Bonedead (Chapter 4)

MMO community connection:

Bonedead’s Adventures

Chapter 4: Preferences

At your peak, how much time per week would you say you spent gaming? How about now?

My peak was probably only a week long, but I remember getting above 80 hours a week on my Xfire once.

When during the week are your regular play times?

It depends on if my fiance wants to do anything (like leave the cave). If she does and I can see myself sacrificing a year of my life due to the sun’s damaging rays, I don’t get to play that day. If she is fine with not doing things (Huzzah!) then I play from when I get home until I go to bed. Sometimes I’ll get burned out an hour before 10 (when we try to go to be) and see what she is doing. Ideally weekends are uninterrupted game playin time, but every now and then it’s go outside and lose more years of my life.

Generally speaking, are you more of a social creature in MMOs (grouping to quest, joining guilds, etc.) or something of a lone wolf?

Lone wolf all day long. My problem is that I do what I want to do, I get 10 quests, figure out what order I want to do them in, and go. If I absolutely have to group for a quest I’ll either abandon it or if another player is near the quest location when I arrive I may group with him until we complete the quest, say thanks, and gtfo of the group. I hate when I end up grouping with people who play like me, but are stupid kids who think now I’m their personal slave. I hate when I group with someone and they act like my slave, I don’t want to drag some stranger around while I do my thing. I take small breaks somewhat frequently, people don’t like that. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I hate people who are bad at doing their job, and after many failed attempts at grouping I now label everyone as bad at their class. This way if I lose, I know it is my fault, and I can live with that.

Have you made any lasting friendships through your MMO experience? Please explain.

I guess you could say that. I’ve hung out at PKer.org since 2003 and we went from having a lot of usual members to maybe 6-10 people who sometimes come by and post something. But the ones who are still there I would consider friends. I met one in real life when I went on vacation and had a blast.

Before logging into a game, do you already have a course of action planned out in your head, or do you just sort of do whatever you feel like once in game?

Sometimes I have a plan of action but it is usually extremely vague. When I was leveling Structures Traders in SWG (have 2 level 90s) I would log in knowing exactly what I was going to be doing. It is a good feeling knowing what you’re going to do. I’m playing LotRO right now and I pretty much never know what I’m going to do. However, today I instructed my fiance (who has the day off) to download abc files and get them to play ingame properly. So when I log in (tomorrow as tonight is wine night) I’ll be rushing to the Prancing Pony to play a bunch of crap for people. I plan on “griefing” many people with the Benny Hill song as they quest about.

When playing MMOs do you tend to just play one at a time or do you take more of the smorgasbord approach?

Multiple MMOs never works out with me. I’ll forget about one completely and forget to cancel the recurring subscription and then damn. I try and keep it to 1 MMO and as always, CounterStrike.

Do you tend to supplement your MMO gaming with other PC, console or tabletop games?

CounterStrike. I could play Hello Kitty online all damn day as long as I could still get my CS fix.

Are you something of an altoholic?

I currently have a level 20 Champion, a 19 Rune-keeper, two pre-10 alts, and a monster character. But yes, oh hell yes, am I ever an altoholic. My WAR server select screen is ridiculous. Probably 5-6 servers each with anywhere from 2-8 or so characters. I’d guess I have at least 20 WAR characters. DAoC, I’ve created at least 40.

Do you find yourself multitasking while gaming (perhaps watching TV, talking on the phone, out of game instant messaging, playing another game, or even listening to a podcast)?

I used to listen to one of the early WAR podcasts while playing, but then they stopped making the podcast. I did it with Yivvits and Mr Bubbles (right?) in SWG. I’ll talk on the phone if I’m playing the MMO with that person. That is about it though, no TV, no other games, no IMing.

Do you find yourself having much MMO discussion off-line, perhaps with friends or family?

I find it is the only thing I ever want to talk about when I’m sober and around friends. I don’t have any other hobbies really so it is either MMOs or discussing the radio shows I listen to on my drive to/from work.

Have you ever felt that you game too much? If so, how did you cope with that?

Yes. Well I’ve had my breaks. When I moved a while ago I went like a whole two months without internet. That’s right, who wants to touch me?

Since you started playing MMOs, have you ever taken a break from the genre? If so, please explain.

I’ve tried. It was probably recently (within the last few years). All of my options were just the same thing. I’d played them all until I reached my dead end (leveling taking too long) and all that was left for me was to go back and replay them. I’ve just begun to understand (read: accept) that the levels take a long time for a reason. I read a good quote on a blog today about how you hit your head against the wall slowly breaking it down and what keeps you going is knowing that there is something good beyond that wall. End game being the something good. I’d be glad if I started playing more end games in the future.