  • Originally posted by Elikal
    

    Today kinda marks a breaking point for me. For all those many years I play MMORPGs I defended grouping, even enforced grouping, as a feature to enrich gameplay. Personally, I prefer to play in a group over soloing, and that hasnt changed and will not change. I loved the dynamics going with a group and I greatly valued the idea going to an old fashioned adventure with people. I come from a pen and paper background, a German game called "Das Schwarze Auge" (The Dark Eye, the same for which now the game "Drakensang" is made.) I came to MMOs to undertake adventures with people whose companies I enjoy. But saying so these days feels like reporting something of the Stone Age.

    Facing the last two years of MMO experience and looking forward to SWTOR... I lost my faith in grouping. The reasons are many and personal, but some may be familiar to you.

    It's not so much what some might expect, that too many play their class bad. To be honest, I never cared a lot.

    What changed is, that these days, too many people play a MMORGP like it were some kind of professional competition. They play their MMO character with a quests printout and a pocket calculator for their skills. They count what trait gives how many points of X, what food to eat, what skills from the tree to select, what armor with what buff numbers to have for what boss mob. Its the entire way of thinking which dominates their playstyle which I loath, deeply and fundamentally hate.

    When did games become like work? When did it stop to be a dream, something to be done for adventure and mystery? When did it all become the fastest way to have the most HP, Mana or the best gear? Its that attitude which so saddens me! Sickens me, even!

    The final nail in the coffin for me was tonight, when I played LOTRO again. I returned, basically out of boredom and at least in LOTRO there is always something to do. I had a discussion with people there, and they seriously said stuff like "I dont take along tanks with compassion-trait instead of courage". What followed was a detailled - and certainly correct - mathematical analysis of the various virtues (traits) and what each trait and trait-level counted for, and which boss mobs he would take you along with and which not. You know, any MMO has an entire list of numbers, and thats fine with me. Food, traits, skill tress, gear, jewelry... the usual. But it was this line of thinking... it made me sick beyond the words I can describe it. I understand some people make a MMO as a kind of ego-performance. They need the best gear the highest numbers, and I respect others want to achieve that. But from the way most people responded, it became clear to me, that *I* was the dinosaur, the left over fossile, being just a guy who sought adventure. Sure, I add my traits when I can, I eat sometimes, but heck, I just wanted some nice human company on a simple adventure story!

    It's not that I am totally opaque to any kind of numbers. Seriously. But this... I heard horror stories about all this from friends playing WOW in the last years, and its all this inspecting devilry. It just makes people greedy and envious, and people start to compare and measure each other. It was as if the genre had lost its innocence to me, when I didnt look at other players for their stats, but for the human character who played it. If THAT really would be the bottom line of MMO gaming, heck, then MMOs don't DESERVE group playing. If that would be where the train is headed, are we not much better with NPC groups? And in the long run, cant we let the entire MMO gerne just die? For what good is it for, if all we care about is NUMBERS and stats?

    Do you chose your partner with such parameters? Your friends? Maybe such people should chose perfect matched robots instead of partners and loved ones? It really saddened and sickened me to see so many people think like that - and worse demand that from others to be viable to group with them! If that is how the average MMO player now functions I rather take my distance and say, bravo to SWTOR for companions and all soloablitiy. I always fought this trend as anti-social but I feel I lost this fight. Bravo to all those who work on the ruin of the wonders to experience an adventure with HUMANS, with friends! If all you seek is numbers, then thats all you are supposed to get.

    To you who never had this dream, I can only say I feel sorry for you. For me, its kind of another lost dream, the dream people could come together just enjoying each other's company, but maybe such things are too much to ask in these times.

    
     

     

    you are not alone in this sentiment and way of thinking.  i'm playing these games to have fun and relax.  why?  because they are GAMES.  if i want to work, well, that's why i have a job.   the wife got me to try wotlk.  i played a dk for most of the intro quests; i then did many quests on my 70 lock and um... got bored and went fishing ingame.  been fishing for two days of my playing.  it's rather relaxing.  eventually i'll get back to getting to lvl 71; but for now, i'm fishing.

  • Posted: 11/19/08 5:16 AM
    General Discussion
• • 15 year old hospitalised after pllaying WOW:WOTLK

  • Originally posted by nomadian
    

    24 hours isn't anything- though admittedly I only ever did this once staying up for a Vox and Naggy raid. I can tell you going to get corpses at 6am in the morning isn't fun...(in fact I straight logged off)

    Anyway, are mmos to blame? Not likely but I'd point a finger at mmos and their practises. I know there are a lot of kids getting hooked onto mmos and it really isn't a good thing. When people have to invest hours just to get any sort of progress is it any wonder kids and people play too long.

    Some people might take exception to my post but being on a mmo site you aren't going to have very many people say it how it is..

    
     

    honestly, it's not my fault if others are too weak to walk away.  there's been numerous stories on TV news shows about how some husband was so addicted to a game like EQ, that his marriage of 10+ years fell apart.

    if it wasn't EQ, would it have been booze? drugs? womanizing?

