Sadly, I must agree. I remember my first mmo. I played Final Fantasy XI and unlike most people I was never a fan of FF until that game. I remember the excite of playing and just enjoying get something accomplished ingame. After that I enjoyed DAOC for the pvp. Then came WOW, i was always a fan of the Warcraft franchise and I loved this game until the first expansion came out. Even then, I didnt enjoy the game but I couldnt put it down. I felt like the addiction was to much and one day I finally realized that the game wasnt fun anymore. I left WOW, tried every other game on the market but nothing kept my attention like WOW did. I do feel your pain but I did find two games I am very excited about. Those games would be Aion and FF XIV, It feels like the first time I played an mmo with Aion, I cant explain it. I was worried that mmo's were gonna head down the drain but for me I found a couple of games to look foward to. If I were you, I would try some of the lesser known mmo's to see if you can find something compeling. If you cannot find a good game just walk away from mmo's for a few months and then come back to get a fresh look at some games in development.
P.S. lol, I think XIV are the roman numerals for 14, I cant remember.
I reached the point of MMO burnout about a year ago, started with EQ, went through a few others, and ended with WOW.
I think one basic problem is that most of them end up eventually feeling a bit shallow, like something is missing. Part of it is game mechanics - the sheer amount of programming time and money limits just how "realistic" an MMO can really go, and it is quite possible in most MMO's to literally "do everything in the game".
Most are built around the idea that hack 'n slash is the only real depth in the game - and once you get tired of that, there really is not much else to hold your attention. Very few games have any real alternatives to killing something or someone.
With the sole exception of EVE Online, none have a real economy so it's not like you can become the next Mogul of Industry. Trade skills are not really trade skills, they are more of a grind of combining tons of the same ingredients over and over. You cannot build or do anything permanent that will have any effect in the game. You cannot become an engineer and build a new road, you cannot be a clothing/armor designer, etc etc.. everything is prepackaged for you.
Eventually, just like in real life, it gets a bit tiresome doing the same thing, and I don't see any real progress until someone figures out a way to get more depth into games without having to do years of expensive programming.
I haven't played an MMO in months. I got tired of them and sat them down. I just come around here to check up on the supposed "Next Gen" games. Aion, Blade and Soul, Star Trek, etc etc. Maybe one of these will exite me again, but I doubt it. They say you can never go home again, and I am thinking this is true for the MMOs for me
I think like anything else if you overdo it, you start to burn out.
No matter what you do as a hobby, you need a change after a while and try something new. The human mind grews bored easily.
Like anything else you need a bit of balance. Get another hobby that doesn't involve the PC. I do archery.
I think you are right on some of your assessments of the genre but it's not entirely true. There are a lot of good MMO's out there and there are a lot of crap MMO's out there. Sure WoW holds the epeen award but don't limit your scope to that game being the only one that counts because of that. Most of the reason WoW holds that huge subscriber number is because of China not our market.
MMO's are about the social dynamic you create first. Everything else is build around that to support it. If you are playing them because of uber loot or hoping to find a realistic AI, you are playing them for the wrong reasons. MMO's are about building communities in a persistant virtual world. Thats something 99% of the posters here on this board forget.
FPS are an entirely different creature and it's apples and oranges.
I suggest you take a break, read a good book. Meet with some friends or family...take a few weeks or even months and forget about MMO's. You will get ichy for them again eventually.
Then take some time and research a game before you impulse try it. Don't buy the latest, greatess non-working release. Read some reviews, look at the offical forums (lord do not make a game decission off of these boards, the camps are too exteme here, folks are either lovers or haters and not enough are moderates) then do a free trial and talk to people ingame. Don't just blast your way through grinding out levels until your bored again. Start yapping at other players. Ask them how long they have been playing, what they like about about the game...things like that.
Remember, MMOs are about community first. That is why you play them. Single player RPGs have better stories and content, FPS have better combat...MMO's have persistant worlds and ingame communities. That's why you play them.
