I have only level capped in one game. I continued to play it for 4 years after capping. I have never been able to break 35% of the to level cap in any other game. World of Warcraft.
If your mmo doesnt offer me that quality of life content to keep me interested in the entire game instead of just the max level stuff then dont ask why i left so soon. Its ovbious the game lacks longevity when it only focuses on "hitting lvl cap to join the (not so fun) fun never ending gear grind".
Honestly mmo devs really need more alternative content that is relevant at max level. Raids and PvP is not enough and clearly not for everyone.
I agree with this.
If all the game is leveling to cap and then grinding gear then that's not even remotely interesting.
Excellent summary, and why most modern MMO's don't hold my interest, this is all they are about anymore.
The journey is fun enough, but lately I can't even play through that knowing what awaits at end game, all seems so purposeless.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I find that when I hit max level and dont get XP for anything anymore, I am gone...The gear treadmill and all that doesnt do a thing for me....I always need a carrot to keep playing and for me that is XP.....Now if they have a good alternate XP type of system then I will keep playing.
I have done this so much and I HATE leveling in almost all games, I end up quilting because of lack of innovation for end game content. People will defend dev's and say " do you know how hard it is to bla blah blah?" I say to them stop making excuses and find away to do it. ToR was a fail because even with 100million dollars they end up having to go free to play, created a wow clone for the most part (game play wise), and failed to give the players half of what they wanted....not even HALF come on....
Lack of a new end game is what really makes me quit a game, leveling shouldn't be more then a tutorial of what the game is about and how to play your class. All the fillers that are quest like go get 20 of these and bring it back to me and kill 40 of these and come talk to me are horrible quest to have in a game.
One of the things they should re-introduce are Dev events, where the Dev's create a world encounter and control, interact with players. This can be easy done once a month if planned correctly, it could mold the server to how the players re-act to each encounter.
The only game I quit once I hit max level was GW2. I don't pvp and there isn't a whole lot of pve at end game. There is some but I can't find enough people who want just want to pve.
Only one - World of Warcraft. Hit 60 and the content just... ended. Never experienced that before in an MMO.
WOW actually surprised me in that regard. The only thing to do after that was to do the same four dungeons over and over again in hopes of possibly (no guarantee, slim chance of it occurring) having a piece of the 'set' you were working on dropping. Even when it does, you have DKP, ninja looters and the selfish you have to compete with to get it.
The week after hitting 60 was the most repetitive, Pavlovian, hamster wheel I've ever experienced in an MMO. It was like they took the science behind Pokemon and converted it to an RPG gear-chase. Not my cup of tea which is why I moved on, but I do admit it was a brilliant way to keep people playing (and paying) long after the actual content was consumed.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
The journey is fun enough, but lately I can't even play through that knowing what awaits at end game, all seems so purposeless.
But somehow, you made it through the first X levels of purposeless just fine.
It's all a matter of where you want your leisure time consumption to take place. The scenery changes, but the 'purpose', what little there ever was of it, remains exactly the same.
The devs attempt to produce a variety of distractions. You favor distraction A (leveling content) over distraction Q (bashing the RNG until something cool falls out, or feeding the t=time token slugs into the one-arm bandit until something cool falls out, or meta-gaming wealth collection in spaaaace).
They're getting better at distraction creation, though not any titles carry all of systems experimented with thus far.
But they've run out of time, for a lot of players. Experience just makes all of the misdirection (hide the distractions!) a little more transparent with every passing year.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Lol, true fact. I have never been to the "endgame" of any MMORPG. The closest I have been is The Secret World, which I still play.
I take my time, I never rush through any game. In the case of TSW, I hit a wall in Transylvania and kind of got frustrated. So I am reworking builds and working on alts for Deck Theory....
But yeah, "endgame" to me is one of the things I believe MMORPGs need to innovate on. It has been the same old thing for a long time.
I may not quit the game, but I stop playing 100% of all characters I've ever had that have hit level cap immediately. I play to level. I do not play endgame at all, ever, for any reason.
EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and The Secret World kept me playing after max level.
Guild Wars 2, Rift, The Old Republic, and Final Fantasy 14 (reboot) got me to max level, but didn't pick up the subscription after the initial purchase game time.
Dungeons and Dragons Online, Final Fantasy 11, and Age of Conan couldn't get me to max level nor to the end of initial game time.
Of those listed, the last three plus SWTOR are the only purchases I really regretted and wish I had the money back.
1) GW2 - OK leveling experience - hated instance combat and WvWvW - had no group finder - too easy to get good gear om trading post
2) SWTOR - great leveling experience - pvp was OK - no interest in raiding and it had no group finder
I quit EQ2 after reaching level 10 or so. God I hated that game. I lasted about the same in NWO although I could see myself leveling further, I just preferred other game.
I quit a bunch of F2P games before hitting the level cap. AoC I made it to level 45 or something but the lack of content without subbing turned me away before hitting the cap.
I don't make it to level cap rather tooooo frequently. I putter around, make some alts, have a good time and just never seem to make it. kinda sad really
The journey is fun enough, but lately I can't even play through that knowing what awaits at end game, all seems so purposeless.
