Well... Theres the boredom thing that causes you to let go of a MMO but it can be also hard if your playing your MMO for ten years and the company decides to close the game. That is even more painful as you lose all the characters you've invested time in and all the social ties you've built up with people over the years. I'm sure that can cause bitterness and a hesitation to try another MMO. Too bad MMOs can't do like pokemon does where if you have a Everquest 3 you can transfer your characters over from Everquest 2 after you meet certain requirements.
I cant find an MMO to hold my interest mostly because of what I am wanting and looking for.
Themepark MMOs are fun for a while, but who wants to LIVE at Disneyworld?
Actually they are more like Assembly Lines to me.
You start as nothing and at the end you come out a maxed out character. You experience the content along the way as you "assemble" yourself, but once at max there isnt a reason to go back to the start. Unless you re-roll and "assemble" another
At least at Disneyworld you can go anywhere at anytime and have fun.
Though, here again, once you have done all the "rides" its gets old.
They are too Linear and Static
I prefer Sandbox games. I enjoy the Open Worldness of them
The 2 longest games I played were UO and SWG (2yrs and 5yrs repectively)
But now they are either - not my style (Wurm/Ryzom), too old (UO), broken and closing (SWG), spreadsheets in a tin can..in space (EvE), FFAGankPOS (DF), FUBAR FFAGankPOS (MO)
Yeah, Disneyworld gets boring, but who wants to leave and get ganked on your way home for your Mickey Mouse hat and Goofy hands EVERY DAY?
Im guess Im still waiting for some Dev Team (one with both Talent and $$$) to really take a chance and COMBINE the 2.
A Sand Park if you will
Dungeons/Raids, Player Crafting>Loot/Player Driven Economy, Quests/Missions, Territory Control/PvP/GvG/RvR, Exploration/PvE, Housing/Enviromental Manipulation, Skill based (with a cap FFS!)>Level based
*actually, I would really enjoy a MMO like WURM if it was created on a better engine (not UE!)
Next one up: I probably will play SWTOR just for the "ride", but I already know that it wont last more than 3 months for me.
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT Playing: Skyrim Following: The Repopulation I want a Virtual World, not just a Game. ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
Most everything has been covered already. I have WOW, LOtRO and STO on my computer. LOtRO is F2P, WOW unsubbed (last month) and STO active but have no real desire to play at the moment and will keep it F2P. I will keep WOW because of the heavy investment in alts and time and high level characters. Resub whenever I feel like it. LOtRO has my best friend, he likes it, and I keep it for playing with him and his son. Despite my addiction to Tolkein the games seems no real difference from WOW. Just couldn't get immersed in my character(s). STO was a near disaster at launch with content problems. They have done well in improving but after I hit level cap and have several alts at various levels I have found myself not playing much the last few months. Glad it is going to F2P.
SWTOR is next for me. Have great hopes for that game. Then I will add GW2 because I like the dynamic events concept and enjoy fantasy. Finally I will try TSW because they are also trying a different genre. I am a former game designer for TSR and Pacesetter games but now retired (yes I am old) and able to play whatever I want whenever I want. Yes, I am lucky in my hobby.
I am slow to leave a game. Usually it is a gradual thing and I notice mostly when the sub charge shows up and I realize that I haven't played much lately. Really enjoy the new game experience tho so I look around the development blogs and sites a lot. It is true that younger players are in and out quickly lol because they were raised on the console games which are designed to be finished and then sell them a new one. Easy enough to understand.
Ummmm.now I realize I should leave this post. Long overdue I guess, glad you don't charge for it.
49. Been playing MMOs since such a thing existed, variety of MUDs and other stuff before that.
Longest-running MMO interest for me has been WoW (two different stints, total time maybe five years with a long break in between) and CoX (about three years, with a break for GW1 release). Year-or-less samplings of...let's see...nine other MMOs. In a few special cases like AoC's opening and the infamous Hellgate: London debacle, a month or less.
This almost all took place before the Great F2P Wave, so these were all paid subs, not the F2P Butterfly Effect.
Never had any issue "breaking" from a game. It's more like--one day, I no longer feel like logging in. Then a week goes by, and a month, and I'll end up closing down the account. A month or three goes by, and I get the itch to play again...something else.
I think it's not the games that are repetitive, but it's the player's habits. How long to you expect on hobby to entertain you, if you do it every night? Where did this expectation that one fifty dollar game box will entertain you until the end of time come from?
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
So I started with UO. That was my introduction to MMOs, and such an MMO will never be again for me. Why? Community. There was a strong, vast, and wonderful role-playing dynamic in UO, and we all congregated on the now defunct Crossroads of Britannia forum site to trade stories about our characters, joke around, orchestrate events, and discuss things in general. I formed real friendships there, and even visited a few of these people irl. But, nothing lasts forever, and SWG came along to break us up a little bit while time and growing up and pending responsibilities worked to finish the job.