You gotta figure out your playstyle. Sounds like you don't like PvE grinds so you may need to try something different. There are more then enough games that support that syle. Don't restrict yourself to just new games. Avoid playing MMO's at launch. This will crush your will to play them. MMO's are notorious for having really bad launches and taking 6-12 months to straighten themselves out. Again, research first.
Overall the content in most MMO's is pretty poor. "Kill 10 rats" chores are a waste of your time but you need to look at the overall intent of the game. (which most times is going to be about some sort of community) Poor MMO's like Vanguard will disolve as you progress because there is no glue holding the community together. Stronger MMO's like WoW, FFIX, EVE, CoX & GW bind their communities together in some way.
When you do play, be balanced about it. Don't just log on at every availible moment just because. If you have something to do ingame, do it, chat a bit then log off don't beat a dead horse. If you are the type who plays 6 hours at a time everyday, don't be shocked if you get bored after a few weeks. MMO's are games not a replacement for life. Doing anything for 6 + hours a day will burn you out fast.
Don't prejudice your judgement about a game just because some random turd on a forum says it sucks. In fact, I honestly suggest stop reading forums altogether. Unless you have a strong enough conviction to support your hobby, they will just drag you down. Every MMO has it's pro's and con's. 9 times out of 10 people posting on forums have a bone to pick about something. That's why they are there and not ingame or doing something else lol.
There just hasn't been any really good MMOs released in the past couple of years, and there's only so long that you can play the same game day in and day out before you hit the "meh" stage. It's not a problem with the genre itself, it's just that the developers have been comprehensively half-assed lately, and haven't provided me the practical means to continue enjoying the genre.
I'm not playing much at the moment, but once a decent game is released with core concepts that appeal to me (TOR!) then my playtime will jump back up to my old 20/week level.
I'm not so sure about Aion, it looks pretty and I'll definately buy it once its released but I don't know too much about the meta-game and if it's another "end-game or bust!" item-ladder then I'll probably dump it after a few months.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
Yeah the past year or two I've been pretty tired of the MMOs out there. Though with the announcement of FFXIV I'm very excited for what's to come. I'm also interested in Guild Wars 2 and Aion ... but FFXIV is huge for me so while I'verown tired I'm hopefull for what's to come.
Yeah, the only two MMOs I'm looking forward to at this point that seem to be at least trying to bring some new twists to the genre are FFXIV and The Secret World.
There's likely others as well, but with so many new ones being announced all the time, it's become very difficult to keep up. The list of games on this site alone has gotten insane, and there are some they don't even have listed here (yet).
I *was* very eager for Aion up 'til about 3 days ago. After playing in a couple beta weekends, talking about it and reflecting on the experience... It's leaving me wanting. Not going to say it's a "clone" because it has enough flare to stand on its own... but it feels too "familiar"; not different enough.
As a result, I've found myself going back and re-playing single player games. Currently playing The Witcher again, and also have some console games waiting for me... Picked up Odin Sphere, so I'm eager to get into that; I really dig the 2D animation and multi-faceted storylines.
Meanwhile, I'm following FFXIV and TSW and seeing how they come together.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Great Post OP and I feel the same. And there are a ton of great comments in this thread I agree with. And I also for the first time am not subscribed to an MMO maybe since I started back with old EQ(damn thats a long time) but the point is I dunno if Im burnt of the genre. I personally think they have gotten more shallow though. EQ seemed like a world for me and had alot more options. I had my run with wow had me a pretty damn nice lock but it never fully sucked me in...but it is a great game just not the depth and choices I like. Hell even the loot Icons in EQ seemed cooler than current MMO's. ( my on personal pet peeve..I like cool gear Icons with cool bags and stuff).
Anyways thats my ramble and I will say this and I promise you I am not an Aion fanboy at all barely even followed it cant name any classes lol but I played one of the betas off fileplanet and it had that "it" feel to it...haha you know the feeling.....didn't play alot but like I said it gave me the "ahh yeah here we go feeling" but who knows if it last just saying it gave me the high! so maybe there is hope for all of us questioning our selves.....there have been some crappy crappy MMO's lately ..I wanted to love WAR so much ...I loved DAOC but thats another story for another time!
