I especially enjoy online games that let you connect up with friends or even strangers. In my case that is quite ironic because almost my entire core group of friends were all originally online friends that I met via games. It sounds strange to but I think in the future, the concept of meeting people online will become much more accepted.
It’s really quite amazing that you can play a game with someone in your own country but also with people from overseas. Learning to communicate with people that don’t speak the same language is a challenge but well worth the effort. I used to play Phantasy Star Online on the Sega Dreamcast, which was a pioneer in online gaming for consoles. PSO had a list of phrases you could select that would be translated into the correct language for other players. It was limited of course but such a fantastic concept. I’ve yet to see it implemented in any other online games. Even Phantasy Star Universe, the successor to PSO, lacked the ability to connect to anyone worldwide. Separate servers were set up for Japanese and English speaking countries. Unfortunately too many people disliked playing with people they couldn’t speak with fluently in PSO.
In class we were introduced to Second Life. A world where you can create an avatar and home for your online personality. The “game” itself is free but some people spend real world money to buy items for their virtual character and house. I often wondered if it was possible for such a concept to take off.
I’ve noticed this trend of buying virtual items slowly creeping it’s way into other online games. Microsoft’s Xbox Live has an online store where you can buy clothing and accessories for your avatar. Users already pay a subscription fee for an Xbox Live Gold account in order to allow them to play games online. I quite often scoff at Microsoft charging for dashboard themes, icons and avatar clothing. But even I caved and bought an icon pack eventually.
Blizzards massively successful World of Warcraft is a MMORPG (Mass multiplayer online role playing game), the only way to play it is online and you must pay a subscription fee to play. Since the start of the game, people have been selling in game items and entire accounts to each other privately and via ebay. The sale of in game gold for real world money is frowned upon and can earn you a permanant ban from the game.
World of Warcraft has just recently introduced special items that can only be obtained by purchasing them with real world money. The “Celestial Steed” sells for $25 US and despite the hefty price tag being more than the cost of 1 month subscription to play World of Warcraft, it is reported that the Celestial Steed made US $2million in the first four hours of
its release for sale.
Sources:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178849
http://www.wow.com/2010/04/19/breakfast-topic-i-just-bought-a-25-imaginary-horse/
I play World of Warcraft and I have not purchased any virtual items as of yet. But it’s hard to resist! It’s a pretty glowing pegasus and honestly I am a complete sucker for cool items in games.
Last year I spent a week madly hunting virtual easter eggs during the Easter event, Noble Garden in order to obtain a pair of rabbit ears for my character to wear. The amount of time and effort people pour into online games is quite amazing.
The critisism of online games being too addictive can also be applied to todays new media, as it is all designed with endless options to keep us engaged and connected. Mobile phones, email and social networking sites encourage us be in a constant state of availability. I am personally beginning to find these expectations becoming stressful. All these messages and invitations I’m meant to sort through and reply to, waste the time that I could have spent playing video games!
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