This question was posed to me the other night when playing..."Why do you play the game?"
This question was posed to me the other night when playing...
"Why do you play the game?"
My answer was "I've always lived in other worlds", while another group members was "I didn't like UO".
I think what the group member who asked was looking for was the later of the responses, as we then progressed into a discussion about previous CRPGS, UO, M59, etc.
But it does leave my answer relatively unexplored.
Why do we play EQ, or any game for that matter, and what is the additional appeal that EQ has that makes it so much stronger than all others. (I don't know about everyone else out there, but I and nearly all my friends, have dropped all other games for EQ.)
Accomplishment / Goals
One thing EQ has started to seriously evolve with the multi player world
they have build is the vast ability to feel you accomplished something.
There is gaining level, gaining or trading for items, defeating monster
x in a dungeon, questing and completing the quest to get x reward, helping
others, and more.
A lot of these goals may not even be one which creates something tangible for ourselves. In fact I think some of the most rewarding accomplishments are those we get from helping others. One of the recurring memories I mention now and then is that when I was 14 th lv I saved someone's life in Lake Rathe. He in turn gave me my first piece of bronze (boots). That item is long gone, I forget where, but the memory still lingers.
My first purchase of steel (helm) was gotten through accumulation of plat from straight kills, and selling of special items I don't use / need. Today I still have that helm, but soon I think it will be replaced with something else, but that memory too will linger I think.
There are other unseen things we accomplish that tend to linger. Recently I went down deep into the bowls of the Cazac Thule sewers to get a party members stuff and gate it out to her, as she couldn't gate, nor could we find a group gate at the time.
It's this constant feeling of accomplishment that keeps us coming back. It makes us happy that at least somewhere we can work towards some goal and complete it. This achievement will never be fully tangible, it may be an item in the game, but that is where it remains, and why I find it so fascinating we keep coming back and are so satisfied by it.
A form of therapy? Probably so.
Boredom
There is always something new and different happening in EQ. There are so
many different personalities that something will always be different, even
if your hunting in the same spot.
Rarely do games have times when you can repeat something and have the outcome be different. True some off-line games have random elements, but I think it's the player interaction that keeps things from becoming bland no matter how much you repeat it.
Character exploration
Games, especially EQ, allow us to explore sides of ourselves in a safe manner.
We can choose to be as we are, or something completely different. One of
my favorite characters, which I sadly had to kill because of various reasons,
was a silly fairly dim-witted Troll. I know many others who are playing
opposite sex rolls for the enjoyment of being on that side of things.
Playing rolls different or opposite from our own personality allow us to relax, or give us ways to express ourselves in that manner without being judged.
Often I'm accused of being selfish, a smart ass, and sometimes arrogant. I'm somewhat that way in real life, and in EQ I don't have to worry about making apologies if I happen to overstep a boundary, as these are traits that are expected of my race, I need to make no apologies for being so.
Emotional spectrum
I don't know about most but during my day, especially at work, I have a
fairly flat range of emotional feelings. Through the game I feel / experience
a lot of changes in my emotional range. In EQ I commonly feel happy, sad,
disappointed, excited, angry, etc. Through a previous game which caused
high emotions, called Thief, I would feel stealthy / anxious, tense, relieved,
curious, explorative, cautions.
Games make us feel things through altered perspective. The interactivity causes us to experience and feel.
Escape
Simple escape to another reality. There are no worries there about this
or that, they don't exist. Your free from all of your Earthly troubles,
financial, emotional, or physical. Here your someone else. Here you have
different capabilities and resources. Here you only have to worry about
what you choose to.
Exploration / Immersion
I think it's human nature to want to explore. Maybe some more than others,
as I have known a few people who have spent countless hours just looking
around. I think there is a thirst inherent in all to see / experience new
things.
Maybe this is a hunger to get new input and constantly grow as people.
