I read online forums. Alot of online forums. Not just for MMO’s either, but that is a story for a different day. I have found one constant in the forums about MMO’s. Everyone bitches. They bitch about everything. They bitch about bugs, they bitch about nerfs, they bitch about RMT, MPK and anything else in the alphabet soup of complaints. It gets to the point where I wonder why some people play these games.
In amongst all of this bitching there is the occasional voice of sanity. This is a list of the sane and rational thoughts that I have compiled that, if followed, will likely help to improve everyone’s game experience.
1. Have fun. Seriously, if you are not having fun playing these games then something is wrong. If something is wrong, maybe it’s time to find something else to do.
2. Be nice. Its a pretty simple idea. Don’t grief, gank, MPK, or in general piss people off. I am sure it’s fun at the time (actually, I dont even understand how it could be fun at all), but you are just ruining the experience for everyone else. It’s kind of the American way now to only think of yourself, so I guess it’s the cool thing to do, but almost all of these games are based on some kind of community and if you are not helping the community, then you are just hurting it. Even, if you only care about yourself, then you should still be nice, because no one is ever going to help you if you dont.
3. Dont buy or sell in game currency. What is the freaking point? This is not Doom 2. There is no “idclip” command or god mode. What is the purpose in cheating in an MMO? This one has always gotten to me, I just dont understand the motivation. Do they think that all of their friends will think they are “uber” just because they instantly have “uber” gear? More like they will think that you are an attention whore.
4. Want to have “uber” gear, but don’t “need” it. We all want to have our epic armor, or our rings of doom or whatever, but that doesn’t mean its necessary to have them to play the game. Farm, work, quest, do whatever to get it but dont let it frustrate you that you dont have it.
5. Understand simple economics. Just because things are expensive and they are continuing to get expensive doesn’t mean the economy is broken. A contstant in all MMO’s is that money is always coming into the economy, through farming, crafting and questing, and less of it is going out of the economy, through loss, buying NPC items, etc. This means that there is a constant state of inflation in all games. Inflation isn’t bad, per se, because the cost of the item that you want may be increasing but so is the cost of the items that you are farming. It all balances out.
6. The developer is not out to get you. Blizzard really is trying to fix the bugs. SOE really does want you to be happy when you are playing. Square Enix isn’t out to get you. They have tons of people that are working on the games to make them better all the time. Just because YOU feel slighted because YOU perceive a problem doesn’t mean that it is an actual problem.
So, I guess I just spent a bunch of time bitching about bitching. I know I feel better.
ringthree
Having fun – that was the problem I had with FFXI. It was such a grind just to get _adequate_ gear at 30, with no end in sight, that I just bagged it at that point. I hit 30 and asked myself what I wanted to do in-game next, and the answer was ‘nothing’. I took up CoH after that, and compared to FFXI it was a total breath of fresh air. But I have to agree; I play MMORPGs to have fun, and when one quits being fun it’s time to do something else.
As for ebaying, I’m probably in the minority in that the notion of buying and selling ingame commodities/characters/etc doesn’t offend me. I personally don’t buy because it defeats the purpose for _me_, but I can understand the reasoning beind it.
If I may add…
7. Try to offer a solution. “Omfgbbqkthnxbye j00 suck” adds nothing to the discourse. If a game element is broken, most developers will consider incorporating a well thought out, logicly-based solution. Or at the very least it will get them thinking towards one. Or, if nothing else point out -why- you think it’s broken.
8. Know the difference between a forum moderator, and a developer. Most times that Company Employee that responds to the forums (most, not always) are just a CS person. They dont write the code, or even have any say in what the code should do. They are an interface to the company and the customers. Blaming them for something in-game is rather faulty logic.
“As for ebaying, I’m probably in the minority in that the notion of buying and selling ingame commodities/characters/etc doesn’t offend me.”
I mostly agree with that statement. My rule-O-thumb© for it is as long as it has no direct impact on my game time, do what you will. Although I can see how stables of professional ebay farmers can hurt a game, I revert back to my rule-O-thumb©.
I would say too that those are all salient points except #3, that again is a sort of preference thing. I think you can be a fairly rational person and not find that particular idea a deal breaker.
As to why someone would want to do such a thing, for a lot, it is simple, more money than time. If you can sacrifce $15 a month to play a game, then to sacrifice $20 to save yourself a month of grinding to get some cash might not be a bad plan. I don’t do it myself since I’m too poor, but I can certainly understand someone wanting to do so.
In fact, Puzzle Pirates actually works that concept into the game, on Doubloon servers, you actually pay real money for doubloons. Of course, since there is no sub fee on those servers, it is a great tradeoff for the casual player. But if you want to say, pay $3 you can get some cash that might take you a while in game to get.
Otherwise though ringthree, I agree with those. I think the most important is number 1. If you aren’t enjoying the game, shut your pie hole and cancel your sub. Don’t continue to play and grief everyone, or tell everyone how much it sucks on the boards. Drop that part of your life and spend that time on the next game or some other pursuit. Should be a no brainer, but I guess when you have a bigger mouth than brains, it is hard to make those logical connections.
The griefing thing was a big negative for me with Lineage2 . Peeps would inherit someone eles’ account with high level chars and then go out and PK all over the newb areas for no reason than they were bored and wanted to annoy someone else. The ridiculous level grind was absolutelytaking all the fun out of the game so I quit. tried a new MMOG and am having a blast.