Divorced From Reality

24. October 2008 by admin.

Some people have disputed the veracity of Thursday’s PBN.  I originally got it off Yahoo! News, but they don’t keep their links active forever, so here is a link to the AP story through the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s website.

I admit I’m not big on MMOs.  I tried EverQuest many years ago but some PK would always geek me within 10 minutes.  Turn a corner and BAM! another me bites the dust.  If I come in 2nd in an even fight, then I’ll accept the loss and work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  But it wasn’t worth $10/month to get the beatdown before I could make any headway.  And before someone points out the obvious: this was before non-PvP servers.

I’ve tried WoW a couple of times off friends’ accounts.  The graphics rendering was pretty good, and the players much more civilized.  The couple of times someone went PvP on me, we were both roughly the same level so it was a fair fight.  (I didn’t say I disliked PvP, I just think the players should keep it even so it stays fun.)  And there were some instances of spontaneous generosity: a high level rogue from Rico’s Roughnecks gave me some magical items because I’d read Starship Troopers and knew the lingo (Everybody Drops!  Everybody Fights!).  I also received several invitations to Guild so I wasn’t wandering the Big Bad World alone.   I could see why my friends built such a camraderie with their online associates and would drive hundreds of miles to guild gatherings to be together in the meat world and all game online.

My problem is I’m trapped by the programmers’ creativity and laziness.  If I can come up with clever tactic the designers didn’t think of, then I’m out of luck.  Trip lines hidden in high grass to disrupt the enemy’s infantry charge?  Sorry, out o’ luck boyo.  (If anyone out there LARPs, try this at your next battle.  Just be sure to have archers and wizards there to take advantage of the ensuing chaos.  And if at all possible, please please please video tape it and put it on YouTube!)

It’s these kind of artificial restrictions that keep me a tabletop gamer.  Freed from the straightjacket of corporate accessibility (”What do you mean I can’t keep the Cave of Wonders?  I killed the damn genie, let the next adventuring group try to take it from me!!”) I find gaming to be more challenging and vibrant.  Plus it’s fun to throw my players (I usually GM) for a loop and make them work for their victories.

Plus WoW makes gnomes look ridiculous.

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