Goodbye MMO's

Played WOW, Eve, Guild Wars, EQ2, and recently LOTRO which I just cancelled the other night.

I think I'm done with MMO's for a long time. Burnt out maybe. They are great multiplayer games that last long, that you can solo or play with friends, lots of cool quests, but.. I dunno. They are just too repetitive.

Maybe if an MMO comes long that breaks from the mold (don't ask me how) I'll be interested again.

Or a Left4Dead MMO! LOL But seriously, Left4Dead has rekindled my interest in multiplayer FPS gaming and to me that has always been my favorite genre. I have been pondering getting back into TF2.

I hear ya on that i was just talking to redemp about that last night (l4d guy we've played with on my server with us.)

He's a mmorpg player mainly. I used to be for years now and i'm just burnt out and sick of it. Mmorpg's don't give me anytime to play other games.

So I refuse to buy any now. So i can go out and enjoy some of the other great games out there that i like or want to play. So right now l4d is my main online game but i've been seeking out a lot of single player action/adventure rpgish games like fable and stuff to play on the side.

I enjoy WoW, however other MMOs are too similar, Im not saying wow is totally origonal or not, but I definately feel it is the most polished, until something comes along to revolutionise the genre I doubt WoW will loose its spot, and tbh if nothing does come along the whole genre might just burn out.

for the moment I still love wow though

I believe that community is the key to the enjoyment (and success) of MMOs. Up to the CU (Combat Upgrade) in SWG, I was part of a large guild that worked well together. When SOE implemented the CU, a large contingent of us started looking for another MMO to move to. We finally settled on LOTRO, and we can now be found on the Elendimir server as the Hand of Galadriel.

The fact is, we will often get online together just to talk about family/jobs/school whatever while each of us is doing our own separate in-game activity--or even doing nothing at all except for socializing. We all know each other well enough that we all have access to everyone's housing/storage--and intentionally keep items stocked for other guildies to use at their convenience.

If you are not part of a group of friends that assist each other and share at will, then I can see where a MMO is just a grind to the end-game--perhaps trying a few different character types--and then it's time to move on to the next game.

Yes, the community is what keeps MMO's going. But there is also a downside to being in/building a community. It's often very fragile, and requires too much dedication/stress.

The only reason I played WoW for so long was because of my guild. Not only the best progressing, but also the most friendly and drama-free guild from any game I've ever been in. The other officers and I were actively being careful with recruiting, dealing with issues, etc. and keeping the drama queens and loot *****s out of the guild. Wasn't perfect (some of the loot-greedy manipulators that were removed, should have been kicked earlier) but much more organized and friendly than your typical "ROFL LETZ LIEK PWN ENGAME N BRAG EVERYWHERE ABOUT IT CUZ EVERYONE ELSE IS A NOOB LOLOL" raiding guild.

Other than the maintenance required to keep a guild as idiot-free as possible, there's still the issue of burnout and/or tragic RL events preventing people from showing up for raids. A few key people unable to show up can make us unable to do certain boss encounters... and when this happens for a few days in a row, the rest begin to lose confidence and also stop logging on. This has happened many times in every game/guild ofcourse, but eventually that along with the gameplay itself becoming too boring and tedious (all mmorpg's are the same grind), it becomes a pain to bother with mmorpg's. It will happen over and over, no matter which mmorpg you play or how hard you try to build up a good community.

FPS on the other hand, is much more 'free' and open to the player, they don't have to rely on attaining specific conditions to accomplish their goal so much and don't have to rely on a huge raid of the exact class setup with the proper gear and proper consumables etc. to progress. The requirements to just go in and play wherever/whatever you want are way less (pretty much none), unlike rpg's where you need to be max lvl, find/craft/buy a certain gearset, build a certain spec, get entry to whatever dungeon, get a proper raid together of the right classes, try a bunch of different strategies to find out which works best on a boss (there's no strategy guide for a boss that hasn't been killed yet), and this list can go on forever.

I played Everquest for a solid 5 or 6 years. Once I kicked the habit, I vowed never to touch an MMO again. I've held my word.

To me, the biggest two issues with MMO's are:

1. There's never any real feeling of satisfaction. The games are set up to be a never ending grind. You've got short term goals, but once you (finally) reach them, there's more ahead. Whether it's achievements, better equipment, whatever. So as soon as you reach the carrot, you see the next one dangling from a stick up ahead.

2. There's way too much "downtime" for casual gamers in almost every MMO. The only way to succeed is to play hardcore style. Whether it is travel time, LFG time, corpse run time, whatever. There's always wasted time. Since I don't have 20 or 30 or 40 hours a week to play games anymore, the downtime has a severe negative impact on enjoyment of playing.