Other body / abilities
EQ, or any game for that matter, allows us to look and have abilities that
we would like to posses or explore. Some of us may be very similar in personality
and look to those bodies we choose, some not.
I highly doubt many of us would really want to be the gore splattering war monger that is a warrior, but it's fun to be able to temporarily enter the body of one. See through their eyes and have the abilities and body suited to do those things.
Others still will enter the body of one opposite of their sex. Some do this for amusement, some for a little kick because they think it's nice, some to experience life with, or without, the emotional treatment that comes along with that kind of body. I have known several female bodies with male souls. I'm sure most didn't expect the kind of attention, caring, good deals, and gifts, that will come with having such an outward appearance. I'm also sure, though haven't met anyone who would admit such, that there are women who play male characters, to be free of the constant attention, the unwanted sexual advances, the over attentive caring.
The mix of being able to choose who / what we are, and the addition of other players, allows us to have physical attributes that suit how we fit at that moment, making the escape to the other world all that more appealing. Choose what needs you want fulfilled at that moment, pick a body appropriate to getting them.
Meaning
For some of us we play to give ourselves meaning. There is a saying that
is, we define ourselves by our actions. For a lot of us, we will never be
able to do on Earth what we can do in Norrath. We can have meaning brought
upon by action that can't be achieved elsewhere. This meaning fulfills needs
in ourselves and in others and establishes bonds that may permanently aid
in the development of a happy / healthy personality.
Pride
A lot of us take pride in who / what we are in the other world. For some
this may be a sense of pride they can't get on Earth. The 'nerd' can become
the well loved all aiding strong Paladin, Warrior or Monk. Someone with
an illness, possibly terminal, can become the all healing Cleric, curing
and aiding those in need. A small child can become an adult with responsibility
and abilities capable of performing equally with others who they could not
normally.
Our other bodies allow us to do and accomplish things we can be proud of. They allow us to be proud of who we are and what we stand for, free from being judged in any way we don't wish.
A lot of people wonder why I am a true Dark Elf Cleric (as opposed to a good with a mask). I'm very proud to be both Dark Elf, and Cleric. Each says a great deal about my personality. When those take the time to learn what evil truly is, and learn that yes, I can be a Dark Elf and be helpful, then they happily accept who I am and the way I do things.
Purpose
Our bodies and abilities give us a sense of purpose. We aren't left with
the question of why am I here. You know why your here, you know what your
capable of and what you will eventually be capable of. Instead of focusing
on being less, we are free to focus on being more.
Stress reduction
Plain and simple, being somewhere else, living another life, is very stress
reducing. Sure there are days of lost experience, times you camp item x
and don't get it, times you just keep dying and can't seem to get anywhere.
But all these things are interesting, and if you can remove yourself from
them in the right way, always fun.
After all, who can not say getting pounded to goo by a Sand Giant at 10 th level isn't funny?
Once in my mid 20s I was having a really hard time in my primary life. I changed to start a new life. I got my ass kicked by a bat. A bat. I was first level, he was 2nd, I died. I laughed my ass off for about fifteen minutes straight at how funny that was to me compared to my other character.
Another time, I was in a group and didn't gain experience, barely gained any plat, spent half the time I had trying to go with the group to spot x. Finally I decided to leave the group and do something else, the leader wished me well, said he understood and felt for me, but asked if I had fun. At the time I said kinda yes kinda no. Now I look back and think, yea it was interesting, I lost about 1/3 of the experience I had but I suppose I could call it fun after all. And I got an item I later sold at a decent amount of plat.
Summary / Solution / Truth
Basically games are an escape. They allow us to be free from the stress of this world called Earth. They let is choose bodies that allow us to have powers or resources, thus empowering us in certain ways, by abilities, powers, items that make us look a certain way. Pride in who and what we are overwhelms us, making us forget our inadequacies or troubles on Earth.
Were free to be who we want, without judgment, to explore aspects of ourselves and the unknown.