The other day, I came downstairs and my son beckoned me over to what he was playing. Was he working on his skyscale that we set him up for? Nope. He was playing some dumb browser game called Scenexe2.io, a multiplayer Snakes clone – they’re a dime a dozen, the kinds of abstract games middleschoolers can play in-browser without being blocked. His character name is “God” (hehe), and he’s level 65, and I figured he’d just been laying waste to scrubs all afternoon and really should go touch grass. But nope: He wanted to show me how he’d outleveled most everyone and was spending his time helping the newbies, guiding them to good targets, stopping other snake blobs from eating the noobs, and helping them respawn in safety.
OK, yes, this is not an MMO, but it did kind of blow me away. The kids are all right, you know? “It makes me feel good about myself,” he said when I asked him why he was doing it, in spite of the fact that there’s no real in-game rationale and he’d actually level faster by being a jerk. It reminds me of so many classic MMORPGs where people would just stand around buffing people and handing out gear to noobs, just because they wanted to, instead of leveling and enriching themselves. Maybe it made them feel good about themselves too.
When was the last time you saw MMO players going above and beyond to be kind and generous in the game? Tell me about it and warm my heart, fam.
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!
