I play mxo because for me its all about the social stuff. i returned after a LONG absense from the game (i left just before the SOE handover i think) and now im just running round having fun. i dont care about levelling, doing missions or anything like that, though i wont complain if i get to take part in a few live events, i loved those things. pity they wont be on the same scale anymore but whatever.

as i work in internet security, i also run a volunteer network where people can report hackers, adware drive bys, botnets and everything else called "the fourth wall". while playing mxo a week or so ago, someone noticed my bio and asked me if i could help fix their pc because they had a trojan on it. i agreed, and while doing it thought wow, i wonder if i can set up the fourth wall in various online games, too? so we did, and now its my intention that if you see something dodgy going on, you can come to me and report it in game, and ill take care of the rest. we get stuff like that shut down on a regular basis. i also chronicle lots of virtual world activity and write about it on my sites, so thats another draw which ties into the social side of things.

Why? Why? Why do you persist?!

Because I choose to.

In all seriousness, I came to the Matrix Online with wide eyes and high hopes to jack into the world created by the W. Brothers and experience the excitement and sense of mystery that surrounded the movies.  I needed an escape from my real life which was a little stressful and chaotic at the time.  I was hooked on MxO from the first moment I jacked in and saw the green code falling. 

During beta I started coding clothing and putting together outfits.  Back then (before I knew better) it was all about the Matrix fashion.  Amazing clothing and style.  Coding in this game was the first crafting system that made sense to me and that deepened the enjoyment. 

The end of beta event was amazing!  RFZ broadcasting the event brought people to my desk/room and asked me what was going on and what was I listening to.  I told them it was a live radio feed from an online game.  They thought it was a real catastrope somewhere.  Being a Merovingian operative back then.. I tried to hide in an exile hideout to avoid the system reset but alas, I was caught.

When the game went live the thrills kept coming.  World events, missioning with the threat of PvP, and tactical combat.  Calling in backup and having factions appear out of a hardline and suddenly evening up a battle in seconds.

Why do I persist?  Because I choose to.  The story (while sometimes a little unmatrixy IMO) is something that I've not found in any other MMO except some privately run servers of different games.  This is the Matrix, with movie characters, movie locations, bullet time, kung fu, and guns.. lots of guns.  Sure those stupid hackers were here, but in the end they finally got about half of what they deserved.  The environment forces us to harken back to the movie storyline and the incredibly deep concepts which were just beyond amazing combat.  I stay for the future.. because I have hope.  Hope that the game will continue to evolve, grow, and reach it's potential one day.

"Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness."

Online gaming has been a hobby of mine since .. online gaming existed. I suddenly feel old. heh.

Then way back in the late eighties I started designing a wee little mud while working as a Systems Manager.

Later on I started working on other peoples Muds and then Mucks. It grew into a rather time consuming hobby.

Then the Age of Graphics arrived.

Hmm. Perhaps I better skip ahead a decade or so. Maybe make it the short version too.

So.. I heard about this MMO some folks were making based on the Martix movies. I thought. "Uh.. I hope it's not those Enter the Matrix people... terrible game."

And the villagers rejoiced when it was discovered they were not.

The more I read about Interlock the more convinced I was that I wanted to play this game. I'm an MMO vet. I've been there, done that, got the T-shirt. But this looked cool enough to keep my interest for a very long time. AND it had a story.. the official continuation of those movies I liked. Very cool. I'm what you call a 'casual hardcore roleplayer' which basically means I was hardcore as you can get but life has worn me down and I'm tired. Just want to have fun. In character... out of character. Whatever.

Plus ... there were NO ELVES. I was tired of fantasy elves. Clones of Tolkien elves irritate me.

And it wasn't owned by SOE which at that point was a factor in my decision.

So I took the redpill.

Made a crew. 

Joined a faction.

Had a blast helping a faction mate win an event on Linenoise.

SOE took over MxO. I predicted the apocolypse. I was wrong.

Took over my faction in a bloodless coup. Only took ten months. heh.

And.... *zzzzzzzzzzzzzp*

We arrive at present day.

The past couple years have been pretty tough for me in the real world. Considered quitting a few times due to reasons unrelated to MxO. I even did quit once. Just didn't make any 'goodbye' posts about it and stuff like that. Just quietly slipped away. Like I said... tough couple years. But within days I came back. I have some really great friends in my faction that have been there with me through the thick and the thin. I never would have met them if it were not for MxO.

The story and live events are something that also keeps me here. As well as all the RP players come up with. Sometimes I'm astounded by the imagination of my fellow players. That's a good thing.

Yes, the situation here at MxO could be more ideal. I know a full time LET team would bring in a lot more players. But I'm a realist. All things considered .. we're lucky to even be here. I am more than pleased by the effort put forward by the entire development team. Not just Walrus and Rarebit. All of them. And that is a big factor in me staying here.

I'm a redpill. What else am I going to do?

Plus ... I haven't found Neo yet.

So that's my story ... in my odd rambling way ...

