Poll: What turns you off about MMOs?

[Bynine]

The monthly payment.

 

[Enigma6667]

As awful as the monthly fee is, what really bugged me were the communities. I played WoW for a year and reached level 66 because I didn't really have anything to do way back when the only current gen system I owned was a Wii. I was able to forgive the monthly fee if it was by any means fun. Not exactly, but when I was playing with friends (People I actually knew), it was actually kind of a blast when I went on raids and shit. Then they stopped playing because they were playing LIVE, and I was still waiting to get money for a 360 (Come to think of it, paying the monthly fee while saving up for something was a bad idea), and I tried making new friends there, and 98% of the players there were about as robotic as the NPCs. They had no real personality, you could hear the cheetos getting crunched, the damn fart noise their shit quality mic makes (or they actually were farting, given the high percentage of obese people that play WoW), and when I found someone with the slightest hint of an actual personality, it was either because they were crazy, they were jerks, or other.

So yeah, I quit when I just couldn't stand the socially-inept communities.

/rant

 

[nin_ninja]

Okay, I've actually ranted about this subject repeatedly, so you could say I've got a well-prepared rant for this. Here goes!

Note: Numerous times, instead of saying "MMORPG" I will actually type out 'momorperger'. Why, do you ask, because it contains more letters than MMORPG and thus would be counter-intuitive? Because it sounds funny read out loud and I'm paying tribute to Zero Punctuation. Also, momorpergers don't deserve to be called by their given proper name.

Before I go any further, let me put out the foundation of this rant:
The Momorperger Gameplay Model

In momorpergers, a lot more emphasis is placed on equipment drops. Most of the really great crap you can't buy in stores. You have to rely on monster drops for it. And these drops typically occur 1% of the time. For every 100 monsters you kill, one MIGHT drop the thing you're looking for. Sometimes this is even LESS.

Also, level-ups. They're very very important if you want to see everything and do everything in the game. Typically, the cap here is set high. Very high. At least Level 60. Not including add-ons that add to this cap. They also take for-freakin-ever to get. The average person spends 1.5-2 YEARS to get to the highest level.

There's a reason why these things which are so important to the MMO experience are scaled to make you spend as much time as possible to achieve them.

Money.

To reiterate, the developers of MMOs want you to play the game as long as possible. So they purposely scale the level-ups so it takes the average person 1.5-2 YEARS to get to maximum level. And they also made the great equipment extremely rare to drop to make you play as long as possible

Now, assume the average momorperger these days is $15 a month. Also assume it costs $40-50 to buy the software you need to get on in the first place, not including any extra add-ons currently out if you're getting into the game late. That means if a person toughs it out to the last level, the company is assured to get $220 from a one-year player (which is FAST) or up to $400 for a two year player. And that's not factoring in that you have to kill certain monsters that might not be conducive to levelling up if you have to get a specific piece of equipment from them. Also note, rarely will you stop playing once you get to the end of leveling up. Because once you reach the highest level, you'll have of course "unlocked" the actual fun parts of the game which will no doubt keep you coming back for longer. Which means more money, of course!

There are "free" momorpergers out there, too. But these follow the same "extra long grind" formula. Because they want you to be tempted to buy the items that you actually have to pay real money to get (that cannot be bought with in-game money) to make this leveling easier.

Now that the Momorperger Gameplay model is out of the way, let's move onto the actual gameplay.

Okay. First off, the classes. In a much better game, not based on money you pay for the privilege of playing, Neverwinter Nights, you can put together any combination of 3 of the 20 or so classes to come up with the character you want as long as they fit the prerequisites of all 3 classes and add up to the total of 40 levels.

In momorpergers? One. One class. Only one game I've ever seen allows a multiclass, but your second class is always stunted compared to your first. Sometimes you play an inferior class to get up to a 'promotion' class. This does not count as multi-classing.

Going back to NWN, which, might I add, has lots of "persistant world" servers which are strikingly similar to MMO worlds (if you really like that kind of thing, anyway), even if you stick exclusively with one class, the choices you make can set it apart from others of the same class. With skills and feats, and occasionally spell choice, the same class can turn out very very differently.

