A couple of weeks ago, I had a column in which I opined that younger me thought of Ultima Online as a place for hardcore PvP players first and foremost. The point was made in that same column, of course, that younger me was wrong. UO certainly had a PvP population, and it wasn’t a game that was “for” me even then, but that was hardly the only component of the game. It was just what I picked up from outside sources.
But then, the reality is that unless you spend lots of time reading and writing about MMOs, you kind of have to base your opinion on a game based on very little information. Thus, you wind up assuming that Second Life is nothing but kinky sex roleplaying, when it’s really only 90% of the game (the other 10% is trolling). Or you think of EVE Online as nothing but gigantic corporate wars, when the reality is that a lot of the game is mining, playing the economy, and smaller players trying to not get caught in those titanic clashes.
That’s just a handful off the top of my head, though, and I’m sure you have some others. Tell us, dear readers, how do people misunderstand your favorite MMOs? How do you feel the knee-jerk reaction to a given game misses the mark?
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!
