So I have a confession of sorts to make. About 3 months (?) ago I started playing with my private off or on friends. I've done it before in short bursts, mostly when questing or exploring a new area. I kind of had the view that if you're going to play a MMORPG you should probably learn to deal with the MMO part of it. Turning off chat as a matter of normal procedure struck me as something that wasn't "right". I mean, why play a MMO with chat off all the time? Just go play Fable or whatever.
Anyways, I purged my friends list and started turning off chat more and more. Turned off public for a bit too. Found that with public off the game got a little too strange for me. I can't really explain it. Had to tweak things a little to get it just right. And I have to be honest, I understand why people play with their chat off now. I'm a little saddened by it since in many ways it blocks interactions with people. On the other hand, I'm happier and more productive in game.
Last week I met a friend of mine for lunch. He plays a different game. We started talking about gaming in general and the 4 categories (explorer, socializer, achiever and something I forgot). He said that he felt that the problem with gaming is that you have to deal with people in game that you would never deal with in real life for class/geography/age reasons. I tend to agree with him on that.
My real life doesn't include many people who are younger then 20 something. Nor does it really include people outside my state. Nor does it have poor or rich people in it. I think that's part of the frustration that people feel in the game. You have to deal with people you dont' normally deal with. And there's friction there. I'm not saying that's bad. Just something that is sometimes tough to do.
On a seperate note, I was chatting with another friend of mine in game about having to deal with some of the folks we know in clans and in our home world. He mentioned that he considered himself part of the "Silent Seethers". He's a happy easy going guy who just wants to play, have fun, laugh and hang out with friends. But as we talked about it I completely understood his point about the Seethers. And in many ways I think we (I consider myself one) are part of Runescape's silent majority.
Who are the seethers? (Yes, I should make a new blog post now but I'm lazy so just endure silently). I think we're like Nixon's old Silent Majority. We don't rant on the forums, you don't see us yelling in banks threatening to riot, we don't call people noobs. We pretty much don't talk a lot in public in fact. We just want to play. Play!! Not work at it but play. And not be harangued, followed, yelled at, demanded attention from, or drug into any kind of one up manship contest. Most of us are willing to help people with answers to questions and directions. But we get a little irritate when those turn into demands.
And here's my monthly rant, many of which I think are things that are silent problems in RS.
1) People saying "I'm bored." Uhm..it's a game. If you're bored then go do something else. No, not in Runescape. I mean something ELSE. There's this big room with a giant glowing orb in it. It's called the outside.
2) People who ask something like "How do I make glass." So you start explaining how to make glass. And then they say "oh, i can't be bothered".
3) People who ask things like "How long does 99
4) Snitches. Sorry but I disagree with Jagex's old way of making mods. Snitch and you get to be a mod. Sorry but it's not fun to play a game where those with "power" are all the hall monitors. Their new way, inviting folks who are building community, I think makes more sense towards being a healthy community. Adding folks who have shown they can organize and lead people in a reasonable manner sounds a lot better.
5) Buy my stuff/Sell me stuff at a discount. The fastest way off my friends list is asking me to buy your junk because you need money. The second fastest is to buy something from me and expect a discount. Yes, I do discount things to my friends. Sometimes. Sometimes I'm in money making mode and need cash.
6) Ooh look at me look at me. Yes, great. Nice levels, grats on your 99. Now move on please.
7) People for whom everything is about the gp. I laughed yesterday when someone was complaining that they "lost" 700k getting 2 herblore levels. Uhm, no. It cost you 700k for x-amount of xp. It's not lost, it's spent. Lost is when you die and your stuff disintegrates.
8) Last one for this month. Ask advice. Don't take it. Decide to do something like going to a slayer task without the proper equipment. (Note, I'm not saying to buy full dragon here. I'm talking about taking an anti fire to dragon tasks and such). Die. Yell to get your grave blessed. Especially since if you have a 5 minute timer on your grave you should be able to get back there before anyone else.
9) Ok a bonus item this month. Be unprepared. Make it my problem. Great example, decide that you want to rc via the abyss. You own one glory. Use it up . Yell until someone trades you a charge for an uncharged. Use it up. Complain that you are too poor to buy more than one glory.
3 comments:
I started playing with private set to friends about a year and a half ago. I always liked talking while fishing, it was a good way to pass the time as you gained xp. The only issue is that one night, you could have a perfectly decent conversation with someone and they add you. However, about 2 more conversations later, you realize you don't really talk to the person. All of a sudden, they're just asking for free stuff or doing one of my biggest pet peeves in the game, which is logging in, telling you how much xp to a level every 15 minutes, and no other conversation other than "50k til 86 Fletching." Don't just yell stats at me.
Public I'm off and on about. I keep it off while running through places like the GE, just because I think it cuts lag. Also, its kind of sensory overload. I usually have it on Friends. I put it on public when there's just a few people around and it seems like a conversation friendly environment. Places where everyone is doing something in common, like a star or a tree.
I completely agree with your pet peeves. I'll add another one of mine: people who come up with 'genius' merchanting ideas, they fail, lose lots of money, and then act like its either a)your fault even when you warned them to be cautious, b) your responsibility to get them money back, c) its the end of the world.
Grats on the level!
Teach me Obi-Wan-Jaxana in the ways of your force! 100% agree with everything you said. I too am a Seether I believe.
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