In momorpergers, one class pretty much gives you one build. And that's it. You can play around with your stats, and this can occasionally offer some variation, but that's about it. You're pretty much made to go along with a single skill set regardless.

Because class builds are so... rigid... in the average MMO, there are only really four distinct roles one can fill in a party.

1) The Tank - For any High-HP, High Armor class. They're typically a Melee class and, contrary to what one would think, they inflict only medium damage, with perhaps a Damage ability they can use every once in a while to deliver big damage. Mostly, though, they're supposed to sit there and take the heat.
2) The Damage Fiend (I forget the exact term for this used in the game) - These guys can really deal out the damage, but they can't actually take it. Occasionally, a class like this will have a high enough evasion to be a tank in a pinch, but nothing near like what a tank can do. Generally, they hit the target until the target decides to turn on them, then run away and hope the target goes back to attacking the tank.
3) The Healer - These guys just sit back and heal and buff. They are actually given weapons, but they are laughable at using them, no matter how impressive they look, and if you try to use them in a party situation, even to tide yourself over until someone actually needs healing, people will scream at you for being a noob and tell you to go back and heal.
4) The Nuke - Spellcasters, usually. They sit back and deliver big-time damage until their MP runs out, then they scream like a woman. Occasionally, the target gets smart and tries to go after the Nuke, who then screams like a woman and runs away until the party annoy the target enough to make it pay attention to them again.

All classes follow these basic roles to a fault. Soloing? Haha. Funny. You get to a certain level by attacking small critters, then you're bound to a party for the rest of your life, that is, if you want to level at any decent rate.

In PVP, yeah, I suppose you can do the whole Rock Paper Scissors thing with the four roles against each other, and you might call that strategy. Except there isn't really a whole lot of room for variation here. You either have a combo that works, or you don't. So it's two parties made of roughly the same ratio of these roles. What ends up making the difference? Equipment and levels. Which goes right back to the MMO gameplay model.

And nevermind that getting to a point in the game where PVP is actually worth doing usually means getting to your highest level with your best equipment. Again, the MMO gameplay model.

Taking on the big boss monsters? Highest level, best equipment. These big boss monsters actually usually HAVE the best equipment, but the equipment you actually want only drops now and again. Which goes... you guessed it... back to the MMO gameplay model.

To reiterate again, THE ENTIRE GAME is modeled after getting money from the player. It's insidious.

And when you really get down to it? Persistant Worlds may sound like fun, a big world to explore and interact with and all, but what effect do you, a supposed hero, have on said world? NONE. NADDA. NOTHING. SILLY HERO, YOU SO STUPID.

Because the game has to be written to deliver the exact same experience to every character, no matter how many times you do all of those silly fetch quests and take on the big bad that's supposibly terrorizing the town, IT MEANS NOTHING. You can do the same quests indefinitely a lot of the time, and the quest-giver will be in just as much need as when you first started. Or maybe you can only do it once, and the quest-giver will be ever-so-grateful and sing you praises. Then he'll turn around and tell the person right next to you that the orcs are terrorizing his farm animals again, something you supposibly fixed for him for all time. In fact, if you marched out there yourself to his pasture, you'll see the very same orcs terrorising the very same farm animals, only this time you get zero recognition for killing them because you supposibly had already saved the animals for all time, and you get yelled at by the people who haven't done the quest yet for 'farming' the quest spawn. Forget the epic quests that an offline RPG would give you. You're doing nothing here. And everyone is scripted to treat your character the exact same way as the others. Sure there's alignment and class factors occasionally factored in, but that's about the extent of it.

