Call it sappy, but I’m gonna stop joking about turkey and emptying my wallet on Steam for a sec for tonight’s Overthinking. It’s Thanksgiving, and we’ve got some thanking to do.
​Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): I’m grateful for one big thing: social innovations. Giving us virtual worlds and skills to master is cool, but giving us reasons to interact and connect with each other is very important to me not only as a gamer but as a person.
This past year I jumped into games people said had horrible communities. Some were admittedly bad, but I felt it was due to features and release day bumps. When the smoke cleared, I felt like I could experience something worth my time. Rarely do I walk away with friends, but joining friends in some of these games certainly helped cement our friendship, and that’s what I’m really grateful for this year.
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): I want to thank two groups this year! First, the people holding the genre together. Everyone who isn’t giving up. My guildies who stick around year after year! The people who keep making good solid MMOs and MMO content and aren’t flitting around from lockbox to battle royale trying to figure out a new angle every five seconds. The people who preserve games. The people who keep history alive and refuse to let people forget how it used to be and what we need to take forward with us. The people who run emulators, like the one that’s become my home (seriously, they reinvigorated my passion for what MMORPGs can be!), and the one that’s home to so many others. So much work is being done for free to keep this genre going.
Second, the people holding MOP together. This site wouldn’t exist but for loyal writers (and their families!) and supportive readers and patrons. It is a privilege to get to work here and make this site “go,” one I don’t take lightly, and I’m grateful for it every single day.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog): Oh, you want cliche? I got cliche. I’m thankful for the opportunity to be with MOP, one of my favorite gaming websites. Seriously, I’m not entirely clear why or how, but I’m also not a gift horse dentist and so won’t be looking into that proverbial mouth.
On the topic of the actual genre itself, I’m still pretty thankful for the stuff coming out of the crowdfunding space that’s looking to serve niches. Even with all of the recent palaver springing up around Star Citizen, there’s games like Crowfall and Legends of Aria that are making some honestly impressive strides towards making some new MMO worlds. Call me overly optimistic, but I still feel like there’s lots of neat things to see from things like this.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog):Â I know it’s self-serving and sappy to say this, but I’m still so happy that Massively OP is running. This site, in both of its incarnations, has been a big part of my life since 2010, and I am very thankful that it’s still surviving and even thriving in this topsy-turvy gaming world. The staff really do care about their work and are wonderfully funny and earnest friends to know, and the community that visits MOP every day to leave their thoughts is quite thoughtful and special. I’ve never gotten to a point where I am burned out on MMORPGs, playing, talking, or writing about them, and MOP helps channel my passion in a productive way.
MJ Guthrie (@MJ_Guthrie, blog): Is it terrible that my answer now is the same as every year? Does that make me too predictable? I am so thankful for the connections I have made with wonderful people all over the world thanks to MMOs. Each year brings new people into my life, and some become very dear life-long friends. I am also very grateful for dedicated devs and others in the MMO industry (CMs, PR) who maintain passion for the game and their work, because these are the folks who are going to put their all into making a worthwhile world for others to enjoy. It might not always work, but these are the folks I want to keep shooting for the goal because someday they will make it. That, and they make doing this job so much more rewarding. Add to this that I am very thankful for conventions that bring the players and the devs together so I can enjoy them both in meatspace for a short spell.
And, I have to say how thankful I am for my coworkers and my boss here at MOP who make life fun and interesting, and have been so awesome while I tackle the surprise job of caring for munchkin. (Thanks for so much patience Bree!)
In games themselves, I am very thankful for ways to express my creativity. Decorating housing in particular helps scratch a special itch for me as I was at one time looking at doing interior design. I am appreciative of places to explore and things to discover, especially during those times of life when I cannot do those things elsewhere due to circumstances. Being able to create, be it connections, relationships, memories, beauty, art, or what have you, is the greatest gift MMOs give me. And I cherish that.
I also am happy to have cuddly pets, customization, and unlimited inventory (wishful thanking, maybe).
What are you grateful for in the MMO genre this year?
