I sure had bad timing considering I just recently cancelled my ancient AO (circa 2001) and younger CoH accounts. Last year AO had mobs that dropped a variety of things but the best was a pumpkin shaped floating torch. I wanted one soooo bad but could never find a spawn. Also the entire planet was bathed in eerie darkness.
For Christmas a few years ago they had Leets wearing Santa Hats that dropped Christmas gifts. When you opened them you got a goofy present like an arrow hat or monster sunglasses. It was great.:)
Sad thing is it's back to ye olde grind after fun events like that 1-2 times a year for most games.
The monthly fee is a fairly trivial ($10-15 normally, $40 for EQ Legends) for potentially a month's worth of entertainment. You could play 24/7 and never be billed more than your fee. When my boyfriend and I go out drinking it's at least $30-40, more if we go for dinner first.
I used to play MuD's and enjoyed them back in 1996 or so. However now my opinion is, if I'm going to spend a considerable amount of time levelling up a character I'd prefer it have pretty textures all over it than be an @ or pile of text.:)
I agree. I could see an MMOG based on Tennis or Golf, for example. In both you would compete against other players or NPC's if necessary. In practice sessions you would gain more skill, in real matches you would gain a mix of skill/fame. Fame would lead to endorsements. Once you gained enough endorsement contracts you could quit that job at Wal-Mart or drop out of college and go Pro, buy better equipment, etc. Veteran players could also earn fame by helping out rookies, similar to the CoH sidekick system.
The skill system would be of huge importance in a game like this. For example, a tennis veteran could be great at the net but only average at serving, or vice-versa. A golfer could have amazing drives but lackluster putting, etc. Sure they could practice more on their putting but their amazing driving ability suffers. That would be similar to UO's skill system where you could atrophy one skill to progress in another once you were capped.
Ultima Online, one of the first graphical (albeit 2d) MMORPG's, had player housing. Aside from the problems in that game, you could theoretically build a home in the untamed wilds just like you describe. Home ownership was a challenge when the game first came out, since you could lose your key/home in a myriad of ways.
Horizons also has housing, but I quit even before my 7 day trial was up so I could not experience it firsthand. A friend of mine says its system was robust and guilds would form entire towns built by its crafters. Not "built from scratch" of course, but out of pre-rendered pieces.
DAoC has a separate housing area apart from the regular game world. In order to enter a house you must have permission, or it must be set to allow just any old joe to enter. Houses are pretty expensive to purchase and have a maintenance cost but are not at any risk from other players.
AC/AC2 I cannot comment on as I never played them enough. Anarchy Online (AO) has player apartments but they are in separated instances, similar to FFXI except you could actually copy your key and invite someone to your apartment. The new Jobe apartments are huge and have a higher item limit, while the old RK apartments, while more fitting to the gritty Rubi-Ka feel, are rather small and bland. You can put furniture in your apartment up to a limit.
Shadowbane let you build entire cities from pre-rendered pieces, which were at risk from other players and guilds.
I cancelled right after Update 2 at level 34. However Fortitude had been adjusted much lower in volume long before then and was completely tolerable compared to its previous incarnation. However my boyfriend's Blaster still was irritated at the particle effects of the spell in dark areas, as it pretty much drowned out everything in sight with its rosy rays.
Now Targeting Drone they never did fix before I cancelled, I guess I should read the patch notes and see if they ever did remedy that horror.
With all this discussion of working 50+ hours per week I have to ask, are you actually so busy you must stay and put in those extra hours to complete things on time? Or is it more a image thing, where you don't want to leave earlier than co-workers or your boss so as to "seem" like you are putting in long hours?
I just started a new developer job but I'm not really busy yet, and sitting here just to "seem like" I'm putting in longer hours is absurd to me. Yet one of my first criticisms from my boss was that I was not putting in 45+ hours a week. I was tempted to retort with "Well give me 45+ hours of work first" but decided it was too early to be that brash.:)
Being a gaming couple is not all happiness. Problems can creep up in MMORPG's that don't really apply to other hobbies you can do as a couple. For example when we duo in an MMORPG, we depend on each other. If one of us wants to quit due to boredom or another game, the other is left by his or herself. This usually leads to the one of us who wants to quit to just play anyway for the benefit of the other.
Goals can be another issue. A former SO of mine loved to roleplay in MMO's but I have always been more of a level/raid type. He was content to sit in a town and just roleplay, while I wouldn't mind roleplaying as long as we were questing/levelling. That caused us to just play separate games after awhile and it worked pretty well, although I missed the feeling of working on something together.