And while we're at it, let's talk about the 'Roleplaying' bit. And how there is none to be found. "But Zorph, your character is a role, and you play it!" Well, that's basically true for any video game you play, except those people have set names and the other game characters treat him as something more than a generic cardboard cutout with a name and alignment stuck to it. You, on the other hand, if you want to honest to god play the role of a character, you have to turn to your fellow players. Who, upon receiving your played role, will treat you like the laughing stock of the game, call you a n00b, and go about their business saying such endearing phrases as "WM LFG 20-30 PST". Sure, I suppose you could go play on one of those "Roleplaying Servers". But, well, none of your friends or anyone you'd ever meet in real life play on these servers, so what's the point?

Speaking of people, I can also mention the whole "the people who play these games are generally immature drama-spewing raving blowhard idiots" aspect of mmorpergers and how, for a huge part of my relationship with my now ex-girlfriend, I had to sit back and listen to how everyone in her endgame clan was a douche-bag but she can't go anywhere else because all her friends were there, or everyone else is worse, or whatever. Sure, you can also bring your own friends along to suffer through it with you, but there are other games to play and web environs to go to that don't require a large elaborate pay scheme overshadowing your every move, and those seem like better places to take your friends.

In conclusion, I've been drawn back to this 'genre' time and time again, thanks to cute female character models, something I see in the gameplay that may make things different, or the aforementioned "free momorperger" model, or a combo of the three above. Every time, I only end up just plain disappointed and bombing out after reaching around Level 25 in it, which is about the time where the novelty wears off and I suddenly realize I'm playing a momorperger dear god what the hell is wrong with me. Maybe some mythical momorperger exists out there which defies all the conventions I hate about the genre, but I have yet to find it. And probably never will.

Dude, I was just asking you to vote not write an essay. (Although if I was, I'd give this a 96%)

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I gotta say the players online.

I always seem to find mean people who kill lower levels players.

Yet, i always run into those who happily have a nice chat with me and we become friends and dungeon crawl together.

 

[troth]

"All of the above"

 

[Kasawd]

The people.

This is WoW on a high population server:

"Hey whoa there buddy, your Gearscore is only a meager 5500 and you only put out about 5000 dps. There is no way we will let you run ToC10 with us. *Boot*"

Dude would be a moron because ToC10 only needs a minimun of 4.8 ;p

Generally, pricks with the gearscore sometimes don't even have the number they're demanding of you.

Rather, "Require 5.2k GS for Ulduar, post achieve output 6k deeps, HERPA DERP"

Wsp deusche - "Man, you only have 4.6k, not to mention the empty sockets and basically no enchantments. That's cool but why do you have such expectations of others?"

Return - "Shut up, scrub!"

Luckily, if you find a decent guild, you can avoid PuG's like this but, yes, it is the community that turns me off to an MMO. There is also the issue of ninja.

I like The MMORPG genre for one dominant reason: Professions. Do you know how much a stack of ten skyflare diamonds go for on my server? They'll buy them out for 400g. Considering it takes me around 200g to make ten, that's a great profit margin. I'm going to keep prodding the price up until I find that magical roof. I also enjoy how characters can earn actual renown on the servers, whether it be the quintessential ninja or the perfectly fair loot master, people make or break the game.

 

[Seydaman]

I hate it when people rage about a god damn mother fucking subscription fee.
you're paying 10 god damn dollars a month, FUCK. So how much do you play per day? If you play an hour per day you're getting way moar than your moneys worth. I have payed many a 60$ for less than 10 hours of gameplay, why should I do that when I can drop 13$ for wow and play 40hrs?
I hate it when people bring that shit up.

 

[irishman16]

Grinding. God, I'd love MMOs if I didn't have to spend 8 hours a day to level my character up.

 

[Danpascooch]

ToR is only $10 a month!? I thought it would be $15! WOO!

Anyway, $10 a month is very reasonable if you like the game, I mean can you honestly say you get an average of 6 months of play out of all the new release console games you buy?

Don't know price, just making one up. What I like about games is that you canplay them and then come back to them later after a break. I wouldn't want to have to pay for that break.

You don't have to pay for that break, sometimes I quit WoW for a few months, and I cancel my subscription and renew it when I come back, they don't ever delete characters.

