Any online gamers here?

maz

maz

I'm looking to write something which involves online gaming communities (things like WoW, Eve online etc), but it's not something I have any experience with (and I don't have the time to start right now!) Is there anyone here who plays games online and is involved with the communities, or who can direct me towards a similar forum about online gaming where I can chat to some gamers without being shot down as a n00b straightaway? :)

(I know, I know, write what you know and all that. It's a bit of a mcguffin, but I like my mcguffins to have a ring of truth about them).
 
I used to play a lot. I played ultima online for like 4 years, it was the first mmorpg recognized by the guiness book of world records.

Did a little bit of everquest but the skill system and fighting system were ridiculously inferior.

Sister in law bought me wow one christmas but it sat unopened for a year. It would make evil chants like the one ring. I was terrified if I opened the package it would consume my life.

Pictures from when I started playing UO.. I was skinny and tan in 6th grade. 7th grade I'm pale and 15lbs heavier lol. but i made friends from that game I'm still in contact with all these years later.
 
I play Star Trek Online on occasion. It's free and a hell of a lot more fun than WoW or anything like that
 
Thanks sfoster and mussonman. How is the team experience in those games? As in building and working as a team with people from all over the world you've never met? Have you ever met those people in real life?
 
maz said:
Thanks sfoster and mussonman. How is the team experience in those games? As in building and working as a team with people from all over the world you've never met? Have you ever met those people in real life?
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I never met any of them in real life, but I've talked to them on the phone and they're on my Facebook.

Team building was great in Ultima online. I went around killing other people all the time so I'd be instantly executed if I ever went into any of the towns.

Outlaws like that were forced into small groups to survive. It's rare you would be able to murder a whole group of people on your own. But with 4 of you, you can rampage the country side and keep sharing the loot of the 3-4 other people you were killing.

The other thing that the game did really well was the trade system. If you wanted the very best armor and swords in the game - you needed another player to make them for you. someone that was a dedicated grandmaster craftsman.

those people with characters like that were in high demand and people were always trying to befriend them.
you could play the whole game just as a craftsman.
 
STO can be played with or without a team, which is something I think makes it so great. I've never actually played it with other people, I've always just treated it like a single-player game, disabling the chatboxes and ignoring anyone trying to talk to me, so I don't know from experience how well it makes you work as a team.

Though, there are special battles where you take down waves of Borg ships that require other people to help, and I kinda stumbled into them
 
When I was a teen up to the point of late high school when I finally quit... I was a very addicted and hardcore MMO player... I think I've played at least 50 different ones...

But I don't think there is any way for someone to really explain that kind of addiction.. MMOs let you escape life as well as create a whole new person. You can be ANYONE in an MMO and you could just as well meet ANYONE.

Some people are very loner style, hate to interact with others and most of the times there are a few of these people on every game who are one of the top players of that game. They play almost every day as much as they can.

I've even met people who once a month would spend est 500$ on cash shop items. Sometimes to gain an edge, help out their guild, or prepare for some huge PvP event coming up. If the whole server is lucky people are buying shit tons of cash items to get ready for a level cap increase.

GUILDS! I'm not a loner player. I'm not even really into grinding to be top level. I'm a social player. When I join an MMO I get to about early mid level and then I try to find a group of likeminded and fun to talk to players who are part of a guild. Joining that is a long term commitment and I literally mean years. MMO Guilds in a way are a lot like a real life family, and most of the time the feeling to one another is even stronger than that. These people would go extreme lengths for you, and you'd most likely do the same for them.

In one game called Last Chaos, I played with a guild called Dark Society for 3 years. One day our guild leader had scheduled a time to Skype with another member before her life threatening surgery in real life. Instead he called all of us first to surprise her with a large guild video skype and we all took turns wishing her luck and sharing memories of her.

-------

So yea... even if I continued to right experience in MMOs endlessly, you'd never really grasp the feeling of it unless you did it yourself? But I'm sure you could emulate it if you researched it enough.

I'd highly recommend going to watch Felicity Day's The Guild webseries. It's a must watch for this topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSC2TMwyqzg&list=PL7atuZxmT955UJXHEd4eOfN7nixQSYhmx

That's the full seasons on YouTube with Felicity adding trivial information in annotations. You could also find it all on Netflix is you wanted that instead.
 
That's really helpful, guys! Thanks a lot.

Guilds and the sense of disparate, global family is what I'm really interested in, so I'd welcome anecdotes, tales and memorable characters (=people) you've encountered in that kind of sphere.

SkyCopeland, I came across The Guild quite early in my research, but I have chosen not to watch it until I have a pretty final draft, because I don't want to rip it off in any way, consciously or unconsciously. And I've never had the time (or a powerful enough computer) to play online games, but I might have to dive in now (all in the name of research...:))

sfoster/Mike, the lone wolf thing is interesting too. How does a craftsman acquire his skill in-game? Is it a talent that you 'buy', or is it people with a particular real world talent who are best able to become in-game craftspeople?
 
EQ from 2000 to 2005
EQII from 2004 to 2005
EVE from 2005 to 2012

All in role-playing Guilds or Corporations. Good times. I wish I still had the time for it. :blush:
 
maz said:
That's really helpful, guys! Thanks a lot.

Guilds and the sense of disparate, global family is what I'm really interested in, so I'd welcome anecdotes, tales and memorable characters (=people) you've encountered in that kind of sphere.

SkyCopeland, I came across The Guild quite early in my research, but I have chosen not to watch it until I have a pretty final draft, because I don't want to rip it off in any way, consciously or unconsciously. And I've never had the time (or a powerful enough computer) to play online games, but I might have to dive in now (all in the name of research...:))

sfoster/Mike, the lone wolf thing is interesting too. How does a craftsman acquire his skill in-game? Is it a talent that you 'buy', or is it people with a particular real world talent who are best able to become in-game craftspeople?
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In UO there were no levels. Everything was skill based, and skills raised at a decreasing rate so getting from 90 skill to 100 was probably 3x harder than getting from 0-90. For certain skills people would cheat, with a macro program that recorded keyboard and mouse movements. You could have your character do that while you're sleeping and then increase his skills. But all the really important skills expended items when you practiced so it wasn't possible to cheat much.

You had to go out and get the ore from the mountain. You had to smelt it and refine the material. And then you could make armor and raise your blacksmith skill. Or chop lumber for fletching arrows..etc The gathering and the building were all separate skills.

Lets see stories about the world. I had 3 or 4 close friends, we shared a house in the game. That was where we kept all our stuff, it was necessary since we were all outlaws and couldn't go into town and use the bank.

Not sure how much dramatic stuff there is I can tell. One girl named katie who was sort of part of our group tried to be friends with everyone. Even our victims. Tensions rose at one point because she wouldn't firmly side with us and I ended up trying to kill her.

I don't think either us won though. stalemate. :lol:
 
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