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MMO Dying Dreams...
FirstKnight117
Member UncommonPosts: 109
When I started playing EQ2 in 2004, I would occasionally see threads like these and snicker. Now, 14 years, a still happy marriage and two kids later, I'm writing the same thing and I guess should be snickering at myself.
Since quitting EQ2 in 2007 or so, I've tried and enjoyed many different MMOs. In my EQ2 days I was involved heavily in a couple of great guilds. I've tried many guilds and MMOs since then, and enjoyed them all to one extent or another. But the last 2-3 years, I've become increasingly listless, nothing satisfies. Or it's more like, I usually play once every 2 weeks or so, sometimes it's once a month. And most weeks I just either play single player games or do other things. In 2004 I had never played in an online game with other people and it was exhilarating, for years even. I stopped reading books, my lifelong passion because I found I could spend countless hours reading up on everything related to EQ2 and eventually other MMOs.
In my admittedly subjective research I see increasing fragmentation in the MMO gaming community. I imagine that's natural due to the genre aging (maturing?) and becoming saturated with many, many more titles than were available in 2004. Not to mention hundreds of thousands of new gamers. It's hard to find that same sense of unity or "new frontier" that was around back then.
So maybe a question and some advice. I may have already answered my own question: have any of you gone through this and have you ever come back, i.e. really gotten involved in an MMO and guild again? The advice is for new gamers: pace yourself, you don't have to play 10 MMOs at once, and don't give up on other things just because MMOs (and gaming) can be time consuming beasts. :-)
My two coppers.
Since quitting EQ2 in 2007 or so, I've tried and enjoyed many different MMOs. In my EQ2 days I was involved heavily in a couple of great guilds. I've tried many guilds and MMOs since then, and enjoyed them all to one extent or another. But the last 2-3 years, I've become increasingly listless, nothing satisfies. Or it's more like, I usually play once every 2 weeks or so, sometimes it's once a month. And most weeks I just either play single player games or do other things. In 2004 I had never played in an online game with other people and it was exhilarating, for years even. I stopped reading books, my lifelong passion because I found I could spend countless hours reading up on everything related to EQ2 and eventually other MMOs.
In my admittedly subjective research I see increasing fragmentation in the MMO gaming community. I imagine that's natural due to the genre aging (maturing?) and becoming saturated with many, many more titles than were available in 2004. Not to mention hundreds of thousands of new gamers. It's hard to find that same sense of unity or "new frontier" that was around back then.
So maybe a question and some advice. I may have already answered my own question: have any of you gone through this and have you ever come back, i.e. really gotten involved in an MMO and guild again? The advice is for new gamers: pace yourself, you don't have to play 10 MMOs at once, and don't give up on other things just because MMOs (and gaming) can be time consuming beasts. :-)
My two coppers.
Comments
I sorely miss the time when I could hop onto almost any MMO and enjoy myself, and every so often I find myself reinstalling some of them and play for a while, but it's never the same...
I think it's mostly a mix of growing up, and having so much experience with various games that you rarely find something you haven't experienced before. And when you get older you often have more responsibility, so it sort of takes you away from the game and breaks immersion.
Partly it is me, I just don't have as much spare time anymore. Partly it is the game, they are focusing on short term fun nowadays and playing a lot isn't really that fun in a game like that. Long term fun is very important for captivating people that much.
And yes, pacing is of course a good idea. Don't play more then you can, if you constantly go to work or school tired because of a game you probably should relax a bit. Then again, it is your life and telling someone to not do mistakes I done myself is a bit hypocritical.
I started back in 1996 myself (M59), got 5 1/2 years in EQ2 myself but my interest in the game started to fade pretty fast around 2007-2008 and I mostly played the last 1 1/2 years because my friends did.
As far as games go I find myself playing dragonsoul, Android /IOS. This is not a plug. Not because it's quick satisfaction, it's not. The amount of time required to get heroes promoted ect can take forever! Certainly so if one doesn't spend money. I'm going on close to two years I bet and no Cyan promoted heroes yet. though I am close. Which basically means I don't spend much money at all.
I like it because it does not require a lot of in game time. But it has hero development or rather pet development I guess is the way I see it. I'm kind of shocked just how long I have stuck with it. Never stuck with any other android game for more than a few weeks. Dead serious. I've thought about it a few times. Not 100% sure why I am hooked. If I had to guess it would be because I see the heroes as pets? I always liked pet systems. Not needing to be online 8+hours a day to accomplish some small carrot on a stick is probably a good reason as well. Then to log on the next day and start working on the next carrot which makes the previous obsolete. Basically I got older and rather spend time doing something else. So again time. Games for me are time killers when I have NOTHING ELSE to do.
Cryomatrix
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
After Feb 2017 I started doing other things and found a lot more interesting hobbies to take the place of MMO gaming. I come around maybe once every couple months just to see the board and who is still left.
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
But that's not a bad thing because for most cases, we've been getting a milk copy/paste of that type of MMO for over a decade now, and I think the genre needs to widen up to new types of persistent online play that is far more captivating.
I still have that craving for the old school MMO.
As a content developer, I'm looking at trying to realize that dream for myself by developing my own. Because dammit, if I wait for someone else to do it, it's not going to happen.