GAMES: What do you think about playing MMORPGs?

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Shylah

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Hi guys!

I’m really new to the forums, so I’d best introduce myself. I’m a 40-year old married lady, practicing Catholic, and sort of new to the faith (converted 3.5 years ago). I was raised in an Anabaptist church, and was taught that playing role playing games like D&D was very dangerous from a spiritual standpoint. It was so long ago that I forgot what the rationale was. But it really scared me, so much that I avoided them like the plague. Well, now I’ve become fairly involved with playing World of Warcraft. I am playing with other Christians, but I’ve just noticed it’s very rare that I find other Catholics playing the game. Is there a reason for this? Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

In Him,
Shy
 
I have it but I don’t really play it because I don’t have time. The general pace of the game is sooo slow. You spend most of your time, no kidding, walking around and just finding the quest.

Nothing wrong with it though any more than any other pastime.

Fundies have some weird thing about RPGs, I have no idea what it is. I don’t even think they know why for the most part. Most of these fundie sects are more emotional than intellectual so there’s no limit to what they can be against. GI joes, Catholics, RPGs… drinking, dancing, smoking and chewing… lol.
 
I think the fundamentalists turned against RPGs mainly because of the whole “magic” thing – same reason why people don’t like Harry Potter books. Also, in some of them (pen and paper RPGs mainly I think) your characters choose gods to worship in the game (D&D originals had the Deities & Demi-gods Book as one of the rule books – I never used that book when I played, nor would I now if I still played as that does make me feel a bit uncomfortable.) I think those are the two biggest problems.

Funny story in that: I was not always Catholic myself (came back in 2005 after being only baptized as an infant before) but I was going to a fundamentalists type church with friends in Junior High school for a while and talked about our D&D games with one of the youth ministers there and he told us to “burn the books” but to also watch out because he had heard of stories of people trying to burn D&D books only to have the books jump out of the fire and leap towards their owners…yea, well, needless to say it was statements like that that really eroded my faith in Christianity for some time before I discovered the “thinking” church that is the catholic church and its rich history of writers and thinkers.

But I don’t see it that way really. I see it as a game separate from the real world. For example, there is magic in the Lord of the Rings series and those are by a Catholic author and fully endorsed by most Catholics (see the thread right on this page.) Now some may split hairs about the type of magic in LOTR vs other fantasy but really to me, as long as the game does not cause you to start adopting fantastical magic practices or turn to Wicca then I don’t have a problem with it. And some do turn to Wicca inspired by games, movies or books so it is something to be aware of – however, this doesn’t mean it is bad for everyone – anyone who turns that easily must not have been very strong in their faith, and THAT is what you need to measure.

The other thing to watch for is that many people let these games (especially WoW) take up too much of their lives - it needs to be in the same time slot allotment as any other entertainment. One shouldn’t sit and watch 12 hours of TV in a day, so one should probably not sit and play WoW for that long, ESPECIALLY if you have family and other responsibilities. Now if I were single that could be a real temptation for me but when I played WoW I really only started after my kids were in bed and my wife was in the room with me – she’d watch TV then go to sleep shortly thereafter and I would play. (Of course though, this made it tough to join with others in my guild for raids that started earlier in the evening and that is part of why I stopped playing, but that’s another story.) In fact I have heard of many couples and families that actually all play together – that wont happen for me as my wife is not a gamer, but I will keep trying!

I myself played quite a bit of World of Warcraft – -I quit (the third time) because I got burned out and I just did not see myself having the inclination and drive to level from 60 to 70 when the expansion came out (i installed it and everything but the progress was just too slow for me – I know since then they changed the rate of leveling but I am still burned out…)

I think as long as you don’t let it cross into your real life in any way (either by believing in the magic, letting it take away from family time, etc) I see it as entertainment like any other.

Oh, also, there of course have been a few mentally unstable people who thought they WERE their character and that of course leads to all sorts of problems, but I am sure this is very rare.
 
I also want to add that if the rumors are true that Bioware is working on an MMORPG based on the Star Wars universe I will be very close to first in line on that one 🙂

I will go Light Side Jedi of course.
 
