One thing that keeps striking me in my local Pokemon GO community is how the World of Warcraft veterans, who know MMOs only through that game, try to treat POGO similarly, especially those who grew up on the Group Finder tool. While those who are new to group games or played old-school ones (shout out to the Guild Wars 1 guy!) seem more social, the people who brag about WoW often want to make private lobbies to keep “bads” out or rush people from one raid to the next.
That isn’t to say this is a WoW player problem; I suspect it’s a perception one. For example, one player I know who started in old-school 2D MMOs, like MapleStory and Ragnorak Online, is more accepting of low-end graphics than some other gamers I know. A Vanilla WoW player I know who played TERA (RIP) and a bit of Star Wars: The Old Republic was still used to player politics being a major factor in gaming. WoW itself isn’t the problem, but those of us who know the genre beyond WoW look at multiplayer games much differently.
So for today’s Daily Grind, let’s examine the origins of our perceptions of the genre. Did Ultima Online make you feel like housing should be in every MMO? Maybe after WoW you hit SWTOR and FFXIV and so now you feel like voice-acted solo content is now a must, even for MMOs. Or maybe you’re a fellow Asheron’s Call brat wondering why we pay monthly subscriptions but don’t get monthly updates with our bill. How does your first non-WoW MMO affect your perception of the genre?
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!
