Open Thread: MMORPG Tales

For those of you gamers in the audience, what's your MMORPG of choice, or have you played one? Share some fun stories in the open thread!

I'll start: I play LOTRO with Husband. We started at least as much as a test of our new computers and monitors when we upgraded a few years ago. A friend at work had recommended LOTRO as being a little more mature and less cartoony than WoW. We loaded into a field of gently swaying grasses, I wept at how beautiful it was, and that was pretty much all she wrote in terms of comparison shopping.

I prefer playing healers, so I was surprised and pleased to note that my Minstrel healer can also kill and/or stun just about anything just by shouting at it. This is surprisingly close to my real world persona (shouty), so role-playing has been a breeze. What I love/hate about LOTRO is the quests are incredibly repetitive, but this means I can multi-task in the background with my writing projects so...yeah. Husband is less enthralled, but he tabs out and codes. We know how to have a fun Saturday evening, I'm telling you.

20 comments:

Samantha C said...

well, I never played any real, serious MMOs, I'm just not good enough at games. But the crowd here might thoroughly enjoy the browser-based, turn-based, stick-figure art ridiculousness that is Kingdom of Loathing. TV Tropes page here - http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing?from=Main.KingdomOfLoathing

Quest 11 is literally "The Search for the Holy MacGuffin". That's the sort of game this is.

Will Wildman said...

Back at the verrrry beginning of 2008, it was a few months since the end of my first (five-year) relationship, and I had just horrendously fumbled my first new attempt at dating. I was wandering the World of Warcraft forums one chilly Saturday morn and found a thread in which some junior high kid was trying to decipher the puzzling actions of two girls at school. His bafflement was adorkable, and despite the wretched hive of scum and villainy that those forums normally are, he had attracted the attention of various helpful advisors, and I decided to hop in with some of my own advice and issues as well. A kindly human mage took an interest in my sorrows.

I took to dropping by the mage's server of an evening to discuss the Soap Operatics of my life, which she found continually enjoyable - she turned out to be a prolific romance novellist who schemed about such things on a regular basis. Thus vetted, she introduced me to the rest of her family/guild, including her three children close to my age. Due to me developing a crush on her eldest daughter (which I still suspect was intentional on her part - chessmastery), said Operatics did not reduce in the slightest, but things have gone on much as they do, and four years later they are all dear friends of mine (they were the ones who convinced me to try LOTRO, since they gave up on Warcraft a year ago). There aren't a lot of pictures of me on facebook, but about half of them are from when we last met up, at John Stewart and Stephen Colbert's rally in DC.

Which I think explains why I'm so reluctant to properly cancel my WoW subscription despite all the many things wrong with the vast majority of people involved.

depizan said...

I've played (ye gad) five MMOs. I started with City of Heroes/City of Villains, which rather spoiled me on character customization. It has the greatest customization overall of any game I've played, so everything else seems lacking. Betwene that and the fact that you could write little bios of your characters, my CoX characters really felt like mine. So much so that I made my favorites again in Champions (and used my favorite villain character as a nemesis of one of my heroes). There are problems with both games (mostly in that they feel too small and city oriented), but I love my heroes. I also played Star Trek on line, briefly. But I suck at the ship combat and somehow it just all seemed too similar to Champions, which I was playing at the same time. I tried Aion, which is very pretty and has mostly excellent character customization, but is so horribly sexist in character design (built in high heels? Really?) and costume design (why no pants!?) that I just couldn't do it. And I play WoW, despite its issues because my friends play WoW and because I love Draenei. I find the world nicely large and varied and I actually like its cartoony colorfulness. In a month, I'll be playing my sixth - Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I have become a complete MMO junkie.

I tend to play magic casters, women with horns and tails, and characters who prefer stealth. My current favorite WoW character is a human warlock (though I still like my Draenei mage - my only 85). But my favorite character ever is my gadget making superhero from City of Heroes/Champions who doesn't really think he's a hero, he just helps people out with his inventions. I suppose he's like Batman, if Batman were a small, well adjusted nerd who didn't have a tragic past or wear a costume.

Pthalo said...

We play KoL! Been playing since 2006.

Bificommander said...

I've clocked a lot of hours in Guild Wars. I felt, and still feel, uncomfortable paying a monthly fee, especially if I also have to buy the game for 50 euros first (I bought 3 other MMO's, only one I bought extra time for. Once. And half of that time I still have left). I really liked it. The puzzeling with 8 skill slots for the best build was entertaining. I've never gotten particularly good at the game, but I've still enjoyed it, and have reinstalled and played it again several times. I'm not playing it at the moment. I just hope Guild Wars 2 will hurry up already. The features sound awesome.

Gelliebean said...

