Why Do MMORPGs Hate Pacific Time?

Ever watch Jeopardy? When the people say where they’re from, it’s “I’m originally from Dayton, Ohio!” or “I’m originally from…” somewhere else.
You know they’re actually living in Los Angeles, but it would be boring if half the contestants were from LA, so they mix it up by telling where they once lived.
I’m originally from New Hampshire! But I’m living in San Diego.
Which isn’t entirely true. Was born in Washington State, grew up in Massachusetts, and lived in New Hampshire for a few years before moving to California, where I have spent nearly half my life.
Hi, Alex! Glad to be here on Jeopardy! I’ll take “Pacific Time in an Eastern Time World” for $100!
And the answer is: EverQuest.
It doesn’t matter where you live before you start raiding. I fell in with a guild of largely Pacific time people in United Norrath Coalition, and since we just played the game on our own time, casually, it didn’t really matter; you just grouped with whomever else was around.
When we began raiding, though… Eastern time guilds would beat us everywhere unless we started stupid early; Start porting to Hate at 4am PST!
I lost my job, so who cares if I was Pacific Time. I eventually ended up in an EST guild, Crimson Eternity, and had very good raid percentage. And then I started working again.
I did my best, but CE is such a rocking guild that they finish raiding before I even get home, or only have trivial stuff left. I found myself hoping the guild would wipe and wipe and wipe before I got home; and for awhile, while learning new areas, they would, and I would be able to raid.
But then they got so good… that I just showed up only to hear how the raids had gone. Which depressed me. So I started WoW.
World of Warcraft for $300, Alex.
And once again, while I played casually, it didn’t matter that I was Pacific time. Until raiding began. When the numbers were slight, they were forced to wait until I got home to have enough healers to make a good try. I knew that soon they would have enough people that they would not have to wait.
The past several days, I have been watching my WoW guild’s progress on the guild forum. I get on and they don’t even have time to tell me they are raiding. I only have a chance to raid on weekends… And that is not enough.
So last night, after playing my alt a bit, I announced I was leaving for a server in my time zone. But I really suspect that even Pacific time servers raid on Eastern time. My EQ friend Cassaendra plays on Bloodhoof, which I believe is a Pacific Time server. Her guild is Eastern time, though.
I’ll take EverQuest II for $400…
Now I am casually playing EQ2. And nobody cares what time zone anyone is in. But we see where this is going. Someday, if I continue playing, I will get to raid level. And then I will be shut out.
$500 – Vanguard – Double Jeopardy!
In Vanguard, there is going to be a Pacific time guild that raids no earlier than 6pm PST, if I have to start it myself.
What is “EST is 4 nubs lol PST ftw lol kthxbye”
PST props to United Norrath Coalition on EQ1/Erollisi Marr, Lost Sock Patrol on EQ1/Stromm, and Immortals on EQ2/Faydark – all PST guilds where I had a lot of fun, while it lasted.
Hmmm… I was looking up Lost Sock Patrol, and apparently there is a guild by that name on the Medivh server in WoW. This cannot be a coincidence…

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