Just wondering, I'll post my answer a bit later n_nV

iTs A dRuG I TeLl ! You! A GoVRrNmEnt ConSp!RAcy. To KeEp us Play!Ng Th!S GAmE AnD NoT rEalIze All the REAl Stuff ThATs Going out THeRE MAN!! LikE Al!eNs ANd B!gFooT And Ahh BOB BARKER!!!
iTs ONl!nE Crack I TeelL U mNnn. ThE MAnnn Is TryiNg to ConTroL Us By seNdiNg HypnotiC WaVes.

LoL

No but seriously, Im not sure cause Ive been corrupted like 3 times and I never quit. Some People say its cause of the People. But I haven't meet too many quality players till I started gaming with you guys. Others say to reach Level 200 and collect all the rares. But I alawys seem to corrupt after lvl 100 (guess thats why I don't level much)
So really I have no true answer to this. Maybe I am being mind controled by the government. It sort of one of those philisophical questions that only the great master Bruce Lee could answer, god bless his soul.

Guess one could say why ask why, just live and do as the wind tells you to do.
But then that would be like giving up and submissing yorself to the world and its materiallistic perpective. Guess its ones goal to find balance in ones self and enlighten those who have gone astray in their way and are lost in the monotonous life of just living or perhaps surviving.

??? Am i making any sense here? WTF got into me.... (thats it no more Trigun for me.)

Because EQOA sucks.

Heh, not just that... I like to game with buddies, and nothing beats real time battling; turn-based gets old, fast.
Also I'm a big Sci-Fi geek so I enjoy the atmosphere of the game. I've been addicted to this ever since I imported the DC version1 just to play offline mode only. Hehe
But theres always those occasional PSO burnouts and a long break is needed.

I'm in it for the HUnewearls... >.>

Seriously, though... I probably couldn't tell you exactly why I love this game so much even if my life depended on it.

Like Kaz said, I think the atmosphere has a lot to do with it. I've been a fan of the Phantasy Star series ever since PS II came out for the Sega Genesis waaaay back in 1989. The game's unique blend of science fiction and fantasy appealed to me (and continues to do so) like nothing else ever has.

The people are another big draw. I've met some truly special people during my time playing this game. A lot of them are here. True, you sometimes have to wade through hordes of undesireables before you find those few gems... but it is so worth it once you're there. =)

And finally... I guess maybe the biggest reason I keep playing is that this game, its players, and the surrounding community have become my primary form of artistic and creative expression.

So maybe I did a better job of explaining things than I thought I could. =) Either way...

See ya online! =D

This is really the first online rpg I have played. Well I have played Quake III Arena alot but that was always versus nameless foes who I never got to know on a personal level. I guess the main thing about pso is the great people I have met. Many have gone away and I will probalby never see again, but this group has been together a long time and I hope it stays that way, even continuing beyond pso into other games.

QUOTE (AC9breaker @ Jun 12 2003, 08:50 PM)

It sort of one of those philisophical questions that only the great master Bruce Lee could answer, god bless his soul.

"Don't think...Feeeel."

for myself, PsO is not just a game - it's a work of genius *gives proper-props to ST* ^.-

PsO = pure enjoyment of existing within the atmosphere of sci-fi, i love this game lots.. i have been a zealot for Phantasy Star ever since the early days; primarily, Phantasy Star's II & III were the ones that drew me in.. i was hopelessly addicted ever since.. *ponders* i would have to say that games like: StarCraft Ghost, PsO & Halo have the particular feel that i look for in decent sci-fi games.. =)

side note* - indeed; Quake 3 is a worthy game - it was a different kind of communication; frag-mayhem during late hours of the night.. ^.^

I'm definately in it for the social elements. I, like most of you, have been playing this game since the version 1 days and I've been hooked ever since. I've played several online titles, and PSO is really the first one to give me that community-type feel. I've met some really awesome people over the past couple years on PSO and one of the things I enjoy most is being able to chat with them about anything and then hop on and kill some Boomas together. ;) Like Dive mentioned, I hope to keep such a connection with you people beyond PSO and into other titles (should PSO finally bite the bullet >.< ).

I guess I would have to say that I have always been a really big fan of RPGs and especially real time RPGs. I got hooked a number of years back with Final Fantasy 6 (3 in the U.S.). This game, I guess, started a lot of this RPG enjoyment for me. I would stay out really really late playing FF6.

I then discovered Chrono Trigger when a friend offered to let me borrow it. I took it and I played it...and returned it. *I gotta get this game*

Wonderful EBay is where I get many games that I can not find else where that are out of print.

I then got FF4 and it was great. I love the story lines in the Final Fantasy series. The only thing I saw was in FF4 someone would die every minute or so...I thought it was kinda wierd for people to keep dying in the storyline...oh well.