 

[Danpascooch]

ToR is only $10 a month!? I thought it would be $15! WOO!

Anyway, $10 a month is very reasonable if you like the game, I mean can you honestly say you get an average of 6 months of play out of all the new release console games you buy?

your only logic fail with this is you still have to pay for the initial game. so it'll be like 50-60 dollars when it comes out (in my country) and so paying for more after that is what throws many people (especially me) off of it, i fucking hate subscriptions for one game, i dont care that it pays for servers and dlc, i just dont want to pay for it.

I like MMOs, I really do, but I refuse to pay an extra $15 a month on top of the game's cost to play the damn thing. I kinda like the idea of lifetime subscriptions, but I'm not paying $300 for a game, ever. Thus I do not play MMOs.

Oh, and don't give me that "it pays for the servers and added content" shit. I get it, they have an excuse to charge for it, that doesn't make it worth the money.

ninja'd, i completely forgot to look for it.

And how much is WoW now? It's like nothing for the original game.

Not to mention, if you play for a year or more, that original game cost is so spread out over the months it becomes insubstantial anyway.

 

[Aedwynn]

For me it's the other players. It's not that people on the internet are jerks or anything - it's that I have to play with other people AT ALL.

For me, computer or console gaming is largely a solitary affair. If I DO want to play something with other people I'll dust my D&D books or 40k army off or something. If I don't have any other players for a face-to-face game I'll write an adventure or paint some minis. I just don't like playing MMOs with other people. Which quite obviously ruins 'em for me.

A close second for me was the monthly charges. I have quite enough direct debits thank you! I have to pay each month? Screw that!

 

[Seydaman]

GIANT MOFUKIN SNIP

Dude, I was just asking you to vote not write an essay. (Although if I was, I'd give this a 96%)

I was a few sentances in when I noticed you said
"It takes forever to reach the level cap"
It took me 2 months
You're blowing shit way out of proportion

 

[Seydaman]

There's no story.

It just goes on and on and on.

Like real-life? That's basically what an MMO is. Guild Wars doesn't even have a cost.

MMO's are just another genre. Xbox Live costs money but there's less bitching to that?

Many MMOs do have stories, take a second and read the quest rather than hit accept then hold your W key.

 

[Flying-Emu]

Okay, I've actually ranted about this subject repeatedly, so you could say I've got a well-prepared rant for this. Here goes!

Note: Numerous times, instead of saying "MMORPG" I will actually type out 'momorperger'. Why, do you ask, because it contains more letters than MMORPG and thus would be counter-intuitive? Because it sounds funny read out loud and I'm paying tribute to Zero Punctuation. Also, momorpergers don't deserve to be called by their given proper name.

I hate to argue the opinion of a ZP fan, since you gais are always right cuz yahtzes so smart lol and evry1 who disagrees i stupid.

But I sense an extreme bias, like as not based on hearsay and not on actual experience or cited evidence.

Spoiler: The Momorperger Gameplay Model

In momorpergers, a lot more emphasis is placed on equipment drops. Most of the really great crap you can't buy in stores. You have to rely on monster drops for it. And these drops typically occur 1% of the time. For every 100 monsters you kill, one MIGHT drop the thing you're looking for. Sometimes this is even LESS.

Also, level-ups. They're very very important if you want to see everything and do everything in the game. Typically, the cap here is set high. Very high. At least Level 60. Not including add-ons that add to this cap. They also take for-freakin-ever to get. The average person spends 1.5-2 YEARS to get to the highest level.

There's a reason why these things which are so important to the MMO experience are scaled to make you spend as much time as possible to achieve them.

Money.

