How Important is It to You to Be"Caught Up?"

Amathe

Every game has a curve ranging from newbie to max level to final boss in the hardest dungeon. That curve changes with time and patches/expansions. Let's say "caught up" is you being where most people are. 

Do you care where you are on that curve? Might it affect your enjoyment of a game if you have been slogging through the mid-level content for quite a while when many folks are at end game?

I sometimes feel there are folks who want a game that is much like some previous game, only this time they plan to get in early instead of last time when they fell behind.

So how is it for you? Don't care? Don't want to feel behind?

kitarad

I've never been ahead and consequently never got upset because I knew if I got bothered by it I would have to quit the game. So I tell myself to take my time and I will eventually get there. Surprisingly other people like in my guild have gotten bothered about my slow progress and tried to speed things up by inviting me to speed leveling sessions and are bewildered when I decline to go.

KnightFalz

To me it is totally irrelevant, likely unsurprisingly.

Bloodaxes

I guess, for me, what past experiences thought me, I like to take the journey with pace. I have friends who rush to endgame, then quit because there's not much else to do. Then I'm left alone or with another friend who also takes it slowly, and spend 3-4 times longer to experience the full game.

I honestly don't mind it. Currently playing Fallout 76, I already reached "max level" (you can keep leveling you just don't get additional stats but can unlock more perks to use in your build) yet I still have like 30% of the map to explore and a bunch of quests to do.

cameltosis

It's basically a non-issue for me, as I'll only play an MMO from launch, I won't join later, so I'm always towards the front of the pack.

My reason for only playing from launch is that is when I get the best experience. The game is usually at it's hardest, it hasn't been dumbed down yet, so the actual gameplay is the best. The community is new, fresh, and excited, so it tends to be at it's friendliest. The knowledge also isn't there, we're all learning it as we go, so it's more exciting and there is much more cooperation between players. Also, leveling with the pack means the main issues of vertical progression aren't as apparent: its pretty damn easy to find groups, so i get to experience the whole game.

Beyond that, when it comes to alts it's usually pretty damn quick to catch up. I don't really play alts until I've perfected my main, so playing an alt I already know nearly everything about the game so can hit endgame quickly and start having fun. You can also use your main's resources (gold) to catch up quicker too.

Kyleran

Bloodaxes said:

I guess, for me, what past experiences thought me, I like to take the journey with pace. I have friends who rush to endgame, then quit because there's not much else to do. Then I'm left alone or with another friend who also takes it slowly, and spend 3-4 times longer to experience the full game.

I honestly don't mind it. Currently playing Fallout 76, I already reached "max level" (you can keep leveling you just don't get additional stats but can unlock more perks to use in your build) yet I still have like 30% of the map to explore and a bunch of quests to do.

If your are playing FO76 on the PC feel free to come join @Torval and I some evening, he can vouch that I'm actually not a jerk....well at least when out from under my bridge and playing games.

Send me a PM sometime if interested.

Mendel

I've never really focused on being 'on the bleeding edge' of a game.  I've been playing EQ1 off and on since the beginning.  Still haven't got a character to 'max level'.  (Of course that's incredibly difficult these days as a F2P player).  Closest I came was in the PoP expansion; I think I remember being 64th level of 65 when the level cap was raised to 70.  I'm content in being the game, as long as there is something I can (and want to) do.

Nebless

I could care less what others are doing or not doing.  I'm there to play MY game at MY speed.

Never could understand why some seem to think they MUST catch up to others or won't start a game because they'll be behind.

Sovrath

If it's a pvp game I do. If it's a pve game I don't.

Panther2103

It really depends. In games that entirely focus around engame like WoW or FFXIV, I tend to like to be caught up. Other games probably not. Or PvP oriented games I like to have gear that allows me to play against other players and not be at a massive disadvantage if that's a factor. 

Aeander

One thing I have stopped doing is pre-expansion prepping. If I'm preparing for the fun I'll have later, I'm not having fun now. And if that's all that is keeping me playing now, I'll enjoy that expansion more later if I take a break now.

Ungood

I am the kind of player that likes the journey. But I also like the best things the game has to offer.

While I am fine with taking my time, and even being vastly behind others, after all, it is a game to played, not a race to be won.

IF.. they put in a mechanic that flat out stonewalls me, I will quit the game.

Case in point, when GW3 put in raids, and made it so that I would need to build some network of 10 people to do raids with.. that was a flat out stonewall.

My Static in that game was 4 people, which was fine for fractals, dungeons, Meta's, Open World, sPvP, WvW, and all the other things the game offered, we even helped each other do personal and living story and the like.

But, when it came to raids, that was a no-go, to deal with that kind of BS again. We had our hour here and hour there to play together, but doing some planned events with 6 other static people just to do a raid, was never going to happen, not to mention taking the time to do practice runs. 

So, that killed the game for me, it was a direct stonewall.

I guess to each their own.

