saber-hayashi

Oh and its usually FREE too.

For a long time now I have been keeping an eye on the Free To Play: Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games... and for good reason, as it has proved a brilliant platform for discoverys of not only the game industry, but also the habits of addicted gamers... like myself.

Let me start with a RPG that hits SO close to my home its scary...

A' MMORPG that is created and run by Andrew Gower and his brother Paul of Jagex- their company.

This was the first MMO I had ever played, back when it just left its MUD status and became what is known now as Runescape Classic... 2D people in a 3D world.
(Sidenote: Ive lived in Nottingham, England my whole life... and they started in Nottingham too)

The RS community grew and grew until it is the behemoth that it is now, taking my first few years of my online gaming career and giving a good first impression alongside a need for more.

This brings me to the MMO Addiction... I was drawn to the numbers, watching my characters gain experiance, level up... and finally getting kitted out in full blue rune platemail.
There is something about repetion that we gamers latch onto, be it tapping a Beat em up Combo on an arcade machine, or clicking wildly in a pattern on an MMO... we find ourselves drawn to it.

Sadly a year or two later, we wake up under a mountain of snack food packets, unpaid bills through the door and fifty messages on your answering machine, checking if your still breathing. Oh and yes your prized fictional character is now at the highest level you can get to, you have completed all the quests, your friends seemed to move on long before you did... you go looking for more.
More of the Grind, more of the same addictive gameplay.

Next you move onto your next free MMO... in my case, it was the cutesy den for social cowards,

Back in Runescape, I hadn't realised that the way we spoke on the server I was playing was 'grammatical ' english. "wantto party?" and "new n00b stop jimping" were the first words spoken to me by another player.
Classy... just one step away from "how do I mine for fish?" of Webcomic fame.
The mindset, like the gameplay, was addictive... you would find yourself typing faster and faster to people, making spelling errors... getting irratated at the smallest word uttered by another person.
It didn't take long for a newcomer like me to start using Internet safe profanity along the lines of 'N00B, Kill stealing ****, scammer! and last but not least: HackZor!'

... but why did this change in attitude happen, the game itself was cheerful enough, the gameplay wasnt too different to what I was used to in the past. I didn't know it then, but I do now... the group play system was at fault for this deterioration of the english language.

Example:
A Level 20 sword weilder can defeat Level 25 creatures for a little Experience (0.08% each creature) at about one Kill per two minutes... thats 2.4% an hour... at a maximum of 57.6% for 24 hours playing without sleep.
However, in a 'Party' or group of players, your speed and output can increase.
A group of 3 players, the same level, can kill the same enemies every 30 seconds.
9.6% an hour at a maximum of 230.4% for 24 hours without sleep...

In short, if you were in a group, every 12 hours you would gain a new level instead of two days. Also if your group was feeling suicidal you could go after the higher levels for 0.12% per conquest...

You NEEDED to be with people, it wasn't a want, the game was designed to bring people together in a stressful manner, causing alot of in-fighting, fast talking and twitchy tempers...
Sure there were always graceful players you would find, and they would make it to your in game Friends list... but there are always exceptions to the rules, chaos theory and the like.

400 intelligence Exp

Since then, both games I have talked about have evolved and learnt from their errors, and many others... now most MMORPG's have a balanced single player aspect to make playing in a group more relaxed and not so forced.

Lets not forget the Roleplay communitys and the dedicated players in each game, bringing back the Grammar back into the player base.

And finally the wonderful Grind, give a man a button connected to a counter with 4 digits... give him enough time and he will want to see what ahppens if you press the button 10000 times. Human nature at its finest.

The quest of Tedium is still continueing...
Saber Hayashi

(Runescape is Owned by Jagex and FlyFF is owned by Gala Labs, Respectively )