To reiterate, the developers of MMOs want you to play the game as long as possible. So they purposely scale the level-ups so it takes the average person 1.5-2 YEARS to get to maximum level. And they also made the great equipment extremely rare to drop to make you play as long as possible

Now, assume the average momorperger these days is $15 a month. Also assume it costs $40-50 to buy the software you need to get on in the first place, not including any extra add-ons currently out if you're getting into the game late. That means if a person toughs it out to the last level, the company is assured to get $220 from a one-year player (which is FAST) or up to $400 for a two year player. And that's not factoring in that you have to kill certain monsters that might not be conducive to levelling up if you have to get a specific piece of equipment from them. Also note, rarely will you stop playing once you get to the end of leveling up. Because once you reach the highest level, you'll have of course "unlocked" the actual fun parts of the game which will no doubt keep you coming back for longer. Which means more money, of course!

There are "free" momorpergers out there, too. But these follow the same "extra long grind" formula. Because they want you to be tempted to buy the items that you actually have to pay real money to get (that cannot be bought with in-game money) to make this leveling easier.

Now that the Momorperger Gameplay model is out of the way, let's move onto the actual gameplay.

Okay. First off. There are no respectable MMOs where it takes you TWO YEARS to reach max level. Even in WoW, apparently the devil of grind, if you play, say, four hours a week, you'll reach max level in about a year. And don't you dare say that four hours is a long time; plenty of people spend more than four hours a DAY playing one video game. Hell, I've spent five hours playing nothing but TF2.

About money;

Do you realize how much time, effort, and capital goes into these large-scale MMOs? Simply maintaining servers for MMOs takes quite a chunk of cash, considering how much data flows in and out in a constant, non-stop stream of 1's and 0's. In addition, many MMOs are constantly tweaking and balancing the gameplay for a more refined experience. How do you think that's paid for? With subscription fees. Why do you think Warhammer Online is better than Grand Chase, or Runescape? Why do you think it's more balanced? Because a free MMO, inevitably, draws in less cash, therefore less capital, to put towards advancing the game.

And let's not forget, you are not tied into a contract for these games. If you stop enjoying your time with the game, you can stop playing at any time. I've canceled and renewed my subscriptions to various MMOs more times than I can count.

Spoiler: Classes

Okay. First off, the classes. In a much better game, not based on money you pay for the privilege of playing, Neverwinter Nights, you can put together any combination of 3 of the 20 or so classes to come up with the character you want as long as they fit the prerequisites of all 3 classes and add up to the total of 40 levels.

In momorpergers? One. One class. Only one game I've ever seen allows a multiclass, but your second class is always stunted compared to your first. Sometimes you play an inferior class to get up to a 'promotion' class. This does not count as multi-classing.

Going back to NWN, which, might I add, has lots of "persistant world" servers which are strikingly similar to MMO worlds (if you really like that kind of thing, anyway), even if you stick exclusively with one class, the choices you make can set it apart from others of the same class. With skills and feats, and occasionally spell choice, the same class can turn out very very differently.

In momorpergers, one class pretty much gives you one build. And that's it. You can play around with your stats, and this can occasionally offer some variation, but that's about it. You're pretty much made to go along with a single skill set regardless.

This is a balance issue. Balancing nine classes is much easier than balancing multi-classes. Some MMOs have attempted multiclassing, and it never works, for the simple reason that some builds are inherently better than others. And since many MMOs don't allow an on-the-fly class change, this is a serious problem, because you're tied into the shitty multi-class you choose in your arrogant days of MMO youth.

Spoiler: Class Roles

Because class builds are so... rigid... in the average MMO, there are only really four distinct roles one can fill in a party.

1) The Tank - For any High-HP, High Armor class. They're typically a Melee class and, contrary to what one would think, they inflict only medium damage, with perhaps a Damage ability they can use every once in a while to deliver big damage. Mostly, though, they're supposed to sit there and take the heat.
2) The Damage Fiend (I forget the exact term for this used in the game) - These guys can really deal out the damage, but they can't actually take it. Occasionally, a class like this will have a high enough evasion to be a tank in a pinch, but nothing near like what a tank can do. Generally, they hit the target until the target decides to turn on them, then run away and hope the target goes back to attacking the tank.
3) The Healer - These guys just sit back and heal and buff. They are actually given weapons, but they are laughable at using them, no matter how impressive they look, and if you try to use them in a party situation, even to tide yourself over until someone actually needs healing, people will scream at you for being a noob and tell you to go back and heal.
4) The Nuke - Spellcasters, usually. They sit back and deliver big-time damage until their MP runs out, then they scream like a woman. Occasionally, the target gets smart and tries to go after the Nuke, who then screams like a woman and runs away until the party annoy the target enough to make it pay attention to them again.

