Curse

Shimus DarkRaven · Dec 02, 2005, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehly

I haven't dissed you, either

---

@Shimus: It was a joke!

@Zehly, I got it ^_^ I was just sayin :P

--The Shim

zehly · Dec 02, 2005, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Want to tag team him with jokes, Avari?

Lasareth · Dec 02, 2005, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Well, I'm not going to go into the level of self control associated with playing the game, but there is a significant factor of the MMO world that does connect with people and keeps them in-game.

Nobody's to blame, of course, but you cannot deny that the people DO exist. So, the simple solution is, if you know you're not able to handle that type of stuff, don't do it. It's self-assessment.

There's different levels of control, too. Mine allowed me to disregard my schoolwork, but nothing more. Eventually I decided that the negatives of the game just weren't worth balancing with the few positives of it.

Now, if you look at the games, they're very much DESIGNED to keep players playing for long amounts of time.

FFXI had NM camping, HNM camping, 1-2 hour long areas which you had to clear time on your schedule for. You can't deny that that sort of thing promotes game-time over real life.

As much as they say they're all for taking breaks, they don't really leave too many breaks open.

(and I apparently typed this too slow LOL)

Shimus DarkRaven · Dec 02, 2005, 01:56 AM // 01:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehly

Want to tag team him with jokes, Avari?

OH NOES...Tag team!

I can't survive an onslaught of jokes...My wit extends only so far into humor! Alas!

--The Shim

zehly · Dec 02, 2005, 01:57 AM // 01:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shimus DarkRaven

OH NOES...Tag team!

I can't survive an onslaught of jokes...My wit extends only so far into humor! Alas!

--The Shim

No you, silly, chris_nin00.

:P

Shimus DarkRaven · Dec 02, 2005, 01:58 AM // 01:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehly

No you, silly, chris_nin00.

:P

I'll stick up for chris then! 2 on 2, jokes a rippin :P

--The Shim

chris_nin00 · Dec 02, 2005, 02:01 AM // 02:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehly

Want to tag team him with jokes, Avari?

Then it's fair!

HEHWHAHEHA

lord_shar · Dec 02, 2005, 03:06 AM // 03:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lasareth

Well, I'm not going to go into the level of self control associated with playing the game, but there is a significant factor of the MMO world that does connect with people and keeps them in-game.

Nobody's to blame, of course, but you cannot deny that the people DO exist. So, the simple solution is, if you know you're not able to handle that type of stuff, don't do it. It's self-assessment.

There's different levels of control, too. Mine allowed me to disregard my schoolwork, but nothing more. Eventually I decided that the negatives of the game just weren't worth balancing with the few positives of it.

Now, if you look at the games, they're very much DESIGNED to keep players playing for long amounts of time.

FFXI had NM camping, HNM camping, 1-2 hour long areas which you had to clear time on your schedule for. You can't deny that that sort of thing promotes game-time over real life.

......

Everquest-1 started this huge time-sink trend. The problem was that SOE simply didn't have enough content to keep everyone occupied for more than a few weeks before they got bored of the game. Sony's solution: Insert artifical numeric frequency-based time sinks to keep everyone pre-occupied, thereby maintaining their subscriber base. Death-related experience loss was the worst -- 1 step forward, 5 steps back. You could lose weeks of XP gained with just one death. There's no way to describe just how badly the rewards didn't justify the risk. Everquest = Ever-camp = Ever-crack.

I have to admit that it worked on me for 2 years (L65 necro on Tunare), but I eventually saw through their lack-of-content time-sinks. The same thing goes for Everquest2. Worst of all, once you cease paying the subscription, you lose all access to your toon and just walk away. I still wonder about all that time and money lost.

EQ is now a shining example of what NOT to do in an MMORPG.

GW still drains my time away, but at least it's free entertainment. The only cost is the time you put into it, which is perfectly fine for me.

Guillaume De Sonoma · Dec 02, 2005, 04:04 AM // 04:04

I've never played it, but I have heard it was bad.

nightrunner · Dec 02, 2005, 04:39 AM // 04:39

I remember hearing about people petitioning for a /pizza command in EQ that would allow them to order pizza delivered to their house without stopping playing.

