It’s days like this that remind me why we play MMOs. I refer to them as bridge clubs and bowling leagues all the time in interviews, comparing the comradre of a guild to any other team activity. Ultimately, though, the appeal of MMO play is about competence. Whether you’re in a group, part of a guild, or (especially) soloing, playing an MMO means acting fundamentally in a competent and useful way. Even new players hammering at the keys in the first ten levels will - usually - be able to achieve the goals set before them. At the highest levels of play that competence is honed to a fair-thee-well, with gameplay more resembling a dance or orchestral movement than simple button-mashing.

That applies to story as well. Additionally appealing is the ability to involve yourself into a fiction or a context outside your norm. Soloing allows players to really understand and appreciate the lore set out before them. They can take the time to read the quest text, and enjoy the events of the world around them. In a group or as part of a guild, the ’story’ is really more about the people than the game. Whether the tale is one of tragic comedy in a failing PUG or of heroics and victory in a server-first raid, there’s a story you can immerse yourself in as a player. You sink into that experience, participating as much or as little as you want.

The ulimate appeal of the MMO, beyond competence and story, is that immersion factor. You can be as present in the real world - or not - as you so choose. You can be a late-twenties guy playing a game, chatting with friends, and watching a video … or you can be a lithe undead rogue skirting the edges of a dungeon in search of treasure and glory.

I bring this up becuase I’m having yet another frustrating kind of morning. My wife and I find ourselves in doctor medical clinics or worrying about health problems far, far too often in my opinion. I’m writing this from yet another waiting room, wishing I were doing my dailies or working on my exploration Achievements or doing the Headless Huntsman with WWTD … pretty much anything but what I’m doing right now.

Escapist inclinations, many people call them. A rejection of reality, shirking of responsibilities, or refusal to grow up, others accuse. I call the human mind’s tendency to seek out solace where-ever it can find it highly sane. Whether that’s online, in a book, hobby, vice, or sport we use the larger context of outside environments to connect us, to support us. It’s not about wanting to escape. It’s about wanting something to lean on, a means to make it through rough times with some measure of good cheer and productivity.

I love MMOs for many reasons. Today, I mostly love them becuase they’re always there when I need them.