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Who wishes they hadn't wasted the time
smitty0356
Member Posts: 368
I was having a discussion with a man who said to me, "don't EVER start playing WOW" as he said he couldn't stop playing less than 5 hours/day. He said that because he was so invested in the game, that he wished there never would be an expansion.
Now I thought that was silly, because wouldn't anyone in an mmo was more content? But he said that it was because he had just gotten all of the best gear, and they would "ruin it" by making new items.
At this point, I realized he was dependant on the GAME to make him feel like he had accomplished something, and by stretching out to new items, Blizzard was effectively Un-doing what he had done to get an edge over the "average joe."
My question is, was this guy a weirdo? or is this somewhat of the alure that draws people into WOW and keeps the churning despite newer and better games that would cost the same ammount?
Does giving up on WOW now, mean everything a player has done was a waste, and they would be admitting to it? I believe that is called cognative dissidence (othewise known as the "sour grapes" theory) which people use to rationalize a mistake. I mean, if someone says they don't wanna quit wow because all of the work they have put in, does that mean that they don't feel as though they have been "paid out" as much as they have put in? and they are waiting on the "payout?"
I hope not.
Elite poster by 82
Comments
Questioner: "What have you been doing the last 2 years?"
WoW_addict: "I've levelled 6 WoW characters to 60 and have full tier 6 outfit on 2 of them !"
Questioner: "Great...."
Unlike many hobbies, playing MMO leaves you with nothing to show for it in real life, thus the feeling you have wasted your time while you could have learned to play an instrument or practive a sport more regularly.
My addiction History:
>> EQ1 2000-2004 - Shaman/Bard/Wizard/Monk - nolife raid-whore
>> WoW 2004-2009 + Cataclysm for 2 months - hardcore casual
>> Current status : done with MMO, too old for that crap.
So true...
i could have been president by now...... damn you WOW.
I disagree that WoW or MMORPGs in general are a complete waste of time. Yes, you could be spending that time doing something more productive, something healthier, maybe even curing cancer or world hunger... however...
Having fun, imo, is not a waste of time. Not everyone finds they are having fun after playing WoW for a couple of years, and this is when they should stop.
I've made several lasting friendships from WoW, even the ones that no longer play I still chat to regularly on MSN.
I'm not saying that WoW is the best way to spend your life, but you have to consider that MMORPGs are a cheap form of entertainment, I wish I could spend my entire life on holiday, but I can't. Azeroth is a good alternative.
Lets face it, it's miles better than reality TV.
Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...
If you played an MMO that religiously then yes, it is a massive waste.
However if you play it for what it is, a game then the time is not wasted at all. Players enjoy MMos because there is a seemingless endless goal for them to work towards, develop as a character and progress through a storyline.
Saying that spending 5 hours a day for 2 years playing an MMO and considering it a waste giving you nothing to show for your effort is exactly the same as playing a shooter for 5 hours everyday for 2 years. The shooter won't give you anything but the enjoyable experience, which is exactly what (certain) MMOs do.
Threads like this just make me think of people who stupidly got burnt out. So I say no, the guy wasn't a wierdo. He simply had no self-control. Giving up on it does not mean it is a waste, especially if they enjoyed it and could recognise they gained something from it.
For example, World of Warcraft got me involved more in the fantasy genre, and since during my time of playing it I was completing an advanced english and literacy degree, opened me up a lot of story development and techniques. I went and completed Warcraft 3 and absolutely loved the lore, leading to more things.
Agreed whole heartedly with Recant.
Playing 5-8+ hours a day since 2004, is definitely a waste of time.
When you start feeling that you've invested too much time into an MMO, and you don't want to leave, then yes, it's a problem. Luckily for me, i don't get hooked on one single MMORPG, and i just move on to another. The last game i played heavily was LotRO though. I'd play 5-8 hours a day, but this was only for 2-3 months.
I only started playing MMOs since 2004, and i've played about 6-7 of them already, in 2-3 month chunks. Now that i look back, i should've did stuff more valuable with my time, like trolling forums.
It's amazing that i know people who still play EQ too. After 4 years, i'm already getting sick of this genre.
Natural Selection works again ...
If you're getting upset that your phat lewtz will be obsolete in the next patch, expansion, whatever, then you seriously need to stop playing MMOs all together. Players should be playing whatever MMO they enjoy for what the game is today, not what it might be. This applies for both items and the soon to be extinct Potential(tm) Beast that people seem to cling to.
I could care less about the items I've attained; what matters, imo, is the fun I had (am having) in getting them.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
It's people like that whom get bored with games and call them crap cause they wanna power level and get the higehst gear as quickly as possible instead of trying to enjoy the game.
I admit; at first I played alot. But it never was a waiste of time cause I enjoyed the game. And that is what WoW has always been to me - a game.