I do miss the community, though. I made some friends over my EQ days that I still correspond to, even years after we all quit the game. But the negatives of MMO's far outweigh the positives, at least for me.

-edit
Oh, I almost forgot my biggest gripe about MMO's.... skill has literally nothing to do with success. I've never, ever seen a "hard" MMO. Instead, the "better" players are the ones that play the most. You want better equipment? Join a guild, or go on more raids. You want more levels? Play more, spend more time looking for groups. and on and on.

Maybe I'm biased because I'm decent at "twitch" style and strategy games, but I find it much more entertaining to go up against a skilled opponent in a death match or in an RTS battle than getting pwned in a duel by someone that plays an MMO as many hours every week as I spend working.

doublejack said:

-edit
Oh, I almost forgot my biggest gripe about MMO's.... skill has literally nothing to do with success. I've never, ever seen a "hard" MMO. Instead, the "better" players are the ones that play the most. You want better equipment? Join a guild, or go on more raids. You want more levels? Play more, spend more time looking for groups. and on and on.

Maybe I'm biased because I'm decent at "twitch" style and strategy games, but I find it much more entertaining to go up against a skilled opponent in a death match or in an RTS battle than getting pwned in a duel by someone that plays an MMO as many hours every week as I spend working.

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Haha yes, I also forgot to mention that. Any moron can just spam their skills without a need to aim them and let gear do the work. WoW's pvp got progressively worse with every expansion, because the devs have a completely delusional view of what PvP is supposed to be. I actually enjoyed it pre-BC, but after that it was retardified. Resilience, gazillion HP's, skill balance completely messed up, class-counters, etc etc. Arena...LOL.... biggest failure of "PvP" in any game. Outcome of each fight is decided on these factors, in order of importance: Team's class makeup and spec > their gear > their skill.

Making PvP stupider and easier so any moron can grind or buy (yes, buy gear online with $) pvp gear and "pwn noobz" = more satisfied customers. More satisfied customers = more longterm $ for Blizzard.

It comes down to the motto of almost every game developer nowadays:

Money > Gameplay

true on the pvp thing.
That gets me too... i really enjoyed being a pvp healer even during BC. Anymore its just kinda... meh... its ok.. its something to do...
But instead of inspiring me to wait for hours on end as a pug gathers for a raid (because my guild is teh lose) I instead find more joy in playing a new character... of which i have too many to count.

I have all the top healing gear that I can without raiding (at least according to the mods, atlass and so on) I even have built a damn fine feral tanking set. I have more embelms of heroism then i can do something with. I have 3 80s... and no i dont sink my life into this game... just the result of long time exposure and the ultimate nerfing of the game.

In BC I was in a good guild which merged with another so I quit playing for a while...
All in all I dont find much thrilling about end game... on the contrary I really freakin hate that they made potions a 1 per fight thing... whats the point of being a potion specialist?
They didnt make the guys harder or more strat involved, they made the game harder by doing stupid things, more one shots, less potions etc etc

Left 4 Dead is what freed me from the repetitive, buggy and cheater filled Battlefield 2.

Although I still play BF2 off and on. L4D is just terrific as it has unique multiplayer modes. I include Cooperative as unique because its a rare and forgotten element in PC gaming. And its been around since the dawn of PC gaming.

(And Guild Wars was the only MMO I ever played)

I like Warhammer Online. I just log in, do some random world pvp or scenarios and then log out. You can play loosely or organized on vent etc. I think it is pretty casual and gear does not seem to matter as much. The game does need work though but I think it is much better than any MMO at launch I have ever played. People are spoiled though because WoW is so polished. It sure wasn't that polished from the begginning though.

For me, the major issue with most games was the lack of original content. What I mean by this is that no matter who you are, you're always killing the same dude, you're always saving the same guy.

Locnea: I, Locnea have slain onyxia! Tremble in my wake as I go forth destroying more enemies of azeroth!
OtherLevel60Guy: so did i, stfu lol
Level52Lamer: I sholo'd that at level 11! lol 1!111!3eleventy *hic*

Slayn said:

I like Warhammer Online. I just log in, do some random world pvp or scenarios and then log out. You can play loosely or organized on vent etc. I think it is pretty casual and gear does not seem to matter as much. The game does need work though but I think it is much better than any MMO at launch I have ever played. People are spoiled though because WoW is so polished. It sure wasn't that polished from the begginning though.

