You may need to take a break from MMO's, I have on more than one occasion. Three months and I was looking foward to playing them again.
Knew it was only a matter of time 'til the "you're just burned out on MMOs, take a break" post came up.
He's burned out on Rift, and Rift's style of WoW-derived gameplay. That's not the "end-all" of MMORPGs.
There are plenty of other options out there, and a good number of them have a different take on the MMO setting. That's what I do when I need a break from the "same old familiar"... I look for a different kind of MMO that has a different style or approach to its gameplay.
Take a look around this site, or do some searching around on google, or perhaps on other MMO sites.
I think part of the problem with why people feel so "limited" by MMOs is that they tend to only stick to the "well known" ones that most people are talking about on a regular basis. They tend to stay away from checking out other, lesser known ones.. because of some reason or another. We see the same names brought up time and again.. "I got tired of games like WoW, LoTRO, Rift and WAR... So I decided to try something different like Eve, Darkfall..." and so on. There are literally hundreds of MMOs out there at this point and yet people who say they want something different never seem to look beyond the same dozen or so.
Also, and this is more of a "feeling" I get in reading some people's posts across different forums, but I think there are many people who get in their own way, by concerning themselves with whether or not they're playing "a popular enough MMO", as some way to validate that they're playing it. Screw that. It's a game, not a popularity contest. If you like the game play it.
"But if there aren't a lot of people playing, how will I meet anyone?" Easy... be social. Get on the game's forums, introduce yourself, say that you're new to the game and are looking for people to talk to, quest with and perhaps who can show you the ropes a bit. I've done it in every new MMO I've gone to, and with almost 100% success, have managed to meet some very cool and helpful folks... and then it just branches out from there.
Folks just need to get out of their shells and drop their hang-ups about "what types of MMOs they should be playing".
I find that when I'm burned out on MMO's I'm done and there is nothing that will change that but time. It happens every year right about this time too when the weather is getting better and I find that the only cure to that burnout is a nice break and some outdoor fun.
You guys are so silly. You don't want to do kill quests, gather quests, protect quests, escort quests, delivery quests, crafting quests, exploration quests, dungeon quests, epic storyline quests, rift quests, pvp quests, and the dozen or so other quests... but you think that using the same skill one million times to get 100.0 in that skill will be more exciting and less of a grind. Please excuse me while I laugh hysterically. I would love a good sandbox to come out, I just think that mindset is really funny.
To the OP and other people who are bored. I'd suggest logging in and doing something that you enjoy. I'm level 36 and I only log in to do what I feel like doing. I don't log in and force myself to level up, or run a dungeon, or grind pvp. I just do what I want. Therefor, I have not burned myself out forcing myself to do a certain thing when I really don't feel like doing it. That's why sandboxes really work, you can do anything you want. There are more options than you think in theme parks, just don't get caught up in chasing the proverbial carrot all the time.
No, you're missing the point.
The Quest Driven System is anti-freedom, you're forced to do content. Hand held and spoon-fed the content. The sense of freedom is eliminated. it is not that Quests are bad, it is the fact that Quest is THE GAME and not a tool. No one wants to play The Quest, people want to play the game. They want to be free and while they are free they can do quests.
Having to force people to do what the developer wants them to do (Go to this place, kill 10 things, then go to that place) is bad. We're sick of being hand-held ALL THE TIME from level 1 till max level.
The goal is not to get your skill to level 100 or level up to level 50. The goal is to explore, have fun, be free, do the content you find fun (the dungeons you like) no one should force you to kill a rat or do that dungeon. You do whatever you want to do. The rewards are there waiting for you. You don't need to turn a switch on (! mark) so the dragon would only THEN drop its head. The dragon is there with its head without the need to turn the ! switch on.
You are going to level up and skill up eventually doing the content of the world. It is the lack of freedom, the hand holding that we shun so badly. Also, some people may CHOOSE To "Grind" their levels and skill.. they CHOOSE to it's up to them. But you dont have to if you dont want to. The good news is, NO ONE is hand holding you or forcing you to do a pre-designed content. The content is the dugneons and challenges in the world and you may choose to seek them out if you want. You are FREE.
Well, you see one of the main problems with that, is that just like in the real world, most people don't want freedom. That would mean that they are personally responsible for their actions/inactions. Its much "better" in most peoples minds, if they are hand held, and told what to do. Thats one of the reasons that themepark games are so popular. Its also the reason for the continued existence of coercive government.