I've been feeling burned out on and off for a while. It's not the community that bores me, it's the endless grind, doing the same thing over and over and over and over with only minor variations and knowing that if you ever start another character, you'll be doing the exact same thing again. How such large worlds can feel so... similar, I don't know, but since you're always doing the same old grind, no matter what the game, what difference does it make if you're killing the red monster over here or the blue monster over there? You're still killing essentially the same monster.
I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago, figured it would do me good to get away from games completely for a while, I really haven't felt like logging on at all since I got back. Maybe this is a good time to take a nice long vacation from MMOs, see if I ever want to go back again.
I truely feel where everyone is comming from on this thread it seems we have entered MMORPG limbo, with the only thing to hold us is hope. Hope that something will come out and change the way every devloper will stop and say "We had it wrong all this time." What is it they got right who knows but thats what we are all hopeing for right that new world.
and all honesty I want an mmo where getting to the last level is not the ulitmate goal. And I dont mean every level feels like a grind either, I mean every level should feel like a new adventure. wishfull thinking on my part though.
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." Albert Einstein
to quote a Wise old Hobbit, MMO's are starting to make me "feel... thin. Sort of stretched, like... butter scraped over too much bread. I need a holiday. A very long holiday." Lol. Perfect.
Ummmm.....No!!!! fps=old real quick action/adventure=talk about spaming a skill puzzle=fun for a little sim=to micro manage racing-meh ok if your into that sports=not my cup of tea rpg=single player MMo MMO=single player RPG with subscription
Added that last one for ya....you musta missed it.
I haven't grown tired of MMOs, but I have grown tired of waiting for something new. While I and many others wait around for the UO/SWG system., we keep getting the EQ/WoW models. Untill I see something in the genre that follows the UO/SWG system...I imagine I will not get high hopes about any upcomming title.
Back to the community idea, That has been the #1 thing that makes me leave MMO's (cause it is a social game above all else) All games are "clones" to some degree I know thats not the topic, but my first game was EQ2, back when it first released, I remember when I switched to wow thinking, "okay, they game plays just like EQ2." There are gameplay aspects I like from all the games I play, and with a few exceptions I've yet to leave a game because the game itself was too bad.
You recieve a whisper "HEy would you sign up for my guild you can leave once its formed PLLLZZZZ I give you gold!"
Another "XXX you buy happy fun time gold for cheap! go to www.youcantplaysowedoforu.com we got cheapest PL 10% extra gold when you purchase sippy cup!"
then you got the yellers "CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME...../RUN ME THROUGH..../BE MY FRIEND?
and of course it just takes a few bad apples to ruin a bunch, and I'm a charitable person in RL but start asking me for stuff on a freaking game, and I turn into scrooge.
then you got elitist, and I'm sure we all know the complaint there. Ask an elitist how to do anything, and they act like your an idiot. It would be like someone asking you in real life how to use soap, you wouldn't know what to do, cause EVERYONE knows how to use soap, thats what they act like when ask something in game, like everyone should know what part of the map you run to for X quest. next time you run into these guys, do what I do and barter information, like say...how to use soap.
Come to think of it, anyone know a MMO that has no beggers, gold farmers, elitist, or lonely emo kids not willing to do any work for themselves?
The MMO genre as a whole as changed. The type of personality player that plays games like World of Warcraft are not like us that played EQ1 , DAOC, etc, etc. Modern day MMORPG's have basically no social element. I started playing Warhammer the day it was released to find that i have never found such an empty gaming world in my long gaming history. I asked and asked why people never talked. My expectation was DAOC 2.0. Even now they watered a once awsome game down to WoW style of solo play. Earlier games fostered social relationships because we needed others to succeed. Helping or being helped was actually beneficial to all involved. Soloing could be done in earlier games but not very efficiently.
If you choose to play a purely PVE game then YES they are and will always be the same. Kill so many x and y and turn in for another kill quest... I've lost faith in MMO developers simply because they've what i turned become non innovative. Even War developers said they wanted to appeal to WOW players which made me wanna puke. Earlier games required a time sink which i never minded. I didn't care of casual players couldn't keep up. The friends i made were on all the time. We played, talked , built relationships and just had alot of fun.
