Bottom Line Purpose

Can't remember which blog post gave me the seed of the idea, but it built into one of those common-sense revelations that had to be noted down for posterity. Just to remind myself.

I only get into and play MMO games in which I agree with the purpose / 'overall lesson' being taught.

Cue WoW. Greed. Selfishness. Me me. Phat Lewt. Put in lots of time, get a lottery ticket for big winnings, yay.

Er, no thanks.

Sure, it feeds on the hope of many mainstreamers - if the lines at the TOTO and 4D booths are anything to go by - that we have a hope of striking it rich and deserve stuff if we work hard, so that we can be better than the Jones...

But er, yeah, no thanks. Not very uplifting, I think.

Eve? Mwa ha ha, the universe is driven through profit and politics. See the isk flow. Enjoy a sandbox where you can do anything you like, and if you're clever and cunning, well... PROFIT!

While I think this is a rather intriguing way to see the world in general, the whole microcosm experience reflecting some potentially valuable reflections on life and human nature, well, I just don't think it's that emotionally enriching to experience a society driven by purified motives of profit and betrayal.

Some day I need to try a Tale in the Desert. The idea of a society built on crafting, on creation and socially-agreed on principles. Intriguing, to say the least.

I vacillate on Vanguard. The whole idea of exploring a big vast world harkens back to the good old nostalgic days of MUDs. But I'm not keen on the standard staple of raiding as endgame, and groups = get to see more stuff/do more stuff and all that.

I already have that in LOTRO, and that's all the standard game I have room for. Not much bottom line purpose in LOTRO except "Live in Tolkien's world" and do what you like + stick around to grind progress bars.

CoX's bottom line purpose has always been rather fun. Enjoy the journey, beat up bad guys, be a hero, work together if you like, win either way. Simple, but rewarding enough to immerse into a character of your own creation.

I'm still not 100% certain about WAR. In a sense, it's quite a fun fantasy. It taps into the whole "Us vs Them" tribal mentality. The 'them' gives us someone to fight, while the 'us' leads to the encouragement of an inclusive mindset where anyone from the 'right' side is more or less okay, as long as they are trying to help - not just selfishly out for themselves at the cost of the group, etc.

Of course, you can have an argument that this sort of mindset promotes racism or social exclusion of a group, maybe hate, but I don't really think so. Mostly because you can't trash talk an opponent. You can only kill 'em. Nuthin' personal. So it's more a friendly rivalry at most.

Still there are some differences between the lessons taught by a PvE game and a PvP one, depending on its design. More on that in a later post.