The Wired/World/Matrix
There's something excruciating about having to slog through being low-level just to be 'cool' enough to enjoy the game -- and yet that's what I have to do in Ragnarok, and my geek friends have all heard me complain about it. But I keep playing. Not as often as my friends, and I pay the price by not being able to be in a proper party with them, but I do keep playing.

But I don't hate MMORPGs. I don't even hate RO completely. It's because of two things: the economy, and the War of Emperium, you see. That's the part that matters to me, the part that engages my interest. That's the part where all of the 'shared' part of the game matters. Most of the game has you killing monsters that other people may be killing (and employing bots to kill for them, but that's neither here nor there). I don't care. I don't get my rocks off by killing a sprite depicting a pink monkey.

The trouble is the amount of time and effort (not to mention money) that you put into just building your character to survive the melee, let alone be competitive in it. I'm a law student. I can't afford to spend that much time not having fun, just to qualify to have fun.

And yet I'm looking forward to the upcoming RF Online knowing full well that I'll probably have to spend hours upon hours just so I can be in the same party as my friends. Why? Why is that?

It's the expanded dynamics that involve other people, you see. The shared reality. That's what drew me to online gaming in the first place. I mean, why go online to play a game where you whack a computer-controlled monster? There are single player games for that. But a guild war? Or money to be made in the marketplace? Maybe some role-playing? That's why I signed up.

And when I am in a siege with friends, against other players, suddenly it matters. Suddenly your training and your experience (points and actual) are pitted against other people. Unfortunately what seems to matter given the limited game engine of RO is really level + numbers. There are fewer tactical options than I would like.

What am I driving at? RO feels like a step back for me as far as a virtual world goes. To me, IMing people is often more engaging than playing RO. RO is only bearable when I've got people to talk to. To interact with. To me, killing monsters to get money to buy stuff to kill more monsters with is simple accounting, numbers, bean-counting. There's a term for that: Grinding. I can play more engaging single player games if I wanted to do that.

It's the shared reality, that's why. While I run and play in the tabletop RPGs I love (and some I barely tolerate), there's something about the immediacy of the virtual world of the game. The idea that you're in this alternate world with different rules and you're sharing the experience and you're seeing exactly the same thing they're seeing. That's why I'm looking into playing Second Life, too.

Soon MMORPGs will be as ubiquitous as email. Maybe then we'll have the Wired. Or The World like in .hack. Or even the Matrix. But now... closest I get to it is Guild Wars, and I'm just on the trial account.

But I can wait.