Nope. Can't Do It. Can't Play an MMO

[Duck Sandwich]

Yeah, as you get involved with more stuff in real life, it can be really painful to put time into a game, and not really get anything out of it. For example, once I played KOTOR2 (Not an MMO, I realize, but bear with me here) for 30 minutes, doing nothing but talking. I didn't really enjoy those 30 minutes that much. I've only played MMO's (WoW and RF Online at friends' houses) for a total of 5 or so hours of my life, and for those hours, all I did was kill some monsters, learn a move spell or two, but I never really got the feeling like I finished something, like the feeling of finishing a mission in an FPS, or an online match in Starcraft, or clearing a dungeon full of monsters in Diablo.

I'm going to ditch the "MMO's have garbage combat" argument for a second.

As for the money argument, I've spent about $200 on games this year, which is actually pretty close to what I'd probably be paying for a year's worth of subscription to an MMO ($15 X 12 = $180). However, spending money on a small number of different games at least means more variety. Say you get Mass Effect, beat it, get bored of it, and then get Fallout 3 later. Then after getting bored of Fallout, you might end up in the mood for some Mass Effect, having not played it in a while.

But spending the money on an MMO, and nothing else, you wouldn't have anything to switch to when you get bored.

 

[almo]

EVE requires less of a time committment due to offline skill training. That's why I stay in. It tolerates my 4-5 hour a week play style. WoW doesn't because you don't level fast enough to keep up with your friends if you don't play much.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Well, as someone who is against the idea of committing large amounts of time to a game you definitely picked the wrong MMO. There's more than a few games that don't require huge time sinks just to get evened out with the average player. WoW, WAR, AoC, LotRO, Vanguard; just to give some examples. Sure, it might take a month or more to get to max level and such, but that's what the game is. I mean, you wouldn't ***** about Oblivion taking a month to finish, would you?

I liked EVE, I just wasn't willing to pay a subscription, no game is worth a subscription!

See, this confuses the hell out of me. People are willing to drop 50-60 bucks on the latest space marine game that they can finish in one or two days, but they aren't willing to drop 65 on a game they will certainly get a month out of?

A very valid point, I've never actually though about it this way. Since I'm English I'm gonna phrase this in pounds, so sorry if you can't really relate to this, but surely about 9 pounds a month is worth it provided you play that month...especially when you contrast it to, like you said, a much larger amount of money for a game you'll finish in a few days.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

As far as MMOs go, my game of pick is Guild Wars. With the story based campaigns it plays a lot like your typical RPG, just online and with people. You don't even have to play with others if your feeling like that much of a social misanthrope. The game gives you the option of adding in NPC characters to your party in place of other players, making sure you never have to go in alone. As far as fees go, there are none. Feel free to drop the game and come back to it later without any real consequences.

Guild Wars isn't technically an MMO.

Why not? It's massive, multiplayer, and online.

 

[The_Prophet]

I just recently got a 2 week trial of EVE online thanks to the advertising on this website (Sellout!). After the 2 days it took to download it I played it and while the only real interesting thing to me was the Warp Bubble graphically, and that I had a ship (Being a Trek Fan and a Wars fan helps) the single overbearing thought was this: God this game needs a big time comittment. A time comittment that I do not have. In between Sleeping, eating, school, guitar, flossing, and the flogging I cannot take any time out of my life to play this. That being said I generally judged that all MMOs need a stupendous time comittment in order to really enjoy the game, and I'm just wondering if that's a good generalization.

Uhmm, how slow your net is for it to take 2 days? Anyway, MMOs need some time commited to them but they are fun. And EVE sucks, really

 

[Not Good]

It is sometimes funny to see people not get the point and blatanly point out what I already knew. I know that EVE isn't the best MMO and I also know that WoW is really the only MMO out there. Once you've played that one, you have pretty much played them all, as they are all alike in setting and gameplay (as Yahtzee pointed out). Please stop suggesting to me any RPG's at all. I'm not gonna play them anytime soon anyway.

 

[Eternal_Rapture]

I liked EVE, I just wasn't willing to pay a subscription, no game is worth a subscription!

One of my favorite reasons for playing Guild Wars. I like that game, you dont really have to have alot of time to committe to that game really, just doing one quest a day to advince the storyline would only take about 30 mins to a hour.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I burned out on DAoC after about 8 months of gaming when one of my co-workers told me about FFXI, which took me 2 months to burn out on. After FFXI I can't really get into any MMO.

