Comments on: MMOs, and the thrill of live entertainment

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 19:54:42 +0000

MMO’s have ruined single player games for me because, even while I’m playing an MMO as though it were a single player game, there’s the unpredictability of what other players will do.

Playing a single player game, if you happen to get in over your head, there’s *zero* chance that a random hero (read: passing player) will swoop in and rescue you from your plight (as I’ve had happen a few times, in a few different games). In a one player game, you pick your fight, and you’re either going to win it or lose it, and you can tell pretty much from the very outset which way it’s going to go.

By: spinks

spinks — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:26:22 +0000

Oh, I totally agree that it isn’t the same. It’s really hard to describe the atmosphere at a good gig to someone who has never been to one, and maybe isn’t really a fan of any band enough to want to.

But trying to explain why I like large raids, and having all those people around at the same time, to non-raiders … it’s a similar type of issue. You are very removed from the action being behind the screen, but you’re chatting to the other players and fighting the same bosses at the same time, and in the same virtual location.

I think somehow it pings the same sort of chords for me, in a way. Probably going to Blizzcon or waiting in line for a midnight opening (which I totally will not do for Cataclsym, oh well maybe .. ) would be even more so of a big live event

By: spinks

spinks — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:23:01 +0000

Not sure why but GW had really really annoying chat channels in cities. Maybe it’s because there wasn’t an auction house.

So for me it had this odd atmosphere where you were really lonely outside of cities (or maybe it was restful, depending on your mood) but the other people inside the cities made them quite annoying.

By: Longasc

Longasc — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:20:30 +0000

A lot of players play MMOs as if they were single-player games, but still enjoy the “company”.
For some it seems to be enough to hear people in zone chat or the guild channel.
Others prefer to group and switch off zone chat and sometimes even the guild channel when they are in a group.

I wonder if Guild Wars 2 will have global or zone channels. There was some kind of zone chat in cities, but outside in the explorable areas you only had whispers and guild chat, which is probably the reason some people felt “lonely”.

By: Larísa

Larísa — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:01:38 +0000

Oh, I love losing myself in the crowd at a concert. Or in WoW. Frankly it isn’t quite the same. At a concert you can sense everyone else physically. You can feel the warmth of all those bodies pressed tightly together, you can smell their sweat (yak!) and the music makes even your bones tremble. An MMO is always experienced behind a screen and you can turn it off any second.

But still. I too enjoy when it’s crowded, provided it doesn’t get laggy. Sure, it was annoying at the Sunwell Island when you couldn’t click on the vendors or when the screen froze due to lag. But it was sort of massive, thanks to the plain amount of players. You can’t deny that.