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pandora_parrotI really don't get online socialization tools.
Whenever I log into these things, I generally just feel lost in the shuffle. In World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs, I don't really meet anyone else and I wind up playing the game by myself. When I do that, I generally find that I'm paying $15 a month to play a really crappy single player game with a crappy plot. I prefer my video games to be epic adventures with awesome storylines, since I mostly play them for the storyline anyways.
I've jumped onto IRC a few times, but with a few exceptions, I just don't get it. There's lots of people on there talking about things that I have no interest in. If I act like a lunatic and try to entertain people, I can enjoy it for a few hours, but the novelty of that quickly dies away, and I generally don't see the same people on there again, so any relationship I might have established goes away. I do use IRC to communicate with folks I know, so if I know someone IRL and they are always in a chat room, I'll visit that chat room, but otherwise, I just don't get it.
Forums, BBSes, and LJ communities are similar. I'm okay at lurking in forums and posting from time to time, but I find it very difficult to maintain an interest in online forums for very long, or to maintain much of a presence there. I never feel like I have time to read all of the threads going on, and the ones I do read seem mostly inane and uninteresting to me, so I don't really have that much to contribute.
Then there's Second Life. I've horsed around with that a bit, but I still don't get it. I'm all alone in a world full of people that are making things using a convoluted interface. I've tried playing games on there, but it feels pointless. I get nothing out of it, since your character is already practically a god. I've tried snowboarding and flying vehicles and stuff, but since there's no limitation on 3D motion, it really seems quite pointless. The art in there is pretty cool, but since I don't really see anything to do at my skill level in the game, it really doesn't seem worth it to learn the difficult tools to figure out how to make anything. This is doubly true since I don't know anybody on the service to share anything that I might happen to create with.
I've tried EVE online, but it doesn't capture my interest. I've tried City of Heroes, but after getting to about level 10 with my character, I lose interest. I was actually in the beta test for Ultima Online and found it completely strange and pointless. I also played Meridian 59, Dungeons and Dragons Online, a MUCK type thing here and there, and a few others. None of them could capture my interest for longer than a month.
The only MMORPG that ever captured my interest for longer than a month was Earth and Beyond, and that was mostly because I really liked the exploration elements of that game. I got to visit really exotic sectors of space and land on interesting planets and stuff. I also really liked the space combat and things. It didn't have much going on, but it was enough to actually interest me. Otherwise, these things just have no draw to me.
Am I missing something? What's the draw of online communication and games? How do people socialize online?
I suppose that part of why these services don't work for me is that I tend not to have much interest in socializing with people that are outside my social circle. If I meet someone new, it's generally because I've met them through an existing member of my social circle, or I have already determined that they are "tribe" in some sense. Weird geeky queer poly women, especially transgender women, don't tend to scare me much, but everyone else pretty much freaks me out if I don't meet them through some existing member of my social circle or activity that I already am involved in. IRC requires me to meet people with absolutely no pre-established context, as do all of these online games.
With that in mind, I have tried a few times to get involved in online things that other people are involved in. I joined some IRC channels that a friend of mine joined, but find that I only talk to the people I've met IRL. I joined WoW with a friend of mine, but she already had several top level characters and was just dragging me along. I joined Second Life with the same person, and talked with her a bit, but without her around, just had no interest in the service.
*shrugs* I suppose these things just aren't for me, but I see so many folks getting involved with them, and frankly, there are bits and pieces of them that do intrigue me. But for the most part, I just can't seem to get myself to care about them.
Thoughts?
Whenever I log into these things, I generally just feel lost in the shuffle. In World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs, I don't really meet anyone else and I wind up playing the game by myself. When I do that, I generally find that I'm paying $15 a month to play a really crappy single player game with a crappy plot. I prefer my video games to be epic adventures with awesome storylines, since I mostly play them for the storyline anyways.
I've jumped onto IRC a few times, but with a few exceptions, I just don't get it. There's lots of people on there talking about things that I have no interest in. If I act like a lunatic and try to entertain people, I can enjoy it for a few hours, but the novelty of that quickly dies away, and I generally don't see the same people on there again, so any relationship I might have established goes away. I do use IRC to communicate with folks I know, so if I know someone IRL and they are always in a chat room, I'll visit that chat room, but otherwise, I just don't get it.
Forums, BBSes, and LJ communities are similar. I'm okay at lurking in forums and posting from time to time, but I find it very difficult to maintain an interest in online forums for very long, or to maintain much of a presence there. I never feel like I have time to read all of the threads going on, and the ones I do read seem mostly inane and uninteresting to me, so I don't really have that much to contribute.
Then there's Second Life. I've horsed around with that a bit, but I still don't get it. I'm all alone in a world full of people that are making things using a convoluted interface. I've tried playing games on there, but it feels pointless. I get nothing out of it, since your character is already practically a god. I've tried snowboarding and flying vehicles and stuff, but since there's no limitation on 3D motion, it really seems quite pointless. The art in there is pretty cool, but since I don't really see anything to do at my skill level in the game, it really doesn't seem worth it to learn the difficult tools to figure out how to make anything. This is doubly true since I don't know anybody on the service to share anything that I might happen to create with.
I've tried EVE online, but it doesn't capture my interest. I've tried City of Heroes, but after getting to about level 10 with my character, I lose interest. I was actually in the beta test for Ultima Online and found it completely strange and pointless. I also played Meridian 59, Dungeons and Dragons Online, a MUCK type thing here and there, and a few others. None of them could capture my interest for longer than a month.
The only MMORPG that ever captured my interest for longer than a month was Earth and Beyond, and that was mostly because I really liked the exploration elements of that game. I got to visit really exotic sectors of space and land on interesting planets and stuff. I also really liked the space combat and things. It didn't have much going on, but it was enough to actually interest me. Otherwise, these things just have no draw to me.
Am I missing something? What's the draw of online communication and games? How do people socialize online?
I suppose that part of why these services don't work for me is that I tend not to have much interest in socializing with people that are outside my social circle. If I meet someone new, it's generally because I've met them through an existing member of my social circle, or I have already determined that they are "tribe" in some sense. Weird geeky queer poly women, especially transgender women, don't tend to scare me much, but everyone else pretty much freaks me out if I don't meet them through some existing member of my social circle or activity that I already am involved in. IRC requires me to meet people with absolutely no pre-established context, as do all of these online games.
With that in mind, I have tried a few times to get involved in online things that other people are involved in. I joined some IRC channels that a friend of mine joined, but find that I only talk to the people I've met IRL. I joined WoW with a friend of mine, but she already had several top level characters and was just dragging me along. I joined Second Life with the same person, and talked with her a bit, but without her around, just had no interest in the service.
*shrugs* I suppose these things just aren't for me, but I see so many folks getting involved with them, and frankly, there are bits and pieces of them that do intrigue me. But for the most part, I just can't seem to get myself to care about them.
Thoughts?
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no subject
Date: 2009-09-11 06:22 pm (UTC)I've always been a poor loser, so I thought that was my issue. Hmm. Maybe it's what you were talking about too...something to consider.