Saturday, June 13, 2009

You are the First in Your MMO

The following is a response to conversations of a week prior. It addresses players who have achieved a goal and would like to move on to another goal, but instead self destruct.



It's 6pm here in Seattle. I sit down with a cup of coffee and begin my loading screen for World of Warcraft. My husband will be home soon and we shall sit down to run a heroic or two. Or so.. I think

Immediately as my cute human priest enters Azeroth, I begin to receive whispers in abundance from acquaintances or random players. Some of them are wanting to meet up or simply to chat. My guild can also be very chatty when people are online. Soon I'm sucked in to all the mindless banter and drama of the day. I begin to forget the reason I came online and what I wanted to accomplish.

There was a time when I was younger and could devout countless hours of time to any online video game and I raided often. Progression eventually lead me to a server uber guild. The kind of guild that was labeled "superstar" by the community. The kind of guild that game designers feared as we soughtto break their design.

I have responsibilities now, and am playing a different style of gaming. Now I suffer the pain of what I call "Guilds without Cause" The guilds with players that are new to Massively Online or simply play as they go. It has been a challenge for me because I have never lost the focused mindset approach. I know what armor I want and where to get it. I read information on my class and listen to the community outside of the offical forums. And I go after what I want.

I sit here confused with my head beginning to hurt. Sometimes I join in on the bantering. Someone doesn't like someone. Someone seems angry they didn't get an invite to a raid or heroic. People in the guild aren't logging in and it's the end of the world! "Will you come healz NAXX PLZ?"
In the midst of all the noise, clarity comes. I am always trying to analyze players and/or grouping of players. What makes THESE guys get this or do this? Why don't they have trouble in their raids. These were questions I already knew the answer to. After the following is established the work begins to fall into place.

"They know what they want"
"They go after it"
"They don't let others waste their time"

These three phrases echoed from a memory long past. I've made it my mission to convey this as a gospel to other new gamers. It is sacred and it applies to everything in a persons life

We all have goals. It's easy to lose track of what those goals are. Stumbling blocks will be placed ahead of you. I've met many players that have quit the games because of drama which caused a lack of desire. Don't let anyone keep you from your game. Recognize that people have goals and they might be different than yours. Different is neither a good, nor bad thing.. It's just Different.

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