The Personal Factor

One of the incredibly keen things about MMORPGs is that people from across the country, across the world, can play them together.
I mean, really. I knew Avo in high school, and we shared cuneiform clay tablets and everything. How cool is it that we can actually now, separated by half a continent, play CoH together?
Or there are the folks I’ve never, or would have never, met — Mal, Noelle, Ulric, many more — Sean, Ted, etc. — people with whom I can interact In Character and Out of Character, roleplay and chit-chat and discuss any number of surprisingly intense subjects (especially if they have to do with super-group and coalition politics). How neat is it that there are these keen people out there that I’m pleased as punch that I’ve met online, let alone the folks I’ve met in person — and how incredibly spiffy is it that I can just sign in any evening and interact with them virtually.
And, all that said and done, there is something even more rewarding about having the opportunity — solicited/intended or not — to actually sit in a room with some of these folks and game with them live. Engage in witty banter, hear the LOLs and LMAOs and ROTFLs from one’s bon mots, coordinate tactics (or take a break) with an unambigious tightness that only physical presence can allow.
It’s something I get to do with Margie, and it’s something I’ve been privileged to do with both some of the local Denver crew and with a couple of visitors over the past months. And it’s been really neat, and I count myself blessed for having had that opportunity.
Y’know, I;d pay $20/month just for the solo or PUG availability. To actually meet up with and interact with these folks, virtualy, and even moreso live, is worth a hell of a lot more than that.

6 thoughts on “The Personal Factor”

  1. Hello, Dave! Fancy meeting you here! I stumbled across your blog searching on “Fulcrum Shift”. I saw Doyce’s name and thought “can’t be too many of those!” and sure enough, there was your name and Margie’s, too.
    I play “Kuiper”, a grav/kinetics controller on the Virtue server. He’s pretty much my only character. If you’re ever there, drop me a line.
    If you want to see what -my- hobby is these days, check out the URL.
    Scott

  2. Scott! A small world after all. Coolness.
    (For those scratching their heads, I know Scott from my ADRPG PBEM days.)

  3. Funny. 🙂
    Hiya Scott. I am usually on Virtue Tuesdays, I’ll have to look you up.

  4. P.S.
    Yes, meeting people on the other side of the Pixel’s has been great fun. And everybody that I have met has been great and made me glad that they are part of my life in the odd way that they are. 🙂

  5. P.S.
    Yes, meeting people on the other side of the Pixel’s has been great fun. And everybody that I have met has been great and made me glad that they are part of my life in the odd way that they are. 🙂

  6. As you know, I’m a big fan of the personal factor. It’s what’s kept me playing the game long beyond any time that I would have done otherwise. And actually getting to MEET the people behind the heroes? Yeah, that’s the icing on the cake.

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