is it possible to play an MMO causally?

[Vamantha]

My first year of World of Warcraft was played casual and it was awesome. I love finding all the hidden stuff and just chilling with your friends in a nifty location were some of the best times I had. Way more fun then raids, dungeons, and all that high level crap. Go for it and see if you like it. If your not having fun put down the game.

 

[lapan]

Guild Wars was pretty good about that, though it wasn't an MMO in a classical sense.

 

[banksy122]

I played WoW for 2 and a half years and put 4000 hours into it and I never raided or did PvP. People would call me 'casual' because I didn't do either of those things, I did Questing, socializing, events and achievements and had tons of fun. So I say yes, it is possible.

 

[Flames66]

I play Star Trek Online very casually. I will very occasionally play the missions but mostly I just turn up to community events such as parties with the DJs from Subspace Radio (The Voice of Star Trek Online!)

 

[kahlzun]

Assuming you don't care about loot/levelling, there's nothing to stop you from just running around the starting areas, harvesting stuff and helping noobs/lowbies forever.

 

[felbot]

of course its possible but i wouldn't recommend it, i mean last i checked the secret world have a subscription fee which if you're just gonna play 1-2 hours a day you're going to be losing some time, though it is completely possible with free to play titles.

 

[Palademon]

Well, I guess it's possible to play anything casually, afterall everything has a cause.

To answer what you really meant, I play WoW casually. I play it on and off. It took the fact you can play it free up to lvl 20 to get me to like it. When they just had it free up to lvl 10, I found it boring, and apparently that's understandable because it sometimes took a while to feel like you were playing your class. So you could easily try WoW and see for sure if it's a bore fest without having to pay. I find it caters to the OCD checklist mentality. The main problem is you may need someone who knows how things work since you can get yelled at when in a group by not having the proper gear for your class. It's pretty easy to play it casually if you never plan to be in a group. All you need to do is stop paying subscription whenever you stop, and try to get the most out of it when you want to play.

 

[banksy122]

Another point is GW1 or GW2 are both very casual friendly MMOs because they have no sub and there is no 'end-game' content, you don't have to grind to get gear to spend hours wiping on bosses to get more gear, to do the same thing all over again. It is all about playing how you want, with no obligation to play much.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Yeah, you can, but the game will get boring a lot faster. If you're playing casually your choices will be limited. You'll end up just spending your time doing dailies, maybe some 5 man instances and some battleground PvP.

But at the level cap the real fun comes from raids and arenas. But they are more time consuming (maybe arena PvP not so much, but raids, well most guilds I know raid maybe 4-5 hours a night) but those are also what earns you the high end gear.

But then, I'm mostly describing World of Warcraft here, because that's the only MMO to date that I've put a lot of time into. I don't play it anymore (Cataclysm bored the shit out of me) but I did play it for about 4 years. I have no idea what The Secret World is like, or what it's end game is like.

 

[Caliostro]

I find it impossible to play most MMOs competitively, by design. Casually is how they're supposed to be played.

If you mean without a hefty time investment... Why would you play an MMO otherwise? I mean, "hefty time investment" seems to be the only reason to play them. You can find better graphics, story and gameplay outside the genre.

 

[Karoshi]

WoW is as casual as it can get. There are plenty of things to do for casuals which arent time-consuming and just as many things to do for hardcore players.

I loved just messing around in WoW, collecting mini-pets or mounts, soloing old raids or dungeons. Exploring stuff, questing on my alts and PvPing infront of the capital cities.

My absolutely favourite memores of WoW, was when I went to the enemy cities to do a rather hard fishing achievement. The adrenaline rush when you get attacked + beautiful music + making friends with the enemies who fish at my side + some calm tranquil moments...

This kind of stuff made WoW my most favourite MMO of all times.

 

[Bvenged]

I've seen both ends of the scale. I've played WoW, Guild Wars, Runescape and Everquest 2 all casually, and life-dedicated.

Ignoring the others for now, I have gone on and off of WoW 3 times in 5 years. I played for fun and not to be the best in anything. Once I hit the top level for my current Expansion Pack (always one behind the current release) I started a new character. I didn't care for top-level guilds, raids, best items or PvP except for what was purely fun to do. I was competent at the game, started my own guilds and had a laugh with friends, and I did all this with a boat-load of game time in 4 months.

BUT, the playthough I did casually a year or so beforehand; I still got halfway to the top level and had a very good time (playing less than 10 hours a week. I was just as competent in groups and loved following the stories behind quests; I was reading all about them.

So, I think it is possible to play an MMO casually, competently and for fun without dedicating your life to it, but not if you want to become L33T at the game - that takes time and dedication.

 

[Worgen]

If you want to play an mmo casually then I would suggest one of the free to play ones, if your paying monthly for something than it changes how you play it since you feel the need to get you'r moneys worth out of it, or you end up paying monthly and not playing it much in which case your just wasting money.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Of course you can, I can't think of anything that could possibly stop you.

