*Sigh*

I remember those days. I got to level 7 and then decided this game was made by Satan himself as level 8 would take twice as long to get to as it took me to get from level 1 to 7 (that is if your not tweaking the game.)

I promptly quit playing EQ after one week. Too bad too, I really do not mind paying for something I like.

Now, I lost my virginity on the 286 days. Prince of Persia, Monkey Island (a whopping 9 megs?! Were Lucus Arts crazy?! I had a 40 meg HD!) SimCity. Civilazation, Loom, Kings Quest, EGA, *sigh* Now I cannot stop playing Starcraft or Counter-Strike. Those other games? They are ok. If they make more Descent Freespace2 mods then I am game but otherwise...

Yup. Games are great.

pardon my obnoxious curiousity, but how do you (nomax5 or Critical_Waster) not know that the only reason you think the events you describe are only exciting because you spent so-o-o long doing seemingly meaningless things before anything happened that was worth talking about?

My login name is Critical_Waste, now as for your question, I can safely say that I did not understand what you actually asked. However, I can still reply with an answer: If I am not having fun after the first 4 hours of playing a game, then I will not be happy 40 hours from then on either. I would rather be doing something else.

Making a game is like anything else in the entertainment industry, that is, if "Your Game" does not hold audience attention in the first 30 minutes who is to say they will want to get to minute 792 (when is REALLY gets good?) With EQ and AC, I was not having fun so I did something else.

Is that a crime?

[EDIT]
I now understand your question. When I was seven years old and became a pirate swashbuckler that hurls insults in a sword fight in Monkey Island, I was having a good (read VERY good) time. Yeah, after I played Monkey Island I turned off the computer and ran around outside in the yard. Then I played some other games.

In fact I think I am having fun, what is there to worry about? Do you need to quantify my fun? Am I causing you trouble by not having varified that my fun is as good as your fun?

Seemed like a weak question to me.

[edited by - Critical_Waste on June 17, 2002 8:53:49 PM]

The first time I played everquest, I created an ogre called HevyMetal. The first thing I did was walk up to one of the pillars on the ends of the bridge in the Ferrott. I climbed up it, looked down, and fell over the top to my death.
Didn''t go too far with that character. I''m not much into teamwork in online games, it was easier to solo in UO.

About the time I quit EQ, I made a concious descision to stop wasting too many hours playing video games and more hours programming. Since then, my eyes have been opened. I realized how lazy I was (still am). A few of my friends are hopelessly addicted, and I''m not sure they know how severe the problem is. From the people in my little world, good programmers and EverCrack addicts are rare in the same person.

Man, I had so many fun/terrifying times in EQ I can''t count them. I got up to level 53 with my druid and after that lost interest for reasons previously stated (having to group with doodz, the impossibility of getting your quest item without a power guild, etc).

I remember going into Befallen around level 6 or 7 just to see what it was like. I fell down the well and almost wet myself when I realized I couldn''t get back up. I eventually found the door to go up and it was being blocked by a fat old ogre who wouldn''t move after the door opened. A group trained about 6 or 7 mobs on the people waiting at the door.

Another interesting time was when I was wandering around WCommons and saw my first giant. After I could move my fingers to get my character to run into a shop, I started breathing again, thinking I was safe. Little did I know. Out of nowhere a fist came crashing down on me doing about 10 times the damage I had in hit points. That sucked!

Looking back, most of the fun times were before I hit level 20 or so. After that it ranged from semi-fun to boring and tedious. A little way into 53 I started a monk just to get back to something fun, but even that wasn''t as fun as bringing up my first character.