cultural anthropological study about P99

[Polixenes]

Q: "Why do people play a 12 year old game?"
A: Umm, it's a fun game.

I'd love to know the point of this exercise.

There's nothing special about a 12 year old game still being fun to play. Ever heard of Monopoly, chess or football?

[Kasilis]

Originally Posted by Polixenes [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Q: "Why do people play a 12 year old game?"
A: Umm, it's a fun game.

I'd love to know the point of this exercise.

There's nothing special about a 12 year old game still being fun to play. Ever heard of Monopoly, chess or football?

Well, yes you are right and wrong at the same time. But you cannot compare these games with everquest. You are right Everquest is a 12 year old game, but it is a game belonging to the genre called MMORPG. As far as i know there havent been much development in the football, chess or monopoly "genre" in the last years. In fact in the MMO genre there has been. A lot of new games have been developed. So I think it is a legitimate question to ask whats so special about Everquest. In my honest opinion: The comparison doesn't really work.

[Kasilis]

spill out everything you want to tell me, Eldaran.

And Knuckle I'am also interested in PVP, so even you are invited to participate and share your thoughts about Zek and R99 if you want to.

[Polixenes]

Originally Posted by Kasilis [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Well, yes you are right and wrong at the same time. But you cannot compare these games with everquest. You are right Everquest is a 12 year old game, but it is a game belonging to the genre called MMORPG. As far as i know there havent been much development in the football, chess or monopoly "genre" in the last years. In fact in the MMO genre there has been. A lot of new games have been developed. So I think it is a legitimate question to ask whats so special about Everquest. In my honest opinion: The comparison doesn't really work.

I take it the key premise of your study is that newer MMORPGs are enhanced versions of EQ, and whereas the outsider might expect newer games to make EQ obsolete, in fact EQ retains a loyal following? If so I would counsel you to make this premise crystal clear in your paper and somehow show (to a non-player reading it) the basis for that premise. In the world of games generally speaking the games most played are old games and the creation of hundreds if not thousands of board games over the past 50 years have not diminished the appeal of chess, Monopoly and other 'classics.'

I suspect at the end of the day you will have a study that concludes that some people like EQ better than WoW, EQ2, Vanguard etc. You might equally study board games and find lots of people think Monopoly is more fun than Game of Life, or horse-racing is more fun than dog-racing, and I just wonder out loud what your professor will think as he reads it....was this worth researching?

Anyway, not to pour cold water on your project and I wish you an A grade.

[Kasilis]

First i have to say is i don't see development in a evolutionary way. Like from primitive prehostoric clubswingers to seemingly super intelligent and free beings like we see humans today. You might got me wrong on that one.

The graphics have improved with the new generation of MMORPGS. But I don't say WoW/EQ2/Vanguard have a better gameplay or are better in general. I say they are just different - still they developed.

In general it is worthy to research any expression of culture. Any. There is nothing not worthy to research.

To make an example:
Noone likes grinding still it takes up a huge part of the game. If not the largest. We are "wasting" hours and hours every week doing it. If you would take the grinding out of the context noone would waste his time on something that boring. But then you remember "Ahh right I get experience for it" and around it there is a whole world, so it makes sense again and ends up being fun.

But what exactly is fun about it? Didn't we maybe just all come back only because of nostalgia and we are just ending up with our old habits or addictions again? This might sound sad, so don't pin me down on this please. But I have the same smile on my lips when I think of Everquest like when I think of my first kiss. It wasn't that perfect but hell it was exciting.

I was 12 years old when I started playing EQ and couldn't hardly speak english or had any deeper idea of the gameplay. This world was an dangerous yet adventerous place for me, which was amazingly fun to be explored. And I've really soaked up this world so that I've a damn glorified memory of Everquest, but when I've hit lvl 4 with my bard in Kelelthin at noob ramp after x hours grinding after returning to P99. I started wondering "serious what am I doing here? But I kept going with the though that I've got so much more to see and in the end it isn't that bad..

