You Need Goals In Life (and in games!)

Another problem with the MMO is that there is no endpoint to an MMO. You play until you do not feel like playing anymore. There is also very little sense of direction with an MMO, you can do whatever you please, and the game usually progresses as you go, whether you do this thing or that thing or not. The highest experience level (which is gained by killing monsters and finding items) a character can reach in World of Warcraft is 60. Every player strives to be level 60, and when a player gets there, the only thing left to do is get newer and cooler weapons. This is, in a way, the ending of the game, though, from my experience, the game only seems to start for most players when they reach the level 60. Most players doing raids (World of Warcraft’s name for a group attack on monsters or a boss), expect anybody participating to be level 60, especially for the higher level raids which reap larger rewards. So you spend months getting to the supposed endpoint, only to find out only then can you actually raid with other online gamers. To add to the confusion, Blizzard is changing the top level to 70 when the new expansion comes out this summer/fall/winter (depending on who you listen to). If a company can just keep raising the top level, and you have to pay monthly to keep up with these advancements, players are stuck never knowing whether they are really done. With sports game, victories, championships and trophies gauge the completeness of the game, and some games (like MVP Baseball 2005) have a 100-year dynasty mode, just in case you want to play a hundred seasons worth of baseball. Even just the ability to win one game, without having to play a whole season, is something the MMO does not offer. Getting to level 10 is worth nothing and considered fairly lame. Playing a sixth of an NBA season on NBA Live 06 gives the gamer a sense of accomplishment with each win. In Warcraft, a similar sense of victory only comes with each small battle won, and a lot of times these battles provide minimal experience, which only jades a gamer further. If each battle is worth almost nothing, then the collective of battles as a whole is worth an entire nothing. A game without an end is like a movie with no conclusion or sex with no climax, there is no point at which to celebrate or relax because it is finished. Without this catharsis to finish off, a gamer is left plodding along, hoping to find a one in ten million weapon, and paying fifteen bucks a month to do it! With most sports games a gamer can beat someone, jump up and down, yell, “In your face,” and be done with it and then go to sleep. In World of Warcraft, a player must play ten hours a day to even feel like he’s worth something in the Warcraft world. Without the ability to win, gamers spend all their time searching for items and monsters, pretty much wandering, hoping not to get stuck or lost.