Runescape is a Fantasy Massive Multiplayer Online game that was released in 2001 and although you had to be over 18 to play, I got to play anyways through super secretive methods. Published by Jagex, Runescape takes place in a world called Gielinor, a world that is divided into different kingdoms, cities, and regions. Characters you create are able to travel by foot, through magical spells, and even on boats. To me, Runescape was really the pinnacle of fostering creativity through New Media and even through a game that allowed people from throughout the world to connect with one another.
Runescape allowed people like myself to customize what we looked like right from the start, from being a bald man with a variety of colors for their clothes to someone who we imagine to look like a wizard, with long hair and a beard.
For me, what really fosters and draws out the creativity in the MMO is the fact that it is an MMO. There are no directions to tell you what you should and shouldn't be doing. No one is telling you where to go and where you should be headed. Instead, its up to the player to decide what they want to do. Activities can vary from going on quests to help people and explore the land of Gielinor to hunting monsters to casting various magic spells to living a second life in Runescape by joining in a community of people from all over the world. Runescape has allowed people to be creative because you are allowed to live a second life in a fantasy world where there are no rules and restrictions on what you do.
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteI'm also a big fan of games in general ever since childhood and I understand with every single word you wrote about your experiences with MMOs. My own experience with games first started with Single Player modes, for me single players modes require no interaction between myself and the outside, it's just me and the environment, this kind of mode gives me more degrees of freedom and more opportunities to express myself in the virtual world. However, it's very easy to get board in the single player mode and less likely to become addicted. And in the MMOs, it's true that players get less freedom, but they now have the opportunities to interact with other players and the longer you play the more fun you get.