 

[joystickjunki3]

I can't play MMO's for the same reasons as you said, but also because I had a problem w/ Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast. There are certain games that I become more addicted to than I should, and MMO's are included. Guitar Hero, the original, was a problem too. To a lesser extent, Pokemon Red and Blue (and Yellow) were also addicting games for me.

 

[DirkGently]

Yea, it never made sense to me either. Fifteen dollars a month is just $180 a year. You can either
1.) Get 3 games that will last you a few weeks each, maybe even a few months if it's like Halo 3 (I still play Halo 3 fairly regularly) or Little Big Planet.
2.)You can spend that same amount of money on a game?like EVE Online?that not only lasts the entire year, but continues to evolve and change.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather spend the money on something I'll be playing for years to come.

Exception Xbox Live is a subscription as well so unless you got a lot of buddies and like to system/link split screen, you are still paying the sub fee anyway. Throw in a map pack here and there and the future expansion and the differences get to a point where I do not quite understand why money is ever the issue for people and MMOs.

I think it's a mental thing. If you pay your $60 for your normal game, it's yours. You can play it whenever and however much as you damn well please. You can pick it up two years from now and play it if you feel like it. With MMOs, you need to pay an active subscription to actually play. If you don't give them more money, you don't get to touch your character at all.

I, personally, like the odd bit of MMOs. I enjoy doing dungeons and fulfilling my role to team. My only issue with it is time consumption, as school takes up enough as it is. And that fifteen bucks a month hurts when you're not working. And my current lack of a rig doesn't help either. Ok, so its more than one issue. And it doesn't help that so often people in MMOs are tremendous dicks.

 

[Najos]

Well, as someone who is against the idea of committing large amounts of time to a game you definitely picked the wrong MMO. There's more than a few games that don't require huge time sinks just to get evened out with the average player. WoW, WAR, AoC, LotRO, Vanguard; just to give some examples. Sure, it might take a month or more to get to max level and such, but that's what the game is. I mean, you wouldn't ***** about Oblivion taking a month to finish, would you?

I liked EVE, I just wasn't willing to pay a subscription, no game is worth a subscription!

See, this confuses the hell out of me. People are willing to drop 50-60 bucks on the latest space marine game that they can finish in one or two days, but they aren't willing to drop 65 on a game they will certainly get a month out of?

You do know there's a magic thing called the internet which you can get many many things for free right?

No, where can I buy one?

Was that sarcasm or....erm... makh.

Does this mean I win?

 

[hypothetical fact]

MMO's may be cheaper than buying new games but they trap you. You will only be playing one game and will have to deal with all the problems that game offers until they are patched and new problems arise. If you buy new games you can get tired of the game sell it and play something else meaning far more variety than any MMO can offer.

MMO's also have the problem of being an investment; if you are level 900 and something you won't want to quit for fear of losing all your hard work which causes the classic mmorpg addiction.

Another problem with MMO's is that the gameplay is focused around the entire player base rather than with RPG's where the game is focused around you. This means that if you like an MMO but don't like the community you will find yourself in a less enjoyable game than if you play RPG's you enjoy.

 

[MrBrightside919]

I know how you feel. I can't seem to stay attached to an MMO for very long. I wanna love WOW but I just can't get into it like everyone else does...

I can't spend what little life I have playing a game that requires so much time to play...

 

[Aardvark]

I tried playing Ultima Online, back in the day, then Star Wars Galaxies. Both were fun and exciting time sinks. Galaxies had me for a good chunk of time and probably would have had me longer, then my girlfriend pointed out that I never do anything except play that stupid game.

I took stock and realised, shit, she's right. So I quit and vowed never to play the stupid things again and have gone on to waste my time on other nonconstructive pursuits.

 

[DYin01]

I've tried a few MMORPGs. I really enjoyed City Of Heroes/Villains. The time commitment, however, is the thing that's keeping me from subscribing. I've played WoW for three or four months and I just didn't have the time to play it enough to actually get to a decent level. The endgame is usually the best of MMORPGs but before you get there, you need at LEAST three months of hardcore grinding and imo.. it's just not worth it.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I've tried a few MMORPGs. I really enjoyed City Of Heroes/Villains. The time commitment, however, is the thing that's keeping me from subscribing.

Agreed, I loved CoX, but I just couldn't donate the time it needed. Not with everything else that needs to be played.