Carthusianish said:
I also want to add that if the rumors are true that Bioware is working on an MMORPG based on the Star Wars universe I will be very close to first in line on that one 🙂

I will go Light Side Jedi of course.
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They made one before and it is still running, its called Star Wars Galaxies. And I heard they are making another one. Galaxies was probably the best game I have ever played, it came out in 2003, and I became obsessed with it, so from now on I have to be careful when getting MMORPGs so I dont ruin my grades. I was able to get off WoW cold turkey lol
 
AaronsStaff said:
They made one before and it is still running, its called Star Wars Galaxies. And I heard they are making another one. Galaxies was probably the best game I have ever played, it came out in 2003, and I became obsessed with it, so from now on I have to be careful when getting MMORPGs so I dont ruin my grades. I was able to get off WoW cold turkey lol
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Yea, I played Star Wars Galaxies too for a year before switching to WoW. If the rumors are true this will be a new and BETTER Star Wars MMO. SWG was not made by Bioware – Bioware made the single-player Knights of the Old Republic and that was a great single player game. Bioware has stated they are working on an MMO and in a separate statement they said they are working with Lucas Arts on a project but they have not said that both the MMO and the Lucas project are one and the same but many hope that it is.

I really enjoyed SWG but there were quite a lot of problems with the game and they never quite finished making it in my opinioon… and then they changed it completely by chasing after WoW’s design and ruined it completely.
 
I always get a chuckle about RPGs. Way back during the Viet Nam War when I was in the Navy, we played Strategy and Tactics games - board games. Then came “Chainmail” and painting military miniatures. And then around 1974 or so there appeared this game called “Dungeons and Dragons”. I DM’d a campaign game for almost 10 years in the late 70s -80s. IMHO it is far more fun to sit around a card table with your friends, cook a big meal, and play for hours where you can cut up and actually see the faces of the folks with whom you are playing.

My sons played Dark Age of Camelot and one of the Star Wars games until they got tired of them and then moved to World of Warcraft. I’ve sat with my youngest son and watched him play. It seems to me he spends large chunks of time simply going back and forth over the same stretch of terrain.

As for the religious aspects of role playing games, well, the DM is pretty much in charge. I would never allow my players to pick any kind of evil character.Those who sought to run close to that line by picking say, a chaotic neutral character, often found themselves in really, really, nasty situations. 😃
 
brotherhrolf said:
I always get a chuckle about RPGs. Way back during the Viet Nam War when I was in the Navy, we played Strategy and Tactics games - board games. Then came “Chainmail” and painting military miniatures. And then around 1974 or so there appeared this game called “Dungeons and Dragons”. I DM’d a campaign game for almost 10 years in the late 70s -80s. IMHO it is far more fun to sit around a card table with your friends, cook a big meal, and play for hours where you can cut up and actually see the faces of the folks with whom you are playing.

My sons played Dark Age of Camelot and one of the Star Wars games until they got tired of them and then moved to World of Warcraft. I’ve sat with my youngest son and watched him play. It seems to me he spends large chunks of time simply going back and forth over the same stretch of terrain.

As for the religious aspects of role playing games, well, the DM is pretty much in charge. I would never allow my players to pick any kind of evil character.Those who sought to run close to that line by picking say, a chaotic neutral character, often found themselves in really, really, nasty situations. 😃
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Wow, that’s cool – you are about as original as an original RPGer can possibly be!

I agree about being physically present to play the games – that was always very enjoyable when I was a kid playing D&D. It’s not really possible for me now as no one I know plays pen and paper or has time to. The online games really are the only way I have a chance to play with others.

One great addition to the technology of online games now is the voice communication – it almost makes it like you are all in a room together playing – voice to voice, but not quite face to face – though I am sure that will be coming soon too – video conferencing is already here but it just needs to be integrated into the games.
 
We have two computers in our household, both connected to the internet. Recently my oldest son bought me WOW because he knew that I used to like the old D&D. Both my hubby and I really enjoyed the game, so we got a second copy of WOW and downloaded it onto his computer too. We are just a few feet away from one another and can play quest together. For us, it is a lot of fun but we tend to be a bit geeky.:o SOmetimes, at night, we get lots of good snacks and play this game together. We call these our cheap dates. We enjoy this but like I said, we are geeks.🤷
 
Shylah said:
Hi guys!