Not to mention that freedom means different things to different people. After long experience, when I hear people go on about "freedom" in games, I usually translate that to ganking and/or griefing. Why? Because thats been my experience when games allow everyone "freedom".
Keep in mind the Goonie mentality. Here you have an entire organization of people, who get their jollies from ruining other peoples play experience. That tends not to be good for a companies business model. Thats also why sand box games tend to be much less popular in the western markets than themparks.
Thats why its hardly surprising that Trion went with the themepark style for Rift. Its a proven business model, and it allows them better control of many of the complex subsystems.
I think this is an inevitable consequence of the lack of real variety in the mmo genre, too many clones with too feww real distinguishing features....you initnially feel it as fresh and exciting but quickly the similarirites outweigh the differences and its just more of the same. Rift is acute in this regard, it well done but more throwback that evolved - just more of the same and for most of us we've been there and done that....and on reflection it wasn't so great anyways.
There has been some issue with mmo that try and be casual friendly not justifying their status for an ongoing sub...that may be true for some but a game that doesn't consume time, that allows for a player to have a life as well as enjoy the game is a new avenue for mmos to plunder and it could pay dividens - the major shift in perspective is that the game itself has to be fun, it has to appeal to get you to come back - we move away from the gimp and addiction led games to ones that really work more as single player games do - you play them because you want to when you want to and they don't handicap you for that choice.....once the player gets in that mentality there is less real burn out and greater genuine longevity, its just less intense - which imo is a good thing.
This is what seems to happen to me with MMOs lately. I get bored. I was so excited to play this game every day until today. I'm level 40 and I got bored. What the heck.
same level 40 and tons of toons 20 or so and cancel sub weeks ago already.
So I've been playing MMORPG games since 1999, and back then it was EQ or bust. The only things to do in EQ were to level, or maintain your max level for raids. Back then, there were very few quests in the sense of todays exclamation mark system, and even fewer opportunities to solo. What made that game fun, was HAVING to group up and enjoy the company of friends.
I think a system like that is irrelevant today because people WANT quests and they WANT to have the option to solo everything. The issue we face is, even though it is preferable... it is BORING. Even then, when you hit the max level it's all about simply... getting more gear to replace your old gear for the sake of getting better gear.
How did I remedy it? Well, for 5 easy payments of 14.99 you can have your very own...
That's a joke, the reality is - you can't. The system is here to stay, not for all games though. My advice, is to pick up another game in a different genre for a while, and when the MMO cravings hit... try something like EVE or pick your sub back up and try to grind as fast as possible to cap so your experience with the game can change and possibly breathe new life in to your interest. I did it with WoW and let's face it... there are plenty of similarities between RIFT and WoW.
Other than that, I'd say your best bet is to wait for GW2. TOR will indeed be more of the same, except this time with a AAA storyline for your character to dive in to. If nothing in my above rant suits your particular interests currently, I'd suggest going to a gym and making friends there - while playing 2 hours of Basketball competitively twice a week or something.
I think if you were to put the same amount of quests on a leveling scale of say just 10 levels. I think then questing would be more of a thing to do when you just wanna relax. I think this is how games should go. But none ever do. Instead they use questing as a means to level. Rather the other way around. Quests should be something you do to drive you to learn about the lore and find secret places, items/weapons as a reward for doing them, not to be another level higher. It just makes it a grind and also what happens is, you get a lot of developers that throw in same old crap of kill 10 of these and report back to me like quests to fill in the gaps.
My idea for a game would have 10 levels. Develop several dungeons for the 10 levels. Then it may take you say a day to reach level 2 but to get level 3 it may take 3 days. What happens is, a larger portion of the community can still run with each other. A level 7 has access to the level 7 dungeon but can also do the level 4, 5, 6 ones. Gear differences shouldn't be so great and dungeons should be skill based more so than gear. Make some interesting encounters rather than a grindy dungeon.
This will also fix PvP. Ever played Aion and have a level 40 geared twink rift over and kill you over and over at level 30. Cause your 10 levels put so much difference. 10 levels and you couldn't touch them. Levels shouldn't mean much other than your advancement in the game. Yes, it allows you to access more and end game but what if we made the whole game feel like some end-game? Quests should not be some thing you pick up and don't even read, look at map run to yellow circle, collect whatever it is, run back and turn in thing. When I think if quest, I think of an epic adventure. There should be chains that lead you into crazy places that require groups and people working together to figure out. This is the type of game for me. I want to feel immersed immensely. I just don't feel passionate about MMOs cause I think they have turned into garbage for the most part.