I have never been party to a community or guild quite as tight and personal as I had with UO. This reality (whether through my own inability at artful conversation or a disintegration of cohesive social elements within MMOs) has made it much easier to switch games for me as of late. The few bonds I do form are fleeting shadows in comparison. One friend that I've played with for more than a decade has passed away as best as I can tell (from medical reasons, I'm not THAT old).
I am back in WAR now, and in a friendly guild of good people, but I might be one of 3 on at any given time. The alliance holds more, and they are nice as well, but alliances are composed of disparate guilds and there is an artifical distance one must find the energy to surmount in order to connect meaningfully.
I always hope there'll be another MMORPG that recaptures that feeling I had with UO, but I know there won't be. Games have changed, gamers have changed, and while I tumble and flip through the winds of change and land where I will, the realization of what will never be is more than a little poignant.
I sometimes struggle with it, especially if I've actually built up a social group in a game. I did have a hard couple of minutes (I'm being honest here) recently, agonizing over keeping up my sub to Fallen Earth even though I played less than 8 hours of it over the past 2 months. I finally said "Sod it." and let my sub lapse.
I've done the thing before where you stay on too long in a game because of people, connections, guild - you name it - and I wound up never wanting to see the damn game again. I'd like to keep the fond memories I have of FE untarnished by the last couple of months of logging in out of some weird sense of obligation (because, really, who cares whether I'm there or not?) and the drudgery of trying to force fun when you're just not having any.
I've (sort of) been taking a break from MMOs anyway, and should be all nice and refreshed by the time the next one on my list launches.
Never hurts to take time away from the genre IMO. And that is strictly IMO.
I really like columns like this, as it paints a good picture of what different kind of people are thinking. I'm 40 years old and have only been playing MMO's for about 2 1/2 years. My first MMO was Runes of Magic and I have now permanently quit the game, though, had a gap (during a couple of years) where I did not play for about 9 months. I hated to quit. I had a fairly high-level character, who could just barely run endgame (at that time). To make a long story short, the in-game economy took a dive, just about as bad as the one in RL. As I was mostly f2p (I spent a bit of real money on it every few months or so), it was just impossible for me to upgrade gear and whatnot. I had put a lot of time and effort into my character and THAT, I believe, is what makes it hurt so much for some of us to move on from some of our games. We literaly invest heart and soul into what we do, that gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment, and it creates a sense of loss when the time comes that we have to walk away. I actually envy the folks who don't develop some sort of emotional attachment to their games...it'd be nice for me to replicate something like that.
If a game does become boring to me, so it. I'd prefer to quit one out of boredom as opposed to what happened, in my paragraph above. Unfortunately, boredom and tedium seem to be the nature of the beast, at this point, but on the flip side, it gives us an incentive to venture out and try new things...not to mention that it helps keep the business afloat, lol.
I actually envy the folks who don't develop some sort of emotional attachment to their games...it'd be nice for me to replicate something like that.
It's easy, actually.
The first MMO you play that really explodes on you (economy nukes itself, or some sort of scandal makes the players mass-exit), you do the RAAAAGE thing, write a long post full of drama, and storm off to some other game.
Second time it happens...not so much.
Been seeing ten of fifteen years of drama llama ragequits from other players--that kind of stuff just doesn't set off your temper any more.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I actually envy the folks who don't develop some sort of emotional attachment to their games...it'd be nice for me to replicate something like that.
It's easy, actually.
The first MMO you play that really explodes on you (economy nukes itself, or some sort of scandal makes the players mass-exit), you do the RAAAAGE thing, write a long post full of drama, and storm off to some other game.
Second time it happens...not so much.
Been seeing ten of fifteen years of drama llama ragequits from other players--that kind of stuff just doesn't set off your temper any more.
You're right...I should also have mentioned that I had kicked another couple f2p's to the curb, in the same time frame. Spent lots of time on those too, but yeah, it was MUCH less of a big deal to let those go. RoM was my "high school sweetheart MMO", the drama and quitting is still fresh in my mind, but I may not be getting as emotionally invested in these things as time goes by. Btw, I appreciate your reply and value the perspectives of others who have been at this longer than I have. I'll get it together one day, lol.
many of your points are well taken for me. Toward the end of the game i'll want to log in just from habit of doing so, but when I get in game, it's like i've seen everything and done everything pretty much. Then I start hitting the pvp pretty heavy. Next is getting into the social aspect guild stuff pretty heavy. But when that dries up and there are no friends coming on I wind up pretty much done. I'll log in, see that no ones on and then pop back out. At that point I go through my withdrawls and stop logging in, then eventually call the customer service people and stop my acct.
I always kind of expect the customer service people to at least give me a query why I am stopping play, email questionairre or something. They miss the boat there because there would be a lot to say!