 

[Ranorak]

by that I mean can I play an MMO without having to devote my entire life to it?

ok yes, this is an incredibly stupid question

Ive said before to me MMO is kind of a dirty word....that brings to mind images of addiction/grinding/fetch quests and all kinds of tedium

however (as I made a thread before) I've considered getting "the secret world" as it looks interesting

so anyway, what I'm asking is [b/]if you hope to get anything out of your experience does that mean you have to be prepared to put in countless hours? or if your not willing to have it as a second job is it not worth it?[/b] with any MMO you have play/have plaed

For all the 7 years I have played WoW, only 4 where uhm.. not casual.
Especially with the changes Blizzard has been introducing over the years, it's never been easier to find a raid group as a casual.

It just takes a bit longer to get there.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Ive said before to me MMO is kind of a dirty word....that brings to mind images of addiction/grinding/fetch quests and all kinds of tedium

so anyway, what I'm asking is [b/]if you hope to get anything out of your experience does that mean you have to be prepared to put in countless hours? or if your not willing to have it as a second job is it not worth it?[/b] with any MMO you have play/have plaed

1. What MMOs have I played? Many. I have played many MMOs. So many.

2. Are they addictive? Well, they provide you with dopamine, so...maybe? It sort of depends on your personality. Do you get addicted to things you enjoy? If the question is "are they addictive like drugs or alcohol, like actually physically addictive" then the answer is "no" and "lol!".

3. Are they full of grinding? Well, the definition of "grinding" is entirely subjective. If I kill 500 guys in a shooter or brawler, I'm considered to be playing the game. If I kill 500 guys in an MMO, I'm "grinding". It's a stupid, meaningless word.

4. Do you have to be prepared to put in countless hours to get ANYTHING out of it? No*.

5. Does it have to be like a second job to be worth it? No*.

* The trick to 4 and 5 is that it's entirely dependent on your goal. If your goal is to explore the content available to you, you can do that on your own schedule. If your goal is to hit max level, or role play, or make friends, or do any of that crap, you can do it at whatever pace you please.

Where people get into trouble is when the goal they set for themselves is either a) I want to be the best there is at this game, or b) I want to "keep up with the Joneses", where "The Joneses" are always defined as those people who have more than you.

Like any activity, you get better at an MMO the more you play it. You understand the mechanics better, you know the encounters better, you're more accomplished with the nuances of your class. The more you play, the better you get. And due to many MMOs using linear, incremental advancement via levels and gear, you can "get better" even if you have little skill just by pushing your numbers higher through sheer, brute investment of time.

There will ALWAYS be players who pour countless hours into the game to improve their character. If you want to keep pace with those people, then yes, you need to treat the game like a second job, because if you don't, they will leave you behind.

But if you're playing an MMO, and one or all of the following applies to you...

1. You're playing too much and it's not fun any more.
2. You're "grinding" and endlessly repeating an activity you don't enjoy because it gives a numerical reward.
3. You're sacrificing social engagements and/or basic needs to get in some game time because if you don't, Captain Catass is going to outlevel you again.

...then that shit is on you. Your competitiveness, your lack of impulse control. People LOVE to blame the games themselves. The games provide a forum for competitive, achievement based personalities to go overboard, so perhaps they are not entirely blameless, in the sense that they're perfectly aware of people's stupider habits and are willing to capitalize on them. But the ultimate responsibility is with the player.

So, long story short...

You need to not ask these questions about the games themselves. The games are just games. Ask these questions about yourself.

1. Can you play a cooperative/competitive online game and not need to "be the best"?
2. Can you turn off a game that has no set end or save point, even if you're having fun, to attend to other more important things?
3. Can you recognize when something isn't fun, and go do something else, instead of carrying on with it and moaning about some illusory "grind" that was 100% voluntary on your part?

If the answer to 1, 2 and 3 are 'yes', then you can play an MMO casually.

PS - If "casual play" is your #1 goal, I'd have looked into GW2 over TSW. My understanding of TSW is that there are raids, and end-game gear progression, both of which tend to encourage the worst of MMO excesses, and neither of which are present in GW2.

 

[Adam Xonix]

Concidering you pay 15 a month or less is you bulk buy time 35 for 3 months get x amount of play time that you would get compared tp a 6 hour campaign for 60 bucks i think any mmo can be played casually. i play eve online casually and it suits me cause i get skill points even when im not playing. and i make enough ingame money to pay for the next month during my normal play time anyway. plus its really how much enjoyment you find in the mmo anyway

 

[GenericAmerican]

I play EvE casually, it's not anywhere near as complex or insane as everyone makes it out to be. It's even easier to be casual in it than other MMO's because there is no xp grinding, just skill training that runs in the background.