Gamer Community

[Recidiva]

Another cute Easter Egg. My husband noticed the Dalaran Rat and the four Dalaran Sewer Turtles in the Underbelly. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Last night I had a dream where I was trying to get a port to Dalaran while everything else weird was going on. (Apparently there was a swim meet and competitors kept being shot or murdered or whatever...but that's beside the point) I kept getting frustrated because I couldn't find the right channel to ask for a port. Weird.

 

[Homburg]

I much prefer Thottbot. And I use Questhelper even though I have a great sense of direction and tend to find things easily. Simply put, this game is casual fun. I get enough challenge in RL that I don't want to have to search all over the Barrens or wherever for some random runty squib. QH points me in the right direction, and I do the business once I get there. Happy.

 

[Recidiva]

I much prefer Thottbot. And I use Questhelper even though I have a great sense of direction and tend to find things easily. Simply put, this game is casual fun. I get enough challenge in RL that I don't want to have to search all over the Barrens or wherever for some random runty squib. QH points me in the right direction, and I do the business once I get there. Happy.

It's funny, I've been playing games for...ever...but there's always the "Casual gamer" versus the "hard core gamer" thing going on.

I was playing MUDs years ago, which were hard core, corpse-losing cruelty fests. There's no way I'd play that game again. Impossible to solo, dying all the time...yeah, I had fun, but...

And I'd get shit from self proclaimed "real gamers" who said I was a wuss because I had a mage that used teleport...that made me lazy because I couldn't walk anywhere in the world from memory!

So I am aware of the different perceptions and gamer attitudes regarding "earning" the right to be a "real gamer"

Okay, so I'm not a real gamer. *teleports away*

 

[Homburg]

I remember playing text MUD's in 1990. I was stunned when I found out that the person I was chatting with was across the country. It was awesome. And I had a blast.

And I'd never play another one again. I like my graphics. I like my questhelper. I like my casual games.

And I have never been hard-core, even though I logged into EQ before Allakazam made his first site. I did it the hard way back then because EQ was cool, and I didn't have a choice. Happily, I have the choice these days.

 

[Recidiva]

I remember playing text MUD's in 1990. I was stunned when I found out that the person I was chatting with was across the country. It was awesome. And I had a blast.

And I'd never play another one again. I like my graphics. I like my questhelper. I like my casual games.

And I have never been hard-core, even though I logged into EQ before Allakazam made his first site. I did it the hard way back then because EQ was cool, and I didn't have a choice. Happily, I have the choice these days.

It is an interesting part of gamer culture. In older games you'll see lots of them with "Iron Man" modes. Inability to save. I haven't seen that in years. But it always gives me a smile when its's an option when I load up to replay Wizardry.

At the beginning of gaming online and even in old (and when i mean old I'm talking Zork, adventure, King's Quest on my Pc Jr.) there were game makers and game players who had a serious attitude about needing to solve the problems alone or missing large parts of the "fun" somehow if you get help or use maps or tips. Roberta Williams, who wrote a lot of my favorite early games for Sierra, really despised having any sort of cheat books available at all, because she thought it ruined the game.

I'm grateful for the internet now so I can have my sort of fun from other people's exploration and research. It's interesting to see the arc of the hard-core gamer over time and attitude. I think the ready communication of gamer to gamer makes the fine crafting of difficult obstacles as the game itself (Myst, anyone?) not really viable in the long term. There's got to be fun, replay, easter eggs...I like it.

It's nice to see that humor and fun and beauty are becoming priorities, and seeing more casual options. I've managed to survive and do my thing in really, really hard games, but the constant repetition of hard, as you've mentioned, isn't a nice counterpoint to a life with difficult challenges and obstacles that provide me with plenty of real problem solving skills.

I think you might need that attitude to create uncompromisingly cool games, but I always found it silly that Roberta Williams (who also created absolutely illogical puzzles I'd never be able to solve because the solution was so obscure it would never occur to me) thought it was somehow ungamerlike to want to know how to do something after investing all the time I intended to invest.

Okay, so I used to lose sleep over the Ancient Cyclops spawn, and bang my desk and cry when something went horribly wrong and I lost things I'd worked toward for months...having been through that just reinforces why I don't want to do it again and really didn't want to do it then but didn't have many choices about it.

I do have to turn a lot of the channels off in games like EQ or EQII where people are busy trashing Warcraft for being "brainless" and they're missing the entire reason why it works and why hanging out with hard core gamers can be tiresome.

 

[Homburg]

Very, very true. That said, we're on two realms together, and you've seen the profusion of low level alts that myself, viv, and MIS run. You have the same sort of huge army of toons (admittedly at significantly higher level). That is the epitome of casual to me. I'm not interesting in driving one toon to max level like the mailed fist of vengeance just so I can see end-game content. I don't care. I want to toodle around and see the fun stuff.

 

[Recidiva]

Very, very true. That said, we're on two realms together, and you've seen the profusion of low level alts that myself, viv, and MIS run. You have the same sort of huge army of toons (admittedly at significantly higher level). That is the epitome of casual to me. I'm not interesting in driving one toon to max level like the mailed fist of vengeance just so I can see end-game content. I don't care. I want to toodle around and see the fun stuff.

