This is the gaming extension of my article "Thought of the Day" that I write on Facebook.

• 10Oct 08

  Thought of the Day: Gaming, 11 Oct 08

  It occured to me that I could just upload my movie review to GameSpot here.

  And so this has something to do with gaming: No developer should ever make a game out of this movie.

  • Posted Oct 10, 2008 11:23 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 10Oct 08

  Thought of the Day: Gaming, 10 Oct 08

  I'm lying here. This Thought of the Day: Gaming has nothing to do with gaming. I'm really doing nothing more than advertising Thought of the Day: Movies, which I just posted up on YouTube. My movie review.
  • Posted Oct 10, 2008 11:14 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 8Oct 08

  Thought of the Day: Gaming, 8 Oct 08

  I'm still pretty busy, so in time honored Thought of the Day: Gaming tradition, I'm going to steal one of my forum posts and turn it into a blog entry. It's about why I don't like MMOs. Note, I'm writing about why I don't like them. I'm not judging the genre, or you for playing them.

  The thing that kills MMOs for me is the lack of story or purpose. How about instead of going to Mordor to destroy the One Ring, Frodo and company had just ****ed around in Moria for all three movies, killing monsters and finding treasure? Thrilling.

  In every RPG I've loved, I'm killing critters, getting to know myself and NPCs, getting better equipment, so on so on...all to fight a big guy in the end and win. You never win an MMO. (It's like real life in that regard.) There's no ultimate objective in an MMO, so leveling up and getting better equipment is the game. Now, I like leveling up and getting rare loot as much as the next guy. It's a great experience, and one of the reasons RPGs are so fun. (It's also a reason I criticize Oblivion: It takes that fun away by making the loot and enemies tied to your level.) However, for me, there has to be a reason why I'm doing the grind. Even in a game that is pure hack-n-slash, like Diablo, at the end, I get to kill Diablo and win the damn game.

  Also, in normal RPGs, you're always an important person. Let's take a look at some of my favorites:

  • Knights of the Old Republic: You're a mind-wiped Sith lord, one of the more powerful beings in the galaxy.
  • Deus Ex: You're a genetically modified superspy, and an allegory for Jesus Christ.
  • Mass Effect: You're a superagent for a galactic federation.
  • Torment: You're a thousands-of-years-old immortal being, on a voyage of self-discovery.
  • Baldur's Gate: You're the son of a god.

  In an MMO, you're just some regular dude. Even if you level all the way up to the level cap, you're still one of many. You're no one special, and there's no grand destiny for you. (Again, like real life...how depressing.) I'm sort of a true roleplayer, in that I have to indentify with the character I'm playing in a game. That's one reason I've never got into GTA, because I don't want to be a petty criminal. I want to be someone extraordinary and special. That's why I do enjoy playing characters like Master Chief, or Gordon Freeman, or even an evil overlord (in the aptly titled Overlord). Well, there's nothing special about being a Council Spectre in Mass Effect, if there are 2,417 other Spectres on your server.

  My MMO experience is pretty limited. I played a little bit of Ultima Online way back in the day. I was psyched at the idea of being in a persistent fantasy world with other players, where we'd go about slaying monsters and finding treasure, just like in my favorite RPGs. That notion quickly faded, when I discovered that as a level one mage, a rabbit could kill me. What's more, to even cast spells, I had to buy components, which cost far more money than I had available. Apparently, I needed to start out as a peasant, working in the mines, before I could earn money to be an adventurer. Whoever thought this was a good idea... Whatever, I can't even say anything more with GameSpot's profanity filter. Ultima Online is one of the few games I've ever actually returned to a store.

  I also played Star Wars Galaxies, and got somewhat far in it. I became a Master Marksman and then a Bounty Hunter in the old system. This represented hundreds of hours of gaming. The developers then overhauled the leveling scheme, which made Bounty Hunter available to first level characters, and made all my grinding to become one meaningless. Gee, thanks. What's worse is they made Jedi a starting profession, whereas in the old game (and in, you know, Star Wars), you had to do a lot of work to be a Jedi. Anyway, that wasn't really what bothered me. What bugged me was what I said up top: The lack of story or purpose. I didn't feel like I was in a Star Wars game, where I could affect the galaxy in any significant way, and I just found myself wishing I were playing Knights of the Old Republic.

  MMOs just aren't for me. I guess I'm too much of a goal-oriented megalomaniac. I really can't see me ever getting into one. No matter how interesting the setting or gameplay is, all the issues I've listed here seem endemic to the genre. Me trying to like MMOs is like a pacifist trying to get into shooters. It just won't work.

  • Posted Oct 8, 2008 6:41 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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