     

    addictive personalities will find something with which to be addicted.  it's just a matter of who will be the master of these poor souls.  if you realize you're an addictive personality, it's on you to fight it.  if you don't want to, again, i don't know what others are expected to do for you.

  • Posted: 11/19/08 5:07 AM
    General Discussion
• • 15 year old hospitalised after pllaying WOW:WOTLK

  • Originally posted by denshing
    

     

     

    Originally posted by LondonMagus
    

    I blame the parents on two separate counts.

    Firstly, they should have taught him to have a bit more common sense as he was growing up.

    Secondly, until he is mature enough to get a place of his own it is their responsibilty to ensure he is OK.

    Whilst it isn't the parents fault if a kid doesn't grow up to be super intelligent, unless there are mental health issues there is no excuse for them to have no idea how to cope with real life & no common sense at all.

    Just my opinion of course. 

    
     

    I think the parents are partly responsible, but at 15 most parents think their "Young adult is smarter than that" Besides he was probably playing through the day, and you half to consider, his parents thought he was going to go to bed in a while. It is hardly possible to keep tabs when you are trying to get a nights rest youself, should parents be forced to put cameras in their 15 yearold adolencents room to make sure he goes to bed? And if they fail to watch him like 24/7, they are bad parents.

    Anyone who is 15+ knows in a practical sense wright from wrong, although stupidity gets in the way of that sometimes. I wont even get started on how his parents raised him, there is no rulebook that is anonymously correct on the matter. For all we know his parents where the most loving people to walk the earth. But that does not stop a 15 yearold from playing allnighters.

    Also, 15 year olds have enough maturity in the household to have his own place of privacy, whether he is stupid or not is a completely different matter. For all we know he is an A+ student at school, that doesnt stop you from making stupid choices. Age does not affect this, With what you say, he would need 24/7 supervision till he dies of age. Hell this kid might even act smarter than his own father, and act more mature than most adults,  but that doesnt mean he aint stupid.

    My point is, this kind of stupity goes into there 20's 30's and 40's. It keep going, Are we going to blame his parrents when dies in a car crash at the age 55? Your opinion just doesnt hold up. Parents just cannot be 100% responsible.

    
     

    if this kid is playing wotlk; then, he's NOT a new player to the game.  where were the parents all these months/years that this addiction was building?  how many other times had he played 20+ hours straight?  those parents sure don't know.  they found a $15/month babysitter and yes, they shirked their parental duties just as surely if their child had been smoking crack in the basement all those months.

  • Posted: 11/19/08 4:54 AM
    General Discussion
• • 15 year old hospitalised after pllaying WOW:WOTLK

  • Originally posted by originalegg
    

    @15 years old, do the parents share part of the blame?  of course.

    However a lot of people are in denial in this thread about the addictive qualities of MMOs, especially WoW which is designed around giving player carrots on a stick and getting them hooked.

    Some of us can control the amount of time play and balance it with real life, but when you talk about young teens and even younger, they may not have developed that sense yet.  This is where the parents should step in.

    Tenspotting's analogy of it being the car's fault if someone drives for 24 hours is just ridiculous as the car doesnt had addictive qualities and that is just someone being stupid.  FACT is that MMOs, especially ones designed round the WoW model, have serious addictive mechanics that younger kids may not have enough sense to balance.

    cliff notes:  parents played a big part in this screw up, but the MMO was hardly blameless, if anything its 50/50.

    
     

     

    so, the parents should allow their child to play a game for so many hours, every single day, until the child is addicted?

    as soon as little johnny's grades start dropping, he's late for supper cuz he has to finish an instance, or whatever the bloody change is that is indicative of something "not good"; that game gets gone, or seriously toned down.

    of course if mommy is a pill head and daddy is a drunk; then, little johnny is just following in his parents' footsteps.

    the entire jist of your post is that mmos are addictive.  yes, they're intended to be that way in order to keep that monthly sub coming in.  to say that the parents are ONLY 50% at fault is like saying they're only 50% at fault for little johnny watching some XXX channel on tv nonstop.

     

    where are the parents while this addiction is taking over?

  • Posted: 11/19/08 4:51 AM
    General Discussion
• • EVE Online: New Deal for Buddy Program

  • Originally posted by brenth
    

    maby they should fix the anti-casual player environment that keeps all players away except for hardcore PVP gankers.

    CCP has lost many more players to that than they could ever hope to get with some  player beg

    its so sad they are proud of having only 250k subscribers  hald of those being doublr accounts or farmers.  (WOW the largest player base, for example has 11 million)

     

    
     

    what's odd, is your quote -- "make a world, not a game, we dont want another game."
     

    wow made a game, just like any other fantasy game.  eve made a new universe, unlike the status quo.   

    back to the topic... is it odd to play a game, but to not have any desire to invite any of your friends to play the game?   that's eve for me.

  • Posted: 11/19/08 4:35 AM
    General Discussion