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I love playing this game, but I often get strange reactions from people when I tell them I play MMO's. How do you guys justify/explain playing the game/use of the game?
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Game? You mean it's only a game??? NOOOOO!!! 
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DAMN YOU FINGLERSNATCHER AMERICANUS! DAMN YOU TO THAT OTHER PLACE! You know, where it snows and the cows are all backwards and strange-like.
Des Moines, I think..
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Hey! I live in Des Moines! We got no backward cows! Though we do have a statue of a Giant Salmon turning into a woman getting deep kissed by her husband. 
Now for Backward Cows you gotta go to that place in Idaho. 
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People tend to ask me "Have you beaten it yet?" and get very confused when I give them the answer of "you don't beat it, you just keep playing."
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This is one I get a lot too. I was trying to explain it to a lady friend on the phone a few days ago who doesn't know anything about computers or video games.
Her: Ok .. so it's a chat room?
Me: Well no it's a game, but thousands of people play it at once. I guess it's kind of like 90% game 10% chat room (for me anyways).
Her: And so you play and talk to people. But you keep playing it .. and pay for it every month. Do you ever .. win?
Me: Well no you just sort of keep playing .. it never ends.
Her: So .. then whats the point of playing?
Me: ... because it's ... fun .. the game is a blast and you get to chat with some interesting people.
Her: Alrighty then.
I find it's easier to just show people who don't understand. As far as justifying it, I don't feel I need to justify it to anyone but if someone asks why I play and pay every month, well I just tell them it's one of my hobbies. I have alot of fun, and it's by far the cheapest hobby I've got. Even some of my gamer friends don't get it.. yet they spend as much time as I do playing all sorts of other games (some of which they buy, some of which they .. don't). In the end though, they're spending alot more over a year on games than I am.
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You pay for your entertainment. Some people pay for a gazillion channels of cable television, some people pay tons of movies each month for movies, some people buy clothes for the sake of it. You pay for a video game. It's the same thing, really, just some short-sighted people can't seem to grasp that playing video games is no different than watching television, except more fun.
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This is well said.
To me... humans like vices. Some people like some vices... not every vice is for everyone.
Some people like to gamble. Some are druggies. Some drink alot. Some veg out in front of the television. Some play lottery alot.
Me.... I play computer games. I find it less expensive than most vices (and I'm cheap, so that matters to me) I find it immersive and flexible. And non-harmful. That makes a huge difference to me... as many vices have some huge drawbacks. I don't become permanantly stupid due to computer use for example.
Zeus - god of vice
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I could be caught up in Scientology.
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DO NOT INVOKE THAT EVIL!! NOOOO!
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
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My fiance likes it in that she knows where I am. i'm not at the bar, or the strippers, talking to girls or what have you. She knows i'm inthe comptuer room, playing a game with friends.
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So...you haven't shown her where the strippers hang out in Paragon yet, I take it?
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Why do you think my girlfriend wants to play?!
"I see your words..." ~The most menacing thing a forumite could say
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I spend 80$ a month for 5mbit Cable modem and my 2 accounts. that will keep me entertained for the whole month.
they will spend that in a night at the bar. or double that. Who's the winner?
I don't explain it. My family makes fun of it. Damned shoulder Kittens and Fire imps. I hear about it every family gathering.
My fiance likes it in that she knows where I am. i'm not at the bar, or the strippers, talking to girls or what have you. She knows i'm inthe comptuer room, playing a game with friends.
It's no weirded then when in the decades past, grown adults get together to play cards, or go bowling, or do crafts together. it's the same thing. A hobby with friends.
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It used to be a topic of some amusement from my father... he never made fun of it.. he just thought it was funny that I would veg out in front of a computer... (he saw it as the same as veging out in front of a TV I suppose, which he's also not a big fan of).
Then... I won $1200 bucks worth of stuff in the film festival. He's now finds it much less amusing. He also sees how much I enjoy even participating in the contests... and that's a much more hands-on kind of passtime that he can understand more.
So if people give you crap about it... then win a contest. Then ask them how much they've won at their hobbies.
Zeus - god of alternatives
My friends know I have a thing for capes. I like capes. I want a cape. And they all know this. My girlfriend actually might make a cape for me, on the condition that I have to wear it, at least once, into work.
I'd totally do it, too.
"I see your words..." ~The most menacing thing a forumite could say
hnmmm lets see....
When people ask why I play games on my computer I just explain them that the 2 most common useage's of the internet are gaming and porn...since they do not play games I ask them what sort of porn they are down loading 
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This is mainly due to the whole subscription thing, paying money every month in addition to the initial game cost. I can't really reason that away with "but it's saving me money on games I don't need to buy for entertainment", since I don't buy a lot of games anyway. (Also, these people tend to be the sort who don't really see the point in paying for games, when they could pirate them for free.)
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I can see the complaint about the monthly fee thing... but only because I don't watch television... don't understand why other people do... and therefore don't pay 40 bucks a month in cable.
