Here I am, playing Atlantica Online (pictured) as I frequently like to do, wow guides and making extensive use of the Auto-run feature.Click on a quest, hit the auto-run, then sit back and poke myself in the stomach thinking ¡°Geez Jay, you¡¯ve really been letting yourself go lately¡±. Such a wonderful way to spend my playing time¡­

More and more MMO¡¯s are implementing ¡°convenience¡± features that allow players to get the common, boring tasks out of the way automatically, with little to no input from the players themselves. Auto-run, macro¡¯s, material gathering and crafting, you name it. If a player thinks it¡¯s boring then chances are there¡¯s a game somewhere out there that has automated it for you.

Saga even takes it one step further, where the automated processes (like gold gathering, unit building) continue without the player even needing to be online. This of course frees me up to poke myself in the stomach instead of playing the game. It makes me feel kind of lazy, like driving down to the mall when it¡¯s well within walking distance. I wonder if these sorts of lazy features are contributing to my expanding waistline.

¡°No.¡± is the sensible answer. lineage 2 adena I¡¯m getting bigger because I sit around playing games all day and I eat like a pig. Entirely my own fault and I know it. Though it occurred to me that perhaps these features could have a larger impact in the future.

Ask any MMO gamer what they¡¯d like to see in the future of gaming. I can almost guarantee they¡¯ll say ¡°Complete virtual worlds¡±, using things like neural implants to actually put the player in the game. I hoping to see it myself in my lifetime. Just think though, what might happen when games that you are literally a part of start implementing features that encourage you to do nothing for yourself? It¡¯s a scary thought.

The good old Lineage 2 days - the days in which I could spend upwards of 30 minutes traveling from one place to another - are almost over. So often I¡¯d find myself traveling from one place to another, searching for shortcuts to reduce the total time I had to travel. Rarely did these shortcuts lessen the time spent (actually it made things take even longer more often than not) but I¡¯d almost always find something interesting. A small group of rare monsters, a hidden village just over the hill, treasure hiding away in some unseen cavern; now it seems that exploration is almost discouraged because people feel like traveling is a chore.

It does feel like a chore though, lineage 2 adena which is why I searched for shortcuts in the first place, but one of the things we forget is why we play MMO¡¯s in the first place. Often these games have no end, so what¡¯s our goal? Enjoyment is a simple way of putting it, but the enjoyment might be lessened without having to go through the chores first. If an MMORPG were boiled down into just the parts we liked then we¡¯d always be getting rare treasures, we¡¯d never have to travel anywhere and we¡¯d always be all-powerful. I don¡¯t know about you, but that doesn¡¯t sound very fun to me.

Just don¡¯t forget, sometimes it¡¯s better to break away from the auto-beaten path and explore for yourself. You never know what - or who - you might find.