On Role-Play and the MMO
Ok, so a lot of folks might have noticed that I've been absent from my major games of late. There are a variety of reasons, and I thought I would discuss it here first, since it's not a FFXI vs WoW thing, or a OMGWTFIVEBEENPLAYINGWARUNTIL3AMEVERYDAY thing. There are several reasons I've been absent from my usual games and servers, and I thought it might be a good idea to lay it all out on the line now, so everyone can see.
1. Boredom. This is not entirely the reason, but it kind of relates to one of the points I'm going to eventually make in this post. I'm bored with WoW right now. A lot of it is just....I've done pretty much all I can do before the X-pack hits in November. So I'm sort of just waiting until then before going crazy with it again. But there's more to my problem with WoW than just needing more to do. WAR is fun, but it's a very simplistic game. Level. PQs. Scenarios. Every chapter is pretty much the same thing, over and over again.
2. Time. Admittedly, this problem is becoming less of one now that we've had our first nine-weeks break. I've finally managed to get caught up. They let us out a little early on Friday before the break, and instead of rushing right home like many of my colleagues, I remained in my classroom, cleaning it, straightening it, and getting everything ready for tomorrow. I think I finally am something like caught up.
3. RP. Now, this relates back to the boredom thing. I think it explains why I would play City of Heroes/Villains like it was my dirty little secret. Why I'd enjoy the crap out of it so much. I play on Virtue server, and one thing we do on Virtue is RP. I realized that that is, in many ways, a big part of what I'm missing in WoW, WAR, and every other MMO I've played.
I spent this week trying out the 7-day free trial I have of Age of Conan. I picked it up at DragonCon, and decided to give it a try. Mainly because I honestly was curious about all the hype surrounding the game. I was...impressed.
The server I picked to start, Cimmeria, was a PVP server, but it was one of two PVP/RP servers. (There are no general RP servers in AoC) And while I honestly didn't find a lot of RP in AoC, I DID find a world rich in tradition and lore, that lent itself WELL to RP. (There were some RP-type things going on, but due to both the character I was playing and the type of RP, I moved on. No, it wasn't cyber, but it wasn't something I was interested in at the time.) Apparently, Hyborera(?) is the place where RP-type things happen.
I realize now what I'm missing when I play MMOs.
I miss RP. I miss RP on the text based games but since there's always something happening on my MMOs, I rarely have time to sit and just...role-play anymore. That's what I liked about Conan and CoX. I could RP. But with my characters and server choices on WoW and WAR...I can't role-play. True, I kinda do, in a fun and silly kind of way but...I want to seriously RP.
I guess that lies part of my trouble. I sit down on RP realms in WoW, and the thought of trying to get ANOTHER character up to 70 makes my head hurt. I guess that's why Horgrimm is my only 70. I'd love it if WoW offered a character COPY service. In WAR, which is a very new game, I could play on an RP server (indeed, I'm logged in right now giving Avelorn a shot) but my friends all play on Vortex (I, infact, picked Vortex...)
I suppose I could try focusing more of my attention for RP on my text-based games, like VP, TF2k5, etc. I dunno. I really want to RP in my MMOs. I mean...
Massively Multiplayer Online
ROLE
PLAYING
GAME
And yes, I am an RP geek. I'm one of those people that plays a paladin, and when confronted by a savage band of pirates, I want to know if we can reason with them, so I can use that diplomacy skill I've got, and want to actually play it out. If I'd've lived closer to my high school...I probably would've joined the drama club. XD
Zis make sense to anyone else?
1. Boredom. This is not entirely the reason, but it kind of relates to one of the points I'm going to eventually make in this post. I'm bored with WoW right now. A lot of it is just....I've done pretty much all I can do before the X-pack hits in November. So I'm sort of just waiting until then before going crazy with it again. But there's more to my problem with WoW than just needing more to do. WAR is fun, but it's a very simplistic game. Level. PQs. Scenarios. Every chapter is pretty much the same thing, over and over again.
2. Time. Admittedly, this problem is becoming less of one now that we've had our first nine-weeks break. I've finally managed to get caught up. They let us out a little early on Friday before the break, and instead of rushing right home like many of my colleagues, I remained in my classroom, cleaning it, straightening it, and getting everything ready for tomorrow. I think I finally am something like caught up.
3. RP. Now, this relates back to the boredom thing. I think it explains why I would play City of Heroes/Villains like it was my dirty little secret. Why I'd enjoy the crap out of it so much. I play on Virtue server, and one thing we do on Virtue is RP. I realized that that is, in many ways, a big part of what I'm missing in WoW, WAR, and every other MMO I've played.
I spent this week trying out the 7-day free trial I have of Age of Conan. I picked it up at DragonCon, and decided to give it a try. Mainly because I honestly was curious about all the hype surrounding the game. I was...impressed.
The server I picked to start, Cimmeria, was a PVP server, but it was one of two PVP/RP servers. (There are no general RP servers in AoC) And while I honestly didn't find a lot of RP in AoC, I DID find a world rich in tradition and lore, that lent itself WELL to RP. (There were some RP-type things going on, but due to both the character I was playing and the type of RP, I moved on. No, it wasn't cyber, but it wasn't something I was interested in at the time.) Apparently, Hyborera(?) is the place where RP-type things happen.
I realize now what I'm missing when I play MMOs.
I miss RP. I miss RP on the text based games but since there's always something happening on my MMOs, I rarely have time to sit and just...role-play anymore. That's what I liked about Conan and CoX. I could RP. But with my characters and server choices on WoW and WAR...I can't role-play. True, I kinda do, in a fun and silly kind of way but...I want to seriously RP.
I guess that lies part of my trouble. I sit down on RP realms in WoW, and the thought of trying to get ANOTHER character up to 70 makes my head hurt. I guess that's why Horgrimm is my only 70. I'd love it if WoW offered a character COPY service. In WAR, which is a very new game, I could play on an RP server (indeed, I'm logged in right now giving Avelorn a shot) but my friends all play on Vortex (I, infact, picked Vortex...)
I suppose I could try focusing more of my attention for RP on my text-based games, like VP, TF2k5, etc. I dunno. I really want to RP in my MMOs. I mean...
Massively Multiplayer Online
ROLE
PLAYING
GAME
And yes, I am an RP geek. I'm one of those people that plays a paladin, and when confronted by a savage band of pirates, I want to know if we can reason with them, so I can use that diplomacy skill I've got, and want to actually play it out. If I'd've lived closer to my high school...I probably would've joined the drama club. XD
Zis make sense to anyone else?