Buck up, young WARWalker

 Y’know, in my many travels doing what I do for the Warhammer Online community, every so often I see a busting out of a trend, whether it’s RvR changes, or the latest patch, or even some crazy screenshots.

This time around though, I’m seeing a depressing trend, watching as various bloggers vent their frustrations and send a negatve vibe towards those reading them. Meanwhile, the pundits decide to kick dirt over the developers with glee as yet another MMO fails to meet expectations – and by expectations, I mean beat World of  Warcraft for BEST TOP MMO EVAR!

Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell all these people that they’re wrong. To tell them they’re wrong would begin a dramatic war of epic proportions, and here at OP we are all about non-war – not because of the violence, but because there is a clear lack of sunshine, fluffy pillows, and rainbows, along with the other things that make this infrequently updated blog the beacon of positive posting everywhere.

Instead, I’m going to ask our disgruntled WAR community a simple question.

What makes an MMO fun, anyway?

Remember the first time you picked up an RPG much less an MMO? Do you remember the excitement as you racked the box, read the manual (optional), looked at the patching instructions (even more optional) and dropped it into your computer? Remember the first few times you logged into the world, played with peopel who were decent and some who became fast friends? How about when you got that really cool item or when you and your mates achieved something you accomplished?

What happened to that anyway? When did we become more concerned with the tunnel vision of that specific game experience where you got nothing but frustration, or the min-maxing that threatens to break apart your group of once-tight friends? What happened to games as a way to relax and have a good time after a long and hard day – or heck, whatever happened to games in moderation?

I’m sure many people feeling the way they do about WAR right now feel that way because of a lof of time invested and problems experienced. The jade over the eyes of players and even people “in the know” has gotten so green that it’s hard to see straight. While it isn’t wrong for people to feel the way they do about WAR, and certainly, WAR has its problems, is it really that easy to become pessimistic?

I’m perenially a sunny person, but I’m not vacant, because I’m practical. If something isn’t fun, or games aren’t giving me pleasure, I simply won’t play them. If a game is so frustrating that it just sucks to log in, then is it really a game you want to force yourself to deal with? And if that’s the case not just with WAR, but with every game out there who we have high hopes for, have them dashed, and then fade away from, then is that a reflection of development, or rather, the kinds of feelings people have about gaming these days? 

Really, it’s both. At the height of my World of Warcraft career, I was raiding 16 hours a week. I was in game for nearly 30, and most of that was not spent in fond memories and forging bonds and laughing, but stressing out over the latest virtual items or encounter, or dealing with guild drama, or overall thinking about the next, frustrating issue Blizzard was going to throw at us. One day, I realized that I wasn’t really playing a game anymore – that I was really playing another life, one that had enough if not more stress than my real one. Sure seems like some of the most frustrated people playing WAR are burnt at both ends of the candle.

Denying that WAR has real, actionable issues would be silly of me. The AoE issue is overarching, the endgame still needs major work to be engaging, the performance issues of the game engine itself are unfortuante, and the community is holding but suffering under the weight of a patch released far too early for the scope of what it has. Yep, WAR has problems. But if people are getting so upset by them that they seethe with ranty rage about them, or are generally losing their faith in developers to fix their problems, what is that, really? Is that really playing a game for one’s own benefit or the benefit of others, or is it something else?

I think everyone can frankly do with a little perspective and 30,000 foot view of why they are passionate about or look at games and the game industry these days. Boil it down to the essentials, and decide from there whether WAR will give you that experience. If it doesn’t, then find something that does capture that great feeling you get from gaining that level, or killing that boss, or having a great PvP battle. Because if you don’t, you’re only hurting yourself.