Anyways, to make a long story short I was never introduced to the DC version of this game. What happened was I was really interested in online games and the ability to go online with the GCN. I got a BBA off ebay and then me and a friend were at Hastings...bought their last copy of PSO. I started playing...and I was hooked for life on this game. I started getting cought on really fast to this game...started with a RAmar, then a FOnewearl, then my HUcast. I have to say I really enjoy the HUcast a lot. They are fun. Although I could not miss the chance to try out a FO. I was seeing how nice it was to have lv30 S/D and thought...heck I wana learn that...my lousy RAmar could not learn but level 15. That got me started on the FOnewearl.

I like not only the gameplay but all the wonderful players that I meet online...and at AT as well. It took me quite a few months of wondering around Ragol before I actually found decent people...that I could trust and that were really team players. I like now ST attempted to break down language barriers with the word select...it really comes in helpful. There are a lot of really nice people that I have found on the JP servers too. Most of these "U.S." players are greedy and could care less about team play.

Anyways, I think I have babeled on long enough for this post. I have only had been playing PSO since last November. I bought it 11-23-02. I have learned a lot about the game since then and met some really great people...most of them here. I was on Vega at one...like any new player...I figured there had to be something better then this crap. I honestly think that when I started talking to Layrinn initially about keyboard adapter project stuff and exchanged some information...that is what got me pointed towards here and owe him for helping me find really nice people to play with. Thanks 'Rinn. I owe ya...for this and some other help.

This is a great group of people here...I really enjoy playing with them, as I hope they do with me. See ya all online.

EDIT: fixed date...heh

I keep playing PSO because it is the greatest game ever.

You guys have already gone over the reasons, the setting, the leveling, the weapons, real-time combat, and most importantly playing cooperatively with other cool people!

QUOTE

I bought it 11-23-03. I have learned a lot about the game since then and met some really great people...most of them here.

Look at the date.

Sorry, man I just couldn't resist..

Please don't kill me >.<;;

QUOTE

I bought it 11-23-03. I have learned a lot about the game since then and met some really great people...most of them here.

QUOTE (Angel of Enders @ Jun 15 2003, 07:11 PM)

Look at the date. Sorry, man I just couldn't resist..  :zzz Please don't kill me >.<;;>

eh, I feel like an idiot..heh. Thanks, I edited the post...lol

my answer, unlike most is quite a simple one.

I have a problem... and theres no 12 step programme to gte me off it......

No matter how burnt out I get, I always find myself coming back to it.

Hello everyone!
This is my first post.
Dive brought me over from the gamingcow.

So... why do I play?
1. Fun factor - This game is so fun. It's the best of both worlds. I can jump in and play for 10-15 minutes or I can play for >3 hours. I can get into the story of it all or I can just warp down and whomp some butt for no reason at all.
2. People - Same story as everyone else. I have met some great people. I have met some dinks. The strange thing is that most of the people I met very early on, I still talk to. Most on a daily basis. I am looking forward to meeting all of you as well. A friend of Dive's is a friend of mine.

See ya on the ship!

I just love everything about the game...the music, the people, the monsters...it just takes me in. I like all the variety in the game as well. It's like no other game that I've ever played before.

I was on psow today and I saw this. I felt it to be very deep and I have never realized it, but its true.

QUOTE

Its the timing. PSO is all about the timing. There's a cadence to the game. whether it's the 3-hit combo or dodging a laser, you always play with the beat. The enemies move to it. you attack to it. the delay in the combos is to meet the rythm you always stay with the beat. Which is why a two hit combo which fails to kill is so jarring. The beat makes PSO an rpg. RPG's focus on strategy not power. PSO doesn't really do that. All the strategy is in the timing, using the beat to your advantage. FPS's don't have a beat or strategy which is why they get boring quickly. The reason you love PSO is the same reason you love your favorite song.

Pso is like music I never realised that certain beat to it. Weather it be the intense drums of battle and war, or the calm sereneness of goofing of in the lobby doing animations just chilling. Its the beat of life.

That came from PSOW? I am amazed, yet I have my own reasons for liking PSO that are far more different from the above quote. Anywho, PSO can be a mixed bag, it is all dependant on the few aspects that make PSO shine. PSO's simple nature is both its draw and what makes it less appealing to those "rpg stat nerds".

"OMFG these characters don't have any feats, hey why can't I roll to determine if my rabarta will freeze everyone...WTF, I can't kill this NPC, rob him and steal his house, you call this a rpg?"

Like wise it are those same hardcore rpgs that are totally devoid of any intense moments, which PSO is loaded with if you play the right quest.
Despite those hardcore D&D elements, it is the simple, yet fast paced nature of PSO that makes it appealing. A simplier way of describing PSO is a more team based form of twitch gaming. PSO is using some basic play elements that are fun regardles of what game they are in, and at the same time addiciting(the rush of an intense moment). The thing is that PSO is at times very slow paced(normal mode anyone?) and at times can be a fast paced challenge(famitsu). The slow paces nature at the start turns alot of gamers off early on.

