Almost Heroes: Bringing The Community To You

By Ryan Plas | December 20, 2008 | | Filed under: Editorials | Tags: Almost Heroes, World of Warcraft, WoW

Almost Heroes.

Yeah, I know it’s the title to a movie, but it it is also the name of the first guild I ever joined when I started playing MMOs back in EverQuest on the Lanys T’Vyl server (best server EVER, anywhere, anygame). It’s also a title that to me is so much more than either of those things. To me, those two little words nearly buckle under the weight of the importance that they carry to the MMO communities. Because, isn’t that exactly why you play them? Everyone wants to be the hero that rescues the princess, or saves the town. Heck, some of you even want to be the villain that kidnaps the princess! Bottom bottom line is, is that a lot of you play MMOs to be the star, to be heroic. But you can also do that offline with single player role playing games, or even action titles.

What splits MMOs out from the rest of the mold and genres out there, is that not only are you the hero, but so are your fellow server-mates. There were two things that really drew me in when I started playing EverQuest back in 1999: First was the fantastic new world to explore, monsters to slay, and cool gear to acquire. But the other was what I found to be the absolute best thing in MMOs to date: the people. Social interaction, where you can be whomever you want to be without misconceptions based on a multitude of things in real life. How you can meet people from all over the globe and be able to share something in common, or learn new things. Good laughs, good times, and good friends.

Almost all the good memories I have from when I started MMOs are related to the friends that I have made, and the time I spent with them. Some of those people I still talk to today. Some of those people I have met in real life through gatherings. The problem I have had lately, is that things just don’t seem the same anymore. And I want to figure out why. Am I just getting to be an old fogey, and my kids just turning me into “that guy” ? I mean I am almost 30!

So that is why I am starting this column. My wife proved herself to be the best thing that has ever happened to me once again, and bought me the Wrath of the Lich King expansion for WarCraft and a 60 day game-card. It’s been a long time since I have played WoW. I have played a tad since BC came out, but honestly, nothing over level 60 yet. So it’s going to be an all new game for me, and I’m looking for people to share it with.
As much as I love MMOs, I wouldn’t go out and say that I’m a social butterfly. In fact, its been quite the opposite for a while now.

But, the prospect of who people are behind their characters, especially now that WoW has captured the minds of millions of different people out there, is something that I still find terribly, well cool. So hence this column. I am going to be starting an Alliance character on the Duskwood server sometime this weekend. I will post my character name, and how to look me up on Facebook, and I want to meet you guys. Every week, I am going to try to interview your everyday average MMO player. It doesn’t matter if you play World of WarCraft, or EvE, or whatever. I’ll ask you some questions about what game you are playing, why you chose that game/character/etc, and if your willing, a little bit about what you do in real life. That way you readers out there can meet your server-mates a little more in depth than a PuG for instance #12312432.

This is a great oppurtunity to get to know your fellow gamers! I’ll post a new update once I get that character started, and in the meantime if any of you out there want to be an interviewee for the Almost Heroes, you can always email me at ryan@mmogamer.com.