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The Most Profound of Philosophical Forums: Barrens Chat
Pale_Fire
Member UncommonPosts: 360
The mark of a great MMORPG should never be its gameplay, lore, character cusomization, size of the gaming world etc., but the subjects and contents of its online conversations. THAT'S WHAT MAKES A GAME GREAT!
Or not.
I find it funny that one of the mark's WoW has left on our little MMORPG community is a term which describes the absolutely inane, worthless chatter that floats across our chat windows in any given game we are playing.
Barrens Chat.
In no less than three games I have played in the last 6 months, this term has found itself lodged in the chat comments I found myself scanning while playing. LOTRO, EQ2 and Vanguard, whose rabid fans shun any thought of similarity to our MMORPG juggernaught, find at least some comparison in the mindless gibberings that clutter our texted conversations.
It never fails. It seems like every playing session, I get "OMG, we're in Barrens chat!" "This is just like Barrens chat." "Barrens chat ftw!!!!" scrolling down my screen. Every possible topic seems to find itself pee'd into the gutter of a game's general chat channel. And every so often, some deeply profound subject comes and it's like watching 2 year olds trying to play chess. It's almost physically painful. And God forbid you actually enter the muddy water with rest of the sermonizing mob. It doesn't matter what you type, it still sounds stupid next to the rest of the heathen.
Barrens Chat
It's like some virus has mutated and invaded other hosts, quietly spreading, eventually destined to bring an end to the world as we know it!!!
Or not.
Barrens Chat. Why not Stormwind chat or Ironforge chat? I've played Alliance and those thinktanks are as retarded as the Horde. Anyway, any other games you've come across where Barrens Chat is mentioned in the general channel of your MMORPG? I'm curious to find out how far this moniker has imbedded itself into our psyches.
Comments
You say "Barrens chat" I say MMORPG.com forums...
To answer your question...
Every game I have played lately.
Tabula Rasa
LOTR
EQ2
Vanguard...especially Vanguard.
Thalos Vipav
Star Wars Galaxies: R.I.P.
Cause the Horde is 1337. Every nooby and goody tushoo joins the alliance. But it takes that special person to join the horde that will discuss things like "Why is my dogs poop green?" and "What can my character jump off of and live?"
Also everything on the horde is better then on the alliance.
Although i'm not playing World of Warcraft, i found the reason for naming it after the horde:
Tradition!
After Starcraft, the term of "zerging" or "to zerg" was coined. Named after the bad (?) side. So it was just continued now with WoW, because we all like tradtion
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high
And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll
Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde
And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
Tabula Rasa may yet redefine "Barrens Chat". On Pegasus, you are almost guaranteed to log on in the middle of a "discussion" amongst the members. It can be anything from how good or bad WoW is, to religious debate, to politics, etc. The scariest part about this is that these people actually believe that they are intelligent enough to talk about these topics!
I'm tellin' ya. Barrens chat seems mild compared to what I've experienced on Pegasus in TR. Seriously.
Sadly, I'm the politics 'baiter' on /1 for TR. Only because I hate the WoW chatter and what not. Then again, I also try to throw in a few Cartman references just to get people to laugh and realize it's a game. :-P
-- Brede
Welcome to the Barrens thread :P
Torrential
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
I do enjoy Barrens chat though. In my opinion, the people who hate it, need to get off their high horse and let their hair down. Have some fun, you're playing a freaking game. Socializing and having fun with random people is what MMORPGs are all about not "group play" as some people will have you believe.
In Beta the Tabula Rasa chat was pretty retarded because you had 1 million idiots continually talking about WoW. Saying the same things that have been said thousands of times already, but the same ting happens in many new releases. Auto Assault had that too.
Barren's Chat is a strange twilight zone phenomenon that I have never understood. I played horde and alliance, but settled onto horde, and there was just no zone chat like Barrens Chat. Its not that people said stupid stuff, it was the sheer volume and consistency of just dumb stuff. Not even arguing just assinine comments repeated ad infinitum. Just a sheer brick wall of idiocy. It wasn't even interesting. I eventually immediate turned off barrens chat on all my alts who were of that level range, because soon as you entered the Barrens you started seeing the same things said that you saw a month the last time you played through that level range.
When I realized other servers had the same thing going on I was like "Wow that is freaky". Certainly I have seen no shortage of idiocy but the barrens chat phenomenon still puzzles me. Its the consistency of it that gets me. Its not some hodge podge of crap with occasional decent chat like TR's chat can be. Its a consistent wall of the same completely worhtless drivel.
Its like there is some Hivemind for slack jawed drooling morons.
"Its like there is some Hivemind for slack jawed drooling morons. "
Excuse me?
