I logged into Ultima Online over the weekend absolutely determined to achieve a very specific thing: imbue some gear for my Tamer. But first I wanted to finish off my Arms Lore, which meant finishing the last few points of my Tailoring and Blacksmithing grind. But I ran out of ingots, so I needed to go mining first. But before I could do that, I needed to move my Mining skill back to my Blacksmith, which meant I first needed finish up some maps on my Treasure Hunter. That meant cleaning her inventory out of plants. And while I was doing that, I figured I’d plant a few more on my Paladin, so I needed to pull out my Bard to scrounge up some peculiar seeds…
Two hours later, I was somehow on my boat, salvaging shipwrecks on my Fisher, and I never did actually get to my imbuing.
This isn’t something you see only in classic sandboxes, either; more than once in World of Warcraft I’d want to gear up for a dungeon or finish off just one more achievement and come to my senses a few hours later on a different character on different continent with a quest log full of dailies and a backpack full of herbs.
And you know what? That’s awesome.
Does this ever happen to you? How often are your MMO goals thwarted and distracted?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
