[NijiOnna]

So earlier this year my brother joined a society all about a game called StarCraft. They all game together and even enter online competitions with other Universities that are commentated on and shown on Youtube. It kind of got me thinking if the University of Leeds had anything similar, and through a little searching I found out that Leeds University do have their own group in StarCraft (though from what I could find it’s small and nothing like an official society), along with two other Clubs/Societies that offer playing console games.

What I’m actually interested in however is mmorpgs. I’m not saying I’m any good at them, but I do like playing them in my free time, especially when I’m part of a friendly guild. I’m certainly no expert on them, and I mostly play ftp games as a healer (hardly the hard-core mmo-er). I was a little disappointed to not find a society that dealt entirely on this topic though. I’m a first year (soon to be second), full time student studying for a BA degree and I’ve only so far joined one society. I don’t really go because I’m excited to however, it’s more an excuse to push myself and socialise with people. So yes, another attribute for this kind of society could be to get the socially awkward together and actually feel comfortable doing something with like-minded people. Of course that’s not to say that everyone who likes mmo’s are socially awkward. People tend to play mmo’s simply because it’s fun, and that’s how it should be.

I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in this kind of society. It seems to me that it could be nice playing online with people you actually know and see now and then, and perhaps even support each other in their busy university lifestyle. They could meet up maybe once a week (maybe even in a private place where they could bring their laptops along?), create a guild together, have fun and hold guild events… but maybe I’m talking rubbish. I’m sure people could find pros and cons with this kind of society (addiction perhaps being one, but I would think a mature University student would be able to not get too carried away with a game and neglect their studies).

What do you think? Something to consider for next year?

Also I’m a girl if anyone was wondering (yay for female gamers!).

I maybe should have posted this is the gaming section, but since this is aimed primarily at Leeds students, I wasn’t sure where to put it… I apologise if I have posted this in the wrong place.

[Muffinz]

(Original post by NijiOnna)
I’m a first year (soon to be second), full time student studying for a BA degree and I’ve only so far joined one society.

Hi there!

I'm a first year too and I am a hard core MMO player - I spent the entire weekend on the Guild Wars 2 beta :P We should add on fb/steam/tsr!

As far as I'm aware there's no society like this at Leeds, and I've just been through the LUU website looking :P I'd be willing to join buuuuuut with regards to creating a guild I have a suspicion that it won't be nearly as active as it would need to be and would not end up like The Guild :P I'm planning to co-lead a guild on GW2 with a few online friends anyway and you'd be welcome to join if that's a game you're looking to play

[PinkMobilePhone]

Why don't you just join Leeds table-top/LARP role playing society? Okay so it's not online, but still fun I used to be a member when I was at Leeds Uni.

[NijiOnna]

@PinkMobilePhone - table-top... is that like that dungeons and dragons board game? Its never really interested me (though to be fair I've never actually tried it). Hm, thank you for the suggestion though!

@Muffinz - Haha, The Guild, eh? Would have been nice. This mmo society suggestion doesn't seem all that popular though, so you're probably right XD PMed ^^;

[PinkMobilePhone]

(Original post by NijiOnna)
@PinkMobilePhone - table-top... is that like that dungeons and dragons board game? Its never really interested me (though to be fair I've never actually tried it). Hm, thank you for the suggestion though!

no table-top role playing doesn't use a board. It's more like.....being characters in a story. It's almost entirely spoken.
There's a GM (Game Master) who sets the scene (he might start talking about the room, describing the setting etc).
Everybody else is a character. Every character has a character-sheet which determines how good they are at doing something - for example there may be categories on the sheet such as "speed, agility, arcane, strength" etc etc. At the beginning of the game every player rolls the dice to give them scores to determine how good they are at these things.

So the game might go something like this to start :

GM : "you are all in a tavern. It's very dark and small. Several tables are filled with shady characters carrying weapons".

player 1 (who has the role of an elf) : "I head for the bar and order a drink".

player 2 (who has the role of a dwarf) : "I follow 'player 1' over to the bar"

GM : "a large ogre with a club stands up and follows you to the bar".

player 1 : "I turn round and ask the ogre what he's doing"

GM : "The ogre doesn't reply, but scowls at you menacingly and starts to swing his club around".

player 3 (who has the role of a wizard) : "I cast a spell on the ogre to turn him into a statue"

at this point, there would be a roll of the dice to determine whether or not the spell worked or not. The ability of the wizard on his character-sheet under the magic-casting category would also be taken into account.

and so on and so forth...the game continues like that.

So, it's almost like a cross between telling a story, and taking part in a play, and playing a game all in the one go.

Obviously it's not only fantasy games, there are loads of games - vampire ones, werewolf ones, sci-fi ones, yadda yadda you get the idea.

And after all that you're probably still not interested in trying it haha, but I thought I'd explain anyway.

[NijiOnna]

Ah, I see. So like creative story telling but with some given stats as rules. It deffinetly doesn't sound boring, so thank you for explaining further. I'm still not sure, but who knows. Might be worth giving a try sometime in the future

[Muffinz]

(Original post by PinkMobilePhone)
Why don't you just join Leeds table-top/LARP role playing society? Okay so it's not online, but still fun I used to be a member when I was at Leeds Uni.

I WOULD LOVE TO JOIN THIS.

What's it called? I tried looking on the LUU page and I can't find anything

EDIT: FOUND IT **** YEAH

[Chumbaniya]

Is there not a PC gaming society, or just a general gaming society? If there is you're bound to find a lot of people playing MMOs within it. Also, if there's a PC gaming society I'd be interested in joining when I get to Leeds in September.

[NijiOnna]

Not really... There is however a Sci-Fi & Fantasy Society that does a bit of gaming (I think a lot of it is the table-top gaming that PinkMobilePhone mentioned). There's also an anime society that does a bit of gaming like Mario and such too. If all else fails I'll probably give the anime society a go.

[PinkMobilePhone]

yeh the sci-fi and fantasy society is the role playing (table-top/LARP) one.