Massively Speaking Episode 179: Mesmeriffic

Why no SOPA awareness on this site?

Thanks, downloading now.

I like it that you refer to the mesmer as a she, when the mesmer was obviously derived from "Franz Mesmer" x'd

and nice podcast overall

*yawn* SWTOR another boring WoW clone.

Wouldn't be surprised if the next MMO to change things up is Titan from Blizzard lol.

Lets be honest, GW2 is just another standard MMO and isn't going to change anything. Then you look on the horizon to see what else is there? Asian MMOs... no thanx, SOE MMOs... no thanx, like there is nothing :\

Blizzard wouldn't piss off their fans by announcing Titan is a Casual MMO or some Facebook game. Titan will be something different like Blizzard have said and they haven't made bad game so I bet it'll be the next trend setting for MMOs. That said Blizzard have ruined WoW many years ago so I have no interest in it either.

It is hard to enjoy the journey when the game design focuses so much on the destinations.

In answer to your question Rubi; I don't understand it either... why folks want to take an entertainment experience and turn it into a stressful exercise in endurance and frustration is mind boggling to me. As you said, "It's a game."

Without any personal, subjective understanding of it, but trying to provide an objective explanation; perhaps they are viewing it more as a "sport" than a "game?" You know, competitive juices flowing and all that... there is an awful lot of "keeping up with the Jones's" sort of attitude prevalent in subscription MMOs in particular (which is fostered by those developers intentionally.) I'm not sure. As an "explorer" on the Bartle's test it's a very foreign concept to me. Probably an "achiever" would be better able to define it?

Mrs ArcherAvatar is quite happy with her "laundry lists" of grindstones she's patiently working away at in various games. Every now and then I'll point out a particularly lovely waterfall or similar scenery she's passing for the umpteenth time as she's hurriedly rushing through her levels/achievements/titles/etc and she will stop and look - comment in amazement at what a great job the artists did (usually no more than a couple of minutes) and then quickly go right back to her grindstone.
/shrug
Different strokes...

Then of course, there is the philosophy of Agent Smith from the Matrix... "Human beings define their existence through suffering..." or to put it another way, folks just aren't truly happy unless they have something to b**ch about, but as long as they complain about "ALL the work" they are having to do to accomplish whatever particular goal they are striving towards, then they are secretly qutie pleased with themselves and happily carry on with what they're doing.

P.S. I liked the different perspectives you both shared on the SWTOR launch, and it was another really enjoyable show to listen to.

I'm going to make Rubi an audio bumper/audio sting using Justin (and some of Shawn's) "RUBI'S RANTS!" phrases.

I sometimes power through leveling just to see how fast I can do it or simply just to refine the process. I save that kind of stuff for alts though, I always go through leveling slowly on my first character.

I chuckled when the Minstrel started up. I'll probably never get tired of that.

"La la la laaaa la la la... La la la... La la. ...Hm."