In the word MMORPG there are the letters: RPG, i.e.: role-play game. After reading some message boards relating to this type of interactive game I decided to try Star Wars Galaxies: “That’s sound great, I will go back to my childhood when I remembered playing with Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker” I thought. Perfect! This is the game I have chosen, now let's divulge a little deeper into its specifics.
A little bit of history
During its release, SWG (Star Wars Galaxies) was described as one of the most exciting role-playing games of all time. For those who know a little bit about the Star Wars universe, the game originally takes place between the 3rd and 4th episode of the saga. The Empire monitors the Galaxy, all the Jedi are gone and the Alliance is almost dismantled. However, I noticed the game has evolved to become more a MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) than MMORPG and role-playing gamers have phased out. According to a friend who still plays, World of Warcraft, the release lead SWG’s developers to attract new players by creating some incoherence in the timeline by introducing new professions such as Jedi.
Why am I mentioning this? The background is very important to socialize and to play “well” in this game. I understood that a bit too late in my experience with the game.
Different game experiences.
As everyone I had some clichés about MMORPG players. I am sure you know what I mean. However I was surprised by all the difference between players. I met kids around 10 or 12 and one 51-year-old man. They were Star Wars fans or just player addicts. More surprisingly, no one plays the same way.
The first thing I noted – we have to really want to play to this game. I had to download it (almost 2 hours), upload it (30 mns), create my avatar (a sweet wookie jedi: yes, I’m a cool man!): 32 mns and learn the basic vocabulary “afk” (away from keyboard), “PvP”, “PvE”, “XP” (experience). I’m done! Let’s get started!
10 minutes later I realized my first mistake when I tried to talk to Ben_Yardis who told me he do not want to play with a Jedi: “they are not supposed to exist at this period”.
Disappointed, I decided to follow the tutorial and killed my first monster. We do not press buttons to control every gesture of our avatar but just one and stay in our chair to watch him beat the enemy. To be honest: this part is quite boring. The game is only interesting only if interactions are created.
I quickly found some other jedis and between two “lol” they accepted to let me play with them. We try to haunt as a team and that let us “level up” very fast. One of the players spoke while the others (including me) used their keyboard (“attack first”, “I need help to distract the creature”, “do not go there you will be …”) - was among the dialogue we exchanged. By playing with them (and ignoring their slang language or abbreviation: I did not understand everything) but learned exactly what a MMOG is: it is funny, distracting, challenging and more complex than any role game I have ever played. However something was missing: I wanted to experiment the main side of SWG - Role Playing.
The third day I decided to create another avatar. This one is a blond-male-human. To avoid any mistakes I searched on the Internet how to be a good “role-play gamer”. Some of them make groups called guilds and are RP (role playing) oriented. I chatted with some members of the Imperial Force guild and decided to play with them to experience this aspect of SWG - It was totally different.
I attend to a patrol simulation. Depending on the involvement of each player, different rankings were given. There was one officer and 4 soldiers; all of them wore appropriate clothes (officer or stormtrooper suits). They were in the story, checked ID, asked questions… The way they communicated was completely different than that of the previous game. This had a tone which was more mature, and without slang or pointless jargon about the game. My first reaction was: “oh my god, they are weird!” But after hanging out one hour with them and speaking with them about their feelings, attitudes and experiences I realized that the game can be quite exiting. It is more than a game but a real second world, a real simulation and a good way to escape from routine – one told me. When they are playing they are no longer “Dan” or “Samuel” but “officer Yeth” or “Stormstrooper 3428.” Okay I agree, after one hour I felt like it is a little bit bizarre and I need to stop, it was distracting though.
What are the differences between the first players I met and the second? The main has to do with motivation: they do not look for the same game experience. While the first group of players just wanted to let off steam with friends in the same universe (and they do not really care about what universe); the other want to build something more profound and to interact with other Star Wars fans, sharing their passion with one another. One of them told me he plays with his girlfriend after diner. When I asked why, he answered: “I dunno, I like doing that, it’s like watching TV. It’s more funny tho”.
The other difference is the age: first guys were around 13 (exactly 12, 13 and 15), the others were older (from 20 to 35). The last difference is the implication in the game: these kids are hardcore players (more than 20 hours a week), while the guild members play less often (5, 6 hours a week) but spend more time outside the game, the guild message board is very active, they share ideas, scripts… They are more closed-minded: accepting to play only with other role-play gamers and do a lot of PvP (Player versus Players). The first group, on the other hand, was very easy going and liked to play against the environment (PvE).
My last experiment was with my friend’s avatar. First amazing thing: he created a “sexy” (I don't know if I can say that about an avatar) girl who wears a bikini. I was startled and though: does he have problems with his girlfriend? But he explained it is very common. So a little advice if you are a boy: be careful, do not date anyone in SWG, you can have huge surprises!
After this shock I started to play and I understand this game was really made to create interactions: it was impossible to “level up” alone. I had to collaborate with other gamers to try to kill very big monsters and share XP. Everything is about trading, sharing, helping and even if it is not very easy to create a longtime virtual friendship, you always meet someone to speak or play with.
The other thing I noticed is the inhibition hardly existed in this virtual world: I played 3 hours with my friends character. I received 3 virtual dates, a ton of compliments, and a real date! Was this a way for some guys to become more confident? Could this be accomplished by trying to be someone else? Maybe, but it is not specific to MMORPG!
MMORPG are not made for me, I do not want to spend so much time to play and interact with people I do not know, nor do I want to spend much money on it (players pay monthly fees). I do not like the entire business aspect around the game: some guys are willing to pay 100 dollars for having their avatar leveled up. I, however, totally understand why it is attracting: it is a very unique way to play. Role-play gamers can share their passion and hard gamers can add more challenges. Even if some attitudes scare me because they seem too extreme, I met regular guys who just want to have some fun. Clichés and some critics over-exaggerate the reality. After playing almost once a day during one week and meeting a ton of people I never talked to weird/disconnected people who were trying to escape from the real word.
Is it really worse than watching TV for hours or collecting stamps?
