September 5th, 2007

Playing MMOs while being offline

Just what kind of gamer are you? You may be casual, ready for some instant fun with no strings attached to your lifestyle, or you may be hardcore, willing to sacrifice much for the save of your virtual life progress. Regardless of how you play, there is always that craving for more. I’ll be the first one to admit it that games are fun and eventually you’ll feel the wonderful thrill going through your bones, wishing you’d have more time off from school, job or family and just dig deeper into the game. There is little one can do when real life takes precedence over your selfish gaming addiction, yet some people got the best out the situation.

I remember seeing a really old post on the World of Warcraft forums that just blew my mind. There was this middle aged guy lucky enough to travel around the world and he decided to show us what he’s doing while being offline. Here he had all these pictures of him, with recognizable landmarks in the background, always staring down through his dark glasses to a book he was holding. He was reading next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Big Ben in London, the Coliseum in Italy or by Mountain Rushmore in the US, always with a focused look, absolutely unaware of his surroundings. You get too see enough pictures of him in strange places to become really envious, until you see the last image and understand what he was reading. That’s when the punch line hits you like a truck, for tucked away in his hands for the past 30 pictures lays no other than the World Of Warcraft manual!

While that was a nice try, most of us just browse forums in our insatiable search for more game input, look for gaming blogs and read online magazines. Still, you may not be aware of the next best thing, the subtle mesh of humor, good graphics and game wit that comics bring to the table. That’s all the easier should you be a MMO fan, since within the multitude of players you can interact with, some are bound to go out of their way and show their gratitude for the game in with a pencil and a piece of paper. Multiply that by a couple of thousands, since current day online games range well into millions of active accounts, and you’re off to a place where boredom will never catch up with you.

For instance, take this wonderful piece of art called “The Noob Comic,” a strip dealing with OhForF’s adventures in the fictional MMO Clichequest. Courtesy of Gianna Masetti, you can witness each and every possible thing we learned to hate about online games, starting with l33t speak, on to excessive role playing and utterly childish behavior we sometimes slip into while playing. Toons are drawn in a simple manner which will appeal to both comic strip casuals and devotees, with humorous wit in an evolving storyline. Following in the footsteps of an evergreen noob over the 269 episodes Gianna has released, you will find experiences similar to your own, within that favorite MMO you’re been fancying. Need I say that the main character’s name is short for “oh for f*cks sake”? Universality is the main quality of her work, since it doesn’t matter if you’re a Guild Wars player, Acheron’s Call, Everquest, Anarchy Online or anything else. You will meet the helpful yet annoying elderly player, the aimless noob, the player killing bloodthirsty yet socially challenged geek, even the overweighed Tolkien addicted girl you’ve been leveling with, which you never wanted to meet in real life. At some point, maybe, just maybe, you’ll see yourself within the pages of this comic strip and laugh yourself away, for it’s just as addictive as a game. You can start here.