I'M NOT A ROCK OF CRACK COCAINE, JIM! I'M A GAME!

Reference material:

http://www.arcadiandelsol.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=000036

http://www.thechosen.com/forums/showthread.php?s=a3f292c60bba077b9054d5fd7765a311&threadid=61

 

Now we have news and rant sites complaining because games are "boring" and that they are "all alike". No innovation. Nothing fresh. And so this is why their game sites suck. The game sites suck because the games suck.

I wonder if any of these people ever stop to wonder ... why are there close to 500,000 people with active Everquest accounts? Why is the number continuously growing? Why are there SO many people playing AC and UO, and have been for a very, very long time? Are these 900,000 people all idiots that enjoy ... and are thrilled ... by games the internet-gaming elite dismiss as "unworthy"?

These writers complain about the "level treadmills" and the "boring tradeskills", as if these are the source of their ennui and lackluster writing. You know, millions of people thoroughly enjoy playing solitaire every day. Day after day. Or Tetris or Dr. Mario .. and it's the same damn thing, game after game after game. Level after Level. Same damn thing. They don't reinvent football every year, yet it remains popular year after year. Do you think that after watching football for 10 years, you can't be PASSIONATE about it? What about poker? What about Monopoly? You know how many people are still thrilled about Excitebike?

Do ALL these writers suffer from some Attention Deficit Syndrome? In order to satisfy their need for gee-whiz how-cool adrenaline rushes, the gaming industry is supposed to reinvent a wheel that is currentlly the most rapidly growing entertainment medium around? To satisfy a few jaded thrill-monkeys clearly non-representative of hundreds of thousands customers?

The wheel doesn't need to be recreated. Online games don't need to be reinvented to satisfy some marginal fraction of the population that needs some sort of shock stimulus to enjoy their lives. The wheel has BEEN invented. And it is running quite fine regardless of their protestations and inability to stay entertained or "thrilled" by it. Yes, the wheel could use expansion, improvement, diversity, and new, creative content. And it is getting just that ... or haven't these people been paying attention?

What is left to be passionate about in the current online game market? Are they KIDDING? Okay, I only play Everquest. I'm sure someone who plays AC or UO or DAoC could make similar points about their games. But come ON! The leveling treadmill? Now we have alternative advancement in EQ. You can turn that puppy on at level 51 and then go about your normal business, killing new LIGHT BLUE CONS for exp as you hawk trade wares that are ACTUALLY worth making and selling. You can plan your alternative advancement as you hunt, forage,and fish for necessary trade ingredients to make items you could sell for several thousand plat.

You can now obtain titles. You can save up and buy horses, which you can battle from. New classes. New skills. New areas with new graphics. New engines for NPC response and questing. Facial Animations. Are you KIDDING ME? You don't find that EXCITING?? What are you, comatose? It points to a future where there can be all sorts of things added to the game, all kinds of depth and breadth.

Do any of these people actually PLAY these games anymore, or do they just sit around projecting jaded ambivalence because it's "kewl"?

I've played Everquest since it went live. The alternative advancements, new animations, horses, increased trade skill complexity, new conning system, and new NPC/quest engines have me rushing home to play the damn thing every night, and staying up late again to try to sqeeze that one last bit of acrylia ore out of those damn Grimlings. Because if I do, I'm going to be able to make that +10 wisdom cloak. The other day I made a pair of Black Pantherskin Wristbands .... everyone in the group was stunned when I was successful. Our Jeweler made 4 sets of velium rings - we were all cheering in guild chat! It was like watching someone bowl 3 strikes at the end of a good game!

Perhaps if it wasn't so damn "kewl" to be bored to tears and relentlessly ambivalent, or maybe if you hadn't already **condemned** all the games already online and it would be a major in-crowd faux pas to LET yourself get excited by changes in those games, and to actually enjoy them .. maybe you could be passionate about it again and your writing wouldn't come off so damn ... tired. Wait, tired and bored is kewl. It's what you're TRYING to accomplish. I forgot. How childish to actually demonstrate excitement about a game.

Exactly how much of a "community" do you expect to nurture when you excommunicate people on a whim? When your entire methodology is based upon NEGATIVITY and a patented PK-style of forum moderation? Do you think a STYLE of "terroristic blase" is really going to attract, and cohesively hold together, a "community"? What kind of community do you expect to foster when you do your dead level best to alienate everyone that actually enjoys games and has views divergent from your own spiteful grudges and backdoor favoritisms?

Bleah, let me hear from someone who actually ENJOYS MMOGs and has some excitement about the genre and some real ideas, who isn't afraid of looking unkewl in this new world of goth MMOG sites, where everything that goes wrong is ... gasp .. someone ELSE'S fault.

Sure. Let's blame your inability to excite the reader on the games. The games are obviously unexciting. That's why there's a million or so people paying for and enjoying the crap out of them.

But wait, I forgot. You guys are **better** than them, and your dismissive indifference is the proof.

 

 

Might as well discuss this HERE, because nobody ever uses my forums.