After I stop playing a morg i usually switch to a shooter for a while and lately I am playing rpg's (witcher 2) which are pretty cool actually while I wait for old republic to come out. And no I don't see myself going back to wow, btdt
Yeah been there done that. Stayed years... realized I was bored.. stayed more for friends.. then left.. only to then move on with the guild in that game to other games by the time that guild more or less was put to rest I had a different perspective than before. Now I play games when I have the time and when it has my interest. I have no problem moving to different mmos every few months... only to come back when there's new content. I'm not one who says once played never return. I try not to burn bridges but it's my life and I won't spend money and time on something I'm not enjoying.
That includes Everquest, EQ2, Asheron’s Call, AC2, WOW, WAR, LotRO, AoC, Aion, DC Universe, Rift, and more.
Most of these games I beta tested, starting with AC.
Right now I’m back to Age of Conan, but I also have installed and play Lord of the Rings Online and WOW, both free to play (WOW on a private server I’ve been on for years).
I dread that moment when I realize that I’m not having a lot of fun any more, just kind of killing time. I have a lot; I’ve been mostly retired for almost 20 years.
I’m getting to that point with Age of Conan again, for the third time.
I don’t play only MMOs and right now my hopes are on Skyrim, which will be out in a couple of months.
I loved this whole series and am sure that it will keep me involved for quite a while.
I play MMOs mostly solo anyway, I have one friend 76 who is also a gamer and we talk on Skype and Play LotRO together. I’m trying to get him involved in AoC when the weather gets to bad for him to ride his motorcycle.
Anyway I haven’t had a game that kept me going for more then a year at one stretch since UO.
And my next MMO?
The Secrete World, I’ve already signed up for the beta an I’m hoping that the fact that I beta tested Age of Conan and have an active account will give me an edge on getting in.
Have Fun!!!
Mike
If you shoot a mime, do you have to use a silencer?
Having been in WoW since late beta, I know exactly what you mean. After six level 85's, the grind starts to make your eyes bleed. ^^ Once that happens, I generally find another game and unsubscribe until the next expansion. I've been to level cap in more games than I really care to think about... I started with UO, and I've played all of the major and many of the minor games over the years (and WAY too many Asian grinders for anyones sanity... Level 125 in Cabal as an example).
What I look for these days is a good combat system, followed by at least some story/lore. Nice graphics are also a plus, but if the combat system is good enough, I can over look some aspects of that. One example of that is Dragon Nest. The graphics are way too cute style anime for my taste, but I like the combat system. Over all, I play these games as a hobby. If any given game starts feeling like a second job, I'll start looking for something else to play.
I really do think something has "changed" in MMOs though.
Before, and still in certain games, I feel like we were playing to do something greater...
We were fighting for our lands, collecting treasures and rarities for our homes, fostering and tending to friendships and really were a part of a real community we were involved in and cared about.
But now?
We fight for points, for stats, for rewards in throw-away games with no purpose or meaning outside of themselves other then to advance our own personal ego.
We collect not treasures but numbers, knowing full well it is just filler till the next batch of numbers is released.
We have no homes, just places in the world we share with the rabble of humanity - the mob.
We have no friendships or community, just pieces to a puzzle - tools to be utilized to accomplish our personal goals.
It just all seems so.... so transient, so fleeting... so pointless.
Why spend all night grinding through the same dungeons or raids or the same instanced PvP matches for gear that I know will be replaced in a few weeks/months?
Why try to achieve anything when it's just a number in a book and not something physical and visual we can proudly display and show of, something we can assign meaning to because it is unique and special to us...
You say it perfect,
I dunno when exactlly WoW just began to become more game for your OWN ego.
At Vanilla, I remembered that hardcore guild just went to down Nefarian,
And came to Stormwind to praise the victory. Everyone in the city gained the 2 hours buff.
Whole community knew this guild, and were happy.
AQ Opening Event, everyone participate, collected stuff all together to make this AQ event go open early. Community felt so connected to each other.
There was Alterac Valley for only own realm, it took 24 hours long to win the battle.
Nobody stayed there for 24 hours straight, but atleast they just came to experience it and hopefully bring the influence to result of the victory.
If you ninja'ed the item, everyone in the realm knew it. You had to be careful about your reputation.
But now,
Patch 4.2
Everyone seem to hate everyone, and wants just to solo by themself alone.
Even dailies in firelands counted to you only, not to community based.
There was no such a thing as AQ event. You just did it for your own good.
Battleground, you come it for only numbers of Honor Kills, not the victory of it.
Ragnaros down? Oh just more items for yourself to show off in SW.
No one in the community even knew that ragnaros was downed at all. They just stayed in SW and didnt notice at all.
Sad sad that Blizzard started to care about those Console-gamers and casual gamers.
25 years old here, and back in May I unsubbed from WoW (had played for 4 years off and on). I'm ashamed to say I'm actually mourning for it. I think you are absolutely right that you can never recapture that first mmo feeling. I've done way too many free trials of this that and the other, and have actually bought GW1 and Rift. And I'm looking forward to GW2 and TSW. But nothing can grip me, and I too find myself sitting around wondering if it's just WoW burnout or if it's time to move on from mmorpgs in general. Don't think that'll ever happen though
You know what I really want? I want the next WoW expansion to be so insanely awesome that I can resub for a year or two. Go on Blizz, please please please bring back the magic!
