Wednesday, March 4

I am a sheep

These days I am spending my lost minutes (hours) at work reading through blogs. Lani got me hooked on several great writers, and their weird followers. From reading them I have the feeling the MMO players are split in two. Those that play WOW and the hardcore players. If you are not hardcore you must be playing WOW apparently. The group I belong to is apparently so extremely niche that everybody is simply ignoring it. The reason I am less than excited (or only excited for a short while) about many MMO's has absolutely nothing to do that I am looking for a new WOW. I have never played it, and I have no idea what is so great about it.

The main reason I love playing MMOs is because of something Lani already said in the comments yesterday. MMOs are so much fun because I can get appreciation from the people around me. If the appreciation is not there, it is left to the power of the game. Unfortunately playing similar styled games (MMOs haven't changed much the last 5 years) it is really hard for any game to keep me hooked. I have long since seen and done everything there is in COV, but I am still there. Purely because there are people that are happy to see me. I am happy to be seen.

Today Syncaine made a blog entry about Wolves and Sheep. He is rather fanatic about promoting crappy Darkfall. But he has some great points in this particular post. I am not going to play Darkfall. Especially not in the next 4 or 5 months. Mostly because the game has way too many issues, technical and social. And also because I am no PvP-er, I am a sheep. But I am not after money, nor xp, nor gear. So since I apparently don't mind loosing what I have so much, and to some extend the people around me niether, I could be in a world where I am appreciated again. Perhaps I can do there what I hoped my crafting would have done for me in Vanguard.

Actually I am pretty sure Darkfall will not be that game, but the wisdom from Syncaine and Lani did made me realize a bit more what I really want. (And it also made me realize I still need to give my lenghty response to your 3rd part of the ideal MMO entry).

3 comments:

  1. Interesting, a few days ago you said you didn't feel like being social anymore and in this post you say that "MMOs are so much fun because I can get appreciation from the people around me." That's seemingly a contradiction right there that might be worth exploring a bit further.

    I saw the post too, but skipped it as it seemed more of the age old (MMO age) trend to divide players between Hardcore and Casual, Player Killer and Carebear, Noob and Newb e.t.c. On that front, I forget which of the Bloggers I follow said it, I think it was Tobold, but the phrase "Isn't it amazing how everyone who plays less than you just isn't committed and everyone who plays more than you has no life?" sums up how I feel about that.

    By Syncaine's description I'm a Sheep too. I'm not sure many Sheep would really want to get into a game like Darkfall. The term sheep for me also has overtones of the herdanimal which I don't see applying to myself given my rather unmaterialistic approach to MMO's. Sheep to me means the stereotypical WOW player expecting to be led around the amusement park. No offense to WOW players intended, but if there is such a thing as a herd animal amongst MMO players, the WOW fan is it. No way around that one :-)

    So I don't like the term Sheep. I was perfectly happy being a Carebear even while doing PvP in Guild Wars, so I'll stick with that moniker for now. Especially as he makes a very valid point about some of the most cutthroat ruthless players out there aren't ganking people, they're gouching them in stead on the Auction Houses. However, you can go Baaaah! to your heart's content if you so wish. :-)

    I do get what he's getting at a bit though. There might be a place for non PK minded players in Darkfall, or any other PvP server for that matter. Many PvP players today are these sheep. There aren't that many Wolves around, really. It's just that the Wolves howl in the night (forums) a lot and are often uncouth in the mouth (chat /forums again). In other words, a amongst any social group it's the loud annoying majority that creates and strengthens the prejudices of the masses against them.

    Anyhoo, as it is I used to enjoy the occasional bout of PvP on Guild Wars. This was of course completely consensual and arena-match style. However, I never really got a kick out of 'killing' other players. Surviving an attack yes, the killing no. But that's how I percieve victory in PvE as well, surviving the battle.
    In addition there's the joys of tackling a difficult challenge as a team it. Oddly enough, Raiding holds no such allure for me. Mostly because A) more than 8 people and there's no fun involved anymore as there's no time for it as all your concentration must be on getting the job done together, and B) they take too bloody long.

    P.s. would you two stop accusing me of such things as wisdom, please?

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  2. I actually added a chunk of text in the post about how my own statement conflict with the fact I solo a lot, but I didn't want to convelute my original point. I guess I have another post to make.

    But what I like about Syncaine's post is that he tried to dispel the whole idea of wolf and sheep that has been rampant on the blogs these days. And I agree with him that it is a meaningless classification. That's why I declared myself a sheep, since I don't really know what I want.

    But as it happens too often your view on player killing is the same as mine. I do not like killing other players, but avoiding death myself is fun. The thrill of staying alive and still getting your goal is what it is about. Wait! That is not true. It is all about appreciation, right? Or not?

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  3. Hehehe.
    Reading it now, I think my contradiction comment sounds snarky. Something which absolutely wasn't my intention. Actually i think the contradiction is really kind of like a paradox. A contradiction that really isn't on closer examination.

    it's never about one thing, as you point out at the end of your comment :-)

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