The appeal of MMORPGs

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Why are so many people hooked on games like EverQuest, Asheron's Call and Ultima Online?

To me at least, they are two things: A waste of money and a waste of time.

someone explain to me the appeal of these games...

 

Hope I'll never start playing World of Warcraft .

 

Killing time like a whole year? My dream has come true! Ultima Online here I come!

 

Well, as you'll see in my thread http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/Forum15/HTML/000263.html I'm interested in getting into them.

Mostly this is because I like playing the games but playing all by myself seems like such a waste of time. I like the interaction of live players. At least that way I'm wasting time with a community.

The biggest objection is the monthly fee. But really, considering the amount of entertainment you get out of the things, $10 per month is a bargain.

 

I can see the mass appeal of MMORPG's. I played several MUD's when I was in college, and let me tell you, they are somewhat addicting (even though I could still go and play poker for about 4 hours a day and still get 8 hours of sleep). I played one that averaged over 200 players at any given time, with a few peeks over 500 during the US prime time hours. The amazing thing with the MUD's was that they were only text based. There were no pictures, so I can see where the craze would come in when you can actually see your character with all your gear and the enemy you are fighting. I simply choose not to buy those games because I cannot afford to spend that much time playing them, the wife won't let me.

 

Everquest stole around three years of my life. I would play for a while, get fed up and leave, then find myself drawn back after a couple of months.

I'm not playing now, but in all honesty that's just because my pc hasn't evolved along with the game's graphics.

I drew a few friends into the game with me; we would end up talking about the game for hours, online and off.

Relating our adventures was the best part--it was also completely unintellible to outsiders: "I was in Oasis with my DE necro fighting a mob, 'a' orc warrior, that conned red. My pet held him off while I nuked, but it was a bad summon. When my skel died, the orc kept bashing me so I couldn't cast, just as he knocks me unconscious my DoTs finally kill him. I got nearly 2 blue bubs of exp!"

The above is actually going rather light on EQ lingo, too.



[This message has been edited by The Deviant Mage (edited April 13, 2002).]