The notion that we enter a “relationship” with a game that *doesn’t end* isn’t healthy in my mind. I play for as long as it’s fun, then move on. That’s what I do with other games, too. The addiction/commitment factor of these MMO things strikes me as a Bad Thing.

It means nothing to me that Leeeroy Jerkins has 15,000 Achievement points, or gets his jollies by making his avatar preen in his Tier 12 Shoulderpads of Airspace Violation. If he’s not actively contributing to my fun, I’m likely to completely ignore him like any I’d ignore any other ostentatious NPC. I truly couldn’t care less how he came by those things that he finds precious. It’s none of my business. He’s happy and not bothering me, carry on. I’ll do my thing, thanks.

Competition with other players does nothing for me. I only compete against my own schedule and my own lack of skills. If I’ve made progress in my own mind, I’m happy.

In real life you see the same phenomenon, people with cheap bikes who are better riders complain about the people with expensive bikes who are worse riders. Why do they complain? I don’t know, but they say the same things as the comment above. They are making assumptions and those assumptions say more about the people making the complaint than anything.

The only time it really intereferes is if the person competes at a higher bracket than they should be based on ability. Like driving at a higher bracket than they should because their car qualifies for it but they aren’t good enough drivers, or going on a difficult raid when they just bought the character and don’t know how it works yet. But that is not the issue that the comment is raising.

Essentially, advancement and achievement are only meaningful when measured against others’. That’s why even people who play MMOs primarily solo, or don’t socialize more than required, still wouldn’t play an MMO single player, if that were possible.

Besides, what is power in mainstream MMOs but time? All things are achievable by essentially every person, should they have sufficient time to invest. RMT, at it’s very best, is an attempt by people with less time to buy their way past people with plenty.

Oddly, EVE is the only MMO I play. Not only is RMT perfectly legitimate, people can essentially buy huge and direct advantages of me. In this case, however, I have no problem with it. The advantages they can get are nothing that couldn’t be achieved with sufficient investment of time – but PVP isn’t (or shouldn’t be) about time, it’s about how well you play, and therefor I’m essentially unaffected.

You can mock him for feeling protective of his achievements, or for caring at all about virtual achievement in an online game – but I suspect there’s a lot of hypocrisy coming out here. MMOs are all about achievement – from measuring and rewarding killing 10,000 rats to winning the loot roll after the 9th time doing the same raid. Fact is, achievement is what sets MMOs apart from other games.

Competition gives achievement meaning. Even indirectly, the ability to show your achievement to other players, is an example of this. If you play MMOs and do not care about achievements or showing them off, your lying to yourself or you won’t be playing long.

I had more to say, but I keep getting my thoughts turned around.

Never let me get on your bad side, Beau!

Also, he obviously thinks that MMO’s are nothing but a competition, highlighting his need for attention in virtual spaces.

I might be reading it wrong, because I’m half asleep, but that guy needs to quit playing games so much. What a chump, and how sad that he needs to “show off” to strangers on the internet to make his day. So, he thinks that “achieving” something in a virtual fantasy world is somehow more complex, deserving of praise, or heroic than spending 10 bucks on a cute pet? And he says THEY need a therapist? Nerds like him really make it hard to convince people that we’re all not really angry white kids.

Beau