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Highschool and why we play MMOs
Murdus
Member UncommonPosts: 698
I play MMOs for a few reasons.
Firstly, I play them because sometimes we've got nothing better to do and its a relaxing way to spend a night working on a character, selling trading, and interacting with lots of people.
Secondly, the social interaction in MMOs is very important. I like it because everyone plays a unique character, one that is his or her own. The person behind that character, in the physical world, could be anyone. It could be your neighbor, cousin, best friend, worst enemy, etc. However, we are in the game together, for a common purpose: To have fun. Compared to the real world, where nowadays everyone seems to treat it as some sort of competition.
Thirdly, culture. I'm living on long island, surrounded by one of the best communities in the United States. And you know what, I hate it. Everyone here are clones of one another, of the next big thing. There is no immediate culture, no tradition. You've got to go out of you're way to find it.
Which brings me to my main point of this thread. Have you ever wondered, or wanted, to live in an MMO world? Think about it. The lack of technology, the diverse culture, etc.
My friend and I, being in highschool, stepped back and looked at our situation. We are surrounded by kids who don't give a damn about one another, where friends are just someone to gossip with, everyone treating highschool like a contest to see who can sleep with the most girls, drink the most, do the most drugs, look the coolest, follow the most, lead the least, and have everyone kissing your foot at the end of it. I'm not directing this at dudes only, because the girls are just as bad. Just the other day, three cars in a row were filled with identical blondes with those damned bug eyed sunglasses. Everyone just jumps on the bandwagon. Its very sad.
Our plan of action includes getting away from all of this media, these celebrities, these mindless drones. Treat life as if it were an MMO, or something to the sort. Treat as if we were kids, hell we ARE kids, just looking for something to do. A big part of our plan includes attending festivals of all different sorts. Dutch festivals, Scottish Game Festivals, Balloon Festivals, Tulip Festivals, historic baseball festivals... Revolution Reinactments, hiking, bird watching, horse back riding, Renaissance Fairs, anything we can get our hands on.
I cant sit around anymore and talk about who slept with who and how they are still together despite him cheating on her and all this bullcrap. Perhaps this doesn't tie into MMOs, but it is my way to escape the fakeness of this community.
Holden from Catcher in the Rye probably knows what I'm talking about. Sorry for the rant, just venting.
PS: I'm open to suggestions for activites to take part in, something off the map or under the radar that we wouldn't know about.
Comments
Your high school sounds like shit. Either that or you have found the wrong group of friends. During my high school years, which was not too long ago, everyone had their own small groups of friends and nobody cared who the popular people were...it didn't matter after junior high. None of the friends I associated with were hung-up on drinking, or gossiping about who had sex with who. I'm sure there has to be some group of people in your high school that is not striving to be sheep and act like fools.
I really hate those damn bug eyed sunglasses girls wear now too. I have never seen a girl they look good on. Honestly, you would think the girls would realize they look absolutely ridiculous.
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Killer 86%, Socializer 53%, Explorer 33%, Achiever 26%
[Mod Edit]
On topic:
I agree dude, I'm a college student, but MMOs are great for when you've got a few hours to kill and you don't feel like spending money or going out.
Do you know for certain?
Me and my small group of friends thought very much the same way you do. That's why we always looked for the most quiet, secluded places in the school, away from all the idiots. We'd just sit around talking about everything from video games to politics. Any time we were not in class, we were talking about something. We separated ourselves from everyone else, because unlike most of them we didn't care about what the latest gossip or the newest fad was. All we cared about was getting through school so we could move on and do something interesting.
I've only played one MMO and it was one of these friends I mentioned that got me into it. He got out of it early on, after a while I got tired of it and stopped playing as well. Neither of us have found any MMOs worth playing since, and have actually started throwing ideas around for our own MMO.
I think this will be right up your ally;
The Society for Creative Anachronism http://www.sca.org/
INFO: The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe. Our "Known World" consists of 19 kingdoms, with over 30,000 members residing in countries around the world. Participants, dressed in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, attend events which may feature tournaments, arts exhibits, classes, workshops, dancing, feasts, and more. Our "royalty" hold courts at which they recognize and honor members for their contributions to the group.
The SCA is NOT a MMORPG - it takes place in the real world
The SCA is NOT a Live fantasy roleplay group
Enjoy and welcome to the real world.
EDIT: info added, they also do a form of weapons combat and have large scale war's.
Confirming there was no such thing as the "in" crowd at my highschool.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
Playing EQ and WoW was the only thing that kept me from being another 'drone' as you put it. Unfortunately I have an addictive personality and ive become addicted to MMO's despite what the gaming community says. MMO's do come under fire a lot because of people like me that take it to far but I will say this. Im very intro-vert I kept to my self in highschool and I probably had 3 or 4 friends max. Like people I even talked to, and 2 of them were probably closer than the other 2. I can see the 'stereotypical' image of some fat kid sitting in the corner of class routine going but thats not me. I dunno honestly, MMO's were probably what got me through highschool I mean would what I have done sitting at home every day. I guess I found a sense of being 'productive' in playing mmo's sure I COULD have gone out partied and what not and I did every now and than but in all honesty it was boring as hell. Driving around in my car with friends listening to music and pissing other people off for absolutely no reason blareing my music. Its all retarded. WoW was my savior through highschool, never had to resort to drugs and I know thats what would have happened to me. Thats what happened to my friend, now hes some fucking loser working at a gas station living with his grand mother doing drugs. I mean can you REALLY be proud of that? REALLY? Im just happy I didn't turn out like that. Anyway yep theres my personal rant that no one gives two shits about. Im sure theres someone out there around the world that had a similar high school life as me.
Or you could not be such a douche bag. I'm sure you don't have a girlfriend either.