I'm also one of the only one work at a time player. Just dont have the time nor will to play more mmorpgs dedicated.
In Rift someday I just had the been there, done that feeling so I knew it was time to move on but still liked the T2 expert dungeons and raiding, after 1.2 they've nerfed everything nto ground so at that point quitting made sense in both ways.
Normally I'm asking the ones I was close with, to share ICQ numbers so we're still in contact, after quitting.
The boredom feeling is really strong especially in newer more linear MMORPGS I think the reason for it is simple, theres only so much content the devs can give you. In Ultima Online if I wewren't in the mood of killing something I just picked my tailor and decorated my house or sold some neat stuff.
In games like World of Warcraft, Rift, Aion, Warhammer ....their is no housing or useful crafting so people end up getting bored real fast.
Don't know if its age reallife responsibility or simple the same concept thrown at us over and over again. Really loved Everquest 1 styled raiding but hated the way games like World of Warcraft did it (tons of addons and too much jump and run style with voicetools) and yet I think I've grown bored of only raiding too. Don't get me wrong I still like raiding but it simple can't be the only thing holding my attention give me AA's, housing, custom stats and the new standard appearance tabs and make crafting interesting again (talking about minecraftlike craft).
Some friends told similar stories I think if future MMORPGS are planning on holding players interest longer they will need to be worlds instead of games again. In a game you are a developer victim if you run out of content good luck, in a world you decide what you do and when to do it.
So its quite simple if you are doing the same stuff over and over and can't anything else because the game lacks depth you get bored very quick.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play." "Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
To quickly reply: When expectations of the interactions in the game become: SAME/SET, then it's very grindy and boring or a sense of apathy at how ineffective you are at creating a "difference". That for me is time to move on. Some games have almost infinite replayability and those are the ones that could be talked about and if any of the principles in them could be applied to mmorpgs more effectively?
Dice rolls and player interactions/beers in TT games usually help in these forms for eg.
Pocket Legends, I enjoyed the gaming on a mobile and polish here, but the grind led me to move on soon enough with the taps for skills too tedious. Outer Empires is less dynamic but feels like more thinking and consequence engagement and immersion as a result.
44 years old here, and increasingly bored by the ever increasing number of MMOs that implement the same mechanics. To describe my general attitude towards MMOs, let me quote from the article:
"My problem is that I’m MMOnogamous: I only play one game at a time. My other problem is that I still expect – or at least hope – that one game can do it for me without hitting that boredom point, even though I know it’s an unrealistic hope."
That is pretty much what I feel too, but most of the time I do hit the boredom point.
Usually (with the average Free2play MMO) it happens after hitting the medium character levels, when the few novelties in that particular game have worn off and the grind kicks in for real. Typically I go from enthusiastic to "nice pastime" to "once in a while" to "can't be bothered" in a few weeks, or months at best. There have been two exceptions so far, where things other than boredom made me leave:
Neocron 2, where the buggy implementation spoiled the fun while the game still had some adventures to offer I'd have liked to explore. But even so, I lasted 14 months as a paying customer. That is one game which really deserved better programmers than it had (maybe I'm biased here, as Neocron 2 was my first MMO ).
Eve Online, where the endgame (PvP and conquest in unpoliced space) is not casual friendly and was too much on top of a regular 40 hour/week job. But even so, I think Eve does a lot of things right and came close to being my long-term "no boredom" choice, with over two years before unsubscribing.
Recently, there seems to be some modest improvement from my point of view:
A lot of MMOs are introducing some FPS elements now, which tends to provide a more lasting kind of challenge and entertainment IMHO than button mashing. Maybe that will help to produce more interesting MMOs, at least for some of us.
Okay, I'm 58 years old, have owned a computer to game on since my first Atari 800 in 1980, and have played various MMOs since the original Air Warrior on GEnie in 1987, which cost $6 an HOUR....Actually, I played and made a bunch of friends in TradeWars and such from about 1985, on the old BBSs, but I don't really consider those MMOs since you weren't actively with other players at the same time...
I seem to be able to move on from a particular game pretty easily if I have something else to play that keeps me entertained..It doesn't even have to be an MMO, or even an online game...Just one that I can immerse myself in completely for a while...
The only game that really caused me a lot of angst to leave, I think, was MultiPlayer BattleTech....The social structure that the players maintained was deep enough and immersive enough that it was hard to go back to "regular" social gaming...
I find I always have to explain to a few friends I've made in a game, though, once I've decided to leave, that ALL games end...and that you often run into each other again, sometimes years later, in other games...The people almost always maintain that, no, they will NEVER leave this game, and can't imagine how I could....But, then, I always hear from them a year or so later, and they have left the game in question and are playing something else now......Asheron's Call was very much an example of this...I had played it daily from closed beta and left it for PlanetSide, and I was amazed at how very many of my friends in AC were totally convinced they would always play AC...But, of course, they have all moved on to other games since.