Seriously, you're complaining about class roles. These are in every RPG. Ever. Since Ed. 1 AD&D, there have been tanks, healers, DPS, and Nukers (Normally referred to as Glass Cannons). Complaining about this is like complaining that FPS's don't let you see your character; it's whining about what MAKES the game what it is.

All classes follow these basic roles to a fault. Soloing? Haha. Funny. You get to a certain level by attacking small critters, then you're bound to a party for the rest of your life, that is, if you want to level at any decent rate.

Only if you suck at MMOs.

In PVP, yeah, I suppose you can do the whole Rock Paper Scissors thing with the four roles against each other, and you might call that strategy. Except there isn't really a whole lot of room for variation here. You either have a combo that works, or you don't. So it's two parties made of roughly the same ratio of these roles. What ends up making the difference? Equipment and levels. Which goes right back to the MMO gameplay model.

Oh, how I love the Rock Paper Scissors mentality that many MMO bashers (and players, admittedly) have. It comes down to knowing which abilities to pop when, knowing what gear is going to be appropriate for each situation, and recognizing when you are simply outmatched. There is no guaranteed Warrior beats Rogue beats Wizard beats Priest, and if there is, it's simply a bad MMO. Any class can beat any class, so long as the game is made right (Such as World of Warcraft, sadly, and pre-Jedi SW: Galaxies). As for equipment and levels, you're once again complaining about not being able to see your character in an FPS. Equipment determines what your character is capable of, same with your level (Except in Warhammer Online). If everyone went into an Arena with similiar gear, it would perpetuate your claim that the game has no variety. Equipment is one of the ways that the developers allow you to specialize your character. For example, in WoW, I made a Frost-specced mage who stamina and mana-stacked so that I could tank. Worked real well, and that sure as hell is not a common build. Your argument is null and void.

And nevermind that getting to a point in the game where PVP is actually worth doing usually means getting to your highest level with your best equipment. Again, the MMO gameplay model.

No one is going to want to do PvP when you've got three skills and are wearing rags.

Taking on the big boss monsters? Highest level, best equipment. These big boss monsters actually usually HAVE the best equipment, but the equipment you actually want only drops now and again. Which goes... you guessed it... back to the MMO gameplay model.

Seeing your character in an FPS.

To reiterate again, THE ENTIRE GAME is modeled after getting money from the player. It's insidious.

It's also insidious that games cost money. Do you seriously think that companies are making video games for you to enjoy? They don't give two shits if you enjoy the game, they just want their money. You are remarkably naive if you think otherwise.

And when you really get down to it? Persistant Worlds may sound like fun, a big world to explore and interact with and all, but what effect do you, a supposed hero, have on said world? NONE. NADDA. NOTHING. SILLY HERO, YOU SO STUPID.

That's true, except for the fact that several MMOs prove you completely wrong. In Warhammer, victories in RvR combat can lead to more complex PvP battles and rewards for everyone on your server. World of Warcraft is adding things like this too, with Wintergrasp and the benefits you gain from that. So saying that you have no effect on the world is laughable.

One must also consider the technologic limitations. It's incredibly difficult to make a persistent, interactive world in itself, much less make that world active for multiple people. For current technology, what we can do is remarkable.

