Relationships in MMO’s

Whenever I first thought about relationships in MMO’s in the sense of dating in them, I laughed. But for some people dating in an MMO is a great thing. I’ve heard from a real life friend that a friend of hers has been dating the same guy on an MMO for about three years now. Supposedly they’ve moved their conversations to phone calls too. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but I guess if it makes people happy than okay. What I like is the roleplaying relationships. The relationships that are fake and only meant to enhance the story of the characters. Now that is pretty cool. You can have this whole epic story going on with your characters that doesn’t affect your real life in any way.

Some people get married in MMO’s. Again, I originally didn’t get this! But upon further research, I learned quite a bit. While some people do actually get married in games like World of Warcraft and live out their characters’ lives as a married couple, there are some to do very different things. There are some real life couples who, while they are getting married in real life, have laptop set up on the alter and have their MMO characters getting married at the same time. Then there is the whole roleplaying aspects alone. Some people get their characters married to other characters (in no way are they actually in a real relationship) just to boost the guild/clan’s morale and have some fun and add to the story.

So how do I feel about people trying to have real relationships through MMO’s?

I really don’t know. I know that I wouldn’t ever do it, because it’s not really something I’m comfortable with.

What about fake relationships for the sake of storytelling?

Now those are cool! I like that idea of that even though the developers have set up this world and quests and such, players can customize it in a way by creating their own stories.

Slow Season Personally

So I’ve been in a sort of gaming drought lately. And its all Christmas’ fault! I have been forbidden to buy any games since like November! So, I’ve been playing free games online. And man, have I learned a lot! I played the game Passage. And I feel like my life has been changed. Seriously, it made me realize what makes games an emotional experience. Its humanity and mortality. Something we’ve all experienced being brought to life in a game can affect so many people and help them to relate to how the character they are playing is feeling. *** SPOILERS FOR PASSAGE AHEAD! *** While playing Passage, I got soooo sad when the wife died. And wait a second? When did it say that she was my character’s wife? And when did he become MY character? See? These are things that point to a good experience in a game – or a human experience in a game. When the main character becomes you or yours. When you almost make up these backstories or ideas of what each character feels for the other without realizing it. Making those social human connections from the images of the two characters walking together, made me have this idea that they must married. And maybe it was also due to when she died at the end. I felt this sadness. It was like someone threw a very tiny dust particle at the part of me who remembers when my grandfather died, ya know? It was to the same extent, but it was that feeling of loss. I remember I saw the grave pop up and I actually, without thinking, made my character walk to the grave and stand there for a while by it. Almost paying respect to it. And there was a part of me that wanted her to come back to life. This was a similar experience I had to Final Fantasy VII and yes, to Call of Duty 4. These human experiences are so touching. While most are about loss, I would love to see someone tackle a different human response. I know loss is a logical one to go to because EVERYONE has gone through it. So maybe my mainstream gaming drought hasn’t been all bad.

What I’ve learned so far…

I’ve learned that non-digital games are a huge deal. How huge, you ask? Enormous! Anyway, they have taught me that….they are important to anyone learning how to make a digital game. When I first thought about learning how to make a full 3d game, I considered learning programming and Maya and things of that caliber. When the idea that you could learn about game design from board games made me think, “Oh…uhhh sure.” But I didn’t really think I would learn too much about making a digital game from it. As I came up with the idea of the game, I realized that I wanted interactivity. I wanted something that took some skill and competition. I wanted alliances and betrayals! As we came up with the mechanics of the board game, I started to see it. I could see exactly what I was supposed to learn. The idea was that I was learning how to make something fun, how the process of making any game goes about, and what non-gamers enjoy. I learned about casual games and mass appeal. I learned more about bringing people into games without intimidating them, as I often felt with such things as D&D. I had no clue that it was possible to learn so much about digital games through creating a nondigital game! It was the best experience for someone like me, who is only beginning to learn Maya and programming.