No matter how addicted I get to games, this same scenario always occurs. One day I will be doing something boring or aggravating and I get the "moment of clarity" when I realize how immensely not a game and more a chore this product has become. I then immediately cancel and usually delete the software/bookmarks/helper apps.
In each game I relapse (except Shadowlands) for an expansion or friends but it never is as bad as the first time. The only exception is AO, which I just last night squashed again after a brief fling. That moment of clarity was defined by me burning a pizza I had in the oven due to trying to participate on a raid and cook at the same time. After that it turned out we just waited for an hour to start, and before that I logged out and cancelled. What a waste of time, and no matter how often it happens I still never learn (pre-ordered WoW and EQ2 long ago of course).
The only mmorpgs I didn't feel addicted to was UO and recently CoH. I got so bored in CoH after an hour or two each night I just found something else to do, and in UO I never felt any urge to put mega time in since it was skill, not level based.
Very similar to the effects of gambling. I'm guessing you could find more similarities between a game/mmorpg addict and a gambling addict than a drug addict. Both crave a substance, but for gamers/gamblers it's the natural endorphins and the drug addict it's an external chemical.
Knowing addicts and having been addicted myself to many console/pc/mmorp games, I can relate to the horror stories. Everquest, in my opinion, is especially good at addicting people because of how weak the game makes you feel. A new character with no money, help, or guides is going to have a tough climb even now with all the added low content. In EverQuest (and games like FFXI) grouping, guilds, and friends are so necessary it becomes a virtual community. If you leave or visit less your friends/guildmates will outlevel and outequip you, and worse potentially forget about you. Once you've alienated all of your real-life friends (if any) by playing too much of an mmorpg, the new virtual friends are all the more precious, thus the viscous cycle continues. It's a virtual "keep up with the Jonses" scenario for some people.
My uncle and his girlfriend of 28+ years (as long as I've been alive) have what I consider to be the ultimate relationship. They live and work separately yet are together more days out of the week than not. They each keep their own home, pay their own bills, etc. Every event they show up together and just seem comfortable and happy to be around each other rather than scurrying to opposing corners to bitch about each other.
If only I could convince the current live-in boyfriend, I'd opt for that style over marriage any day. Granted I don't want kids, that would complicate such an arrangement.:)
Coupling just seems to mash identities together instead of simply blending them slightly and allowing the individual to remain thus, yet augmented by the the partner.
Your argument that gender alone automatically qualifies the man the right to make the "final decisions" is simply archaic.
Yes, I was formerly a 'born again' Christian and this exact bias of men over women was the reason I fell out of it. The moment of clarity for me was when I was in a "marriage for women" course. No, there was no equivalent "men in marriage" course, big surprise there! In the required book one tiny chapter was devoted to "If you have a job". It basically stated your job was dead last in your priority set and you should still have dinner readied, house clean, and children taken care of for "your hard-working husband". I was just sickened, it reminded me of the movie "Stepford Wives". The instructor even admitted she had never worked and had no advice for a married Christian woman who actually had ambition for a career. And this being a progressive Christian church http://www.xenos.org/ I'm afraid to even guess what a conservative church would teach on the subject.
No one can help the gender in which they are born. Luckily education, thinking, and common sense, no matter how many jokes there are, are unbiased towards whether you are male or female.
Phew, thank goodness for "Open link in New Tab". I read the replies just one second too late, but was able to close the tab without it ever "rearing" its evil form on my screen.
We had the worst hard drive in our group last night! It wouldn't read, or write, and was flaky overall. I died and lost a DIMM before we kicked him out, but it took an hour to get a new one. After that though it was back to rockin' XP.
(intentionally omitted the interspersed L0lz ROFL wtf omg ^_^)
People justify cost of things also depending on how said person will use the item. For example I buy cheap pens not due to their cost, but because I am fairly certain the pen will meet a chewed demise from our Pug, will end up lost, or be borrowed and never returned. No matter how much marketing buzz I will probably never buy an expensive pen, or sunglasses, or anything I use daily that is easily lost.
As far as bigger ticket items go, I've seen few ads for Ipods and never visited Apple's site, but I want an Ipod soooo bad just from hearing everyone else post about them. Word of mouth is amazingly powerful, at least for me.
Why else would I prefer a grainy lo-res DVD/Cam rip to a DVD with all the features? 'cause I won't spend $30 on a freeking movie.
It's the same "too expensive" argument heard 'round the world. Fortunately there are cheaper options:
Don't see the movie.
See the movie at a $1 theater.
Buy the DVD.
This is not milk or bread, it's a movie for crying out loud. Not being able to afford something (or unwilling to pay) never gives one the right to infringe copyrights to have it.
