Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Laboratory >

Everquest economy

Page: 1(2)

12:29 / 03.04.02

[quote] Killed it? No. Contextualised it, and rather brilliantly...[/quote]

I know I was just kidding ::throwing hands up in the air::

13:52 / 03.04.02

There seem to be two discussions going on here, and I think it's a matter of vocabulary. Some seem to be talking about the validity of living in EQ, while others seem to be talking about the validity of a virtual existence. Having never even seen EQ played, I took the wider interpretation of what was being said. An interpretation that I think is more interesting. And so, I'll just start a new thread.

20:24 / 03.04.02

Hello, my name is Tom, and I'm an EverQuest player.

"Hi, Tom!"

Perhaps in some future context, at some future technology level, immersive online environments will be fulfilling.

As it stands now, however, games like EverQuest are like an extraordinarily compelling television show, which is on 24 hours a day. A healthy approach to such a show might be to, when you weren't doing anything else, flip it on and watch for a few hours. An unhealthy approach would be calling in sick and sending out for food because you're afraid of missing some important plot detail.

I think I'm balancing my play time somewhat reasonably these days; I do still cook, play in the sunshine, and have rampant sex

, but I have experienced periods where I am clearly wrestling with an addictive behavior.

I really want to see what happens when the Star Wars online game comes out. Given that it's a franchise that lots of people are attracted to, and not just fantasy and gamer geeks, I figure there's a small but non-zero chance that it will end civilization as we know it.

20:33 / 03.04.02

Oops. I forgot to describe the whole point of my TV show metaphor, which was, the current games *can* actually provide you with some insights, like all entertainment can (Flame mentions learning about some specific social dynamics). But they're not *major* sources of self-improvement... you can't read a book or take a class in the context of the game. You are limited to certain specific types of interaction with others, which can keep you entertained but don't constantly lead you to learn new things and improve yourself in any substantial way.

Hope I'm being clear--it's difficult for me not to start throwing inside comments around ("blah blah level 60 shaman blah blah SoW potions blah blah") that only Flame will understand.

01:49 / 04.04.02

we buid our world, memake our own reality, in real life. in the sony corporations everquest game, you pay 20 bucks to play the rules of someone else's world.

we can transcend the world, in real life, by gnostic emergence, drugs, music, relgion, etc, where we have the experience of an alternate universe, a new way of seeing things. in everquest, you have exactly one mode of experience, that defined by the game, and the only way to transcend it is to TURN IT THE FUCK OFF.

and no one has made any progress defending that dopey-assed "evolution" claim.

11:54 / 04.04.02

Mystery Gypt there, ladies and gentlemen, with the Maitreya Type 23 Bodhisatva Canon Zen Bullet. (designed and built by impulsivelad logographical munitions, inc.)

tom- I'm just thankful my main was a ranger. that gave me a great reason to quit the endgame

18:14 / 04.04.02

I'm a shaman. I just soloed my first few dragons yesterday.

I'm fucked! =D

Seriously, though, I'm weaning myself off by taking on more commitments that take more of my time. The compulsion to log on daily has been far lessened by not being able to log on daily.

"we buid our world, memake our own reality, in real life. in the sony corporations everquest game, you pay 20 bucks to play the rules of someone else's world."
--Mystery Gypt

(Purely for the sake of being a pain in the ass, and not because I disagree...) It's coming up on tax time in America, and I rent instead of owning land. Given, there are more opportunities to remake the world in real life--the graphics are much better and the NPCs infinitely more varied--but in both cases I have to pay to play by someone else's world.

The flaw in the preceding statement is...

18:17 / 04.04.02

[edit: "...but in both cases I have to pay to play by someone else's rules."]

18:58 / 04.04.02

Opensource baby, make yer own rules...

22:45 / 04.04.02

I tried that last year and the IRS sent me nasty letters.

Page: 1(2)