And that is where the other MMORPGS come into the view. Because if P99 is more than nostalgia and routine there has to be something which this game is offering that none of the other MMORPGs could in the meantime. It might sound simple to you, but it is exactly what I want to hear. Where are the differences? What is so special about Everquest? Not the comparison of Everquest to other MMORPGs is my research interest. But more the function of gratification while playing Everquest and the question why you've returned.

The subjective taste of persons is irrelevante here. I don't care if some people like WoW and some people not. It's not about what the people like. It is about what Everquest is about. What is its spirit?

Maybe I've picked a bad introducing question to make my point clear. But I hope this post helped you to understand my motives and to substantiate the legitimation of the research.

[Kasilis]

Another point I want to add is the challenge. How can Everquest players resist the rapid Gratification MMORPGs like WoW offer you? This is a huge difference between those 2 games. To awnser this question it is simply not enough to say: People who like challenges play challenging games. You can't just explain that with different tastes. So if you want to do science, you have to go further.
That is what I'am trying to do. And therefor I need a understanding of Everquest which is not based only on my own subjectivity.

[Eldaran]

Originally Posted by Kasilis [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Another point I want to add is the challenge. How can Everquest players resist the rapid Gratification MMORPGs like WoW offer you? This is a huge difference between those 2 games. To awnser this question it is simply not enough to say: People who like challenges play challenging games. You can't just explain that with different tastes. So if you want to do science, you have to go further.
That is what I'am trying to do. And therefor I need a understanding of Everquest which is not based only on my own subjectivity.

For me, the instant gratification has and hand holding has killed the entire MMORPG genre for me. When games like WoW hand everything to you, "go here, kill this, come back" over and over and over again, you stop reading quest text and follow the arrows to where you go. It becomes less of a virtual world and more of a train ride on 2 very predictable tracks. You have a maps to show you where everything is and every quest you complete gives you better gear constantly.

Everquest is full of mystery and enough difficulty to make you want to overcome challenges. When I first logged into Greater Faydark in 1999 I was awestruck. I had no idea where to go, but I saw tons of people killing stuff outside of Felwithe. I started doing the same. Everquest was lucky enough to have the finest MMORPG Community i've ever experienced. These people were mostly die hard fantasy fans and serious pc video gamers. The WoW generation came in from playing their awesome instant gratification console games and changed everything.

When you needed directions, or had questions, or needed someone to craft metal bits for you, or needed to find a corpse, you couldn't just go to an NPC and do everything. You had to ask other players. It was very difficult to solo past the single digit levels as most classes. You had to interact with the community. No other game has been able to capture this for me.

I've played almost every major MMO release at least for the first month and all of them have failed to capture that "living world" that Everquest had. I have to remember which direction I need to travel in West commonlands to get back to East Commonlands because there isn't a map. I better hope I run into something I recognize as I'm running from these 3 orcs I pulled by accident.

I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that I was a teenager in 1999 and my imagination was out of control, but I still feel the same magic as I'm playing on project 1999. The game is unchanged and all these years of MMO gaming hasn't changed the fact that the spirit of this game is one of challenge, mystery, intrigue, community interaction, and overall just having fun being in the world around you. I love this game.

/rant mode off

[Knuckle]

Elderan so true, MMOs by their very nature were targeting a hardcore crowd, it wasn't known to be a cashcow. Now that everyone saw the success of everquest, a game that was originally designed to bring fantasy novels, RPG single player games, and D&D to life in a 3d world, has now become a pathetic commercial cash farming shit social pop culture reference riddled shit holes. every motherfucking mmo that makes pop culture references all the time literally makes me want to scream. playing rift in beta as soon as i saw the pathetic pop culture references from a newbie quest guy I wanted to stab my eyes.

[Daywolf]

Originally Posted by Hobby [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Monopoly is fun? Since when? All I've ever done in monopoly was rage, throw houses, rip money, and kick the board and walk off....

You should try playing it with another person or two. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Originally Posted by Polixenes [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Q: "Why do people play a 12 year old game?"
A: Umm, it's a fun game.

Damn, I'm now influenced, cant participate now [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]