But somehow, you made it through the first X levels of purposeless just fine. (1)
It's all a matter of where you want your leisure time consumption to take place. The scenery changes, but the 'purpose', what little there ever was of it, remains exactly the same.
The devs attempt to produce a variety of distractions. You favor distraction A (leveling content) over distraction Q (bashing the RNG until something cool falls out, or feeding the t=time token slugs into the one-arm bandit until something cool falls out, or meta-gaming wealth collection in spaaaace). (2)
They're getting better at distraction creation, though not any titles carry all of systems experimented with thus far.
But they've run out of time, for a lot of players. Experience just makes all of the misdirection (hide the distractions!) a little more transparent with every passing year.
(1) Actually, while that was true for SWTOR and Rift, when playing TSW I was listening to my guildmates describe their end game activities, (hard mode raiding) and I actually lost the will to level somewhere in the 2nd half of Egypt and I quit the game, even though I found the leveling/storyline interesting.
Haven't been interested in any new MMORPG since because I finally have accepted that for the most part they all end up at the same end game that I left behind when I quit WOW before BC came out.
(2) I have come to fully understand the only end game I enjoy is that of territory control and PVP, hence my return to the DAOC freeshard and why I'll still consider EVE as a game to return to yet again. (after playing it over 4 yrs total)
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
EVERY level based MMO I have played I have quit sometime within 6 months of reaching the "cap". I usually try to stick around to see what kind of so-called "end game" content there is before finally getting bored and just quit at that point. I have found that repeatable grindy quests and/or pvp at that point is just not fun nor worth wasting the time with.
every MMO after WoW. You get to level cap enjoyed the journey. And then you get to the endgame wich is apearantly the best thing ever. What happends to me is i realise its the same gear threadmill shit like the other shits wich came before it and i quit within i gues 2 weeks.
I actually stopped bothering to try certain titles because i already know i would not stick around.
All of them. Until they release more content or expansions that add more progression aside from the gear/raid progression mechanics. I play for the leveling and story aspects and the exploration. Sadly, all of these end up being quite finite and make leave to persue the same in other MMOs which I repeat ad nauseum until I've come back to the original game that HOPEFULLY has new content by that time.
Only games I ever really stay in are ones where the alt leveling is different enough and varied enough to make it worthwhile, such as WoW. There are also MANY current MMOs that have great game worlds but are far too small and don't offer that replayability like WoW does, such as FFXIV, and RIFT. Basically, if I can explore the whole world and see 80% of the game within a month, something is lacking. It took me much longer than that in WoW to see it all, explore it all, experience it all on various characters.
Dont' get me wrong, WoW isn't perfect as it's overly long content patch additions leave much to be desired from a game that makes me pay to play it. I remember it took far too long for BC to come out compared to expansions from other MMOs. They still take too long to be honest.
Rift had it going great for the first year, but then their expansion came out and it made leveling a major grind and not very fun and they slowed down their content additions.
FFXIV is falling into the same category, taking far too long to put out major content such as 2.1. A patch which we should be looking at right now or in the next week or 2 instead of another month away.
I'm just glad Lotro is pooping out another expansion so I have something to carry me through the holidays until patch 2.1 from FFXIV hits.
Just bought and maxed another one.. Put a ton of hours into it and just quit it. Feels bad man.
Why do we do this to ourselves?
Because it is fun? If leveling up is not fun, why are you doing it in a GAME?
I finished Marvel Heroes story content (and level up to around 30) in about 30 hours (steam let you time your play). It was great. 30 hours of good free fun.
Comments
Excellent summary, and why most modern MMO's don't hold my interest, this is all they are about anymore.
The journey is fun enough, but lately I can't even play through that knowing what awaits at end game, all seems so purposeless.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I have done this so much and I HATE leveling in almost all games, I end up quilting because of lack of innovation for end game content. People will defend dev's and say " do you know how hard it is to bla blah blah?" I say to them stop making excuses and find away to do it. ToR was a fail because even with 100million dollars they end up having to go free to play, created a wow clone for the most part (game play wise), and failed to give the players half of what they wanted....not even HALF come on....
Lack of a new end game is what really makes me quit a game, leveling shouldn't be more then a tutorial of what the game is about and how to play your class. All the fillers that are quest like go get 20 of these and bring it back to me and kill 40 of these and come talk to me are horrible quest to have in a game.
One of the things they should re-introduce are Dev events, where the Dev's create a world encounter and control, interact with players. This can be easy done once a month if planned correctly, it could mold the server to how the players re-act to each encounter.
The only game I quit once I hit max level was GW2. I don't pvp and there isn't a whole lot of pve at end game. There is some but I can't find enough people who want just want to pve.
Only one - World of Warcraft. Hit 60 and the content just... ended. Never experienced that before in an MMO.
WOW actually surprised me in that regard. The only thing to do after that was to do the same four dungeons over and over again in hopes of possibly (no guarantee, slim chance of it occurring) having a piece of the 'set' you were working on dropping. Even when it does, you have DKP, ninja looters and the selfish you have to compete with to get it.