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There sure was a lot of hype pre and post release of the game. That died out well before xmas.

my roomate gave warhammer a go, his primary reason for quitting was lack of endgame content.

I was at one point an avid WoW player but I quit during BC when raiding stopped being fun and became mostly a chore. I'm sure as hell not paying $15 a month to do chores now am I? so that was it for WoW. Then with the huge hole left by WoW in my schedule i tried taking up RO but then soon discovered that game was a giant grindfest. Ever since then I've stuck to my FPS roots and the occasional puzzle game.

Morvak said:

Played WOW, Eve, Guild Wars, EQ2, and recently LOTRO which I just cancelled the other night.

I think I'm done with MMO's for a long time. Burnt out maybe. They are great multiplayer games that last long, that you can solo or play with friends, lots of cool quests, but.. I dunno. They are just too repetitive.

Maybe if an MMO comes long that breaks from the mold (don't ask me how) I'll be interested again.

Or a Left4Dead MMO! LOL But seriously, Left4Dead has rekindled my interest in multiplayer FPS gaming and to me that has always been my favorite genre. I have been pondering getting back into TF2.

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I love your thread titles!

"Fall Out 3: The Honeymoon is Over"

"Goodbye MMOs!"

"Stop the World of Warcraft: I wanna get off!" (Made that one up. )

Seriously though... You were subscribed to all those MMOs... AT THE SAME TIME?!?!

You must have been paying like 60 bucks a month just to play them all. How was your cable bill getting paid? When did you go outside? How much money went to coffee and donuts?

I'm probably a relic from the past or something... but I will never... ever... ever... EVER understand why anybody would keep paying for a game they already bought.

Particularly if those games are never as good as the games you can just buy once.

MMOs you're essentially talking about clicking on something until it dies. Maybe a spell here or there... but that's it. I'll admit I've only tried a couple (City of Villains and some weird Euro game who's name escapes me...) but that seems to be the formula... I guess the big draw is you're playing "with people"... but you're not really even doing that... You're just "clicking" with people while the computer determines whether you've hit or missed.

The aforementioned Left 4 Dead... which I bought for $19.95 (I'd like to send a shout out to MadMan07 ) is a game where you "play with people". And you only have to buy it once.

Warcraft 3... and all seventy of its mods... you only have to buy once. World in Conflict... once...

I'll just never... ever get it. And I'm sure I don't even want to get it.

Glad you kicked the habit.

Morvak said:

Played WOW, Eve, Guild Wars, EQ2, and recently LOTRO which I just cancelled the other night.

I think I'm done with MMO's for a long time. Burnt out maybe. They are great multiplayer games that last long, that you can solo or play with friends, lots of cool quests, but.. I dunno. They are just too repetitive.

Maybe if an MMO comes long that breaks from the mold (don't ask me how) I'll be interested again.

Or a Left4Dead MMO! LOL But seriously, Left4Dead has rekindled my interest in multiplayer FPS gaming and to me that has always been my favorite genre. I have been pondering getting back into TF2.

Click to expand...

There hasn't been a good one in a while, EvE has the stuff to be good, but they didn't remember to put the fun in. I am waiting for Darkfall online, if that doesn't come out or fails, I am well at a loss of what mmo to play.

Edward78 said:

There hasn't been a good one in a while, EvE has the stuff to be good, but they didn't remember to put the fun in. I am waiting for Darkfall online, if that doesn't come out or fails, I am well at a loss of what mmo to play.

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I hate MMO's, couldn't stand WoW for more than a week, EvE caught me for a month till I opened my eyes, but Darkfall...omg that looks good...I think it will be the WoW killer that Warhammer was suppose to be.

I like MMO's when my friends get into them too (Real life not online) so basically as long as you have a tight knit group, it can last. But sometimes certain factors (Nerf this, Ruin part of that, etc) it can destroy the game.

Oh yeah also mega launch hype LOL! I swear every MMO in the last few years has been solely based on mega hype to sell a ton of copies and the gameplay isn't there. They last a couple months and subscribe numbers drop like a rock. We need another massive MMO like WoW numbers (I hate Wow) and actually sustain its self for a few years.

I was looking forward to Darkfall some months ago, but don't really care anymore because it'll be the same thing. It also will be poorly supported; very slow game developement/release screams to me "we'll take forever to fix and patch issues when the game does come out".

get Team Fortress 2!!! i have to get l4d, i just wanted to see if it was just a fad game and if it would die off fast or keep going strong which it seems to be so far, but i want to see what happens when they got back to the new Tf2 updates to come out!

try holic it has user created content and dungeons just give it a try