Not a backup in the true sense of the word, but I can't stand lugging around CD's so I rip a variety of tracks to mp3's. I dislike even having to store the things at all, my CD rack is heavy and a pain to move/organize.
When you can fit all that music on one tiny device and carry it with you instead of carrying around only a portion of said music on CD's, it is all the more irritating that the recording industry is up in arms about it. Sharing it is wrong, but there is no way putting it in a more convenient format for your personal use should be of any concern.
When I got desperate last year I applied to Target. With my 5 years of IT experience at a well-known company and a BS, it felt a little strange filling out the app. I decided to mention I was planning to attend college for a Master's degree (a half-truth) and wanted to work part-time while doing so, and got an interview/job offer within a week.
I ended up getting an IT job offer just a few days after accepting the Target position, which I had to call and resign from before even starting.:)
So for future desperate laid-off workers my advice is to use the "going back to college full-time" line if you are having problems landing a job in fast food/department stores, it just might help.
Back when I was playing a lot of DAoC I would occasionally chat with enemies (Albion and Hibernia, I was on Midgard) via AIM or similar. One of them was a real nutjob, any time he lost a fight to us he'd flip out. I would even offer "Hey that was a great fight" type of comments because I try to be a good sport but he just ranted and raved until he signed off. I figured he was just an immature sore loser but he claimed he was a teacher, which scares me to no end this kind of person interacts with young people daily.
One day he started issuing real-life threats to my friend (and fellow guildmate). Basically one of his female guild members was going to the same event my friend was, and he was threatening harm if my friend talked to this girl. Let me note this guy supposedly had a girlfriend in real life. I finally blocked him after that mess.
Granted it's one thing to get a bit frustrated when things don't go your way but mmorpg's seem to bring out people who are ill-suited for handling any rough edges.
Slashdot Mirror
I sure had bad timing considering I just recently cancelled my ancient AO (circa 2001) and younger CoH accounts. Last year AO had mobs that dropped a variety of things but the best was a pumpkin shaped floating torch. I wanted one soooo bad but could never find a spawn. Also the entire planet was bathed in eerie darkness.
For Christmas a few years ago they had Leets wearing Santa Hats that dropped Christmas gifts. When you opened them you got a goofy present like an arrow hat or monster sunglasses. It was great.
Sad thing is it's back to ye olde grind after fun events like that 1-2 times a year for most games.
The monthly fee is a fairly trivial ($10-15 normally, $40 for EQ Legends) for potentially a month's worth of entertainment. You could play 24/7 and never be billed more than your fee. When my boyfriend and I go out drinking it's at least $30-40, more if we go for dinner first.
:)
I used to play MuD's and enjoyed them back in 1996 or so. However now my opinion is, if I'm going to spend a considerable amount of time levelling up a character I'd prefer it have pretty textures all over it than be an @ or pile of text.
I agree. I could see an MMOG based on Tennis or Golf, for example. In both you would compete against other players or NPC's if necessary. In practice sessions you would gain more skill, in real matches you would gain a mix of skill/fame. Fame would lead to endorsements. Once you gained enough endorsement contracts you could quit that job at Wal-Mart or drop out of college and go Pro, buy better equipment, etc. Veteran players could also earn fame by helping out rookies, similar to the CoH sidekick system.
The skill system would be of huge importance in a game like this. For example, a tennis veteran could be great at the net but only average at serving, or vice-versa. A golfer could have amazing drives but lackluster putting, etc. Sure they could practice more on their putting but their amazing driving ability suffers. That would be similar to UO's skill system where you could atrophy one skill to progress in another once you were capped.
If you like housing, try one of these:
Ultima Online, one of the first graphical (albeit 2d) MMORPG's, had player housing. Aside from the problems in that game, you could theoretically build a home in the untamed wilds just like you describe. Home ownership was a challenge when the game first came out, since you could lose your key/home in a myriad of ways.
Horizons also has housing, but I quit even before my 7 day trial was up so I could not experience it firsthand. A friend of mine says its system was robust and guilds would form entire towns built by its crafters. Not "built from scratch" of course, but out of pre-rendered pieces.
DAoC has a separate housing area apart from the regular game world. In order to enter a house you must have permission, or it must be set to allow just any old joe to enter. Houses are pretty expensive to purchase and have a maintenance cost but are not at any risk from other players.
AC/AC2 I cannot comment on as I never played them enough. Anarchy Online (AO) has player apartments but they are in separated instances, similar to FFXI except you could actually copy your key and invite someone to your apartment. The new Jobe apartments are huge and have a higher item limit, while the old RK apartments, while more fitting to the gritty Rubi-Ka feel, are rather small and bland. You can put furniture in your apartment up to a limit.