Makes you wonder how many of these people that are complaining pay pricy cable bills on a monthly basis too.
Zeus - god of third entries
I've been asked about MMORPGs before, and I describe it thusly...
Most people, when they get off work, will go to the gym, walk their dog, make dinner, kiss their spouse, watch TV, and go to bed, or some combination of the above...
I do all of the above, except one... I don't watch TV. Except for a football game or some other special event, I have no interest in television, so I play online games with the same nonchalant attitude that most people watch TV with. In my opinion, it's a much more stimulating activity than watching people get voted out of a house for not eating enough bugs, etc...
This answer usually makes sense to most people.
Heh. Try explaining to people that you play pencil-and-paper RPGs. After that, explaining MMOs is cake.
I got involved with RPGs (which in those days, pretty much meant D&D) in high school. I think my parents were just glad that I wasn't hanging out and getting into trouble. Their graduation present to me was $50 worth of stuff from TSR (which was quite a bit then).
In college, I discovered games that left D&D in the dust, and never looked back. These days, I have shelves groaning under the weight of RPG books galore.
As an adult, I still get the odd look now and then when I sit in a waiting room reading some sourcebook with its garish cover. Eh, what do I care? 
Ah, I don't care if people think it's weird or look at me funny. Besides, for the past 10 years I've worked at a company that does something sort of unusual and people get confused by what I do. So they've just learned to stop asking for explanations from me. It's....easier.
~Missi
http://tinyurl.com/yhy333s
Miss Informed in 2016! She can't be worse than all those other guys!
I don't justify - why should I?
I do what I want to do and if someone doesn't like it, too bad.
The people I really care about either understand and are addicted too, or don't care what my hobby is as long as its not snorting coke or something.
Ignorance is being untaught. Stupidity is being unwilling to learn.
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I don't have to justify anything. If they don't like it, they can go pound salt.
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QFT.
I give a similar response but it usually is not as polite.
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I've been told that sometimes my lucidity is frightening.
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Your logic is no match for concentrated stupid. - Organica
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Current MAs:
Stop the catgirl rampage! #66361
My lady thinks it's yet another chatroom dressed up as a game.
Then she was watching as my team took on an AV.
"Who's THAT! he looks mean! And ugly! And why are your friends all yelling?"
"That's Doctor Vhaz... he's one nasty sonofab*tch. Oop, hang on sweetie, I gotta pay attention or..."
-faceplant-
"Oh my god did you just DIE?"
"Yep, looks like it."
"Oh I'd better go make dinner then... have fun."
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
Huhn really?
I usually have had people justifying to me why they *don't* play MMOs.
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I love playing this game, but I often get strange reactions from people when I tell them I play MMO's. How do you guys justify/explain playing the game/use of the game?
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I explain it to them and if they still look at me weird, I tell them I could be drinking and smoking at a bar or in some alley somewhere with a needle in my arm. If they're so wrapped up in the "must work every waking moment, then go home and work some more" mentality, they're not someone I want to associate with.
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It's no weirded then when in the decades past, grown adults get together to play cards, or go bowling, or do crafts together. it's the same thing. A hobby with friends.
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CoH/V is cheaper than my other hobbies as well. I might spend 15 dollars a week on comics. If I lose at my weekly poker game (which thankfully isnt that often) thats 40 bucks a month. Dinner and movie with the wife? Talking at least 60-70 dollars.
Hours of entertainment, really small pricetag. I'll take it.
Hmmm, I've had the same situation as I come from many years of Pen and Paper games, we just used to say we were playing poker, fewer questions that way.
Now my response to that quisical look about online games is:
"When's the last time you saved the world?"
@IronHoss
@Payamma Gurl
I'm sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to hell. ~Sheridan, The Fall of Night
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I don't have to justify anything. If they don't like it, they can go pound salt.
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Yeah - I'm in the "If they don't like it, Screw 'em!" section myself.
My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
"The tip of a shoelace is called an aglet, its true purpose is sinister." The Question
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I love playing this game, but I often get strange reactions from people when I tell them I play MMO's. How do you guys justify/explain playing the game/use of the game?
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Tell them it is your entertainment. Compare the fact that going to a movie with a date ($20-$40, depending on concession stand usage) for 3 hours is roughly the same amount you pay for 20+ hours of entertainment a month.
And if that doesn't work, put them on /ignore.
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And if that doesn't work, put them on /ignore.
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*Giggle* Oh, if only it were that easy my friend.
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I love playing this game, but I often get strange reactions from people when I tell them I play MMO's. How do you guys justify/explain playing the game/use of the game?
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Tell them it is your entertainment. Compare the fact that going to a movie with a date ($20-$40, depending on concession stand usage) for 3 hours is roughly the same amount you pay for 20+ hours of entertainment a month.
And if that doesn't work, put them on /ignore.
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QFT, and it was funny
Heh, I took criticism for playing this game from a guy who gets his jollies from torturing small, fuzzy animals.
Go figure...