If you, as the reader, do not know what an MMORPG is then I will describe it in brief. An MMORPG is a massive multiplayer online role playing game. In other words it is where a person logs on the the internet and plays a game with thousands of other users on the internet.
This is presents me with a large problem. I love Role Playing Games (RPGs), but somehow I cannot get myself to enjoy an MMORPG for longer than two hours. This made me ponder, why is that so? Well the answer has multiple points and levels, so please bear with me.
The first reason that I will describe in this rant is that there is no intimacy. Sure there are tonnes of people on the internet playing the game, and playing with the occasional friend whilst going on a quest can be entertaining. However, the real joy of playing with friends is lost as you work your character through a sea of lifeless others. No other person has depth, they just run around killing others.
In order to address this problem many games came up with the idea of a guild, or a group of people with which you can share some sort of bond. Still this does not address the underlying problem. If you join the guild "Ninja Pirates", that does not help you to know anything about the members other than they believe the two most amazing things in the world can combine into one ultimate form. You can talk, and socialize in some avatar land instead of real life. Yet this does not make you know the person any better and to be perfectly honest it is very creepy.
Take Gaia Online for example (my name is Professor Silver). In this game people make friends with random strangers all around the world and "hangout" in a virtual world. This sounds like something which would be far more like stalkerism, or a social disorder, than anything else. Then there is the MMORPG aspect of it. Entering a map you can be surrounded by about a hundred random people having conversations with each other, but the effort is so shallow it hardly seems like a good substitute to real life.
Another large problem with MMORPGs is the actual game play. For starters let us look into the fighting aspect. What you effectively do for almost the entire game while you are leveling up is fighting monsters in random locations strewn across the map. Pretty much everywhere which is not a city is infested with these monsters, and you have to fight them only in certain areas where they match your power level. There is no real joy in killing a monster by simply clicking on it and watching your character repeat that same kill, on the same monster, about one hundred times really puts a damper on the whole experience. I will be acquiescent to the arguments which say not all MMORPGs are like this, but that does not mean that most of them are not. Despite this, even the ones which have some difference to them, like Vindictus, are still for the most part repetitive where you engage yourself in the same level again and again to meet the requirements for progress.
Then there is the repetitive acts of building different items, and selling them in shops. Crafting is not necessarily always going to be repetitive, but if you are playing a game with the sole purpose of creating items you live a very pathetic life. The games are brain dead and pointless, with no real point or purpose. I am of the opinion that despite common belief, intelligent people do not actually engage themselves in such brainless games.
Now, you may be intelligent and believe that I am wrong because you play these games, but please contain yourself for just a little longer. Look at the plot. A good game should have a well crafted story and much character development. I would have to say that there is such a slight level of story that one could never really be engaged in this sort of game. Unless you enjoy drooling there is no real reason. People play RPGs for the story, the name Role Playing should give away that one must actually have a role or relevance. With a million people online, you are pretty much a pointless individual. An great RPG would have to be like Persona. In Persona 4 the opening sequence before you begin to even play is three hours long. That is a good story.
So really, what is the hype all about? How are these games enjoyable? If you have not been too offended by what I have written please comment and let me know the reasons as to why these games are good.
Brendan
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