In Search of Perfect Place
- Posted by e2 on 10.12.09
- Tags Modern Family, Site Review
We have always dreamed of perfect places: Eden, heaven, Oz – places over the rainbow, beyond death and loss. Now through computer technology, we can inhabit those worlds together via massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG). Using MMORPG a group of disabled men and women inhabit one virtual body, which frees them from their lifelong struggle to be seen and heard.
There is a question why people continue to play MMORPG and form a community. The answer is encompassed within the community itself, the players that actually play the game, and form relationships not with the game itself, but with other players. These relationships which are usually built on the player’s experience within the game are the founding cornerstones of a virtual community. Although this type of relationship is deemed not as important as ‘real-life’ relationships by society, to some it is the most important relationships they have in their lives.
One honest answer to the question “Don’t these people have a life?” is that most people don’t have a terribly glamorous life. They work, they subsist, and they are lonely or afraid or shy or unattractive or feel that they are unattractive. Or they are simply different. The phenomenon of fandom is evidence that not everyone can have a life as “having a life” as defined by the mainstream and some people just go out and try to build an alternate life.
There are three mayor psychological aspects of MMORPG which are achievement, social, and immersion. The achievement component was based around players wanting to advance within the game, optimize their characters, and compete with other players. The social component incorporated the different relationships a player may have within the virtual world, such as casual socializing, building of personal relationships, and teamwork involving a guild (an organized collaboration of players). The final component immersion involved discovery, role-playing, customization of player avatars and escapism. Those components do not invalidate each other (a player can achieve high ratings in all three components).
Though MMORPGs have been around for years, it has taken this long for the genre’s breakthrough hit to finally emerge of Aion. Aion is the online role-playing game you should play, no matter who you are. This is because aion brings out all the best aspects of this style of gaming, if not many of the best aspects of gaming in general. You can explore one of the most amazingly beautiful and detailed MMORPGs ever as you fight to save a vibrant world ripped asunder by a celestial war. Wielding divine powers and the capability for true flight, you must bring salvation to your people and restore balance to a vast, beautiful world shattered by cataclysm.
Aion can be defined as an online fantasy role-playing game presented in a 3-dimensional virtual world where players connect to a common network of servers over the internet and are represented by virtual avatars in a third person perspective.
First and foremost a player creates their online avatar, which involves selecting one of the ten races available that are split into two different warring factions, Elyos and Asmodians. Elyos follow the five Seraphim Lords known as Ariel (Lady of Light), Nezekan (Lord of Justice), Vaizel (Lord of Freedom), Kaisinel (Lord of Illusion), and Yustiel (Lady of Life). Asmodians follow the five Shedim Lords which are Azphel (Lord of Shadow), Zikel (Lord of Destruction), Triniel (Lady of Death), Lumiel (Lady of Wisdom), and Marchutan (Lord of Fate). Once a race has been selected, the player must then decide on a class they wish to role-play.
There are four primary aion classes that players can select from when they create a new character: Warrior, Scout, Mage and Priest. Once you have gained enough experience, you will be able to ascend to one of the two specialized classes available to your primary class.
After an appropriate name for their avatar is chosen, the player can load into the game world. You can visit aion forum to get better information about how to play aion in details.
2 Responses to “In Search of Perfect Place”
I couldn’t agree more that MMORPG are more about the relationships created than the game. I can not speak from personal experience, however I can talk about my Husband. In December 2007 he had surgery that left him mostly bedridden for 6 weeks! After two he was bored stiff and driving me crazy. He had some colleagues who played World or Warcraft (WOW) and thought he would try it.
To keep this short, he loved it. I ended up not liking it. It wasn’t about the game, my husband has always played games, but this one set him to schedules, I couldn’t just ask him to stop or lets go out tonight, because the answer was no, he could not let the “Guild” down because they where expecting him for X or Y tonight! It took a while, but I did get him back, he hasn’t played WOW since March of this year, it was more his decision than mine, because I’d never ask him to stop something he loved, but between his work and kids, he decided something needed to go and it was his MMORPG.
By JAS on Oct 12, 2009
People play games for many different reasons, whether it’s for the ‘actual’ game itself, the social camaraderie they encounter, or as a way of escaping from their real lives, and that all of these reasons can lead to a form of addiction. I’m glad knowing that your Hubby at last could manage his activity between him and his real environment.
By Administrator on Oct 13, 2009