St. Toxic
Arcane
poocolator said:
JarlFrank said:
I'm not wrong. I too sampled WoW, just to see what the deal was. Basically, I played it for a couple of hours over a period of days, noticing early on that it had less going for it than Anarchy Online. Would I say that I was addicted? No -- there was nothing pulling me back into the game and I did not always choose WoW over other timewasters available to me at the time. Either it was a poor choice of words on JF's part, else he really was addicted to WoW during that week.
poocolator said:
Well, WoW is a particularly shitty game, so I wouldn't doubt it. That said, there's really nothing productive about playing games; only time consuming. The important factor is that you have fun with the games you play, contra pushing yourself through the game to satisfy some personal obsession. With mmo's you're almost always faced with uninteresting chores that make up 99% of the gameplay, and the driving factor for completing them is competative sportsmanship, although it's really not about player skills, rather the x amount of time a player is willing to waste on boring shit.
I say almost always, because I feel UO can be excluded from that list. The skill and stat-caps can be maxed relatively early, in comparison to other mmo's, and there's no real reason to grind at anything unless you force yourself to do so. My time wasted in UO (this was a way back mind you) was primarily spent on managing player cities, competing in tournaments, participating in events, hunting for treasure and socializing. I can't say I regret the time spent, nor would I have called myself an addict during that time -- at no point did I feel I just had to log in and play or that the game had taken control of my life -- rather that it was a fun experience on the game side of things, and a social one not unlike a visit to #Fallout.
JarlFrank said:
It's not easy for me to make that distinction. :wink: Saying: "I was once an addict, but I really can't get my head around people who get addicted.", does not get that message across, even if it was only one week. For all I know, you called in sick at work, and played WoW 18 hours every single day, which would be a logical incentive to quit the game.
JarlFrank said:
I really think the addictive properties in MMO's are due to the grinding and the competative aspect that follows, say an added pvp support ala WoW. The actual gameplay is industry, and not at all addictive. The retarded questlines in WoW follow suite, being as they are in the nature of a hunter/gatherer routine; almost primal oshite. You can't really get addicted to that as a standalone. It's rather that people imagine themselves making progress through this industry that forces them to continue, in a deluded misconception of outdoing their peers. A real sheep would take this to the limit, before realizing the futility of the act, while most normal human beings see it quite clearly at an early stage or even from the onset.
In short, it's applicable to those either unable to make early estimates of their cost of playing (as in, years spent on a second job in a pretend reality) or people who willingly delude themselves for the sake of enjoyment (the prime example being Bethtards who arp through shitty games, making up for what they, the games, lack in intelligent design with their own capacity for imagination) although, I have to admit, it's only my personal explanation.
If a WoW player is asked, many of them would attribute the addictiveness to the social factor of the game; as in, you make friends, you grind together with friends, you grind bigger mobs with friends, you start guilds with friends, you start to rely on your friends, and they on you, you're stuck in a social circle which you do not want to let down asf. I don't doubt that you can make friends in WoW, or for that matter any large gathering of people wether it be online or out in the real world, but I do have to doubt that you actually need the boring aspects of a shitty game to keep up with your social contacts. If people met at the stables and hit it off, surelly they could do without the smell of horse shit in future gatherings? I should think so.
