General Discussion

Not to be confused with the viral influenzsa, affluena is actually "a state of extreme materialism which is the impetus for accumulating wealth and for overconsumption of goods; also, feelings of guilt and isolation from the dysfunctional pursuit of wealth and goods." In her Forum Spotlight, Laura Genender looks at a thread that tackles this interesting concept in how it relates to MMORPGs.

“Affluenza” is one of those twenty dollar words that you find only in places like Jeopardy or http://www.FreeRice.com (which is, by the way, an awesome little game for a good cause). Never would I expect to find this word explained or even mentioned on the MMORPG.com forums. But oh, how apt it is.

Affluenza is, according to Dictionary.com, a state of extreme materialism which is the impetus for accumulating wealth and for overconsumption of goods; also, feelings of guilt and isolation from the dysfunctional pursuit of wealth and goods. In her thread “Selfishness of Society Reflected in MMOs?” poster Violette draws a direct comparison from the real life Affluenza to the virtual version which haunts gameplay. How many of us gamers spend hours and days farming gold to buy The One Epic Item, then feel a sense of total letdown once you finally get there? How many of us get The One Epic Item, then suddenly need The Better Epic Item?

Read the whole column here.

Man how'd I miss the original discussion?  I have to agree...personal greed and gain have become so much more important to vast amounts of people it just sort of zaps the fun out of it for those looking for that role play feel or atleast just a fun community.   While I'm not a hard core rp player I do always have a personality for each character I create.  Whether its a drunken dwarven warrior or a chipper always lost elf ranger I've always loved giving my characters personality and having a good time just figuring things out, exploring, experiencing the world.   

Its always hard to find players that have the same mentality as me, but finding a guild like you need most often in more guild driven games is near impossible.    Its made me disenchanted with the guild system & some game communities.  Since WoW came around because its more about raids & guild only mentality instead of using your power and size as a guild to help the community around you.   I don't hate WoW I think its existance has done alot for MMO's just to clarify, but since it came around many of us who have been around a long time have to admit its sort of killed it for more community driven players.

You still get a sense and feel of the old days around the right people but its not enough when there's such a potential for everyone and its destroyed by players who think only of themselves.   While I find I always look forward to having some cool looking peice of loot its the quest and adventure time and making friends along the way to get the item I look forward to most.    It'd be nice if developers took a bit more time to make RP servers worth playing on or atleast encouraged community amongst citizens from the same cities and race.   Back in the old days of EQ1 the developers didn't have to encourage community and help the 'noobs' people just did it.  Did everyone do it?  No of course not but a large majority of the general populace did.   I was completely lost in EQ1 after having played UO first but within two weeks I'd made some decent friends and even gotten some good gear from someone who was retiring.     You don't see such help and community in some games anymore

I think its unrealistic to expect everyone to be friendly & respectful in MMO's but I think if its encouraged a bit more perhaps playesr that keep to themselves more would feel compelled to open up a bit.  I'll miss the golden days of MMO communities but I won't let go or give up my personal belief in fostering a good community even if it means most guilds will over look me or I'll refuse to join because my belief and gamestyle are so peticular.   If I meet someone that needs help or is obviously new I offer what I can without a second thought, if they're rude thats what ignore is for (though it would be nice to be able to pvp some of them...rude people always suck).

Greed fostered & encouraged by developer design sucks way worse.   I wish I could suggest a solution but I suppose in a way we as the players are the solution.  

/rambling post off (hehe)

All valid points in your article, but combat and loot is what most people think about as role-playing, be it table top or online. And for the most part, the glory days of table top RPGing weren't all that amazing looking back, it was the fellowship of the group there. You played with your friends and wanted them to succeed cause they were your friends. It's hard to connect to people in online games, especially now that there is little or no down time (EQ down time was chatter time and EQ was full of down time..). I've kind of given up on online gaming at the moment because it is a "second job" that doesn't pay any bills. Also clan/guild chat is filled with drama and despair cause they too hooked into the game to brother with their real life. The 'false' job of the game becomes the main thing in their life, which usually causes problems...

I can't imagine how some kind of help other mechanics would work. Wasn't there a game with something like that in place? I remember reading something about a follower system but drawing a blank on the game. I do remember hearing it didn't work out and their "discover a spell" system didn't work out as well. Complex society models and systems are hard to put into a game (and usually aren't fun..).

Great article.   Right before I quit  WOW i hated being in  Iron Forge  it seemed like it turned into the slums of Chicago or New York with the poor and the lazy asking for free gold hand outs or you rushing them through an instance.  And playing Karazan or ZA for the first time was awesome exploring new content and new bosses but after you have it on farm mode it does feel like a second job.  I thought it was sad my guild leader said we needed to be level 70 with in a week of expansion release in order to get a rade spot .  So continues my hunt for a more rp type mmo. something i look forward to playing not treating it like its work.

I think it's more of a population thing, honestly.

Everyone always wanted the cool sword, or to be the tough high level player. (who wants to be the lowby?)

I think all my role playing stopped as soon as I entered MMO's from the world of MUDS.

The difference now is, games are easy. UO, DAOC, EQ...you needed a group to level, so you had to help each other. Will that work now? No. Why not? Because that first generation of MMO's, including everything up to WoW, had a small playerbase, either teens or young mostly single adults who would gladly spend 8 hours a day in front of their computers.

Now, we've gotten older, we still play, but can no longer play 8 hours a day, nor do we want to. The newest gen of gamers never experienced the old hard core stuff, and they wouldn't want to, they want it right now, fast paced. The genre is expanding, growing, changing. The original days are gone, and will never come back. They probably weren't really as great as we all thought they were. We're just older and jaded now.

D.