It is when PSO pushes you to the limit that it really shines. I like the fast paced nature of PSO, combined with it's emphasis on team based gameplay. The more difficult and intense a stage the more fun it is; although since it is an online game you are essentially doing the same thing over and over for hundreds of hours on end. This is why people "burn out" on PSO, as described by Kaz, yet come back later on.

I also like cmode. Cmode isn't really intense in the same manner as doing, say MU4 and your in the last room with 10 seconds on the clock, trying to finish off wave after wave before the time runs out. Cmode is totally more about teamwork, the strategy of survival and skill. Skill being, you the player playing to the best of your performance and trying to work with your teammates to do the best you can. It is cmodes "challenging nature" that causes you to focus on these aspects. Cmode IS essentially normal mode with caveman/LotL rules. Like any game you play, if you set certain challenges, you have to strategize and deal with the game on a totally new level. It's why I prefer a challenge in PSO, it pushes you to the limit to do your best and try to work with the basic strategy and gameplay elements Sonic Team has set up to the best of your ability. In a ultimate run you never have to play very well, but in Cmode you have to play your best. You can just pipe to town in an ultimate run, restock and continually do so as needed, with money being the cruch to limit your neediness of the tool shop lady. Yet in cmode you really can't do that, you gotta go straight through and live off what you have. This is another reason why I like PSO.

"HC's *BONUS* additional rant info"
I would favor games that have the intensity of famitsu, the teamwork of cmode and the strategy of a deep fighter. Sadly the deep strategy of a fighter and the simplicity of a what makes a twitch game shine have a difficult time coexisting in a fully 3D control scheme(push C-stick in a direction, and character moves that way). In many cases a deep fighter has the elements of a twitch game, fast reactions time, yet is it far more strategic. If anything this is the perfect marriage of these two elements, yet it's the control scheme that makes it difficult in game like PSO(since most fighters, 3d or not, are on a 2d plane). So there is no game out like that. Besides most developers don't even have a clue of how to properly mix the strategy and dexterity needed of a deep fighter into a fully 3D realm, in an atmosphere of a game like Dynasty warriors or PSO without the controls being a nightmare(ie. Tons of enemies on you at once, yet having the same strategy to do high low combos, counter attack, parry, with the freedom to move anywhere just by pushing in that direction). If you had to input a typical ryu fire ball motion in PSO to do a special attack, your character would move around like an idiot and probably fire off the special attack in the wrong direction, yet having to do so at the right moment adds to the intensity, pressure, and skill placed upon the player. They don't work, or do they?

Very, very well said. I can totall agree with all said. Normal mode is just not challenging and too repeditive for me. I enjoy the challenge mode of the game. Limited supplies, live off what you have, and attack with strategy as not to get hit. Learning how to dodge and counter attack at the same time.

I also really enjoy the aspect of meeting the many people on here. Not just the people here, but I have met a number of nice to play with players in Alcyone.....and not all of them speak perfect English either, but that is why word select was invented although some of the translation, I have found, can be rather flakey to their true meanings...but that is half the fun...heh.

After around LV150 there comes somewhat, to me, of no point to leveing any farther. All you get is a few ATP points, some HP and ATA. Especially when you get to the higher levels gaining level 200 somewhat becomes more of a status symbol which is starting to loose credibility. The first thing I see people say to a LV200 player is..."recco box?" Players on here have gone cheap.

I can find a level 200 playing in Ultimate that STILL gets killed. that LV200 player does not have a clue how to play worth beans. If s/he actually played for those 200 levels and the 800+ hours required to get that level and maybe played challenge mode a few times though then yes....that LV200 is well earned.

One thing I really enjoy about this game is meeting people and not just "E" players either. I could not stand XBox becuase the servers are segmented. I don't know what I would do if the servers became seperated. EU was down for a few days at one point and the JP server dropped off the list for a hour or so one day...I was wondering what I was going to do. The whole server went down and DCed everyone from what I understand.....including me!!! I could search for people over there and not one would come up with a result....><.

Anyways, point being that I most likely would not be playing now if it were not for the people that I play with. Without others to play with this game would get old quick.

My list of ways to improve PSO...

1. More quests! As HC82 mentioned, a lot of the appeal of PSO is in the fast paced and intense missions, and once you've played for X thousand hours, having memorized all the maps and monster spawns makes things a bit boring. For me right now the only thing I can find fun on pso are the new quests, just cuz they are something different

2. Random monster spawns. The true reason cmode will never get boring to me, you never know whats going to show up next. Those sudden "Oh crap, another c-bringer!" moments are wonderful. Put some randomness into the main game and I'd be very happy

3. Nerf jellen. Maybe remove it completely. If you've ever played an android and a force in ult offline, you'll should know why.