You know why Blizzard has 10M sub or whatever, cause they turned it into a Facebook like game like Farmville that anyone can play. It's just not challenging anymore. But you know a company doesn't have to beat blizzard to be successful and I hope some company out there someday will be more about the game than how much they can squeeze out in profits.
Give me a game like this and I'll be paying 5 years in advance.
Comments
I find that when I'm burned out on MMO's I'm done and there is nothing that will change that but time. It happens every year right about this time too when the weather is getting better and I find that the only cure to that burnout is a nice break and some outdoor fun.
Well, you see one of the main problems with that, is that just like in the real world, most people don't want freedom. That would mean that they are personally responsible for their actions/inactions. Its much "better" in most peoples minds, if they are hand held, and told what to do. Thats one of the reasons that themepark games are so popular. Its also the reason for the continued existence of coercive government.
Not to mention that freedom means different things to different people. After long experience, when I hear people go on about "freedom" in games, I usually translate that to ganking and/or griefing. Why? Because thats been my experience when games allow everyone "freedom".
Keep in mind the Goonie mentality. Here you have an entire organization of people, who get their jollies from ruining other peoples play experience. That tends not to be good for a companies business model. Thats also why sand box games tend to be much less popular in the western markets than themparks.
Thats why its hardly surprising that Trion went with the themepark style for Rift. Its a proven business model, and it allows them better control of many of the complex subsystems.
I think this is an inevitable consequence of the lack of real variety in the mmo genre, too many clones with too feww real distinguishing features....you initnially feel it as fresh and exciting but quickly the similarirites outweigh the differences and its just more of the same. Rift is acute in this regard, it well done but more throwback that evolved - just more of the same and for most of us we've been there and done that....and on reflection it wasn't so great anyways.
There has been some issue with mmo that try and be casual friendly not justifying their status for an ongoing sub...that may be true for some but a game that doesn't consume time, that allows for a player to have a life as well as enjoy the game is a new avenue for mmos to plunder and it could pay dividens - the major shift in perspective is that the game itself has to be fun, it has to appeal to get you to come back - we move away from the gimp and addiction led games to ones that really work more as single player games do - you play them because you want to when you want to and they don't handicap you for that choice.....once the player gets in that mentality there is less real burn out and greater genuine longevity, its just less intense - which imo is a good thing.
same level 40 and tons of toons 20 or so and cancel sub weeks ago already.
I think if you were to put the same amount of quests on a leveling scale of say just 10 levels. I think then questing would be more of a thing to do when you just wanna relax. I think this is how games should go. But none ever do. Instead they use questing as a means to level. Rather the other way around. Quests should be something you do to drive you to learn about the lore and find secret places, items/weapons as a reward for doing them, not to be another level higher. It just makes it a grind and also what happens is, you get a lot of developers that throw in same old crap of kill 10 of these and report back to me like quests to fill in the gaps.
My idea for a game would have 10 levels. Develop several dungeons for the 10 levels. Then it may take you say a day to reach level 2 but to get level 3 it may take 3 days. What happens is, a larger portion of the community can still run with each other. A level 7 has access to the level 7 dungeon but can also do the level 4, 5, 6 ones. Gear differences shouldn't be so great and dungeons should be skill based more so than gear. Make some interesting encounters rather than a grindy dungeon.
This will also fix PvP. Ever played Aion and have a level 40 geared twink rift over and kill you over and over at level 30. Cause your 10 levels put so much difference. 10 levels and you couldn't touch them. Levels shouldn't mean much other than your advancement in the game. Yes, it allows you to access more and end game but what if we made the whole game feel like some end-game? Quests should not be some thing you pick up and don't even read, look at map run to yellow circle, collect whatever it is, run back and turn in thing. When I think if quest, I think of an epic adventure. There should be chains that lead you into crazy places that require groups and people working together to figure out. This is the type of game for me. I want to feel immersed immensely. I just don't feel passionate about MMOs cause I think they have turned into garbage for the most part.
You know why Blizzard has 10M sub or whatever, cause they turned it into a Facebook like game like Farmville that anyone can play. It's just not challenging anymore. But you know a company doesn't have to beat blizzard to be successful and I hope some company out there someday will be more about the game than how much they can squeeze out in profits.
Give me a game like this and I'll be paying 5 years in advance.