This is a serious question! A few weeks ago, I was talking to one of our writers about a game he was playing and writing about. He was trying to have fun in the game’s mining system, and I just kept laughing because I cannot think of a single MMORPG where mining is fun. Not one. It’s just not. “Mining isn’t even fun in a good MMO!” I joked.
But that’s not to say I never enjoy it or derive something worthwhile out of it, and that’s what I want to home in on in today’s Daily Grind. For example, as I’m typing this, I just spent a significant part of my weekend crafting schematics for what I estimate was about 150 factory runs in an MMO (SWG Legends, if you’re curious). I’m definitely not going to lie and tell you it was fun. It wasn’t. There’s a lot of stuff in MMOs where I get a little “in the zone” type of buzz from researching or spreadsheeting or accomplishing a goal. I certainly steal little nuggets of curiosity and delight from puzzling things out and finishing a themepark and getting my house to look just so. But most of the stuff in MMOs I would say really creates that sense of genuine “fun” comes from the social side of things, from friends and guildies. Not from the game.
Are you having genuine fun in your MMOs? Or are you playing them to get something different out of them, some other feeling or emotion?
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!
