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How can you return to be an MMO virgin?
Neverdyne
Member Posts: 167
You know what I mean, try to remember way back when you started playing your first MMO. Remember how grand everything looked? Remember roaming around the world without any objective but to explore, and being amazed by everything you found? Do you remember your first group experience, and how you felt you had bonded with the people you just adventured with?
For me, it was in Everquest Online Adventures (yeah, that game no one played). The interface was crap, there were barely any quests, mobs were hard to solo, there wasn't anything fancy and yet it is the best time I've ever had in an MMO. But all of that ends; one day you wake up and that "newness", that "naiveness", is gone. You just lost your MMO virginity. Things start to look stale, you start complaining about every minor problem, you start shouting people in your group to "hurry up" and "don't waste my time". You don't stop to smell the flowers anymore. You just want to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. You know what I mean. The "enchantment" is lost.
The same happend to me with World of Warcraft. At first, it was amazing and a huge improvement over Everquest Online Adventures. There were quests everywhere and combat felt so smooth. But after a few years, I also lost the enchantment for this game. All I could see was numbers, nothing more. You fight a new boss, and you can't help but think it is just a reskin of the last one. The only thing in your mind is how to increase your stats, how to do more DPS, how to mitigate more damage, how to heal more; numbers, that's it.
I'm saddened to think that maybe you cannot restore your MMO virginity. If a company would sell a memory wipe, and they could delete everything I know about MMOs from my mind, I would gladly pay...a lot! What do you guys think? Is there any way to recover those golden days of your first MMO?
Comments
No? MMO virgin made me laugh tho
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
For me it was Lineage 2.
I don't think you're gonna feel that magical tingle you got from your first mmo again right soon.
Maybe if you take a good, long break from the scene. (5-10 years should do it.)
What's worse though is that you'll always compare any new game to your first if not consciously then subconsciously, and that can really affect your ability to enjoy a game.
Buy lobotomy device.
Utilize!
Enjoy MMO virginity every single day going forward!
hehe, jk of course, but I completely share this sentiment... I would love to have an MMO draw me in the way AO did at first. Then later SWG was magical at first too.
ahhh, I am hoping against hope that somehow SWToR manages to blow me away, I don't think it will, I just think it will be a fun longterm game but I can always hope that at first I am going ZOMG!
MMO virginity can only be restored through complicated and expensive surgery...and even then it is just faking it hehe.
Asheron's Call was the MMOthat popped my cherry and I was rather spoiled by it's sanbox world (with no FFA PvP/full loot crap) and vrey open character development system. No MMO since has felt as magical to me.
How about this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7685541.stm
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I dunno I still am a MMO virgin, tried to with my first mmo but the stupid 3.25 inch floppy drive was to small, I tried to drill it out to accomodate but it never worked.
You can still have that magical feeling, it happened 3 times for me. Once for EQ at launch the first year and another playing AC at same time, then again the first 6 months to year after WOW launched. If you find the right game it can be good all over again but the more you sample the less chance you will have. By sample I mean the more of you guys who try every MMORPG out there as you can.
While I don't think you can restore your MMO virginity, I do believe you can restore your MMO rationality.
Drop the unrealistic expectations and simply allow yourself to enjoy a game for what it offers. That's what they are meant for - not to be obsessed over.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
Oh, the first inklings of memory control.
Welp, we're doomed.
With a different enough MMORPG. I found myself feeling like my 15-year-old self with Champions Online and more recently (and especially) Final Fantasy XI. It's also a matter of attitude: with FFXI I might as well get a linkshell and be powerleveled to level 90 in Abyssea and then complain that the game lacks content.
WoW was my first MMO and the first several months were the best for me. Once you hit level cap though, things changed. It became a job trying to squeeze out every last bit of DPS, get every last piece of that armor set, grind that last point of rep. There's no wonder or excitement about that kind of stuff, how can there be?
I've had the same feeling in only a couple of other games since: Darkfall and Ryzom. Both of those games were different enough that I was excited about playing again. I'm hoping ArcheAge will be the same.
Current: None
Played: WoW, CoX, SWG, LotRO, EVE, AoC, VG, CO, Ryzom, DF, WAR
Tried: Lineage2, Dofus, EQ2, CoS, FE, UO, Wurm, Wakfu
Future: The Repopulation, ArcheAge, Black Desert, EQN
Well, that's one way you could look at it. NOVA had a episode on the project. I think they did, I can't recall it right now.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
This right here. MMORPGs that provide a different experience than you are used to will be fun for you to explore. Incidentally, this is the reason why so many people hate WoW clones.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Hammer in the head -method might be effective.
Or you could take a 2 years break from all things MMO related, after that buy a random MMO from shop, and start playing without knowing what it's about.
Rather than pontificating over the whole 'it will NEVER BE THE SAME' thing I'll give some practical advice which you may or may not have tried.
Wait for new innovation in the genre
Take a break from the genre
Lower your expectations of the genre
Set specifically social objectives to each time you play, "today I will group with some people, we might get exp in the process", rather than, "today I will get exps". You can have a good time in even the crappiest of games if you play it with others
Get involved in the game lore and maybe even try some roleplay
That's pretty much all I can advise, good luck.
A high that you'll always be chasing. :P
Roleplaying is the cure for numbers.
To answer the OP's question.... I guess you could get Alzheimer's and that would eventually do it. But then again, that might be great since you would be introduced to the same games over and over again and they would be totally new to you.
(Note: I have memory loss issues due to a car accident so I can totally relate to this.. so take no offense.)
Ratero.
You could try getting plastered and then play.
I knew a guildie that was so ripped, he died in WoW and ghosted... but didn't realize he was ghosted. He kept trying to attack things and couldn't figure out why he wasn't hitting anything.
That sounds pretty virgin to me.
I have to agree with most of this. A lot of it is a mindset thing and it all kind of balances on that. Getting involved in a games lore really helps. You know like... doing quests and then reading them and not going to online guides to help you plow through them. Although, waiting may be the best option. If you wait a while (while keeping your system upgraded obviously) then in about 5-w/e years newer tech/mechanics/ideas (all hopefully) will enter and it could very well be all encompassing again.
However, and I think this is the biggest thing to help me enjoy them, would be playing them all with friends with similar mindsets about gaming that you have.
Yes, I think that there's a lot to say about actually engaging with the storyine being painted by an MMO that enhances enjoyment. In World of Warcraft, I spent a lot of time actually studying what the characters said, and kept up on the lore, and tried to understand the reasons why things were happening.
Although, given long enough, I would just blow pasts quests that I thought were boring to get into ones that made more sense.
I also tried my best to avoid grinding just to get to the next thing. With worlds as expansive as Azeroth to work with, I could always jump zone, go somewhere else, and perhaps help someone of a lower level (for less exp that day) but at least I'd have someone to explore and joke around with.
After all, that's what I got into these games for. ξ
Other than a lobotomy, what has been seen cannot be unseen.
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "
Yup. Like you, I was fortunate enough to experience that magic with three different mmos. My first taste was during WOW's launch, I felt it again when I started up with EVE back in '05, and my last dip in the magic pool came when I took the plunge and braved a run with Darkfall. Still playing that little gem.
Also, I have to agree on the sampling bit. You never really know what game is gonna take you to that level, so you really do have try and get your hands on every title you can.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Ultima Online gave me that feeling. To this day its still the only game that could make me actually panic. The idea that I had a whole world to explore really got my blood pumping. I suppose I've become somewhat cynical over what to expect from MMOs, but I hope another game can recreate some of that magic one day.
"If you don't take care of your customers somebody else will."