The week after hitting 60 was the most repetitive, Pavlovian, hamster wheel I've ever experienced in an MMO. It was like they took the science behind Pokemon and converted it to an RPG gear-chase. Not my cup of tea which is why I moved on, but I do admit it was a brilliant way to keep people playing (and paying) long after the actual content was consumed.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
But somehow, you made it through the first X levels of purposeless just fine.
It's all a matter of where you want your leisure time consumption to take place. The scenery changes, but the 'purpose', what little there ever was of it, remains exactly the same.
The devs attempt to produce a variety of distractions. You favor distraction A (leveling content) over distraction Q (bashing the RNG until something cool falls out, or feeding the t=time token slugs into the one-arm bandit until something cool falls out, or meta-gaming wealth collection in spaaaace).
They're getting better at distraction creation, though not any titles carry all of systems experimented with thus far.
But they've run out of time, for a lot of players. Experience just makes all of the misdirection (hide the distractions!) a little more transparent with every passing year.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Lol, true fact. I have never been to the "endgame" of any MMORPG. The closest I have been is The Secret World, which I still play.
I take my time, I never rush through any game. In the case of TSW, I hit a wall in Transylvania and kind of got frustrated. So I am reworking builds and working on alts for Deck Theory....
But yeah, "endgame" to me is one of the things I believe MMORPGs need to innovate on. It has been the same old thing for a long time.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and The Secret World kept me playing after max level.
Guild Wars 2, Rift, The Old Republic, and Final Fantasy 14 (reboot) got me to max level, but didn't pick up the subscription after the initial purchase game time.
Dungeons and Dragons Online, Final Fantasy 11, and Age of Conan couldn't get me to max level nor to the end of initial game time.
Of those listed, the last three plus SWTOR are the only purchases I really regretted and wish I had the money back.
1) GW2 - OK leveling experience - hated instance combat and WvWvW - had no group finder - too easy to get good gear om trading post
2) SWTOR - great leveling experience - pvp was OK - no interest in raiding and it had no group finder
I quit EQ2 after reaching level 10 or so. God I hated that game. I lasted about the same in NWO although I could see myself leveling further, I just preferred other game.
I quit a bunch of F2P games before hitting the level cap. AoC I made it to level 45 or something but the lack of content without subbing turned me away before hitting the cap.
I have a feeling Rift wouldn't hold me long.
NWO and Rift.
Played SWTOR a bit after max level but think I quit after reaching max in about a month.
I self identify as a monkey.
(1) Actually, while that was true for SWTOR and Rift, when playing TSW I was listening to my guildmates describe their end game activities, (hard mode raiding) and I actually lost the will to level somewhere in the 2nd half of Egypt and I quit the game, even though I found the leveling/storyline interesting.
Haven't been interested in any new MMORPG since because I finally have accepted that for the most part they all end up at the same end game that I left behind when I quit WOW before BC came out.
(2) I have come to fully understand the only end game I enjoy is that of territory control and PVP, hence my return to the DAOC freeshard and why I'll still consider EVE as a game to return to yet again. (after playing it over 4 yrs total)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Let's party like it is 1863!
every MMO after WoW. You get to level cap enjoyed the journey. And then you get to the endgame wich is apearantly the best thing ever. What happends to me is i realise its the same gear threadmill shit like the other shits wich came before it and i quit within i gues 2 weeks.
I actually stopped bothering to try certain titles because i already know i would not stick around.
All of them. Until they release more content or expansions that add more progression aside from the gear/raid progression mechanics. I play for the leveling and story aspects and the exploration. Sadly, all of these end up being quite finite and make leave to persue the same in other MMOs which I repeat ad nauseum until I've come back to the original game that HOPEFULLY has new content by that time.
Only games I ever really stay in are ones where the alt leveling is different enough and varied enough to make it worthwhile, such as WoW. There are also MANY current MMOs that have great game worlds but are far too small and don't offer that replayability like WoW does, such as FFXIV, and RIFT. Basically, if I can explore the whole world and see 80% of the game within a month, something is lacking. It took me much longer than that in WoW to see it all, explore it all, experience it all on various characters.
Dont' get me wrong, WoW isn't perfect as it's overly long content patch additions leave much to be desired from a game that makes me pay to play it. I remember it took far too long for BC to come out compared to expansions from other MMOs. They still take too long to be honest.
Rift had it going great for the first year, but then their expansion came out and it made leveling a major grind and not very fun and they slowed down their content additions.
FFXIV is falling into the same category, taking far too long to put out major content such as 2.1. A patch which we should be looking at right now or in the next week or 2 instead of another month away.
I'm just glad Lotro is pooping out another expansion so I have something to carry me through the holidays until patch 2.1 from FFXIV hits.
Because it is fun? If leveling up is not fun, why are you doing it in a GAME?
I finished Marvel Heroes story content (and level up to around 30) in about 30 hours (steam let you time your play). It was great. 30 hours of good free fun.
Why feel bad?