What is the point of a MMO?

For any of us reading this article, we have surely played a generally large amount of Massively Multiplayer Online games; the good, the bad, and the clones. We read the news articles and hear from both friends and websites, learning of the newest games to hit the market. The industry is one that is growing, both economically and socially. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting fellow gamers who could appreciate my background in the industry, people who were actually envious of my experience in the industry, my nerd-style love for these games. It seems that the nerd persona that has floated around gamers for years is slowly drifting away. In fact, I met some people who completely destroyed my stereotypical concepts of what, or rather who, a gamer is. Now, some of the honor in destroying these beliefs can be contributed to games such as Skate, Call of Duty, and other big-hit games that guys were not ashamed to brag about loving. However, as a whole, nothing has shattered the perceptions that gamers have faced for years more than the explosion of the Massively Multiplayer Online genre.

So now, we ask ourselves; what is the real point in these MMO games? Questions arise and raise difficult to answer questions, ranging from why we play the games, to what makes them unique, even to why we find them fun and what we hope to get out of them. First, I think it is important to understand that these games are different from many in that fact that they have blended together social aspects with game aspects. Original stereotypes were born from gamers sitting behind a screen playing something by themselves, eating Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew. While these still exist, they are slowly diminishing at an exponential rate due to these socially active games. Now, World of Warcraft obviously played a huge role in mainstreaming MMO games, and even pushing forward a social game revolution. Services such as Xbox Live have come to a point where they urge and encourage gamers to become more social. To not only play with friends, but to make friends. Perhaps that is why they appeal to us so much? They allow us to compare and contrast. We can work together and raid bosses, yet we can also compare individual statistics and see who is superior. No longer do we play against the game, conquering mazes and bosses such as we did in platformer games. Instead, we play against each other.

So a possible reason for the appeal could be the increasing social aspects, however what else do we really expect from these games? I think it would be very difficult for me to find someone who would be satisfied with the social aspects alone, as communicating and interacting obviously is not enough. It depends on how and where you interact, and what those interactions actually mean. If the game was simply a chatting platform, such as Habbo Hotel, people would become bored very quickly and lose their interest. So is that the challenge that MMOs face and must conquer? The ability to keep us busy and entertained for long periods of time? Perhaps that is why we face the dreadful grind in a game. At the core of the genre is this grind, and the only difference is the gamer's perception of it. After all, what is a grind if not the repetitive action in order to gain forward progress in a storyline. Yet, you hardly ever hear about people complaining of these "grinds" in games like Call of Duty, where players must play over and over, kill after kill, in order to gain new weapons and perks. So at the core, we all really want the grind, we just want it to be disguised so well through our perception of what we are actually accomplishing that we hardly ever know it exists. We don't want to kill 100 mushrooms, we want to kill 10 goblins, vampires, orcs, mammoths, and so forth. Variety is the spice of life, and MMO developers can not forget that. From what we fight, to how we fight, to what we equip and how we attack, the quicker that these variables can change at our disposal the better.

Lastly, we must consider what we hope to gain from Massively Multiplayer Online games. After all, it is not like we are competing for cash prizes or fame and popularity. However, at times, it can seem like that is what is at the end of the grind. We feel a fake sense of accomplishment for the useless deeds we are performing for computer characters that have a million people picking corn from the fields for them while fighting off hordes of zombie orcs. We seem to believe that if we out-level others, if we propel ourselves to the top of the social leaderboards, that we will gain fame and popularity within the game. No matter who you are, being able to say "I am the best ___" is a feeling that is hard to describe, and harder to achieve. Through MMOs, we get a feeling that we are doing a task that has a higher meaning. We are contributing to an overall social experience that allows us to individually grow, much like we do as human beings in real life. Our characters adapt and evolve, and overall we get armor and weapons that allow us to look like champions. Lower-leveled players cower in an astonished daze when staring upon our epic gear, enchanted to 5. Our guilds conquer territory and win battles, achieving things that no one else has, a feat that very few of us could ever accomplish in real life. Word spreads like wildfire and eventually when people see the title above your head, they whisper to each other, "Holy crap, that guy is a member of ___".

We don't play games for real fame or money, we don't even play to live a second life. We do however use games to accomplish things that are impractical in life. Not feats such as slaying monsters, but mental accomplishments such as being successful, competing and winning, and being able to evolve and grow, increase in strength and knowledge, and meet new people easily. We love the grind and respect it so long as we don't see evidence of it everywhere. These games provide an ability for us to blend in with the mainstream, to be respected and revered by other gamers for our dedication and our skill, for the tag we wear and the name above our character's, and we love being able to overcome skill barriers through immense amounts of time. These games provide us with chances we would not otherwise have, without making us feel like we are escaping real life, because that is not what we want. We simply want to have fun without feeling like outcasts, and we want to cooperate and compete in a way that is fair to everyone. Skill can overcome time and time can overcome skill.

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What is the point of a MMO?

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