When I first heard about MxO, what really got me interested that you had the choice to work with the Machines.  I remember watching the first movie, seeing Trinity fighting the cops in the beginning, and hearing Smith say that those men were already dead.  I thought, she's a good guy?  She just killed all those guys who were just trying to do their jobs and keep the peace.  The more I saw, the more turned off I was...I saw how the 'heroes' were willing to kill bluepills, because they could either be taken over by an agent or they were so attached to the system that they would be willing to protect it.  They didn't care how many people died in the process of extracting one person from the Matrix.  And Neo's phone call at the end made me think, You want to show all these people a world without the Machines?  How are you going to feed them all, and where will they all live?  The people in Zion pretty much live in squalor already, how much worse will it get with a huge influx of people?  Or will shutting down the Matrix just kill them all...did Morpheus and his buddies ever think of *any* of this?  I admit that I was disappointed with that ending; it seemed like it was going to be a repeat of something like 'Independence Day', where the enemy is magically destroyed and everyone lives happily ever after, with absolutely no thought of what you would need to basically rebuild the world.

I was so pleased to see it didn't turn out that way!  With the sequels and the animated feature, we saw more of the world of the Matrix...the audience (and more importantly, Neo) saw that Machines and programs weren't emotionless, hive-mind automatons -- Sati's parents, the Merovingian, Persephone, the Oracle come to mind.  I also thought it was ironic that the whole prophecy of the One (whiched seemed like a corny plot device when I saw the first movie) was actually engineered by the Machines...as was Zion.  And in the end, we saw that the solution included life for both sides, Machine and Zion.  No wiping out of the enemy.  We had to be grownups -- we had live together and work out our problems; they didn't magically disappear with a hero or a superweapon or whatever.

*That* is why I play MxO.  So I can be part of this fascinating world. 

Lyr

When I first heard about MxO, what really got me interested that you had the choice to work with the Machines.  I remember watching the first movie, seeing Trinity fighting the cops in the beginning, and hearing Smith say that those men were already dead.  I thought, she's a good guy?  She just killed all those guys who were just trying to do their jobs and keep the peace.  The more I saw, the more turned off I was...I saw how the 'heroes' were willing to kill bluepills, because they could either be taken over by an agent or they were so attached to the system that they would be willing to protect it.  They didn't care how many people died in the process of extracting one person from the Matrix.  And Neo's phone call at the end made me think, You want to show all these people a world without the Machines?  How are you going to feed them all, and where will they all live?  The people in Zion pretty much live in squalor already, how much worse will it get with a huge influx of people?  Or will shutting down the Matrix just kill them all...did Morpheus and his buddies ever think of *any* of this?  I admit that I was disappointed with that ending; it seemed like it was going to be a repeat of something like 'Independence Day', where the enemy is magically destroyed and everyone lives happily ever after, with absolutely no thought of what you would need to basically rebuild the world.

I like what Illyria wrote: this is perfectly, what I think and feel. And like all the others here, who wrote, I am as dedicated, fascinated and "geeked" by the Matrix Story. But I understood the request different. As I understood, SOE wants to know, why we play online games in general. So let me answer this first.

I dont play "online games" in general, and this is - so I think - the basic drive of this specific one, the Matrix Online. I checked a lot of other games just for interest, but none of them captured me. Most of them are simply redicoulus, and all the same stuff - crappy fantasy worlds, where you have to be a super hero, smash silly monsters and do foolish quests. Its simply boring. The only other game, which could interest me is "Second Life", but this is a) not a game and b) terrible in the making, the grafics are so ugly, I need a jump into matrix after each session to "clean my mind" from all this crap. But there is one thing with Second Life, I find thrilling: the opportunity to settle in a virtual life, beyond imagination.

Matrix is different from all other games. First of all its the philosophy behind the matrix, and the ongoing story. you meet different people here, not the usual online gamers. Its so amazing that "the matrix" is "thematazing" itself in here. The matrix "is" virtual and being in the matrix makes you a virtual character  - this is one advantage, no other online world can offer. In every other game you pretend to be in "another" world, but the matrix never pretends, for it simply "is" the matrix.

Here in the matrix you meet ppl who share my interests, we have long discussions here, and each new step into the storyline reveals new points of view. So the main reasons I play are:

- its a real city

- its grafical stunning

- I love the entire atmosphere (Sound, Musik, the look & feel)

- great people, who become friends, I will not miss

- being someone else than in "real life", act different and be honest and authentic in the same time

- discovering new ways of artistic expression (cinematics/machinima)

I know this game has weaknesses - the missions could be lesser boring and the world could need some new details. I would love to have something new to explore. But this is a lack in principle that all games in this genre do have.

So - I am here because I love the Matrix and I love the people I've met here. Its my life. My second life.

Laurina

The reasons people play online games are as diverse as the people themselves. Some play as a hobby, some do it for community, some do it to stay in touch with friends and family members that live far away.

What are your reasons for playing? What keeps you coming back? Why do you choose the games and avatars you do? The Community Relations Management Team at SOE is collecting player stories today, January 4, 2007. Take a few minutes and tell us yours!