I'm an avid gamer. I prefer a game with human players 100-1 over one without. It wont be until a game developer creates a game that requires social interaction will us old timers be drawn back in. I still think DAOC was the greatest MMO ever created because it fed the mouths of PVE and PVP players like no other. I really don't understand after all the posts we read or write that developers in general still don't have a freakin clue. So many game breaking ideas explained and falling on deaf ears. Maybe some day a game developer will produce a game that the player base is so hungry for. Bottom line is we want something, new, fun, competitive and most of all DIFFERENT.
Logistically speaking, different can be a bit of a problem.
So true. Despite the fact people clammer for different, rarely will they accept it once it has been delivered.
It sometimes takes several failures of a new idea before someone is able to bring it to market successfully.
Small indie devs are most likely to try, but least likely to have the financial resources to pull off a well built game. Not sure larger firms can either, judging from recent results.. (looking at you Funcom and Mythic)
But larger firms who invest more cash (up to 100M+ these days) are going to be very risk adverse, and not willing to bankroll "new".
Its true in movies, its true in cars, its true in games. New is risky, and when large money is on the line, risk is to be avoided.
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
Tired of MMOs? Nope....never. Because to me MMOs are still in a fairly young stage in gaming history. So what we are seeing is a separation of bingers from moderators. Ever heard the phase: "Too much of a good thing, is bad."? That's what is happening to players who binge on MMOs. They're saturating themselves with products that are not FDA approved (so to speak).
If you think about it, MMOs have been around, in the approachable sense, since what, 1991 with Neverwinter Nights? And online gaming has been around since, what, 1990-ish? That pales in comparison to the industry as a whole. Which has been developing games on the PC for average consumers since 1977. That's 32 years of PC gaming vs. 18 years of online gaming. Hardly the time to deem any credible genre at it's peak or dying.
Nah, if anything it's going through puberty. Since to a lot of people MMOs didn't hit mainstream until 1997 with Ultima Online. That's when poor guy like me could actually afford a PC, a game AND a sub. I was 24 at the time, so the MMO genre was about 6 years-old when I first took notice. So for me, 12 years of moderately playing MMOs did not burn me out, but if you've been spending the last 12+ years wolfing down mmo after mmo then it's no wonder you're so sick.......if it was alcohol you'd be known as a drunk.
I think you can categorize players here in three different types:
Loyalist: Emotions often dictate judgment about the genre whether good or bad.
Enthusiast: Current trends often dictate judgment about the genre.
Analyst: Trends and emotions dictate judgment about the genre.
I think too many enthusiast are being burned out on playing too many mmos and not picking their games wisely.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Yes, totally. The more MMOs I play, the more they all feel the same. I'm waiting for SWTOR, nothing else really, and I don't feel the urge to play anything that's on the market right now. Where are the innovators like Pre-CU SWG and Planetside were back in the day that offer a new experience?
ramonski I think you hit the nail on the head there totally agree with what your saying. And I'm guilty of looking for that next game to basicly emerse myself into like my first mmo experiance and in reality i think thats what the majority of us are looking for.
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." Albert Einstein
I've been playing MMOs for about 5 1/2 years now, technically longer then that but that's what I give myself credit for.
I think the problem we're seeing (those of us who have been playing MMOs since before WoW came out) is that after certain MMOs and the success they've had, other developers are saying "Oh hell yes I want in on that!" and trying to cater to more than a niche market.
The whole premise behind an MMO to some degree, is that it appeals to a niche. Otherwise why would you (in the case of p2p games) continue to pay a monthly sub for something you could find in any other game, including single player games? Without appealing to a niche an MMO loses its most valuable quality, which is its individuality.
I am of the opinion that the old text-based MMO-ish games on the old BBS (bulletin board service for those of you who were born in the 90's) had more character and appeal then a LOT of current MMOs that are out there. The old MUDs were fantastic too.