On topic:
I agree dude, I'm a college student, but MMOs are great for when you've got a few hours to kill and you don't feel like spending money or going out.
Wow, calm down there sparky.
@ the OP, sounds like a good idea. Get out, live your life, explore and experience as much as possible...and quit mmorpgs while your at it
Just wait till you get through high school, after that, it's not that bad.
I live in Spain, but here most people in high school act the same way they do over there in the US, everyone dressing alike, if you do this you're cool, if you don't you're a loser.
Just don't give a damn about what they say, if you go to University later, things are different (at least in Spain), noone cares about who's screwing more girls, and that stuff, you get to know lots of new people, you make lots of new friends who share your interests and it's pretty different.
If you want to work after high school, it depends on where you work, but most people who work are mature enough to stop acting like that.
I was in High School in the early 1980s.
Nothing has changed, nothing new to see here, folks.
We didn't have MMORPGs, we just played D&D with paper and pencil, and Wizardry I and Ultima I on the school's Apple IIs.
We didn't give a damn if we were "popular" or who was sleeping with who. We had our own little clique, and that's all we needed.
(Holden Caulfield? Total wussbag. They made us read that crap in my High School, too. Sorry, I grew up on Heinlein teens who had to save the entire universe at 14. They didn't go around whining "Boo hoo, everyone's a big phony, poor little rich me!".)
Shit gets alot better once you're out of school trust me.
I can understand the MMO escape thing, I did something similar with music and rock clubs when I was a teen also.
The people that try to be like everyone else are just minless sheep, afraid to be different.
If MMOs get you through the crappy high school years of your life then coolbeans.
Playing: EvE, Ryzom
Ditto this.
High School is *meaningless*. Trust me, the LAST thing you want is to look back on your life and say "The best times of my life were when I was 16." The people who peak in High School spend the next 60 years of their life in feeble attempts to reclaim faded glory.
I agree college was 10x better. Although I went to a satelite campus so there were only like 600 people instead of the thousands a main campus may have.
Ditto this.
High School is *meaningless*. Trust me, the LAST thing you want is to look back on your life and say "The best times of my life were when I was 16." The people who peak in High School spend the next 60 years of their life in feeble attempts to reclaim faded glory.
This man speaks to truth. Usually the popular kids at high school are the ones that don't go to university, don't get good jobs and generally suck at life.
I'm glad I wasn't one of those guys
Heh, you all sound like you would've loved it at the school I went to.
Last grammar school in England for the win.
Your high school sounds like it never evolved past jr high's popularity contest. There wasn't any clear-cut "popular" group in my high school. No one really gave a damn about popularity, most people didn't even know the names of the people on the football team. No one cared about who was "popular" outside of their clique.
Playing - FFXIV, ESO
Played - FFXI, WoW, Lineage 2, Guild Wars, Aion, SWToR, LotRO, GW2, TERA, Rift, ArcheAge, TSW
Ditto this.
High School is *meaningless*. Trust me, the LAST thing you want is to look back on your life and say "The best times of my life were when I was 16." The people who peak in High School spend the next 60 years of their life in feeble attempts to reclaim faded glory.
This man speaks to truth. Usually the popular kids at high school are the ones that don't go to university, don't get good jobs and generally suck at life.
I'm glad I wasn't one of those guys
Not true, things aren't as black and white as you people seem to think and most popular/sociable kids go on to lead very successful lives.
And high school is far from meaningless, I would consider it one of the most important experiences in your life.
I sincerely hope you guys don't think you're any better than these "drones" you speak of, because you're not.
Ditto this.
High School is *meaningless*. Trust me, the LAST thing you want is to look back on your life and say "The best times of my life were when I was 16." The people who peak in High School spend the next 60 years of their life in feeble attempts to reclaim faded glory.
Totally agree. I was a jock my freshman year and I realized what a bunch of loosers the people in the "popular crowd" really are. I started hanging out with the "stoners", ended up dating the prettiest girl in school, and all of us "heads" ended up going to college and getting good jobs. I now have a kid of my own, make bank, own a house, and two killer cars. The majority of the jocks I went to school with ended up doing shit; constantly trying to recapture those glory days. Like I tell my daughter, the most important thing about school society is that you pick your friends based on thier qualities and not thier popularity. Be true to your self and the others around you and f*ck anybody who doesn't think you "fit in" or judges you for the way you look, dress, speak, or the fact that you would rather play video games instead of doing keg stands and pissing on yourself. My two cents......
@ the OP - I too went to an upper class high school filled with rich, snobby kids. So I can relate to all the stupid cliques and drama. Whilr some other posters that talk about how nobdy cared about who's cool, that doesn't seem to be the case in more affluent schools. Rich kids have lots of money to play the status game and they really don't have true problems in their lives so they invent them.
But having worked with disadvantaged kids and also served in the military with some guys who grew up in dysfunctional homes and had to deal with constant gang violence, there are worse things in the world than being the non-popular kid at a prep high school.
But there's hope in just a few short years. My biggest advice is to concentrate on your studies and get into a good college. Also, find some activity that you enjoy outside of MMORPGs Maybe get involved in intermural sports or a youth group that's unaffiliated wi These games are a great way to relax, but it's too easy to become isolated. When I look back on high school, I remember the times I spent doing stuff in real life with my buddies, not the games I played. And I played a LOT of computer games and tabletop games.
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My high school years were golden. I went to one of those "Performing Arts" high schools in New York City. I think we were all so busy making music, singing, dancing and acting while putting on shows that we just never got around to being like other kids our age. None of what the OP mentioned really went on, and if it was it was limited to a few individuals that we all learned to ignore. I really didnt get into MMO gaming until my 30's when the stress of a mortgage and grown up responsibilities really started setting in! lol
Current Games: WOW, EVE Online