Comments
I am 43. I started playing my 1st mmo over 7 years ago.
That MMO was Lineage 2.
7 years later.....I am still playing Lineage 2. I never did quit.
I tried a few other mmos in that 7 years time along with L2 such as: WoW, LOTR, AOC
But after about 1 month in those other mmos' I was bored. The grind was just way to fast/easy for me & I didnt get
the same sense of accomplishment in lvling & gearing up as I do in Lineage 2.
so...im still here playing Lineage 2.....7 years later.
Well... Theres the boredom thing that causes you to let go of a MMO but it can be also hard if your playing your MMO for ten years and the company decides to close the game. That is even more painful as you lose all the characters you've invested time in and all the social ties you've built up with people over the years. I'm sure that can cause bitterness and a hesitation to try another MMO. Too bad MMOs can't do like pokemon does where if you have a Everquest 3 you can transfer your characters over from Everquest 2 after you meet certain requirements.
I cant find an MMO to hold my interest mostly because of what I am wanting and looking for.
Themepark MMOs are fun for a while, but who wants to LIVE at Disneyworld?
Actually they are more like Assembly Lines to me.
You start as nothing and at the end you come out a maxed out character. You experience the content along the way as you "assemble" yourself, but once at max there isnt a reason to go back to the start. Unless you re-roll and "assemble" another
At least at Disneyworld you can go anywhere at anytime and have fun.
Though, here again, once you have done all the "rides" its gets old.
They are too Linear and Static
I prefer Sandbox games. I enjoy the Open Worldness of them
The 2 longest games I played were UO and SWG (2yrs and 5yrs repectively)
But now they are either - not my style (Wurm/Ryzom), too old (UO), broken and closing (SWG), spreadsheets in a tin can..in space (EvE), FFAGankPOS (DF), FUBAR FFAGankPOS (MO)
Yeah, Disneyworld gets boring, but who wants to leave and get ganked on your way home for your Mickey Mouse hat and Goofy hands EVERY DAY?
Im guess Im still waiting for some Dev Team (one with both Talent and $$$) to really take a chance and COMBINE the 2.
A Sand Park if you will
Dungeons/Raids, Player Crafting>Loot/Player Driven Economy, Quests/Missions, Territory Control/PvP/GvG/RvR, Exploration/PvE, Housing/Enviromental Manipulation, Skill based (with a cap FFS!)>Level based
*actually, I would really enjoy a MMO like WURM if it was created on a better engine (not UE!)
Next one up: I probably will play SWTOR just for the "ride", but I already know that it wont last more than 3 months for me.
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT
Playing: Skyrim
Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
Most everything has been covered already. I have WOW, LOtRO and STO on my computer. LOtRO is F2P, WOW unsubbed (last month) and STO active but have no real desire to play at the moment and will keep it F2P. I will keep WOW because of the heavy investment in alts and time and high level characters. Resub whenever I feel like it. LOtRO has my best friend, he likes it, and I keep it for playing with him and his son. Despite my addiction to Tolkein the games seems no real difference from WOW. Just couldn't get immersed in my character(s). STO was a near disaster at launch with content problems. They have done well in improving but after I hit level cap and have several alts at various levels I have found myself not playing much the last few months. Glad it is going to F2P.
SWTOR is next for me. Have great hopes for that game. Then I will add GW2 because I like the dynamic events concept and enjoy fantasy. Finally I will try TSW because they are also trying a different genre. I am a former game designer for TSR and Pacesetter games but now retired (yes I am old) and able to play whatever I want whenever I want. Yes, I am lucky in my hobby.
I am slow to leave a game. Usually it is a gradual thing and I notice mostly when the sub charge shows up and I realize that I haven't played much lately. Really enjoy the new game experience tho so I look around the development blogs and sites a lot. It is true that younger players are in and out quickly lol because they were raised on the console games which are designed to be finished and then sell them a new one. Easy enough to understand.
Ummmm.now I realize I should leave this post. Long overdue I guess, glad you don't charge for it.
49. Been playing MMOs since such a thing existed, variety of MUDs and other stuff before that.
Longest-running MMO interest for me has been WoW (two different stints, total time maybe five years with a long break in between) and CoX (about three years, with a break for GW1 release). Year-or-less samplings of...let's see...nine other MMOs. In a few special cases like AoC's opening and the infamous Hellgate: London debacle, a month or less.
This almost all took place before the Great F2P Wave, so these were all paid subs, not the F2P Butterfly Effect.
Never had any issue "breaking" from a game. It's more like--one day, I no longer feel like logging in. Then a week goes by, and a month, and I'll end up closing down the account. A month or three goes by, and I get the itch to play again...something else.