Yeah, I'm less a pointed arrow shot toward a goal than I am just water that wants to soak into every bit of ground available and take up all the space I can.

I'm an altaholic because I want to be able to do everything. That's a different type of gaming mindset, and one I think's in the minority, but it's hard to tell because if everyone else out there playing is like me, we won't make the top of any list, won't be on any channels and won't be noticed at all.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

i'm casual myself. I play wow to unwind. Yes my guild is raiding & raiding hard, but it's not a requirement

here lately I have been working professions

(I am Blacksmithings bitch)

 

[Recidiva]

i'm casual myself. I play wow to unwind. Yes my guild is raiding & raiding hard, but it's not a requirement

here lately I have been working professions

(I am Blacksmithings bitch)

Tradeskills are my passion. Half the time I'm leveling to make the money to raise my skills. I think Warcraft's expansions made the trades MUCH better at higher levels. The original game was disappointing, BC was infinitely better, and WOTLC still made even better improvements, like having upper and lower tier sets of gear (in leathercrafting case, the Frostscale and the Dark Frostscale suits work together so you don't have to lose suit bonuses as you level.)

EQII also has a system where I can make every single thing I wear or consume, which to me is heaven.

I still can't forgive Warcraft for me not being able to make my own bows. Guns are NOT the same, not for a night elven hunter. Hmph.

Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting are both really hard. To the extent that your heart might actually speed up if you see a yummy node of metal, all alone...nobody mining...

I've been known to squeak when sighting khorium.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

I still can't forgive Warcraft for me not being able to make my own bows. Guns are NOT the same, not for a night elven hunter. Hmph.

Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting are both really hard. To the extent that your heart might actually speed up if you see a yummy node of metal, all alone...nobody mining...

I've been known to squeak when sighting khorium.

AMEN sister!!!

main is a Troll Hunter. I can craft arrows (have a 450 Engeneer), make a pretty decent gun, but I prefer bows!!!

& i brake for Titanium!!!!

 

[jockdom]

I'm a erb gatherer purley for gold and a enchanter for kicks. I just love the way enchants make some of the weapons look. The first time I did mongoose I thought I had a light sabre.

 

[Recidiva]

I'm a erb gatherer purley for gold and a enchanter for kicks. I just love the way enchants make some of the weapons look. The first time I did mongoose I thought I had a light sabre.

My husband does that, gathers herbs and sells them. He's rich as hell. I have alchemists and inscriptioniists in horde and Alliance, so there's no way herbs escape my orbit. or metal. or disenchantables. or... and I'm poor as hell, but well dressed.

Well, I do all the crafts. Twice. So. Yeah.

 

[serendipitous2]

- - -

 

[MisterSir]

I Now Have A 360 But No Games.

Where Are My Games.

Goddammit Axel.

 

[Recidiva]

I Now Have A 360 But No Games.

Where Are My Games.

Goddammit Axel.

Go get one. Go get Oblivion or Fable II. Now! Go!

Who's Axel?

 

[satindesire]

I Now Have A 360 But No Games.

Where Are My Games.

Goddammit Axel.

Go get one. Go get Oblivion or Fable II. Now! Go!

Who's Axel?

Also get Halo 3, Mass Effect and BioShock. Oh, and the Gears of War games.

 

[Recidiva]

Also get Halo 3, Mass Effect and BioShock. Oh, and the Gears of War games.

I loved KOTOR, and unfortunately any of the follow ups didn't hold my interest. I tried Mass Effect but I left right about the part where I was apparently supposed to be admiring some space sex kitten. Meh. I'm out.

BioShock even freaked my husband out, he couldn't bear to rip the spines out of little sisters.

I suck at FPS!

 

[satindesire]

I suck at FPS!

Ha-Ha!

http://www.thevancouverite.com/pictures/nelson-muntz.gif

 

[Recidiva]

Ha-Ha!

http://www.thevancouverite.com/pictures/nelson-muntz.gif

I compensate by lavishing ridiculous amounts of time and patience on strategy games.

I have every recent version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and half my gamer life has probably been dedicated to knocking over China in one way or the other.

 

[satindesire]

I compensate by lavishing ridiculous amounts of time and patience on strategy games.

I have every recent version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and half my gamer life has probably been dedicated to knocking over China in one way or the other.

What version of Godzilla would this be?

 

[jockdom]

Fallout looks amazing for the xbox. Left4Dead is also good fun to play online.

 

[Recidiva]

What version of Godzilla would this be?

That's Japan! Geeeez!

 

[Recidiva]

Fallout looks amazing for the xbox. Left4Dead is also good fun to play online.

I can never get past the tutorials in such games

 

[satindesire]

That's Japan! Geeeez!

Yeah, that's why I said version. Silly!

 

[MisterSir]

Also get Halo 3, Mass Effect and BioShock. Oh, and the Gears of War games.

I have every last one of them somewhere! Oblivion too! Fallout 3 (lol i get it)! I just can't find them! Playing guitar Rock Band over and over loses its thrill when I can't play any of the DLC I paid good money for! Axel is Axel Foley! HULK SMASH