Stex Toys

I was tidying up my Google Docs today and came across a file with an unidentifyable file name. Turned out to be an SQL dump of my old blog from a good time back. Skipping through the content I came across an old article that I spent a little while writing, so I thought I would bring it back to life, out-dated and dusty as it is. Anyway, what follows is provided as it was when written sometime back in 2007..

A Truly Satisfying MMO is an Unattainable Dream

Before I get into this I should make a couple of points clear. The first is that, despite what you might have thought when you first read the subject, I haven’t come here in a deliberate attempt to bash MMOs and start a flame war. I am an avid fan of MMOs and have been for some time. My XFire account will show some of my dedication (http://www.xfire.com/profile/countstex) although I should point out I haven’t been using it all that long, and so much of my MMO play time in unrecorded.
The second point I should bring up is that I was born before 1980, in 1974 to be more precise making me the grand age of one third of a century now. This means I’ve been playing computer games in their various incarnations for a long time. So hopefully I should have enough knowledge to make my points have some sort of credit.

So, to get to it, satisfying MMOs are an unattainable dream? What brings me to this conclusion? Well the germ of the idea formed whilst I was listening to Episode 51 [MOG Podcast], and in particular the talk of the free for all Vanguard server play, not that my thinking is specific to this game; it is a general feeling for all MMOs, in fact it’s probably mainly inspired by my on again off again relationship with my EVE Online subscription.
In order for it to make sense you need to understand how gaming has been for most of its history, and as there may be those who can’t remember the pre-internet days I will explain myself. All of our early gaming moments where had in solo play. Not because we chose to play solo games, but because in the vast majority this is all there was. Sure there where the odd arcade cabinets with two or four player controls, and some of the 16-bit home system had split screen gaming, but largely everything was about you. Think of it as the ‘Only you can save the world!’ idea, which is a common scenario for a whole deluge of games! We all grew up playing games where we were the number one guy (I say guy as female toons in games have always been under-represented) So it is somewhat ingrained into our psyche that we can be number one. Hell a whole genre of games sprung up where we weren’t just number one, we were god! And that is the whole point really, it was all about being the best, these worlds didn’t exist if we weren’t playing them, without us there where nothing.

So how does all this relate to MMOs? Well along they came and we all started playing them, and we all have some great times I’m sure. But we’re always left feeling that something isn’t quite as it should be. And I believe this is the back of our minds telling us something. We’re not the best. We’re not god. And worst of all.. this world goes on quite happily without us! We’ve all felt that pull when you’re not playing.. knowing that things are carrying on, and we’re missing it! In fact to be any good at all, you really have to be a part of a guild of some kind. And that means you’re going to be working with other people, and that means… you’ll never be the one who saves the world.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not on a downer about ‘hell is other people’ ! But this is a whole new way of gaming, and one that we didn’t grow up with. So in the same way that the new Star Wars films never quite hit that old childhood mark, MMOs will never quite leave us satisfied.

This is no reason to not play them of course! And I will continue to do so, and will continue to enjoy them. However I have to be ready to always have a small part of me disappointed by the game. Perhaps this is the part which makes me buy the new Zelda each incarnation. The part that still wants to build cities, and wipe evil from the face of the planet. The part that still wants to be GOD.

For those of you who have stuck with my outpouring of thoughts here, I thank you, and I hope there is enough truth in what I’ve said to make you have a think about it. If however it turns out I’m on my own and been speaking some of the hairiest of bollocks for the past few paragraphs then feel free to take me down.

So, what’s been going on here then? Well quite a lot, however with work being a bit crazy busy over the past couple of months I’ve not been able to bring myself to spend quite as much time on the PC at home of late, so I’ve been very much a pure twitter outlet of late.

Now though, with some rearranged holidays from November I find myself with some time away from work and can finally get back to blogging. At this stage I plan to add a couple of posts a day to get myself back into the swing of things, but first I wanted  to give a kind of overview of what’s being going on, and in a way a sort of table on contents of the items I’ll be talking about in the next few days.

First up is one of the biggest changes to come my way in a while, and a route which I thought I would never travel down. You see I’ve always seen myself as a PC gamer with a tow in the console market via the family favourite Nintendo having owned one of Big N’s devices since the N64. I did obtain a PS2 at one point, purely for playing Pro Evo, but in the end just used the PS2 controller to play it on the PC! Recently however I’ve found my gaming choices on the PC limits by the aging hardware in my three year old machine, despite a few choice upgrades along the way. Normally this would not present me with a challenge as I’m never happier than when picking up a few new parts to boost the PC along. However as I had rooted myself in the AMD camp during the glory years I found the stepping stone approach to upgrades a flawed route in the current Intel led performance world, leaving me with the only intelligent options being a complete system rebuild. Again not normally a problem as I’ve never bought a pre-built PC in my life and always build my own. However the computer market is currently in more flux than usual with Intel unleashing their new architecture and AMD looking for ways to regain their foot hold so I’ve been delaying and delaying waiting for the right time to strike. It is at this time that I happen upon a large bit of luck on the Next Gen gaming front, when my cousin reveals he has a ‘dead’ XBOX 360. Investigation reveals it’s the famed Red Ring of Death and he has since bought himself a shiny new 360 Elite.

Kindly he lets me take it off his hands, and one short return trip to Microsoft see’s me joining the world of XBOX, a route which previously I had only briefly flirted with for the media playback abilities of the device. So I am now opened up again to the world of the modern cutting edge gaming where I like to be, and playing games on the console they where invented for rather than some cheep arsed port to the PC. Of course I will still be gaming on the PC, but only with titles designed from the ground up for it, no doubt primarily in the RTS genre, whilst blasting my way through Locust Hordes, and being Left 4 Dead on the ‘BOX, so expect some feedback on 360 games to be added to the site.

Second change is slightly less of a revolution, and more in the traditional evolutionary path. After almost 18 months of happy mobile life with the BlackBerry Pearl, I’ve upgraded to the Bold after a shunt from Alex Watson of CustomPC fame. Actually whilst on the subject of CustomPC be sure to check out their new AKA first book Ultimate Guide to PC Gaming which is high on my wish list for Christmas! Anyway, back to the crackberry.. The Bold is turning out to be every bit as good a device as the Pearl turned out to be, however also with one of the major flaws intact also. But more on that another day.

As well as these two major points there are some other bits of tech I’ve picked up in the past few months that are also worth of some blog space, such as the Netgear Ethernet over Mains Power kit, and a portable DVD player with DivX capabilities, so there should be plenty coming over the next week prior to the Christmas break.. if I can put down Gears of War 2

Well, generally speaking not far! However there have been a number of developments gadget and games wize which have kept me very tied up, and given me little chance to actully talk about them.
With some time of work, which is getting busier all the time in itself, next week I hope to add a whole new batch of posts updating this site with news of all the new toys and developments.
So hopefully I will be back with more info soon.