I think it's not the games that are repetitive, but it's the player's habits. How long to you expect on hobby to entertain you, if you do it every night? Where did this expectation that one fifty dollar game box will entertain you until the end of time come from?
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
So I started with UO. That was my introduction to MMOs, and such an MMO will never be again for me. Why? Community. There was a strong, vast, and wonderful role-playing dynamic in UO, and we all congregated on the now defunct Crossroads of Britannia forum site to trade stories about our characters, joke around, orchestrate events, and discuss things in general. I formed real friendships there, and even visited a few of these people irl. But, nothing lasts forever, and SWG came along to break us up a little bit while time and growing up and pending responsibilities worked to finish the job.
I have never been party to a community or guild quite as tight and personal as I had with UO. This reality (whether through my own inability at artful conversation or a disintegration of cohesive social elements within MMOs) has made it much easier to switch games for me as of late. The few bonds I do form are fleeting shadows in comparison. One friend that I've played with for more than a decade has passed away as best as I can tell (from medical reasons, I'm not THAT old).
I am back in WAR now, and in a friendly guild of good people, but I might be one of 3 on at any given time. The alliance holds more, and they are nice as well, but alliances are composed of disparate guilds and there is an artifical distance one must find the energy to surmount in order to connect meaningfully.
I always hope there'll be another MMORPG that recaptures that feeling I had with UO, but I know there won't be. Games have changed, gamers have changed, and while I tumble and flip through the winds of change and land where I will, the realization of what will never be is more than a little poignant.
I sometimes struggle with it, especially if I've actually built up a social group in a game. I did have a hard couple of minutes (I'm being honest here) recently, agonizing over keeping up my sub to Fallen Earth even though I played less than 8 hours of it over the past 2 months. I finally said "Sod it." and let my sub lapse.
I've done the thing before where you stay on too long in a game because of people, connections, guild - you name it - and I wound up never wanting to see the damn game again. I'd like to keep the fond memories I have of FE untarnished by the last couple of months of logging in out of some weird sense of obligation (because, really, who cares whether I'm there or not?) and the drudgery of trying to force fun when you're just not having any.
I've (sort of) been taking a break from MMOs anyway, and should be all nice and refreshed by the time the next one on my list launches.
Never hurts to take time away from the genre IMO. And that is strictly IMO.
I really like columns like this, as it paints a good picture of what different kind of people are thinking. I'm 40 years old and have only been playing MMO's for about 2 1/2 years. My first MMO was Runes of Magic and I have now permanently quit the game, though, had a gap (during a couple of years) where I did not play for about 9 months. I hated to quit. I had a fairly high-level character, who could just barely run endgame (at that time). To make a long story short, the in-game economy took a dive, just about as bad as the one in RL. As I was mostly f2p (I spent a bit of real money on it every few months or so), it was just impossible for me to upgrade gear and whatnot. I had put a lot of time and effort into my character and THAT, I believe, is what makes it hurt so much for some of us to move on from some of our games. We literaly invest heart and soul into what we do, that gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment, and it creates a sense of loss when the time comes that we have to walk away. I actually envy the folks who don't develop some sort of emotional attachment to their games...it'd be nice for me to replicate something like that.
If a game does become boring to me, so it. I'd prefer to quit one out of boredom as opposed to what happened, in my paragraph above. Unfortunately, boredom and tedium seem to be the nature of the beast, at this point, but on the flip side, it gives us an incentive to venture out and try new things...not to mention that it helps keep the business afloat, lol.
It's easy, actually.
The first MMO you play that really explodes on you (economy nukes itself, or some sort of scandal makes the players mass-exit), you do the RAAAAGE thing, write a long post full of drama, and storm off to some other game.
Second time it happens...not so much.
Been seeing ten of fifteen years of drama llama ragequits from other players--that kind of stuff just doesn't set off your temper any more.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I just leave when the fun is gone, but I do try to say goodbye.
"...without asking themselves any deep existential-MMO questions." Heheh, I like that one.
You're right...I should also have mentioned that I had kicked another couple f2p's to the curb, in the same time frame. Spent lots of time on those too, but yeah, it was MUCH less of a big deal to let those go. RoM was my "high school sweetheart MMO", the drama and quitting is still fresh in my mind, but I may not be getting as emotionally invested in these things as time goes by. Btw, I appreciate your reply and value the perspectives of others who have been at this longer than I have. I'll get it together one day, lol.
many of your points are well taken for me. Toward the end of the game i'll want to log in just from habit of doing so, but when I get in game, it's like i've seen everything and done everything pretty much. Then I start hitting the pvp pretty heavy. Next is getting into the social aspect guild stuff pretty heavy. But when that dries up and there are no friends coming on I wind up pretty much done. I'll log in, see that no ones on and then pop back out. At that point I go through my withdrawls and stop logging in, then eventually call the customer service people and stop my acct.
I always kind of expect the customer service people to at least give me a query why I am stopping play, email questionairre or something. They miss the boat there because there would be a lot to say!