I *heart* Kingdom of Loathing - my first character was a Pastamancer, and I never looked back. ;-D

I don't enjoy multiplayer games all that much, unless we're having a NWN or L4D LAN party at my house.... I will not play L4D on the servers because there are too many cut-throat players. :-( I do play Guild Wars sporadically, but my guild consists of various family members between here and Michigan so it feels like a lower-pressure kind of thing; but usually, I tend to prefer games where you don't have to enlist other people, especially strangers, to finish.

I prefer characters that can be designed for a combination of offensive magic and physical skills. I don't have to be the hardest hitter, but I like to throw something from range and then close in.... Not as keen on playing the healing/buffing role, probably because I try to avoid the group thing.

Will Wildman said...

And I play WoW, despite its issues because my friends play WoW and because I love Draenei. I find the world nicely large and varied and I actually like its cartoony colorfulness.

In many ways, I would rather have cartooniness than styles which try and fail to be realistic. I will never ever get over how gorgeous the skies and distant hills are in LOTRO, but I would just as soon not look up-close at anyone's faces.

Poor ignored draenei haven't got new lore since, what, level 71? I adore my big huggy blue paladin, but he doesn't exactly get a lot of relevant storylines.

Dav said...

I just honestly don't "get" MMO's. It just doesn't tickle my brain. This might be due to introversion, misanthropy, or just that that stimulation doesn't do it for me.

Rikalous said...

I played Kingdom of Loathing for a while. After I ascended*, I petered out on it, because I didn't really see the point of continuing. I'd already done all those quests. I knew what happened, and the gameplay doesn't require enough skill that I thought I could practice and improve.

*That means killing the end boss and starting over with a new character. You did get a minor bonus and all the loot you'd collected in you last life, most of which you wouldn't be able to equip for a few levels.

Ana Mardoll said...

I really only play them because someone I know in meatspace plays with me, I've noticed. When Husband isn't playing LOTRO, I don't usually play either, even though I do have a solo character.

depizan said...

I'm sort of the same way. I play with real life friends (who got me into MMOs in the first place) or I solo. Actually, I mostly solo, since that's lower stress - if I botch by myself it only effects me. But I like being able to talk about the game(s) with friends and I like being able to get help if I need it. I suppose, though, I'd play regular RPGs instead if that was what my friends played. (Assuming they're no harder than MMOs, as suggested.)

Though, part of the fun in the superhero games (City of Heroes/Villains and Champions) is seeing the costumes/characters that other players come up with. Both games have purely cosmetic appearance. I wish more games did (though WoW is taking a step that direction with transmogrification, which lets people make their clothing appear like any clothing their character has).

Vulpis Contra said...

Echo Bazaar! It's a text-based adventure game, but there are MMO elements - all I can stomach, really. I'm a misanthrope gamer. And the writing for EB is really good.

Ana Mardoll said...

It's a shame that Morrowind looks kind of dated now, because if appearance customization is your thing, that game and its associated modding community would possibly be perfect for you.

But it IS rather dated and was never as stable as it could have been.

Loquat said...

Also, if anyone feels like looking me up in Rift, I can be found on Faeblight, Defiant side. Usually on my rogue Hedgepeth, occasionally on my alts Baolun or Sieglinda.

Rowen said...

I played Final Fantasy XI for a few years, as a white mage. I miss the setting, but I don't miss being at the end levels and STILL being unable to do anything by myself.

Rowen said...

Oh, and um, slightly off-topic, but I wrote a post about Christmas songs I like, that I feel many people haven't heard of. Here's the link, if you guys are interested.

www.crasstalk.com/2011/12/10-songs-to-bring-olde-skool-flair-to-your-christmas-playlist

(Ana, if that crosses a line, I apologize, and will be happy to delete this)

Ana Mardoll said...

Not at all! I love cross-linking! :)

blitzente said...

I play Kingdom of Loathing too! Sporadically, anyway - I tend to drop by every November or December for the limited-time holiday content, get sucked in for an extra month or two and lose interest again. It's a charming game. I'm not sure how accessible a complete newbie would find it, though, since there is a lot of content these days.

I also used to play Ragnarok Online. And by "play" I mean "level grind".

Amaryllis said...

Rowen: This is just to say that it's breaking my heart that I can't (due to circumstances beyond my control) play the link of The Monkees singing "Riu riu chiu" Right Now. :(

Kish said...

To cross over threads for a moment...
[blockquote](Note: That's "me making sammiches for men" and not "me making sammiches of men".) [/blockquote.
My fiancee was quite disappointed when she discovered that EverQuest 2 didn't have race-specific cooking recipes, meaning that her ogre provisioner could never learn to cook humans.

EverQuest 2 was the first MMORPG we played. Then we (like a lot of people) quit playing shortly after the patch that came out with their first expansion, Desert of Flames, and we went to World of Warcraft and played it for years. Approximately two months ago, we quit WoW, probably for good, and when we resume playing an MMORPG, it will likely be either Rift or The Old Republic.

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