I like being a level 70 on my main; but, I took my time getting there and had fun as I also worked on other toons. That's why it doesn't bother me for them to release new stuff.
But, I guess I'm just different then most...
.:// JDMnet Owner | www.jdmnet.org
QFE, and I'm seeing a pattern of not only what you described above, but also people who know they *should* quit but won't because they are so heavily invested in the game mentally. I know people who drop hundreds of dollars every couple months to transfer because they want crazy epic lewts but they can't find a guild who will tolerate them long enough to actually get any. Then they realize they hate the game but they can't quit because it would be a huge waste of time and money, so they transfer again (wasting even more money) and search for a new guild. There comes a point where you just have to grow a pair and decide you're not going to do it anymore.
I love the game's lore, personally, and I will likely play the next expansion so I can see what it has to offer but if it's anything like the last one, I doubt it will hold me longer than a few months at most. Especially if they stick to their plan of giving inferior epics to the 10-man raids as compared to the 25-man raids. I just don't have time to wait around for that many people.
In some ways I can relate to the OP's example.
I used to play WOW, not 5 hours a day, but when I was raiding I was playing too much looking back at it all now.
I recall when the full details about TBC were revealed, suddenly WOW seemed sort of pointless. I could not see the sense of raiding yet more dungeons to get yet better gear. I wasn't raiding for the fun of it, I was really raiding just for the gear. And the gear was pointless in the end.
So I left, because when games stop being fun its time to move on.
I now enjoy a much more casual play style in EVE, and I really enjoy the fact that nothing I've done is really ever pointless, what I learned a year ago (or earned a year ago) is still useful to me today.
Its a different sort of gameplay and focus, and I'm not sure I can go back to another game for any length of time that follows the WOW model. (hoping WAR will make me feel differently)
"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
Having played WoW in the past, and not done for about 2 years, I have to say this is the post I found I most agreed with.
People cannot simply rule off 5 hours playing for 2 years as a simple 'waste of time' , because if you're enjoying yourself I don't see how it's wasting time. You could be earning money in this time, yeah, but why? Just so you could buy more food while you play your hobby?
But yeah, grinding for gear, as it is commonly known, isn't as bad as it sounds. The 5-6 times I did the tier 1 dungeon (molten core) were a blast. The fact that I was earning points in my guild, ready to be able to recieve a cool item I thought was ace, and the excitement of whether it would drop. it isn't as if it's just killing mob after mob, it's actually fun and involves teamwork.
However, I think the actual loot itself is fairly important, for example I skateboard in real life, and fair enough I can go out and just do simple stuff and have a good time, and shouldn't really care if I get a piece of footage, but actually getting the footage and having something to show from your day is amazing, which it is like with the loot.
I'm not saying spending all your time on it is good OR bad,
personally I think real life comes first, and this should be played preferably with friends and when there is nothing else going on.
----------------
Hello!
No but people are just being people. When you invest time with something you get attached to it. That is all that is happening here. Players get attached to their creations and time investments. Same thing happens with people who buy a new car and traded in that old one. The very same day driving around or next they will bring up the fact they miss their old cars even though they got a new one they are driving now. People get very attached to ideas and investments whenever they have to make significant time investments.
I guess you could even add the analogy of why people buy something and then stop using it and throw it in the closet. They rather hold onto it because they bought it and used money that they had to work for which took time to get.
Who let you in the VIP section?
I totally agree that mmo's should be played for fun and for the moment. If anyone is waiting for an mmo to payback for the hardwork investet... it simply doesn't work.
I just wanted to get that out there, since I know some people who have been negatively affected by this game in particular. I think blizzard tries to further this since of "payout" and I think it is bad for the gaming community to creat "wow-trolls." who won't try anything better in fear of liking it more than wow.
Most people arent' like that, and I think wow is a great game, BUT I know about 3 people who are... and I don't know that many people lol!
Elite poster by 82
LOL at people with no willpower.
On a side note, you can always cash in your MMO account and make a few hundred dollars after you are done with it....so not a complete waste of time, if anything you make back everything you put in and a little extra.
~HappyGaming
we really have to take in considuration:
Did you have fun when playing? if you had fun, than it's not waist of time at all.
If you didn't have fun.. than it's waisted time!!
theres lots of things i wished i didn't waiste time on, like drinking and partying so mutch in my party days.
Want to play: Lego Universe
People aren't afraid to like another game, there's simply no other game on the market that compares. Every time a new game is released players leave, try said game, and usually return in a few weeks. Why? Because either studios pieced together a stinking pile of crap (Vanguard and AoC) or created another fantasy themepark mmo. As evidence, see the recent comments by Mike Morhaime.
I and my guild have tried almost every game that's been released after WoW (I still try to forgive myself for playing RF Online). The problem was, either the game was borked or we found ourselves playing a lesser version of WoW. We're fans of the genre, so we don't have any real attachment to WoW, but it's the game atm that offers a polished environment and mechanics that any other themepark would have.