After I stop playing a morg i usually switch to a shooter for a while and lately I am playing rpg's (witcher 2) which are pretty cool actually while I wait for old republic to come out. And no I don't see myself going back to wow, btdt
ciao
Yeah been there done that. Stayed years... realized I was bored.. stayed more for friends.. then left.. only to then move on with the guild in that game to other games by the time that guild more or less was put to rest I had a different perspective than before. Now I play games when I have the time and when it has my interest. I have no problem moving to different mmos every few months... only to come back when there's new content. I'm not one who says once played never return. I try not to burn bridges but it's my life and I won't spend money and time on something I'm not enjoying.
That pretty well sums it up.
I’m 73 and I’ve played MMOs since Ultima Online.
That includes Everquest, EQ2, Asheron’s Call, AC2, WOW, WAR, LotRO, AoC, Aion, DC Universe, Rift, and more.
Most of these games I beta tested, starting with AC.
Right now I’m back to Age of Conan, but I also have installed and play Lord of the Rings Online and WOW, both free to play (WOW on a private server I’ve been on for years).
I dread that moment when I realize that I’m not having a lot of fun any more, just kind of killing time. I have a lot; I’ve been mostly retired for almost 20 years.
I’m getting to that point with Age of Conan again, for the third time.
I don’t play only MMOs and right now my hopes are on Skyrim, which will be out in a couple of months.
I loved this whole series and am sure that it will keep me involved for quite a while.
I play MMOs mostly solo anyway, I have one friend 76 who is also a gamer and we talk on Skype and Play LotRO together. I’m trying to get him involved in AoC when the weather gets to bad for him to ride his motorcycle.
Anyway I haven’t had a game that kept me going for more then a year at one stretch since UO.
And my next MMO?
The Secrete World, I’ve already signed up for the beta an I’m hoping that the fact that I beta tested Age of Conan and have an active account will give me an edge on getting in.
Have Fun!!!
Mike
If you shoot a mime, do you have to use a silencer?
I guess it didn't like the fact that I pasted my response in from Word! LOL
If you shoot a mime, do you have to use a silencer?
Having been in WoW since late beta, I know exactly what you mean. After six level 85's, the grind starts to make your eyes bleed. ^^ Once that happens, I generally find another game and unsubscribe until the next expansion. I've been to level cap in more games than I really care to think about... I started with UO, and I've played all of the major and many of the minor games over the years (and WAY too many Asian grinders for anyones sanity... Level 125 in Cabal as an example).
What I look for these days is a good combat system, followed by at least some story/lore. Nice graphics are also a plus, but if the combat system is good enough, I can over look some aspects of that. One example of that is Dragon Nest. The graphics are way too cute style anime for my taste, but I like the combat system. Over all, I play these games as a hobby. If any given game starts feeling like a second job, I'll start looking for something else to play.
You say it perfect,
I dunno when exactlly WoW just began to become more game for your OWN ego.
At Vanilla, I remembered that hardcore guild just went to down Nefarian,
And came to Stormwind to praise the victory. Everyone in the city gained the 2 hours buff.
Whole community knew this guild, and were happy.
AQ Opening Event, everyone participate, collected stuff all together to make this AQ event go open early. Community felt so connected to each other.
There was Alterac Valley for only own realm, it took 24 hours long to win the battle.
Nobody stayed there for 24 hours straight, but atleast they just came to experience it and hopefully bring the influence to result of the victory.
If you ninja'ed the item, everyone in the realm knew it. You had to be careful about your reputation.
But now,
Patch 4.2
Everyone seem to hate everyone, and wants just to solo by themself alone.
Even dailies in firelands counted to you only, not to community based.
There was no such a thing as AQ event. You just did it for your own good.
Battleground, you come it for only numbers of Honor Kills, not the victory of it.
Ragnaros down? Oh just more items for yourself to show off in SW.
No one in the community even knew that ragnaros was downed at all. They just stayed in SW and didnt notice at all.
Sad sad that Blizzard started to care about those Console-gamers and casual gamers.
I just came for the pictures. Last one was hillarious^^
scribble scribble scribble
25 years old here, and back in May I unsubbed from WoW (had played for 4 years off and on). I'm ashamed to say I'm actually mourning for it. I think you are absolutely right that you can never recapture that first mmo feeling. I've done way too many free trials of this that and the other, and have actually bought GW1 and Rift. And I'm looking forward to GW2 and TSW. But nothing can grip me, and I too find myself sitting around wondering if it's just WoW burnout or if it's time to move on from mmorpgs in general. Don't think that'll ever happen though
You know what I really want? I want the next WoW expansion to be so insanely awesome that I can resub for a year or two. Go on Blizz, please please please bring back the magic!
I'm also one of the only one work at a time player. Just dont have the time nor will to play more mmorpgs dedicated.
