It's funny how the times have changed...

[Trelaboon]

And MMO's with them....

I remember when EQ came out, I was completely awestruck by the great men and women of Norrath who had achieved the highest of quality in character development.

I specifically remember a handful of characters who I was so deeply fascinated by, that I felt we were divided the way the President and I might be divided if ever we were to meet. I would see these people day in and day out, and imagine what kind of spectacular lives they must lead outside of Norrath, for surely someone so great as they must have a truly magnificent livelihood outside of the game. I wouldn't even send them a tell, because the uber/non-uber segregation had taken its natural course.

As I grew older, I began to realize, that the players who were the absolute best inside a video game, had to almost be the complete opposite outside of the land of EverQuest. Traits that often included: unemployed, disabled, retired, rejected, anti-social or in many cases; a criminal in house arrest. Those were often the greats of our time....the ones who first saw Nagafen lay belly up, who ran around in golden shoes, while the rest of us paraded our cloth along the uneven cobblestone floors of Qeynos city.

I realize this was not 100% accurate in all cases, but it was definitely the most common denominator among the elite. I was thinking the other day about modern MMO's and how being unemployed is no longer what gets you on top of the fantasy food chain. In the current state of online gaming, the most powerful of all players, are often the ones who can spend thousands of real dollars on in-game, pay-to-play perks. While being a hermit certainly offers you the same potential advantages, there are no longer quite such large divides in the player base of modern games.

In its own way, it makes me sad. Something about giving up real life time and social activities in order to become the best, is something that I wish had not yet gone away.

My father always told me nothing was free, and that doesn't change with the name Free-to-play. There are always costs to success, but real life money should never have become one of them. This sad state of affairs, is one of the many reasons I no longer play Modern MMO's, and why I'm so captivated by P1999.


Thank you to all of the developers that give up *their* free time in order for us to walk into a living, breathing time-machine. I'm genuinely grateful for the last 4+ years I've had on this server, and hope to get at least 4 more.

<3