It just seems to me as time goes on that very few modern companies are willing to publish an MMO that does one thing very well, and instead try to focus on a multi-faceted MMO that will appeal to as many people as possible and instead do several things in a mediocre fashion.
Tired of MMOs? Nope....never. Because to me MMOs are still in a fairly young stage in gaming history. So what we are seeing is a separation of bingers from moderators. Ever heard the phase: "Too much of a good thing, is bad."? That's what is happening to players who binge on MMOs. They're saturating themselves with products that are not FDA approved (so to speak).
Nah, if anything it's going through puberty. Since to a lot of people MMOs didn't hit mainstream until 1997 with Ultima Online. That's when poor guy like me could actually afford a PC, a game AND a sub. I was 24 at the time, so the MMO genre was about 6 years-old when I first took notice. So for me, 12 years of moderately playing MMOs did not burn me out, but if you've been spending the last 12+ years wolfing down mmo after mmo then it's no wonder you're so sick.......if it was alcohol you'd be known as a drunk.
I think too many enthusiast are being burned out on playing too many mmos and not picking their games wisely.
To be honest, I haven't played an MMO for over half a year now, the last game I played was Aion and I'm not going to say how I felt about that game since there's a lot of you looking forward to the Western Version. Before that the last MMO I played was WAR back when it was released I believe almost a year now.
You're right to say that the market is still in it's youth, personally I can't understand how can there be so few in the market to be any good unless game designers still don't know what they're doing. It's like the first generation of any new console games, the developers still don't know what the system is capable of until they've developed the experience.
The truth is an MMO is not an easy sort of game to make. Unlike any other game or any other form of entertainment in the history of the world. they require for there to be no end in the game.
Single player games have an ending, movies have endings, books have endings. MMOs demand that a player play on and on and on til you get totally sick of it. I mean if MMOs had endings where would the communities be since the player base is what makes these games what they are.
MMOs are more along the line of what sports like baseball or toys are, you keep playing them til you get totally tired with it. In basketball the grind of continuously having to simply throw a ball threw a hoop has to be a really fun thing to do that requires hours to years of practice or there would never be an NBA now would there.
(I think what I'm trying to get at here is if the grind doesn't require any skill, if the gameplay isn't at all difficult to master and straight up fun.....the game itself will fail to captivate players, in MMO the grind has to matter and not just for the rewards).
Think about it, any other game that you can think of, it doesn't matter how much time passes you can always go back to it and the only thing that would have changed is you. For instance if I fancy myself right now to go play the old Castlevania game made for the NES back in the 80s; I can and I'd notice nothing has changed in all the years.
But if I decide I want to play UO or DAOC at it's prime, or SWG before NGE, I can't do that now can I! Those games are not the same since the communities in the those games aren't the same and so that time has past.
Like you said, right now this market is still in it's infancy, the possibilities are there but they just haven't been realized yet. Right now WoW seems like the best idea in the market, it's not a bad idea but it most definitely shouldn't be the only one that counts.
I guarantee the day another successful MMO comes out a lot less hatred will be felt towards WoW since now it can just be another game to choose from.
nah.....I'm not tired of MMOs.....but MMOs have become tiresome.
It's the same shit, over and over again. And those who DO dare to innovate don't bother to finish the game before they release it. I'm not paying for half-finished broken shit just to play something different.
One of these days we'll get some decent games again....but not yet, methinks.
i just cancelled my LOTRO account. however i was dumb enough to pay 30 bucks and a sub fee for warhammer that actually have no intentions of playing. i havent really played any mmos for the past 3 months and im quite bored at the moment.
I did get tired so I bought an Xbox360 about 500 bucks in games, a live account and it was fun. Hell it's still fun even though I've come back to my two favorite MMOs. All it took was a couple months off and for me to try two 21 day trials of my favorite sandbox games Eve online and Saga of Ryzom.
Ive thought about the Wii myself. Was at my daughters the other day and played some Mario on the "virtual console" with my grandkids. I enjoyed it a lot. Other than the Aion beta weekends i havnt been playing mmo's at all so it might be just the thing.
