Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Fickle and Passive History of Blackhaired Barbie's Online Games

I'm playing a new game online called Glitch.  It's fun and I'm enjoying it a lot. I shouldn't get too attached though. I have a history of online games that I start, obsess over, and then, for various reasons, abandon.

While I play online games, I would by no means call myself a "gamer." That isn't because I think I'm better than gamers. Just the opposite really. Gamers have a level of dedication and commitment I am just incapable of producing . . . with, anything, really.

I think one of the first games I started playing was Neopets. This must have been like ten years ago or something.  Maybe even longer. Around 2000 or so.  Yes, it's been that long. I started playing Neopets shortly after I got my first PC capable of doing so.  When it died, I was so into the game I would literally go to the library every day just to make sure my damned pets were being fed.

Neopets, as the game implies, was about owning various magical pets.  You could feed them, build their stats, change their colors, get pets for them (yeah, I know. Petception!), and play with them.  You could also explore various areas of the world (Neopetia) and complete tasks for the betterment of your pets. Most of these consisted of minor quests or minigames.

After a while, they added more areas of the world, houses, things for the houses, and clothing for your pets. They would add or subtract the games (which is how you got coins) depending on how popular they were.

I adored my pets. I also loved the games you could play and found the world to be very well done. It was a bit clunky, but that problem could have been solved with a faster computer.

However, after a while, I became disenchanted with the whole thing. Less and less items were being offered for ingame coin purchase and more stuff was being developed for the premium customers. I was not going to pay for this game. It was fun, but it wasn't that good.

Eventually, I got to where I would just stick my pets in the hotel for the month so they wouldn't starve.  This went on for about a year until I finally just put them up for adoption. I walked away from Neopets and had no real desire to return.  In fact, even when I went there to get the link, I felt more annoyance than nostalgia.

One of the reasons I left Neopets was because of Dragonfable.  As a straight out fantasy game, this was more to my liking. You could choose between a thief, a warrior, or a mage. Your character had a name, gender, somewhat personalized hair style and color, as well as a color style for their outfit.

The game was fun.  The areas were well thought out. There was an overquest chaptered by smaller quests. They have special events depending on season, holiday, and whatever suits their fancy. Over all, it's a very great game.

And yet, again, I walked away.

I left for very similar reasons as Neopets.  Without paying for the premium content, there was really only so far you could go. A lot of the quests were fun, but sometimes they tended to repeat themselves too much. Plus, in order to level up, you found yourself cycling through the same areas over and over again. It got boring.

I more or less abandoned online games until I started on Facebook. A friend sent an invite to Mafia Wars.  Ehhh, Facebook games are like crack. You start one, you keep adding and adding and adding.  You find yourself obsessing over items, knowing exactly when you can go back to game because your energy has returned.

And eventually . . . you get bored. Many of the games are the same thing over and over again, with only higher levels of annoyance as variety. I've mentioned before about how annoying it is to always be asking your Facebook friends for crap for the game. In fact . . .

I've seen this before + You're annoying/How much crap do I have to ask people for? = Minutes before I get really damned sick of this game and abandon it.

So far as I can tell, Glitch doesn't seem to have the issue with premium content. It's also not a Facebook direct game so there is none of the "ask your friends for" crap.  You can talk to people and some sweetheart gave me a chicken and a butterfly, but I didn't have to post it on my FB status, which was damned nice.

How long will I play? Who knows?  I honestly wasn't even sure if I was going to enjoy it.  It takes a while for it to really begin to make sense in terms of what the fuck and why the fuck. Once that happens though, the game becomes a lot of fun.

At least for now it is. It's probably only a matter of time before I put my house up for sale and see if someone will adopt my little avatar.

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