... That's a tiny boat for such a big mammoth xD

At least he serves as a fuzzy foghorn!

Wow one.... BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG mammoth..... TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINY boat! *giggles and purrs* I sorta think the boat'd sink

He's big and hunky and trunky!
Hitting space makes his thingie go up...

I love hearing people talk about new MMORPG's ... it's so funny. They always reach a certain a point and wonder about the mysteries of "why does it feel like I've done this before?" Ha... as if all these games are copy and pasted out of a single formula. They're made of goals with no real "game" to speak of. You might as well go take care of your lawn for all the work and no play you're getting out of these things. At least then you can invite people over and have a real social life on a real spread of grass. Maybe play a rousing game of zombie tag? I think that's what gets me the most about these types of games, it really does just promote mindless goal fulfillment of work and not the carefree fun enjoyment you get out of play. Case in point, WoW zombies versus my friend who wants to replay Mario Galaxy for the third time just because he enjoyed it so much. There's re-playability and then there's an addiction to pleasure triggers.

Oh right, and this is just my opinion, which most definitely dissents from commonly held opinion that MMORPG's are fun and cool. So before you throw that "if you don't like it, scroll" ideology at me all I have to say is, "No." Instead, how about telling me why I'm wrong?

Heh... I'm totally digging the attention to detail on those hands. That is pretty nice, but... that's really not all that big a deal if they aren't animated. They still look slicker than most though.

Also, that's a GREAT example of playing against the rules and actually playing around, if you play this game any more please try and put that mammoth is crazier places. I for one would love to see how inventive you can be given the game's limitations. Also... I just realized that putting steeds on ships is probably a feature of the game... :/

The hands are animated like most of the game, cept toes which somehow got forgotten.. but they usually
forget making those - unlike Shadow of The Colossus but that game was in a league of its own..
not sure why it's a big deal, but then again I always make a point to try and draw
them -as good/bad- as the rest of the image.

What puzzles me about the MMORPGs is that people seem to automatically
assume that whoever plays them has no life; as if they somehow pertain the
one true definition of what life is or is supposed to be.
I spend time with friends online and offline, and it certainly has never hurt our group
to come together and celebrate how we defeated some evil boss God thing through virtual teamwork -
nor does it hurt to paint a friend's house in RL - unless someone fell from a ladder or something.
The game as much as the painting of a house can tighten bonds - and that says something.

I enjoy a balance.

Yeah, SotC is an excellent example of attention to detail. It had just the right scope for it. It captured the landscape, characters, and colossus in perfect detail. Mostly because the game didn't try for more than what it was.

When it comes to MMORPG's I guess I can get a little "crusader" with it and forget important details. There are people who don't go overboard and do have a sense of balance. I just hate the fact that the game mechanics promote people who invest more and more time, but don't promote skill based game play... which does require time to build, skill that is, but it's biased towards the player's personal development with the game and not grinding and random chance.

I just want to point out, I love team gaming. It's awesome and a completely valid way to spend your time. I also love the idea of taking on alternate identities in a fictional world too. I've lost myself in that sort of gaming myself, in fact it's a very traditional form of playing that is practiced by children of most ages. Cops and Robbers anyone? So why does RPG mean repetitive and distanced based gameplay in terms of game mechanics? (I know why, the long history and tradition of video game role playing is pretty familiar to me) I just ask why because I want to point it out. Make the suggestion that we should expect a game that caters to the things that make RPGs awesome and ditch the stuff that make them boring time sinks. Where's an Online Action Adventure (sans-RPG) genre when you need it?

I also want to ask, I know that social groups are one of the biggest draws for online gaming, so most people play for that enjoyment alone. Although when it comes to gameplay, grinding, leveling up characters, item hunting... that sort of thing, do you really enjoy doing those things? Or do you enjoy the conclusion of those things, the level up and the found item? Doing something that isn't necessarily fun except with the end goal in mind, is what I call work. But when you're actually working, the goal tends to pay off when you've done the work all the way through. There's all kinds of indicators that tell you when that'll be, even if the end goal gets pushed back by some unforeseen obstruction, it's all based on a living working system... and replacing that system with random chance, such as randomized rare drop rates, is not the same and is quite the opposite of fun. From experience, it's quite torturous. This is what I have major beef with in terms of MMORPGs.

There are also people who support these sorts of game play elements as absolutely necessary, to them I say they're not thinking outside the box far enough.

I've noticed that most MMORPG's distinguish themselves from each other simply by HOW you go about the grind, but don't axe it all together. The How is very important, it can be the distinguishing factor for how a game is classified. Devil May Cry 3, for example, lets you pick up experience from defeated enemies to power up your guns and buy new skills, God of War uses a similar system, but they're not RPG genre games. They still have really excellent and compelling stories. Other action titles even have open and explorable worlds with non-linear story scenarios, like Grand Theft Auto 4. So why the grind? When the personal stories of you and your friends are a more compelling factor to the re-playability of the game, when "grinding" has become an obsolete gaming mechanic, and other games are inventing new and original ways of playing...


...whew, that was a load off. I love being able to discuss this kinda stuff with people. Because invariably someone points out the flaws in my logic and it gives me a chance to reform my opinions and ideas on the subject. I don't even really know you, I watch+ed you for your art a while ago... but thanks for responding to me. Also, since this was pretty ranty, there's a good chance I sound incoherent. If that's the case feel free to tell me to "STFU" or whatever, I won't mind.

Also, I have an active subscription to Phantasy Star Universe: Ambitions of the Illuminus (a very underrated online action rpg) if that puts anything I've said so far into perspective.

I just had time to read comments!
But not so much for responding,
however I think 'the grind' as you mention - the one really big force behind it;
with the eventual reward - is that it will give you something that 'most' others don't have.
In a a way it'll give you a chance to be 'somewhat' unique in a world of limited character appearances -
at the same time as it will stamp you as insane for bothering since it's just digital.
So why at all would anyone go through a digital pissing contest?

Sort of like in RL I guess - you save money from work (grind) and finally one day
you buy that awesome lawnmower/car/house/iPhone and then you might
have something 'most' don't have. Something some people might go "Ouuuh, nice!" over.

Anyway, you're free to like my art - I'm not known for my brain/debating skills as much ^^