Today was the very first Minnesota Massively Multiplayer Online Game Interest Group meetup. I had a blast! I will probably forget who was all there (and I’m HORRIBLE with names) but we had Ethic from Kill Ten Rats, Brent from Virginworlds, Michael Zenke from Slashdot and MMOGNation, Jonothan Stevens of Last Straw Productions, Cameron Sorden from Random Battle and Ten Ton Hammer LOTRO, Damianov of Voyages in Eternity, Cao, Matt Cruikshank. What a great group of completely passionate gamers and enthusiasts!
Now my guild last night asked me if this was going to be awkward to be with a group of gamer guys, and I told them that although you might think it would be really awkward – I really think there is NOTHING more comfortable than a group of geeks hanging out together. Honestly. We had a constant conversation going that covered topics such as SWG and the NGE, WoW, EQ2, LOTRO, why people play MMOG’s, episodic games, browser-based games, skill-based vs level based games. We talked about Pokemon Online (I’m totally securing that IP), Matrix Online, Puzzle Quest, Tomb Raider, and others. There was never a dull moment! The thing with gamer nerds is that a lot of us are used to suppressing who we are. When we’re at work, with friends, with family – we don’t get to really indulge in our gamer side. (Well, Brent and I do all our website updating from work…..but still). Its great to sit in a room with people who understand you, people who can comprehend why you’d honestly want to go to one of these in the first place. It was an excellent way to spend a Saturday afternoon/early evening…and I’d love to do it again.
I got a phone call late into the get together from Kendricke who unfortunately could not make it. In addition, we even conferenced in Darren at the last minute(my podcast cohost and blogger at Common Sense Gamer). We headed over to the connected pub and had a beer/food afterwards and it was great meeting everyone for the first time.
Things like this really remind me why I want to be in the games industry. Its so fascinating to me how different people’s varying opinions are on the games they want to play – and also how similar a lot of people are to each other. We are all consumers, all gamers, all enthusiasts…yet all of us have different motivations for why we play, and we all have our favorite elements and least favorite mechanics in games. Its so fulfilling and interesting to me to hear people’s viewpoints on how *they* view the industry from an outside view (because face it, save a few of us none of us are actually working in the industry professionally). Its just so great to talk to people who have a definite passionate opinion on game design even if they are not a designer. We all know what we want in games, and its fun to hear the differing viewpoints.
This is why I have such a strong interest in community management and PR. I truly enjoy talking with the players. I love hearing their opinions on how things are running, where things should go, what core fundamentals are good and what aren’t. I like speaking with other gamers as a peer, and on the same level. I love initiating conversation about games, which is why I have this blog in the first place. My main interest in Cuppytalk is not to read my own writing, its to read yours. I hope to inspire people to start blogging (which I have!), to start up conversations on MMO gaming, to start THINKING hard about why they play games and what we can do to improve gameplay for the community as a whole. I am so intrigued by the gamer population and our likemindedness and differences, that I really can’t get enough out of just talking with fellow players. I love it.
Thanks so much Damianov for getting this fine group of people together and letting some geek magic take place. I apologize for being late (family stuff), but I intend on spreading the word for our group and getting more interest in it. Thanks to all for the awesome thoughts that were thrown around (I think I have blogging content for the next two weeks!)