Shadowbane let you build entire cities from pre-rendered pieces, which were at risk from other players and guilds.
See the main flaw in your argument is you consider clicking buttons and staring at an MMORPG window for hours on end to be "working your ass off".
I cancelled right after Update 2 at level 34. However Fortitude had been adjusted much lower in volume long before then and was completely tolerable compared to its previous incarnation. However my boyfriend's Blaster still was irritated at the particle effects of the spell in dark areas, as it pretty much drowned out everything in sight with its rosy rays.
Now Targeting Drone they never did fix before I cancelled, I guess I should read the patch notes and see if they ever did remedy that horror.
With all this discussion of working 50+ hours per week I have to ask, are you actually so busy you must stay and put in those extra hours to complete things on time? Or is it more a image thing, where you don't want to leave earlier than co-workers or your boss so as to "seem" like you are putting in long hours?
:)
I just started a new developer job but I'm not really busy yet, and sitting here just to "seem like" I'm putting in longer hours is absurd to me. Yet one of my first criticisms from my boss was that I was not putting in 45+ hours a week. I was tempted to retort with "Well give me 45+ hours of work first" but decided it was too early to be that brash.
With the amount of people on this planet, I highly doubt anything negative would happen if a few less babies were born under the banner of abstinence.
Being a gaming couple is not all happiness. Problems can creep up in MMORPG's that don't really apply to other hobbies you can do as a couple. For example when we duo in an MMORPG, we depend on each other. If one of us wants to quit due to boredom or another game, the other is left by his or herself. This usually leads to the one of us who wants to quit to just play anyway for the benefit of the other.
Goals can be another issue. A former SO of mine loved to roleplay in MMO's but I have always been more of a level/raid type. He was content to sit in a town and just roleplay, while I wouldn't mind roleplaying as long as we were questing/levelling. That caused us to just play separate games after awhile and it worked pretty well, although I missed the feeling of working on something together.
No matter how addicted I get to games, this same scenario always occurs. One day I will be doing something boring or aggravating and I get the "moment of clarity" when I realize how immensely not a game and more a chore this product has become. I then immediately cancel and usually delete the software/bookmarks/helper apps.
In each game I relapse (except Shadowlands) for an expansion or friends but it never is as bad as the first time. The only exception is AO, which I just last night squashed again after a brief fling. That moment of clarity was defined by me burning a pizza I had in the oven due to trying to participate on a raid and cook at the same time. After that it turned out we just waited for an hour to start, and before that I logged out and cancelled. What a waste of time, and no matter how often it happens I still never learn (pre-ordered WoW and EQ2 long ago of course).
The only mmorpgs I didn't feel addicted to was UO and recently CoH. I got so bored in CoH after an hour or two each night I just found something else to do, and in UO I never felt any urge to put mega time in since it was skill, not level based.
Very similar to the effects of gambling. I'm guessing you could find more similarities between a game/mmorpg addict and a gambling addict than a drug addict. Both crave a substance, but for gamers/gamblers it's the natural endorphins and the drug addict it's an external chemical.
Knowing addicts and having been addicted myself to many console/pc/mmorp games, I can relate to the horror stories. Everquest, in my opinion, is especially good at addicting people because of how weak the game makes you feel. A new character with no money, help, or guides is going to have a tough climb even now with all the added low content. In EverQuest (and games like FFXI) grouping, guilds, and friends are so necessary it becomes a virtual community. If you leave or visit less your friends/guildmates will outlevel and outequip you, and worse potentially forget about you. Once you've alienated all of your real-life friends (if any) by playing too much of an mmorpg, the new virtual friends are all the more precious, thus the viscous cycle continues.
It's a virtual "keep up with the Jonses" scenario for some people.
A Wildcat BBS I used to visit long ago had a sysop by the name of Richard Lis, so yes it can get even worse. :)
My uncle and his girlfriend of 28+ years (as long as I've been alive) have what I consider to be the ultimate relationship. They live and work separately yet are together more days out of the week than not. They each keep their own home, pay their own bills, etc. Every event they show up together and just seem comfortable and happy to be around each other rather than scurrying to opposing corners to bitch about each other.
If only I could convince the current live-in boyfriend, I'd opt for that style over marriage any day. Granted I don't want kids, that would complicate such an arrangement.
Coupling just seems to mash identities together instead of simply blending them slightly and allowing the individual to remain thus, yet augmented by the the partner.
I cannot advocate this strategy enough. Surely you will gain the adoration of many 9's when they discover your clever ruse with the 5.
Also be sure and make public your ratings to women around you, nothing says classy quite like it.
