Spouse Aggro

I have always had one major issue with those that say that cash-shops, RMT and FTP games only reward those with a “financial” advantage: they forget that they are OK with many forms of RMT that have existed since the very beginning.

In fact, many of the “hardcore” fans I know have been the first to buy the limited edition set, with all it’s included items (that were bought with cash) or the players that were the first to get the cable modem (a true advantage paid for with cash) or the players that have always been OK with the worst of the worst: dual boxing.

In fact, here is a thread from the Vanguard forums that caught my eye just today. It was started by a player asking questions about “dual boxing.” If you read the thread (so far) there is no one saying “Dual boxing is easy mode! You are cheating!” like they would say in a thread about RMT or buying plat from Live Gamer (which I am about to do.) Note, first, that this is not a slam against people who dual-box. In fact, go for it. I have issues with players (like the ones in that thread) that have a long history of decrying the “easy mode-ification” of MMOs, while using every possible advantage that they could, including dual-boxing.

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I love the chat box on www.mmovoices.ning.com because we are always having neat little conversations in there while we play our games. It’s hard to make amazing points in a chat room, and it makes you pick your words carefully. I like that, being that I can talk WAY WAY WAY too much.

We were talking about Free Realms, and it seems that everyone presumes that I am a fan of Free Realms simply because I think all games should be the way it is, meaning that all games should be played the way it is played, or look the way it looks. I get frustrated sometimes because I use example so much when I am talking and people tend to get caught on the example as a literal point, and not as something representing something else. I can’t explain myself, most of the time, without trying to paint a picture that represents the feeling behind my words.

Free Realms is an example.

If you look at what SOE did, if you really look at it, you might see that they not only pulled something wonderful off but did a helluva lot of good for the MMO community, something they do a great deal of. Of course, many people seem to think that SOE does nothing but ruin games, but when you are in the business of taking chances and attempting something different, this can happen. Also, when you have more titles under your belt than anyone else including some of the oldest titles out there, the percentage of mistakes made will be higher just in proportion. With Free Realms they not only showed that a game company should recognize new trends (F2P), but should try to be one of the first to participate in the new technologies coming and the new styles of game-play.

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