MMORPGs and Poker

[wulfheir]

Coming from 10 years of MMOs, recently to learn poker, I have drawn some comparisons between the two. I have also identified some key skills that have overlapped to poker. I wrote this in the hopes that it may be helpful to other poker players with an online gaming background.

The first thing I noticed was the community make-up. You can drop any MMO character into 3 categories. They may fit firmly into the category, or have some overlap. Role players, casual gamers and power gamers.

First you've got the role players, whose housing is always mackin'. Their wardrobe is full of every craftable outfit available, even if it is not wearable by their sex/class/profession etc... These are the poker players who call with 84o, because hey, there is still a 5, 6, and 7 waiting in the deck to hit the board. Their languange is always colourful, but mild mannered. They are the first ones in the chat box with "gla". They don't have the skills to stand up to even level MOBs, and they can't win at poker. But damn, they look pretty (especially when that runner runner flush draw hits).

Second, there are the casual gamers. They are here to have fun, but they want to maximize their acheivement while they can. They have probably read a poker book or two, but don't have the time to invest to practice and hone their craft. They post on boards about their bad beats and their hot streaks, always forgetting (or omitting) their reloads and suck-outs.

Last there is the power gamer. They will use that sword that reduces their agility by 5% just so they have the increased chance to land a critical blow the weapon offers, because they know in the long run their damage over time will increase. They study the game, outside of the game. They write, read and develop combat strategy. Bottom line, they wtfpwn.

The approach you take to be successful in an MMO can also be successful in poker.

Know your enemy. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent at work looking through a bestiary to identify a creature who I will hunt and kill when I get home. If I have specialized in fire damage for instance, I don't want to fight a fire dragon who is immune to fire attack. You can call this table selection.

You must be adaptable. You can't approach all encounters the same way, if you do, you die. You can't pull a lone MOB they same way you pull a group of MOBs that ADD. You have a different skill set for each encounter and you must be able to switch gears on the fly to deal with such variables.

The more skills and items you have at your disposal, the more successful you will be. I liken the collection of items in MMOs to the acquisition of poker books. Each has something new to offer for a particular encounter. Knowing what a stop and go is, and finding a good spot for it, as well as how to defend against it is one example.

Community. I haven't played an MMO yet that I have not been a member of a guild, or a part of a large community. A community that works together to achieve set goals. Everyone (almost) has something to offer. Getting responses from posting a hand is like asking how to complete a quest in guild chat. You will either not improve, or improve slowly with the absence of a strong community.

I have played MMOs that required 6 months of grinding to develop a character that I can enjoy success with. For the last 7 months, I have been developing my 'poker' character and finally enjoying success, albeit slow and steady. If an online character was not turning out to be what I had hoped, I would reroll (poker world: reload). I have jumped from one MMO to another, often keeping 2 accounts open (poker world: different sites, multi-tabling). To get past my initial obstacles in learning poker, I had to look back at the time and energy I spent playing MMOs over the last decade and apply that experience to this.

I now have a character who can solo yellow con mobs generating enough gold to drop on a new sword or shield now and then. Looking forward to levelling soon to challenge the next level of mobs who drop rare loot.