In many of the games I play there is always talk of power-levelling. Those who want it, those who can give it, and those who brag that they just got it. It often means that the person being power levelled just has to stay back out of the way and suck up XP. In many games you can just go AFK and put yourself in ‘follow’ of the player doing all the work. In Star Wars Galaxies they have the extreme, you can get a macro that when you run it levels you up while you sleep!! Personally, I don’t understand it at all. I enjoy playing games to the end, but what is the point of a quick/instant trip to the end? It seems to me that these players then do nothing but stand around flexing their high level muscles, and generally turn into a bunch of griefers who’s only goal is to annoy everyone else who is doing it the hard way? Why??

Credz Pl0x!! Many players just want a free ride in MMORPGs

The same goes for items and in-game currency. Everyone wants the free hand-out. Somebody says “I’m leaving the game.. come and see me to get all my stuff for free”, and players flock around them. It’s not like real life, it’s a game. You are SUPPOSED to be having fun getting there, earning those items. It feels GOOD to have earned them, and not been given a handout. I’m proud of my achievements in these games. I wouldn’t be proud if I had stooped to sticking my hand out to everyone I pass. It’s like having a beggar on the street dressed in an $800 suit asking for spare change. It’s really crazy.

So what do you think? Would you rather earn your items and/or levels, or would you be happy to accept the ‘free ride’?

I was recently playing Star Trek Online with my wife, we play a lot of MMORPGs together. I think I’m very lucky that she is interested in that type of thing to be honest. It often takes a lot of encouragement from me to get her to try something like STO. It’s not really her cup of tea. Anyway, after taking a break from the game for a few minutes, I returned to the computers (we have them side by side of course) to find that someone has sent her a tell. I wouldn’t normally evesdrop, but I noticed that there was an expletive in the message. Apparently some player who she was teamed with had said “hey moron get over here and help”. Which upset her greatly, as she was doing the best she could. I could have left it alone, but the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I logged in and asked the player if they had called my wife a moron. “Yup” was the reply, like they were proud of it. A bit more prodding on my part revealed nothing but attitude and smart-alec type responses, until I finally gave up and put them on my “Ignore” list.

The incident, although not uncommon in these types of games, filled me with rage and I decided that I might cancel my subscription, if these were the types of people I had to deal with. I had suggested to this person that maybe they had not considered the fact that my wife might be new at the game, and therefore needed to be helped along a little, rather than taunted. But it was pointless, it only provoked more name-calling and smart-assedness. There was no talking to this person. When in a consequence-free environment, the timid nerd becomes the guiltless griefer, or is it children that are only responsible for this type of behaviour?

If you were walking down the street and some stranger yelled out to your wife: “Hey moron! get over here!”, would you laugh it off? Or maybe you would walk over and punch them in the mouth? I’m more inclined to do the latter. What is the line when it comes to in-game abuse anyway? You couldn’t get away with racial slurs or comments that condem someone’s sexuality or religion. So should you be able to get away with saying hurtful things to anyone you feel like? I certainly wouldn’t want to associate with somebody who did that. They would be booted from my guild so fast that their head would spin, or at least given a severe warning.

"The Griefer" as depicted in the South Park Episode: "Make Love not Warcraft"

So what I would like to know is, what would YOU have done? Do you think this type of person should be reported? Or should it just be taken with a grain of salt? Some people find it easier to ignore things like that than others. Some people would simply ignore it, some would fly off the handle. What would you do? Or maybe you are one of the people who likes to randomly abuse players. What makes you tick? Is it because it makes you feel good about yourself? Maybe you have some major issues yourself, and that helps you get through the day?

They are even giving away free cake to attract players to this game.... well... actually no, not really.

Ten years on from these early MMORPGs we have had literally hundreds of titles come and go, but most of these game seemed to be set in medieval times, with the major items being swords and suits of armor which were used to battle boars, trolls and dragons. Or you could be a wizard or a which, and use magic spells which hurled fireballs at your enemies…. a little boring and tired to say the least. There was however, a breath of fresh air with titles like Anarchy Online (released 2001), and Star Wars Galaxies, which was based on the popular movies. These games exchanged swords for blasters and chain-mail for kevlar or other high-tech armor materials, taking us into the Science Fiction MMORPG era. These new games let us blast off into new galaxies and explore strange alien-filled worlds, as well has having dogfights with other space-craft. These science fiction games meant that we could wield weapons of all shapes, sizes and types, and battle creatures that we could never have imagined. The sky (or stars) is the limit!

Today there are still a lot more of the fantasy genre MMORPGs than the science fiction ones, but sci-fi is still on the rise. We have had the long-awaited Star Trek Online released this month, and the new Star Wars title: The Old Republic is still in development. There are a lot more science fiction MMORPGs still on the drawing board, and we should see some great releases over the next 2-3 years.