LynxJSA

When returning to a game, very important.  When I return to a game, if I can't find out what I need to do/learn to get up to speed on whatever the new/revamped/reset/upgraded progression/skill system is, I usually don't stick around for long. 

As for entering a game late in the life cycle, it depends on the game. I felt no rush to learn or progress when I started playing DDO years after it was released. Conversely, jumping late into PVP MMOs often leaves me feeling there is too much for me grind or learn to make getting into it a fun experience. 

Iselin

It only ever mattered to me if there's group content that needs to be done to progress but very few games require that these days. The last MMO I remember that did that was LOTRO where each chapter had some group-required parts that advanced the main quest.

Most games these days have main story progress as solo things and group content as something optional detached from that so it makes no difference whatsoever.

Cryomatrix

Doesnt matter for me. I set my own goals when playing. 

I never raid, never cared to make it like a job, end game can be fun, but dont care about others. 

Temp0

There are situations where it matters more or less but in general I don't have any feeling that I need catch up with the curve. In fact, I tend to feel like catch-up mechanics make a game less appealing to me as they almost inherently diminish experiences.

In my experience, if you really need catch up mechanics then you have a problem in your core content design where the catch-up mechanic is a crutch that just allows the design to limp on. Not to knock anyone who likes games that use these mechanics or appreciates catch-up features. They probably help some people enjoy a game more.

xpsync

Totally not the way i play.

olepi

I approach MMO's as a world to live in. If I enjoy the environment, the world, then I don't care what level I'm at. I will start many alts and play over the same content, even before hitting max level on any of them.

I don't like speed runs, or large raids where everybody has to be a certain level and follow directions. Not fun to me.

That's one reason I liked Ryzom so much. It was fun just to take a packer and ride out to prospect for and dig up mats. The world is what I want to experience.

Quizzical

Not only is it not important that I be "caught up" in the endgame, but it's actually very important to me that a game not try to force me to catch up.  Some games try to deprecate just about the entire game to push everyone into the endgame as quickly as possible, and that's an even surer way to wreck a game than going with a heavily pay to win item mall.  A game for which nearly all of the content is intentionally awful to try to push players to skip it is sure to be an awful game, and it really annoys me that so many formerly interesting MMOs convert to that approach years after launch.

Theocritus

The last time I did was in WoW...After a couple of weeks I was getting pretty close to max and then it hit me: Do I really want to play the gear game and just do repetetitive dungeons over and over? I raided in bot hEQ1 and EQ2 and it just got old eventually. Now I play slowly, taking my time, especially if the game has exploring to do (which isn;t often now).....

Cryomatrix

Theocritus said:

The last time I did was in WoW...After a couple of weeks I was getting pretty close to max and then it hit me: Do I really want to play the gear game and just do repetetitive dungeons over and over? I raided in bot hEQ1 and EQ2 and it just got old eventually. Now I play slowly, taking my time, especially if the game has exploring to do (which isn;t often now).....

I never raided in WoW, thought it was stupid to do raids over and over again just to do harder raids over and over again, just to do harder raids. So silly.

iixviiiix

"Hey , can we play together ?"

in the end , it wasn't about "caught up"

Scot

This shows how "unsuited" most of us are to modern MMOs, if you are not rushing to top level you are likely not rushing to buy stuff in the cash shop. We also sound rather "not bothered" when it comes to cosmetics, but on here I have noted relatively more posters who say they buy those.

I tend to be torn between a slow explore every bit of the game approach and the needs of the guild. More or less slow solo and rapid group levelling. 

Ungood

Scot said:

This shows how "unsuited" most of us are to modern MMOs, if you are not rushing to top level you are likely not rushing to buy stuff in the cash shop. We also sound rather "not bothered" when it comes to cosmetics, but on here I have noted relatively more posters who say they buy those.

I tend to be torn between a slow explore every bit of the game approach and the needs of the guild. More or less slow solo and rapid group levelling. 

Actually, I think it depends on what is in the cash shop.

For example, the games that I did invest in and was Hardcore with, mainly EQ and early years in DDO, anything that would not directly increase my power or ability, could kindly go fuck itself. This included in game trades as well any store item, all of it, could f-off.

When I played GW2, and took a more casual approach to games, I was more than happy to look at, and buy cosmetic items, and the like, because I did not need to put all my focus on being a badass, and rushing to top tier. I could relax, and you know, focus on making my characters look cool, and pointless frivolous things.

AlBQuirky

Late to the party, as usual

"End Game" means "end of the game" to me. I have no desire to rush there. I take my time and piddle about, just enjoying my time there.

In both EQ and later in CoH, the guild/super group I was in did "some" power leveling. It was fun at the time, but later I didn't enjoy it like I thought at first. I felt cheated of the game play I missed out on, then felt rushed trying to figure out new skills and abilities without getting a chance to try them out.

I'm all about the journey rather than the destination. I want to keep away from the "end of the game"

Shaigh

I prefer to be ahead of the curve.