I’m really new to the forums, so I’d best introduce myself. I’m a 40-year old married lady, practicing Catholic, and sort of new to the faith (converted 3.5 years ago). I was raised in an Anabaptist church, and was taught that playing role playing games like D&D was very dangerous from a spiritual standpoint. It was so long ago that I forgot what the rationale was. But it really scared me, so much that I avoided them like the plague. Well, now I’ve become fairly involved with playing World of Warcraft. I am playing with other Christians, but I’ve just noticed it’s very rare that I find other Catholics playing the game. Is there a reason for this? Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

In Him,
Shy
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I understand the fear. I attended a Baptist church that frightened me horribly away from RPGs for many years. Worse then that I was told that you could tell a Christian by the movies and music they listened to. So, I was made to feel that I was somehow not saved if I wanted to play these games.

The reasoning now seems odd to me but at the time it made perfect sense. If you even pretend anything to do with magic then you will somehow get drawn into the occult or get possessed.:eek: Yikes, who wouldn’t be frightened by that.
 
Carthusianish said:
Wow, that’s cool – you are about as original as an original RPGer can possibly be!
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Well, at about the time that those early RPG games were coming out there was (is) the Society for Creative Anachronism - you know those guys you see in parks on the weekend in lovely medieval armor whacking and flailing away at each other? I really am (in a way) Brother Hrolf. Have mace, will travel. 😃 We actually knew how it felt to don a 65 lb. mail hauberk or the differences between wearing a great helm versus a spangenhelm and argued them ad infinitum.

The online RPGs don’t allow you the time to stop and have heated discussions…or to come back in three weeks with additional documentation (we played for 10 -12 hours every third Saturday).
My oldest son is now 26 and sat on my lap when he was a toddler. He’s weird too! 😃 He likes Call of Cthulhu 😃
 
Shylah said:
I am playing with other Christians, but I’ve just noticed it’s very rare that I find other Catholics playing the game. Is there a reason for this? Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
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World of Warcraft is actually a very popular game here, and this is a very Catholic country. DoTA is very popular here most especially, and so is Ragnarok Online. I used to play Ragnarok, but got tired of it. I never played DoTA, but I have Warcraft III (Reign of Chaos–never got the expansion pack). Maybe I’ll try Ragnarok again since the game I used to play, Rose Online, has now gone down.
 
Maybe we should all start a guild on Warcraft? We could call it the Catholic Answers Saints.😃
 
When dealing with POWERS that are not from God you are dealing with some very scary stuff. To be on the safe side stay away!
 
jailbelle said:
When dealing with POWERS that are not from God you are dealing with some very scary stuff. To be on the safe side stay away!
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Well, unless one actually thinks that an online game can directly affect anyone (as if casting magic online will have any effect on someone, excluding the opponent’s character of course).
 
jailbelle said:
When dealing with POWERS that are not from God you are dealing with some very scary stuff. To be on the safe side stay away!
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What do you mean by powers? :confused: I don’t actually do magic on WOW. If I thought that I would need to see a psychologist.

My character also does herbalism and alchemy on WOW but I know that I can’t do that in real life. Thank goodness, wouldn’t it be terrible if I tried to treat my kids with homemade health potion.:eek: 😃 “What you broke your leg, hon? Here drink some of this red liquid, I got it from WOW. Don’t worry, I am a journeyman alchemist.”😛
 
The primary issue w/ MMORPGs is the time factor. Right behind that is, in my understanding, the cost issue (are there any that aren’t ‘pay-to-play’?)

RPGs in general are fine, as long as you maintain the proper time balance (and accomplishing whatever responsibilities you have in life) and don’t go overboard buying stuff related to the game.

Personally, I’ve never gotten into the MMORPGs, though I’ve played D&D since '83 (switched to AD&D in '89 and never did follow the WotC changes), and also on-line have started playing some GURPS and homebrew rules (that is, the entire thing is ‘homebrew’ not just a few houserules tweaking the written rules). But, I prefer to play-by-post (and an OOC thread gives PLENTY of room for all kinds of banter. Shoulda seen me in the game I DM during the '06 World Series, as I am a dyed-in-the-wool Cardinal fan for even longer than I have played RPGs & one of my players is from Detroit).

And yes, the characters do worship gods/goddesses and some of them cast magic spells … the PLAYERS don’t. Like with the Harry Potter novels, these are games not for those who have problems distinguishing reality from fantasy.
 
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