BrandonIT · Dec 02, 2005, 05:21 AM // 05:21

There's no doubt that at some point, all games are addicting. MMO's usually doubly so because of the amount of time that can be spent. Most people can play through FFX in about 80 or so hours. That's what, maybe three weeks if you're a 'typical' gamer of 3-4 hours a day. Then you gotta find something else to do, spend another $50, maybe start your next game.

Now, take something like Guild Wars, a small-scale MMO, and I've spent almost 400 hours in the last six months, which breaks down to what, about 2.4 hours every single day. So I've done well, but I'm approaching the end-game of PvE for 3 of my 4 characters. I don't know if I'll manage to get my last character all the way through or not. Then I'm on the back-burner probably until Chapter 2.

Then, let's go to a real MMO. I'll use Star Wars Galaxies because I gave almost 2 years of my life to it, counting Beta 3. I spent probably two thousand hours on that game in those two years. And I left the game not because I had done everything there was to do, but simply because the $$$ ran out and SOE changed the game drastically from under me.

The time just keeps scaling up on video games. No other single game can keep you occupied like an MMO can, for literally years. I could play through every single fighting game on my PS2 probably in a thousand hours. And I'd still have another thousand hours leftover, that would probably be spent on more "productive" activities.

Sanji · Dec 02, 2005, 05:28 AM // 05:28

:P It was an unfortunate and very real promotion that Pizza Hut and SOE did.

It spawned an April Fools joke that I think is equally as unfortunate. (Because it wasn't real)

Lasareth · Dec 02, 2005, 05:29 AM // 05:29

lol... pandas!

I'd really like a pizza right now..

Lou · Dec 02, 2005, 06:01 AM // 06:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by zehly

Why can't everyone just smoke and keep the world happy? Who needs game when you have and to keep you happy?

Have you ever tried mixing the two? I got 29 straight kills in Halo 2 because you get so focused that you become some kind of gaming god.

Sanji · Dec 02, 2005, 06:10 AM // 06:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lasareth

lol... pandas!

I highly approve of Pandas.

Polloloco3 · Dec 02, 2005, 07:43 PM // 19:43

It really is self control. Many people on those MMO's seriously lack it. I played the original eq off and on for 3 years, and played ffxi for a year or so. The reason I played it is because I played with 5 of my best friends here in my city. The games are alot of fun and have tons to offer, more so than any console or pc game can. The way I saw it is instead of buying so many games and beating them in 5 hours, I had a game I could always go to if I was bored or with friends. I still had a social life and continued with school and my gym priorities.

I will say that if you can avoid them, do so. Many of them make you PLAY for HOURS at a time, and it gets very frustrated. I found myself frustrated when asked to do simpled tasks after finally finding groups etc. I like my life mmo free personally.

Divinitys Creature · Dec 02, 2005, 09:08 PM // 21:08

I bought a copy last november to tide me over between GW beta weekends but my hardware wasn't up to scratch D;

heist23 · Dec 03, 2005, 02:02 AM // 02:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shimus DarkRaven

I'll stick up for chris then! 2 on 2, jokes a rippin :P

--The Shim

well, SOMEBODY needs a body to unbalance things.

but, which side to join? *sigh*

as for me, i have an addictive personality. as in, if i like something then i'll keep doing it until i get bored. i'll do as much as i can to do it. that's been a problem for me since the beginning, so i'll decline from EverQuest.

hell, even GW was a mistake, for the most part.

Shimus DarkRaven · Dec 03, 2005, 02:13 AM // 02:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by heist23

well, SOMEBODY needs a body to unbalance things.

but, which side to join? *sigh*

as for me, i have an addictive personality. as in, if i like something then i'll keep doing it until i get bored. i'll do as much as i can to do it. that's been a problem for me since the beginning, so i'll decline from EverQuest.

hell, even GW was a mistake, for the most part.

heh. Everyone makes EQ to be much more addictive then anything. I say GW is more addicting then eq1/2.

--The Shim