In Rift someday I just had the been there, done that feeling so I knew it was time to move on but still liked the T2 expert dungeons and raiding, after 1.2 they've nerfed everything nto ground so at that point quitting made sense in both ways.
Normally I'm asking the ones I was close with, to share ICQ numbers so we're still in contact, after quitting.
The boredom feeling is really strong especially in newer more linear MMORPGS I think the reason for it is simple, theres only so much content the devs can give you. In Ultima Online if I wewren't in the mood of killing something I just picked my tailor and decorated my house or sold some neat stuff.
In games like World of Warcraft, Rift, Aion, Warhammer ....their is no housing or useful crafting so people end up getting bored real fast.
Don't know if its age reallife responsibility or simple the same concept thrown at us over and over again. Really loved Everquest 1 styled raiding but hated the way games like World of Warcraft did it (tons of addons and too much jump and run style with voicetools) and yet I think I've grown bored of only raiding too. Don't get me wrong I still like raiding but it simple can't be the only thing holding my attention give me AA's, housing, custom stats and the new standard appearance tabs and make crafting interesting again (talking about minecraftlike craft).
Some friends told similar stories I think if future MMORPGS are planning on holding players interest longer they will need to be worlds instead of games again. In a game you are a developer victim if you run out of content good luck, in a world you decide what you do and when to do it.
So its quite simple if you are doing the same stuff over and over and can't anything else because the game lacks depth you get bored very quick.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play."
"Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
"I have a friend who, through her job, is able to maintain half a dozen active game subscriptions, and she moves from game to game every few months"
The sad future of gaming right there. For many it is already a reality.
These articles are very readable.
To quickly reply: When expectations of the interactions in the game become: SAME/SET, then it's very grindy and boring or a sense of apathy at how ineffective you are at creating a "difference". That for me is time to move on. Some games have almost infinite replayability and those are the ones that could be talked about and if any of the principles in them could be applied to mmorpgs more effectively?
Dice rolls and player interactions/beers in TT games usually help in these forms for eg.
Pocket Legends, I enjoyed the gaming on a mobile and polish here, but the grind led me to move on soon enough with the taps for skills too tedious. Outer Empires is less dynamic but feels like more thinking and consequence engagement and immersion as a result.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
44 years old here, and increasingly bored by the ever increasing number of MMOs that implement the same mechanics. To describe my general attitude towards MMOs, let me quote from the article:
"My problem is that I’m MMOnogamous: I only play one game at a time. My other problem is that I still expect – or at least hope – that one game can do it for me without hitting that boredom point, even though I know it’s an unrealistic hope."
That is pretty much what I feel too, but most of the time I do hit the boredom point.
Usually (with the average Free2play MMO) it happens after hitting the medium character levels, when the few novelties in that particular game have worn off and the grind kicks in for real. Typically I go from enthusiastic to "nice pastime" to "once in a while" to "can't be bothered" in a few weeks, or months at best. There have been two exceptions so far, where things other than boredom made me leave:
Neocron 2, where the buggy implementation spoiled the fun while the game still had some adventures to offer I'd have liked to explore. But even so, I lasted 14 months as a paying customer. That is one game which really deserved better programmers than it had (maybe I'm biased here, as Neocron 2 was my first MMO
Eve Online, where the endgame (PvP and conquest in unpoliced space) is not casual friendly and was too much on top of a regular 40 hour/week job. But even so, I think Eve does a lot of things right and came close to being my long-term "no boredom" choice, with over two years before unsubscribing.
Recently, there seems to be some modest improvement from my point of view:
A lot of MMOs are introducing some FPS elements now, which tends to provide a more lasting kind of challenge and entertainment IMHO than button mashing. Maybe that will help to produce more interesting MMOs, at least for some of us.
Okay, I'm 58 years old, have owned a computer to game on since my first Atari 800 in 1980, and have played various MMOs since the original Air Warrior on GEnie in 1987, which cost $6 an HOUR....Actually, I played and made a bunch of friends in TradeWars and such from about 1985, on the old BBSs, but I don't really consider those MMOs since you weren't actively with other players at the same time...
I seem to be able to move on from a particular game pretty easily if I have something else to play that keeps me entertained..It doesn't even have to be an MMO, or even an online game...Just one that I can immerse myself in completely for a while...
The only game that really caused me a lot of angst to leave, I think, was MultiPlayer BattleTech....The social structure that the players maintained was deep enough and immersive enough that it was hard to go back to "regular" social gaming...
I find I always have to explain to a few friends I've made in a game, though, once I've decided to leave, that ALL games end...and that you often run into each other again, sometimes years later, in other games...The people almost always maintain that, no, they will NEVER leave this game, and can't imagine how I could....But, then, I always hear from them a year or so later, and they have left the game in question and are playing something else now......Asheron's Call was very much an example of this...I had played it daily from closed beta and left it for PlanetSide, and I was amazed at how very many of my friends in AC were totally convinced they would always play AC...But, of course, they have all moved on to other games since.