So . . .
What makes a MMOG? [Or whatever the hell we are calling them these days.] I think the say question could be asked, “What makes a community?” I’m wandering deserted halls . . . lost and lonely. I see people, but have no more impulse to talk to them then I do in an airport as I move from terminal to terminal.
I fight the urge several times to unload SOH and reload WOW. Why? It isn’t the game . . . it’s the community. Hall’ texted me today and it was like mana from heaven [Hey, that works on both sides, boss . .. even think it works with Muslim who believe Moses had a long beard and a tattoo of Vishnu . . . who is Hindu but . . . wait . .best not get into religious politics . . . especially seeing that Israeli is about to light up Iran.]
O.K., back to the point . . . I am PAINFULLY lonely in this game. Yes, there are ‘peeps’, but they are not my ‘peeps’. They are not Owl or Fel or Sage or . . . well, hellfire damnation, Twink or Hallgrima or Akmalla or Clive . . . these people are my . . . O.K. . . . lets avoid Mush and Slither here . . . . lets find some way to say this that isn’t . . . well . . . we used to be able to say ‘gay’, but that would be wrong . . . not that there is anything wrong with that.
Yet, I am here to say, sober as I am [We are starting an off-track betting procedure for that], it is the community stupid . . . and I miss my community. So, what is this new thing? We used to have neighbors, now we have guildsmen. We used to have co-workers we met in the pub down the corner, now we have a friends list and one of them want you to tank Strat.
It isn’t the graphics. It isn’t the content. It isn’t the mechanics. O.K., if they suck it makes it hard . . . and not in a Hally Berry In Monster’s Ball way, but in a guy with a too thick accent way. Being able to communicate is important, but I think communities always find a way . . . just like I think love always used to. O.K. . . .getting side tracked here again.
This is what I am trying to say . . . community, community, community. That’s it. The games that will succeed are the ones who get that. People only play these things long enough to see what is different . . . after that . . . people still live in
I think SOH sucks, but it isn’t the look or the game play . . . both are acceptable. It isn’t no Thotbott or Google search answers [though . . WOW . .that makes it hard!] It is because I am alone . . . so very alone. And there it is . . . the holy grail of MMOGS . . . the holy grail of almost everything. Make us unlonely!
It’s six hours at the pub while the wife gets annoyed or six hours in Strat while the wife gets annoyed. It’s killing time just BEING with your peeps. These games are the THIRD SPACE, but they don’t get it . . . cause they don’t listen or learn from those who do.
I hate SOH . . . but I hate WOW . . . but I love my community in WOW. They are familiar . . . as is the surroundings and the expectations. In SOH I’m a skinner who can’t skin and a diplomat who . . . ok . . . me being a diplomat is just stupid! Yet, mostly I am alone.
WEll, if it's *just* community, that implies you need to bring your buds with you. I've been realizing that as I've been thinking about what it's like to play WoW without knowing people.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, let's face it. I met Feli and Owlie and all WHILE I was playing WoW. I didn't come in with them as friends. In fact, I met Feli on a PUG with Brudie and Bany. And, I met Brudie when he kindly saved me arse when as a n00b playing alone around 1 a.m. I wandered I made a wrong turn at the Dun Modr tunnels and was getting pwn'd. He was nice; we chatted.
I'm pretty good at chatting up people in MMOs. When I play my Horde toon, the lonely Tynaqua (now a lvl 38 rogue), I always make it a secret contest to see if I can get the people who are waiting for the zep. to interact. I"m pretty good at it. By the time the zep. shows up we're all dancing and making bad jokes.
So it's the community, but community can/does emerge. Work it, brother Rhoads, work it. Shake that fat dwarf ass.