Your argument that gender alone automatically qualifies the man the right to make the "final decisions" is simply archaic.
Yes, I was formerly a 'born again' Christian and this exact bias of men over women was the reason I fell out of it. The moment of clarity for me was when I was in a "marriage for women" course. No, there was no equivalent "men in marriage" course, big surprise there! In the required book one tiny chapter was devoted to "If you have a job". It basically stated your job was dead last in your priority set and you should still have dinner readied, house clean, and children taken care of for "your hard-working husband". I was just sickened, it reminded me of the movie "Stepford Wives". The instructor even admitted she had never worked and had no advice for a married Christian woman who actually had ambition for a career. And this being a progressive Christian church http://www.xenos.org/ I'm afraid to even guess what a conservative church would teach on the subject.
No one can help the gender in which they are born. Luckily education, thinking, and common sense, no matter how many jokes there are, are unbiased towards whether you are male or female.
I too adore the Abe Lincoln quote. :)
Don't forget:
(keep in mind Blinkin is blind)
Robin: [exasperated] Blinkin, what are you doing?
Blinkin: Guessing? I guess no ones coming?
then after Blinkin falls off the ladder:
Blinkin: [excited] I can see! I can see!
(walks hard into a nearby tree)
Blinkin: Nope, I was wrong.
Blinkin: [feeling a statue] Oh Master Robin! You've lost your arms in battle...but you grew some nice boobs!
Robin: Blinkin, I'm over here.
Phew, thank goodness for "Open link in New Tab". I read the replies just one second too late, but was able to close the tab without it ever "rearing" its evil form on my screen.
We had the worst hard drive in our group last night! It wouldn't read, or write, and was flaky overall. I died and lost a DIMM before we kicked him out, but it took an hour to get a new one. After that though it was back to rockin' XP.
(intentionally omitted the interspersed L0lz ROFL wtf omg ^_^)
People justify cost of things also depending on how said person will use the item. For example I buy cheap pens not due to their cost, but because I am fairly certain the pen will meet a chewed demise from our Pug, will end up lost, or be borrowed and never returned. No matter how much marketing buzz I will probably never buy an expensive pen, or sunglasses, or anything I use daily that is easily lost.
As far as bigger ticket items go, I've seen few ads for Ipods and never visited Apple's site, but I want an Ipod soooo bad just from hearing everyone else post about them. Word of mouth is amazingly powerful, at least for me.
laptop, camera phone
Am I the only one who went to class happy I had just enough cash to buy the (used) textbook?
It's the same "too expensive" argument heard 'round the world. Fortunately there are cheaper options:
- Don't see the movie.
- See the movie at a $1 theater.
- Buy the DVD.
This is not milk or bread, it's a movie for crying out loud. Not being able to afford something (or unwilling to pay) never gives one the right to infringe copyrights to have it.Not a backup in the true sense of the word, but I can't stand lugging around CD's so I rip a variety of tracks to mp3's. I dislike even having to store the things at all, my CD rack is heavy and a pain to move/organize.
When you can fit all that music on one tiny device and carry it with you instead of carrying around only a portion of said music on CD's, it is all the more irritating that the recording industry is up in arms about it. Sharing it is wrong, but there is no way putting it in a more convenient format for your personal use should be of any concern.
When I got desperate last year I applied to Target. With my 5 years of IT experience at a well-known company and a BS, it felt a little strange filling out the app. I decided to mention I was planning to attend college for a Master's degree (a half-truth) and wanted to work part-time while doing so, and got an interview/job offer within a week.
:)
I ended up getting an IT job offer just a few days after accepting the Target position, which I had to call and resign from before even starting.
So for future desperate laid-off workers my advice is to use the "going back to college full-time" line if you are having problems landing a job in fast food/department stores, it just might help.
Back when I was playing a lot of DAoC I would occasionally chat with enemies (Albion and Hibernia, I was on Midgard) via AIM or similar. One of them was a real nutjob, any time he lost a fight to us he'd flip out. I would even offer "Hey that was a great fight" type of comments because I try to be a good sport but he just ranted and raved until he signed off. I figured he was just an immature sore loser but he claimed he was a teacher, which scares me to no end this kind of person interacts with young people daily.
One day he started issuing real-life threats to my friend (and fellow guildmate). Basically one of his female guild members was going to the same event my friend was, and he was threatening harm if my friend talked to this girl. Let me note this guy supposedly had a girlfriend in real life.
I finally blocked him after that mess.
Granted it's one thing to get a bit frustrated when things don't go your way but mmorpg's seem to bring out people who are ill-suited for handling any rough edges.