The Gamer's Quarter

[dark steve]

so are you guys into WoW or what

[*christina*]

I really shouldn't want to know how many of you guys have peed in a bottle rather than leaving a game, but a horrible part of me is fascinated by this gross trivia.

I personally haven't just in case you were wondering. Autorun in WoW allows me to take pee breaks like any normal person. If another girl has I totally want to know because she must be the most amazing person ever.

~Christina

p.s. Some old roommates of mine used to consider having Depends parties but it never got beyond the hypothetic level.
p.p.s. Wes is totally going to kick me off the forums for writing these idiotic messages while I'm at work.

[TheRumblefish]

I have a friend that lives in the Netherlands that informed me about this. I instantly thought about the three or four friends that I have lost to MMORPGs. Evil creatures they can be, it's sad to an extent that no one has discussed the postiive things about MMORPGS. Then again, it's pretty hard to think of any, it could help you become more socially active if you know other people that play the game that live near you. It defeats the purpose though if you only meet and talk to these people in the game.

This is interesting though, peeing in a bottle and all. I mean, god. That is hard core.
_________________

[Pijaibros]

So is this the first? I figured Asia would have several of these centers by now.

Y'know with all the reports every other month of someone dying, getting killed, overexhausting themselves in some insane 72 hour marathon session.

My worst case was back when Diablo II was huge and I played for 14 hours straight. Granted, I had a couple of friends that were in the same dorm as I which of course helped it continue for so long. Teamwork and all that. Though at least we got up to take a bathroom break and get a drink between acts.

Guess anything could be an addiction if enough people do it.

[Alc]

I have a friend who does nothing but play WoW all day, his girlfriend right along next to him. Should be "I had", I really haven't seen him since it came out because he never leaves the house. When we were younger he was the mirror opposite of a social recluse - always out, getting trashed and meeting loads of people. It's been really weird. Knowing how addicted I got to Diablo 2 I'm not even going to try it. The RSI in my wrist would probably prevent it anyway.

Also, I have never peed in a bottle whilst gaming to avoid going to the toilet. I can't really imagine when that would become the logical, appropriate course of action.

[Harveyjames]

I've never played a MMORPG, for the same reason I've never taken smack.

[ryan]

[dhex]

everything compulsive is an addiction in the same way that any grouping of people who engage in any shared behavior (or even shared genetic traits) is a culture.

such is the age in which we live.
_________________

[ryan]

The real question is, have you urinated in a bottle when there was a bathroom nearby?
_________________
Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

[Six]

[dhex]

[helicopterp]

[dhex]

no, i played football in high school.

for the uninitiated, pissing in someone's shampoo bottle gives them a horrible rash.
_________________

[vf10a]

Can someone explain the attraction of mmporgs? I have tried two or three and from what I have seen they all seem to be terrible games. The combat (and it seems everything else in the game) seems to be just a bunch of repetitive actions with no inherent 'fun'. If they put that combat in a single player game nobody would buy it. Is it just a social thing?

[Swimmy]

They're putting that combat in FFXII. So we'll see how that turns out.
_________________

"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin

[Lackey]

The appeal is in building something, in a steady and predictable levels of achievement. This as opposed to the real world where you can work very hard and earn nothing, or the opposite.

MMORPGs are designed such that level of involvement, literally the amount of hours you spend, is directly proportional to how much you succeed and how you much you aquire. It's the American dream made real; if you work hard and apply yourself fully the world will reward you. Plus a lot of people find the fantasy world (usually) metaphor engaging, and find some satisfaction in the strategy, even though it is often shallow or a form of meta-gaming (consulting tables, macroing, and the like).

I've tried many MMORPGs, though each for only a brief period, because I hoped to find what the form suggests. That is, a pocket world with the social interaction, struggle, and constructive action that implies. You know, a sort of virtual frontier world. This dream hasn't panned out though.
_________________
| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[Scratchmonkey]

I'd say that's because progression in MMORPGs is fircely introverted in terms of game design and mechanics.

To put the David Hexler way, you're not allowed to own property.

[Lackey]

You mean because ultimately it's all controlled by the developers?
_________________
| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[The Great Unwashed]

[Lackey]

To clarify, the thing I talk about building is the player character. It's very individualist in a way; all your capital rests in the character's attributes. I consider personal property to be an attribute in most MMORPGs simply because owning something means it sort of dissappears into Inventory Space. If anything, property laws are more real in online games than in real life because the real world doesn't acknowledge who owns what; it's all just stuff.

EVE Online interests me. If I had the time I'd play it because from what I've heard it involves a great deal of social wrangling.
_________________
| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[dark steve]

Paging that incredible EVE article to this thread.

[Dracko]

[dhex]

hey now:

http://www.civanon.org/

this is clever, straight down to the design. a bit weird, maybe, but isn't immersiveness the flipside of "addiction" in this context?
_________________

[Swimmy]