You have read it in the forums, you have read it in the reviews. There are jokes written about it, and there is even a South Park episode with it in there. For a player new to online role playing games it is just too easy to be confused. What is it? The Game of course, remember that song that says "I started a joke...which started the whole world crying, But I didn't see that the joke was on me, oh no." That is in a nutshell what happens to the new MMO gamers.

Game Theory

When you play in single player role playing games, there is a structure that the game follows. It is a simple "pearl structure" for example:

You start in town HappyVille, then you get a message from the Arganon kingdom requesting you to save the princess Linda. Then you have the option to cruise around town, and do some quests and get some supplies until you actually step out of HappyVille.

When you step out of HappyVille then you enter a second "pearl" where the same, you will have several side quests to do before having some other cue for the next change in the plot which would progress the game story.

There are some variations to this, but this is the basic structure everyone has played with at some point. So we get to know are character, we get supplies, we develop his abilities which let us advance through the game levels, we slay the dragon, save the kingdom, get the princess, and all the gold and goodies.

The Critics, The Complaints

Moving on, we have the MMO genre, which opens the door to as many new possibilities as new problems.

Why is it that people you ask online can give you such different opinions on the same online game? Well Imagine we could ask grandpa's and grandma's around the world "How did your life go?" you are going to have similarities and abysmal differences. They all ate, traveled and had children, but they all met different people and made different decisions.

Mike: Hey Sam, how are you today?

Sam: Really good, I started playing World of Warcraft last night, I finished all the quests, created a guild, leveled all the horde characters to the top level, and then I went to bed.

Mike: Oh really? cool, so what are you going to play tomorrow night?

Okay, so it is a mathematical impossibility that our fictional guy Sam could have "finished" WoW in one night, unless he hacked or something. The point of this fake conversation is that you get the same thing that happens when you read a review, the difference resides on the eye of the beholder. Now don't get all jumpy just yet, reviews are good for you because you need to get some more info before you open your wallet or click the download button for that hot looking game.

Sad but true is that people believe what they read. I have seen numerous posts, in-game ranting and comments left on game pages saying how much they are bored with X game, or what the game needs. Even though they might be some legitimate reasons for some of these comments, there is always the possibility that you may find a nice warm place in that game to call home. So go with the popular saying about doctors and get a second opinion, and a third one, and a fourth one, and a...

Lets make the hard game tougher

When you start happily grinding away your Saturday nights there will be a moment when mom will knock on your door and ask you what the heck are you doing still in the pc in the middle of the night. Your answer will be has hardly encoded as a politician's speech. She will make a "what?!" face and then order you to go to bed before she murders you. On the other hand, if you are the hardcore gaming mom, you will have a hard time explaining to your four year old what teamspeak is and why does mom play a game that looks so complicated.

Interacting with the first humans that you come across as a new MMO gamer can be as dangerous as holding a revolver loaded with one bullet to your temple and hoping to survive when you pull the trigger. The thing is, you don't know you are doing it. If you are lucky enough to find a person that:

• Speaks the same language as you do.

• Doesn't mind helping new players.

• Writes sentences without using acronyms/abbreviations heavily.

• Has general knowledge about the game.

• Wouldn't mind lending you some gold or newbie items.

Then you my friend, just hit the jackpot. In some games these people are very hard to find, and sometimes you can spend weeks in the game without ever running into one of them (If you didn't try asking for help in the forums).

After you have spent sometime in the virtual worlds you will get familiarized with the culture and its tribes. And one of my favorite parts: the dialects. If there is a hell for English teachers and grammar teachers around the world, it exists in the virtual world.

Leetspeak

This is one of the hardest (for me) to write, it has been around since the 1980's but it has contributed quite a few original words to the general gamer dialect. You won't see it regularly used in in-game chat, but it helps to know about it.

Sample:

hell0, 7h4Nk |_| Ph0R rE4D1n' |\/|y 8l09, d0'n7 ph0r9e7 70 Le4\/E |\/|Eh 4 K0|\/||\/|en7.

Try the leetspeak translator

Lolcat

This one originated around 2005 from the popular cat images with pictures that we see floating around all over the internet, it is easier than leet to spell, but it has its own "grammar?" to it.

Sample:

Y HALO THAR, THANK U 4 READIN MAH BLOG, DOAN FORGET 2 LEEF ME COMMENT.

Try the lolcat translator

Gamer

It is hard to describe a general standard for gamer language, because it borrows a lot from lolcat and leet, but if you send a lot of text messages using your mobile phone you shouldn't have many problems. Because gamer dialect is for speed, because writing out things takes time, you can make typos, and you might not even know how to spell correctly. If you the dragon boss is running after your healer avatar and your health bar is about to drop to zero you don’t want to stop and write "Somebody please help me, the dragon is after me and my health bar is running dangerously low!" not only the other players won't mind reading your long sentence, but you will most likely get your head bitten by the dragon before you hit the Enter key.

Players talking in dialects is never in the game designers plans. Their job is to give us the tools to communicate, how we do it is all up to us.

So where is the fun?

Now that you have another language to learn, you will face an important event. How long will it take for you to figure out what you find fun in online games? There is only one way to figure it out, and that is playing until you do. The options are many, unless you do a really good job at finding a very restricting game, you will have a buffet of activities you can do.

As a head start, your best bet is joining one of your friends that is already playing a game, or inviting someone to start playing online with you. Because it is increasingly hard to find friendly people online, people don't mind using a $700 dll computer and $40 dlls a month internet connection just to stalk you all over the map.

A great way to enjoy your online gaming experience is to keep your mind open and your friend list growing. It is the cheapest way to make friends all over the world without swimming through turbulent on-line chat rooms. There is no save the world - rescue the princess in MMO's, yes you will save some princesses on some side quests, but that is just an extra compared to the main story, your story.

Maybe you won't have a statue dedicated to you in your local park, maybe history books won't have your name on them, but your party members will always remember when you took your last health potion, and ignoring their warnings turned back and finished off the great boss of the game that no one had the guts to face alone. MMOs are about creating your own legend, your own myth, so what are you waiting for? Start it now! and get your gaming life recorded here, we want to read it, and what is more important, get Your Legend Recorded.