Because you "typed" these words. And cause you "typed them so well, the rest of us are retards.
Check out the award. You got my first Donkey award of the week.
...Oh great CS/programmer guy....
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
It is my most sincere wish to see in a theatrical release of World of Warcraft to see at the bottom of the movie screen, in it's full view and clarity, the Barrens Chat window scrolling throughout the entire length of the movie. This is an unparralleled sight gag opportunity.
Adding the chat window hasn't been done yet in a movie, but if World of Warcraft were to be adequately represented by it's community, the Barrens Chat window is a must-have. For good or evil, for the drunken college students watching the movie for the 1st time, nothing could be more hilarious.
The only pitfall is if it isn't copied and pasted from actuall Barrens chat logs. Hollywood writers are good, but not good enough to fool us what an authentic Barrens Chat content would be.
As it was a big zone it intially started off with lots of chat. Now lots of chat everywhere is perceived badly, whether it be the barrens or elsewhere-Ironforge, Stormwind. Barrens chat was coined because of this start and then its reputation now means people either are ready to intepret everything being said as the dumbest thing ever or try to maintain it's reputation.
Crossroads Chat would sound like a bad country and western band name, whereas Barrens Chat makes it sound more like a heavy metal band name.
This thread has now been barrened. It's like pwned but cooler. Dear god just talking about Barrens chat makes you think of retarted statements.
______________________________
WAR is coming. Look busy.
LOL! Quote of the day. Thanks.
I'm sorry, from now I will refrain from having fun in a video game, no less, and attempt to hold only intelliectual discussions. I was under the impression that video games should be fun. However, I guess I was wrong. Or maybe I was under the influence of this "Hivemind of slack-jawed drooling morons".
FOR THE Hivemind of the slack jawed drooling morons!!
LOL! What a perfect response!
- Phos
I'm sorry, from now I will refrain from having fun in a video game, no less, and attempt to hold only intelliectual discussions. I was under the impression that video games should be fun. However, I guess I was wrong. Or maybe I was under the influence of this "Hivemind of slack-jawed drooling morons".
Fun? That would be fine. Inane silliness? That would be fine even enjoyable.
Barrens Chat is neither one. Its completely worthless. And not just completely worhtless but the same crap over and over. Its like the same bad knock knock joke being told over and over.
I'm sorry, from now I will refrain from having fun in a video game, no less, and attempt to hold only intelliectual discussions. I was under the impression that video games should be fun. However, I guess I was wrong. Or maybe I was under the influence of this "Hivemind of slack-jawed drooling morons".
Fun? That would be fine. Inane silliness? That would be fine even enjoyable.
Barrens Chat is neither one. Its completely worthless. And not just completely worhtless but the same crap over and over. Its like the same bad knock knock joke being told over and over.
Yea but if people enjoy it, what's the problem?
Well I almost never level in the Barrens anymore since Ghostlands has much better quests and loot, but the times I was in Barrens and the chat got out of hand I would just shut it off. Problem Solved.
Ahh Barrens and Trade(formerly LFG) channels. 2 things I will never miss about WoW.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
I'm sorry, from now I will refrain from having fun in a video game, no less, and attempt to hold only intelliectual discussions. I was under the impression that video games should be fun. However, I guess I was wrong. Or maybe I was under the influence of this "Hivemind of slack-jawed drooling morons".
Fun? That would be fine. Inane silliness? That would be fine even enjoyable.
Barrens Chat is neither one. Its completely worthless. And not just completely worhtless but the same crap over and over. Its like the same bad knock knock joke being told over and over.
Yea but if people enjoy it, what's the problem?
Who said there was a problem. I said I turned it off just like the gentleman above.
What it is though, is just plain mystifying. The sheer consistency of it across all servers. Its uncanny.
This is probably obvious to most people but....what Chuck Norris Facts people find amusing is not the jokes themselves, but how people react to them. That's the whole point of Chuck Norris facts in Barrens Chat, and its pretty funny how alot of players completely miss the point of them. The people that get their undies in a knot over the Facts spew "ur a homo" (so original), a generic and boring ur mum joke (original too) or some other profane response. Or they pull out an elitist jerk attitude or holier-then-thou attitude rofl. Funnily enough the Chuck Norris jokes aren't even offensive compared to alot of the people who hate Chuck Facts, they're just outrageously over-the-top.
WoW is a shallow easy game to play. Don't make fun of the only thing it brought new to MMORPGs ...and that is a horrible gaming community.
As an alliance paladin. I don't ask that question. I just do it. =P
Jumping off Darnasus cliffs ftw!
-Azure Prower
http://www.youtube.com/AzurePrower