MMO Gamers

Wow.  Controversy.  Not since Tipa’s comment on Age of Conan’s boobies has there been such an outcry.  Alex Taldren is stirring the pot this time with his comments on Age of Conan’s “revolutionary” combat system and Keen cops most of the flak.  When I first read his comment I was angry at some of his generalisations but I’ve since had a chance to calm down.  I’m not going to comment on Age of Conan or the “buttonmashing” subject because I haven’t played AoC.  Instead, I want to touch on some of the other comments he made.

MMO Gamers are not gamers.

This made me angry at first because I thought he meant me, but surely he was referring to someone else.  While I may jest, Alex has hit on a truth.  Once upon a time MMO gamers were the hardcore pc gaming nerds.  Now, thanks largely to World of Warcraft, MMOs are a mainstream genre.

I was in a duo in World of Warcraft and I was asked how old I was (let’s say 30 something ok?).  They then told me they were 11.  The way I think, my priorities, and my goals in life are vastly different from that of an 11 year old.  Likewise, how I play a game and what I want out of it is most likely different as well.  Sure, we both want to kill mobs, finish quests, and level up, but how we go about that and why we want those things may differ.  So yes, there are a lot of MMO gamers that I wouldn’t consider gamers, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say all of us are not gamers.

Alex goes on to say that “MMO gamers are people who generally don’t enjoy playing their games” and “they often confess to hating MMOs because they are timesinks”.

If they hated playing then they wouldn’t play, surely.  I love MMOs because of their social aspects and depth.  There is much to see and do in a MMO and with a bit of imagination there’s even more.  What I hate is “another” timesink.  When the developer thinks he’s being revolutionary by including a new feature, but all that’s happening is there is now something else I need to devote hours a day to.

MMO Gamers are lazy.

Ah, yeah, you got me on that one.  I probably am lazy because I’ll happily spend seven hours sitting at my computer instead of mowing the grass or any number of other chores my wife lays out for me.  But in the context that Alex means, I don’t think we’re lazy, I just think we’re used to the way things are and naturally are reluctant to change.  And I fall in the same category as Keen.  I want evolution in my games but I’m still waiting for it.  So far, everyone who has tried it falls short for me.  Maybe I’ll know it when I see it, or maybe it’s like your first love, and nothing will compare.

I could argue that players of non-mmos are lazy.  Call of Duty 4, Grand Theft Auto 4 etc etc.  The sequels are much the same as their predecessor.  They feature the same basic keyboard layout.  Just jump in and start playing, no need to read the manual.  But MMOs have websites dedicated to things like crafting, wikis to help with quests or class builds.  By the time a MMO gamer has decided on a class and created their character, someone playing a First Person Shooter might already be onto his third mission or maybe gotten online for a bit of Capture the Flag or Team Deathmatch.

And lastly “people who believe that anything that requires more than 2 mouse clicks deserves its own button macro”.

MMO gamers think they’re clever for using macros, and in some instances it is.  Each encounter may vary, be it group or solo, single or multiple mobs.  But let’s say you are pulling one mob, and when you pull one mob you open each encounter with the same three spells.  You have these spells located on your hot bar, probably next to each other, and you click the first one, second, and third.  This is where Keen’s argument lies.  If you are just clicking the same three buttons then why not make a macro.  There’s no skill or challenge involved in clicking buttons.  And the macro you created is only used in the situation it was created for.  Whether that makes you lazy or clever is a matter of opinion.