Recently I had a discussion with an associate about just what MMO's are. We were not talking about particular MMO's or the usual nerdy aspects of them, but rather what they are today. We came up with a few ideas and the one that we seemed to agree on was that MMO's today have become more of a hobby than anything else.
Some people collect baseball cards, some people are rabid sports fans and the list goes on and on. MMO's are my hobby of choice because they have somewhat of a social aspect outside of current friends, you can get a bunch of friends involved in doing something fun and the amount of time it can take up is highly variable.....and it's cheap.
Let me clarify what exactly I mean by hobby before I continue: I consider MMO's hobbies in the light that they are constructive, non-harmful ways to spend one's free time relaxing with something they enjoy doing. Some people may disagree about the constructive part, but I can assure you they are. Just go to any number of websites where people are buying, selling and trading accounts for different games. That's really no different than the old days of collecting baseball cards and then finding people to sell yours or trade with. The medium of communication is vastly different sure, but the same basic principles remain.
I know what you're thinking, "turn off the computer and walk away slowly" and if I spent as much time playing MMO's as true addicts do then I would have a long time ago. I would classify the amount of time I spend playing MMO's somewhere quite a bit above casual, but very far away from hardcore at the same time. I view MMO's merely as a hobby and while I may get passionate about them I would never get physical over a video game. Now I say this because there are spectactors for different sports (primarily soccer or football for those of you from Europe/anywhere that isn't America) that have, do, and will actually kill people for supporting a different team.
I have to wonder why that sort of fanatacism is more widely accepted, not condoned mind you, but accepted. However when I say that I only view MMO's as a hobby people seem to think that's strange. I have had other hobbies in the past including WH:40k armies that I still maintain, but that was a very expensive hobby. That was a much more accepted hobby for some reason though, even though I actually spent more time playing, maintaining and assembling my armies in WH:40k than I do playing MMO's.
Some people may ask, 'well then by that extension aren't all video games hobbies?' and I have to say a simple no. MMO's are a persistant world where while characters may be of the same class/race and have some of the same gear they are not all the same person. In regular RPG's you usually either play a single character or choose a few different characters, but there is a limited story with a beginning and an end. However that character isn't really something -you- create, it's something someone else created and you might just tweak it a little.
In a persisent world you can improve your little character in a number of ways and collect pieces of gear that you specifically want and can then show off to others. Or you can sit around and talk with other people about those pieces of gear, or PvP, or politics of the game (if the game has player-run politics, something I'd like to see more of). Some MMO's have housing or castles you can build or take over and then have something else to discuss. These aren't things you can do in a single-player game. While yes there may be a castle or some such your character can own in a single-player game, it's something -everyone- else that plays is going to be able to do to. It's not really any sort of constructive achievement.
I consider MMO's to be a hobby because there are things in an MMO that not everyone will be good enough or have the opportunity to do. That's how it is with any good hobby. For example (yep, using WH:40k again): There are some people out there who are AMAZING artists and can create mindblowing stuff with their models. I'm a little above average on painting, but there are still loads of people out there better than me.
It's the same way it -should- be with any MMO, there are some people out there who either have more skill or time to spend on their hobby so they naturally should have more to show for it. I like having things in an MMO that actually require effort/skill to strive for. That makes achieving them, if I have the time, that much more satisfying. I honestly cannot stand it that so many MMO's these days are just handing things out to everyone because they don't want anyone to feel left out. It makes people weak, but that's a topic for another time. Another example for you: There are the Golden Demon Awards for WH:40k (yeah, 40k again). This is where the best artists go to compete for prized, but mostly bragging rights. If every single 40k hobbiest was able to pick up their first starter set and within a month or two be a top notch Golden Demon winner level artist what would be the point? How would we even distinguish good from bad at that point?
I digress though, yeah I do that a lot with these, get used to it. Bottom line is I consider MMO's to be a hobby and there are different levels of that hobby that anyone can get interested in. I hope it remains that way and I hope that one day there is an MMO created that has a level of depth that is simply staggering th the more avid hobbiest, but has a different face and lower-end rewards for the lighter hobbiest with either less time or skill.