Chences are those you've mentioned who were negatively affected would be so in any mmo.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
A waste of time, maybe. But this is our hobby. From what I've seen and experienced my self you'll go through peroiods of bordom and or fustration with a game. That is when it is time to take a break. I personally won't stop playing all together. I've been playing my main off and on for 2 years now. Granted he is only in t5 gear, and it gets fustrating not to get into a raid to get better gear but...oh well...log off and find something else to do. If you let the game consume you then its not a game anymore, and yes you have a problem. And as for expansions, GREAT! They give you more things to do, new quests, new areas to see, new gear to get. I don't care if i'm the best as long as I have fun playing the game.
I've been presented with this question myself, and my answer has slowly shifted from "yes, I wasted/ am wasting my time" to "no way in hell am i wasting my time."
I can't tell you how many awesome people I've met via MMORPGs. More recently, in AoC, I became friends with a fellow officer in my guild. We play Xbox Live and different MMORPGs together and have a blast. In WoW, my former guild leader and I still talk to each other. He works for Nvidia and we have great fun discussing upcoming games and technology. I've met people via forums that I now know IRL, and I've had great fun along the way. And of course, I found my MxO guild. Some of the best people I'll ever know. I play countless games with them, and everyday I count myself lucky to have found them.
More importantly, the way I play mmorpgs has changed. Initially, I played more anti-socially. I would put some music on, and login to my game and just play. Within the past 2 years or so, I've started to play more socially. Some of my friends have started to play more mmorpgs and we now get together, grab some pizza and soda, head back to one of our houses, and have a great time.
The question is:
Did you have fun?
It's called cognitive dissonance. and the attitude change is seen with all mmorpgs. MMORPGS are addictive because you are given rewards in small incriments of time. MMMOs aside, studies have shown that when continuously rewarded with a positive stimulus, people become increasingly more addicted to the "good feeling" they get from the stimulus. When stimuli, such as the items achieved in WoW, no longer have their allure, people will lie to themselves in order to justify the amount of effort they wasted. So, either they will convince themself that the game is still fun (in order to avoid the guilt of having wasted so much time) via Cognitive Dissonance, or they will change their attitudes and quit the game.
maby!
but than again, it dosn't matter what we use time on, because theres always someone who will say that we waist our time! maby it's money related? or just have something to blame? i dont know.
but what we have as entertainment should be our choise,and if i enjoy playing a game more than wathing a football match, than i really don't se the problem..
but some people think that game addiction is a sickness, maby.. but the only sickness i can see is that people have fun over a longer period of time. something those who isn't a gamer, would not understand..
but when we think about the game when we are at work, and dream about it at night.. than maby we have a problem?
Want to play: Lego Universe
If i hadn't been playing WOW for 3 years i would of only played something else , i mean £8.99 per month, hell you couldn't even get a round of drinks in a bar for that. And WOW is friendlier on your liver.
The point of playing a game is the fun of playing the game while playing it.. not what you may or may not have managed to do with 3 years of play time..
So if you had fun, then it wasnt a waste of time.. if you didn't.. then why were you playing it?
I think I am one who sees the years of mmo playing as a waste of time. Sure there were times where I really enjoyed myself. IE: First few months of Ragnarok Online, Asheron's Call before everyone left, NexusTK(my one true love), and my first year or so of WoW. For the most part I find myself thinking, "What am I doing?". Lately, it has seemed like a waste more than ever.
I've been playing WoW on and off since April '05. I have 5 70s, and a bunch of alts between 10 and 64. A couple of weeks ago I started a new character that I planned on taking to 70. It has taken me nearly 3 weeks to get lvl 20, and I haven't played any since. When my month of play is over, I am done for good.
Gaming used to be about fun. Nowadays it's about big companies making big money at your expense. Replayability is gone. You pay an extra $50 every year or two, to have your work be flushed down the drain. IE: Burning Crusade Expansion. The population is averaging probably 50 pounds heavier than 20 years ago, not entirely because of mmos, but I am sure mmos contribute their share.
Playing - Minecraft, 7 Days To Die, Darkfall:ROA, Path of Exile
Waiting for -
I don't feel as though I wasted my time playing, and in an honest review I believe that it was time well spent. Most of it anyway, BC was a wash though. I even gained a few life lessons the easy way.
If you go in looking for e-friends, acceptance, yadda yadda than yeah you will come out empty handed. But that is really attributed to materialism.
You shouldn't require physical, tangible items to justify your life or the things that you do.
___________________
Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
it's easy to focus on the negative things when you feel like that. Playing 'on and off' since April 05 and having 5 70s and a heap of alts suggests to me that you played pretty heavily during your time with the game. You're burnt out pretty much.
WoW is like fatty food, only good in moderation. You enjoy and value your time with it more that way.