Because the game has to be written to deliver the exact same experience to every character, no matter how many times you do all of those silly fetch quests and take on the big bad that's supposibly terrorizing the town, IT MEANS NOTHING. You can do the same quests indefinitely a lot of the time, and the quest-giver will be in just as much need as when you first started. Or maybe you can only do it once, and the quest-giver will be ever-so-grateful and sing you praises. Then he'll turn around and tell the person right next to you that the orcs are terrorizing his farm animals again, something you supposibly fixed for him for all time. In fact, if you marched out there yourself to his pasture, you'll see the very same orcs terrorising the very same farm animals, only this time you get zero recognition for killing them because you supposibly had already saved the animals for all time, and you get yelled at by the people who haven't done the quest yet for 'farming' the quest spawn. Forget the epic quests that an offline RPG would give you. You're doing nothing here. And everyone is scripted to treat your character the exact same way as the others. Sure there's alignment and class factors occasionally factored in, but that's about the extent of it.

Come up with a solution to this problem and I'll consider your complaint.

And while we're at it, let's talk about the 'Roleplaying' bit. And how there is none to be found. "But Zorph, your character is a role, and you play it!" Well, that's basically true for any video game you play, except those people have set names and the other game characters treat him as something more than a generic cardboard cutout with a name and alignment stuck to it. You, on the other hand, if you want to honest to god play the role of a character, you have to turn to your fellow players. Who, upon receiving your played role, will treat you like the laughing stock of the game, call you a n00b, and go about their business saying such endearing phrases as "WM LFG 20-30 PST". Sure, I suppose you could go play on one of those "Roleplaying Servers". But, well, none of your friends or anyone you'd ever meet in real life play on these servers, so what's the point? The "RP" part of "MMORPG" is one of the biggest misnomers you'll ever come to face.

Do you play Mass Effect in character? KotOR? Oblivion? I thought not. MMOs give you more of a chance to roleplay than any single-player RPG ever could, for the sole reason that you are indeed playing with other people. Roleplaying with others is admittedly a niche appeal, but roleplaying by yourself is hilariously sad.

Speaking of people, I can also mention the whole "the people who play these games are generally immature drama-spewing raving blowhard idiots" aspect of mmorpergers and how, for a huge part of my relationship with my now ex-girlfriend, I had to sit back and listen to how everyone in her endgame clan was a douche-bag but she can't go anywhere else because all her friends were there, or everyone else is worse, or whatever. Sure, you can also bring your own friends along to suffer through it with you, but there are other games to play and web environs to go to that don't require a large elaborate pay scheme overshadowing your every move, and those seem like better places to take your friends.

The same could be said of any online game, invalidating this statement.

In conclusion, I've been drawn back to this 'genre' time and time again, thanks to cute female character models, something I see in the gameplay that may make things different, or the aforementioned "free momorperger" model, or a combo of the three above. Every time, I only end up just plain disappointed and bombing out after reaching around Level 25 in it, which is about the time where the novelty wears off and I suddenly realize I'm playing a momorperger dear god what the hell is wrong with me. Maybe some mythical momorperger exists out there which defies all the conventions I hate about the genre, but I have yet to find it. And probably never will.

Your conclusion is laughable. You have no solid evidence, and your insistence on PRAAAAAAAAAISE YAHTZEE is childish and stupid. Your experience with MMOs is obviously limited, and if not, then they're simply not the genre for you. Does that mean they're bad games? No. I despise The Sims, but I don't go on about how OMG IS SO EVIL CAUSE LOL. Attempting to draw a broad conclusion when your only evidence is conjecture and opinion is idiotic and will only make you look like a fool to anyone with an ounce of logic in their minds.

Have a nice day.

 

[Sakurazaki1023]

Pretty much all of the listed reasons turn me off MMOs.

The only real reason that they are so popular is the addiction factor and the string of petty accomplishments that seem to rope people in so easily.

 

[ejb626]

MMOFPSes drive me up the wall due to my sheer lack of skill at them, MMORPGs I don't have much exposure to considering I don't have a good PC but they can get kind of boring and repetitive to me those are pretty much the only MMOs I'm really exposed to.

 

[Angryman101]

It's aimless, I guess. I like games where I have a concrete objective, not constantly doing something over and over again for slightly better items. I voted for 'endless menial tasks' because that seemed closest.

 

[silver wolf009]

Tie between no story, menial quests and bad community.