Comments
Sadly, I must agree. I remember my first mmo. I played Final Fantasy XI and unlike most people I was never a fan of FF until that game. I remember the excite of playing and just enjoying get something accomplished ingame. After that I enjoyed DAOC for the pvp. Then came WOW, i was always a fan of the Warcraft franchise and I loved this game until the first expansion came out. Even then, I didnt enjoy the game but I couldnt put it down. I felt like the addiction was to much and one day I finally realized that the game wasnt fun anymore. I left WOW, tried every other game on the market but nothing kept my attention like WOW did. I do feel your pain but I did find two games I am very excited about. Those games would be Aion and FF XIV, It feels like the first time I played an mmo with Aion, I cant explain it. I was worried that mmo's were gonna head down the drain but for me I found a couple of games to look foward to. If I were you, I would try some of the lesser known mmo's to see if you can find something compeling. If you cannot find a good game just walk away from mmo's for a few months and then come back to get a fresh look at some games in development.
P.S. lol, I think XIV are the roman numerals for 14, I cant remember.
I agree with the post above. FFXIV (yes 14) and Aion to a degree have revived me.
I reached the point of MMO burnout about a year ago, started with EQ, went through a few others, and ended with WOW.
I think one basic problem is that most of them end up eventually feeling a bit shallow, like something is missing. Part of it is game mechanics - the sheer amount of programming time and money limits just how "realistic" an MMO can really go, and it is quite possible in most MMO's to literally "do everything in the game".
Most are built around the idea that hack 'n slash is the only real depth in the game - and once you get tired of that, there really is not much else to hold your attention. Very few games have any real alternatives to killing something or someone.
With the sole exception of EVE Online, none have a real economy so it's not like you can become the next Mogul of Industry. Trade skills are not really trade skills, they are more of a grind of combining tons of the same ingredients over and over. You cannot build or do anything permanent that will have any effect in the game. You cannot become an engineer and build a new road, you cannot be a clothing/armor designer, etc etc.. everything is prepackaged for you.
Eventually, just like in real life, it gets a bit tiresome doing the same thing, and I don't see any real progress until someone figures out a way to get more depth into games without having to do years of expensive programming.
I haven't played an MMO in months. I got tired of them and sat them down. I just come around here to check up on the supposed "Next Gen" games. Aion, Blade and Soul, Star Trek, etc etc. Maybe one of these will exite me again, but I doubt it. They say you can never go home again, and I am thinking this is true for the MMOs for me
There is a Madness that has grown in the Light. And it is coming to burn you a cinder
I think like anything else if you overdo it, you start to burn out.
No matter what you do as a hobby, you need a change after a while and try something new. The human mind grews bored easily.
Like anything else you need a bit of balance. Get another hobby that doesn't involve the PC. I do archery.
I think you are right on some of your assessments of the genre but it's not entirely true. There are a lot of good MMO's out there and there are a lot of crap MMO's out there. Sure WoW holds the epeen award but don't limit your scope to that game being the only one that counts because of that. Most of the reason WoW holds that huge subscriber number is because of China not our market.
MMO's are about the social dynamic you create first. Everything else is build around that to support it. If you are playing them because of uber loot or hoping to find a realistic AI, you are playing them for the wrong reasons. MMO's are about building communities in a persistant virtual world. Thats something 99% of the posters here on this board forget.
FPS are an entirely different creature and it's apples and oranges.
I suggest you take a break, read a good book. Meet with some friends or family...take a few weeks or even months and forget about MMO's. You will get ichy for them again eventually.
Then take some time and research a game before you impulse try it. Don't buy the latest, greatess non-working release. Read some reviews, look at the offical forums (lord do not make a game decission off of these boards, the camps are too exteme here, folks are either lovers or haters and not enough are moderates) then do a free trial and talk to people ingame. Don't just blast your way through grinding out levels until your bored again. Start yapping at other players. Ask them how long they have been playing, what they like about about the game...things like that.
Remember, MMOs are about community first. That is why you play them. Single player RPGs have better stories and content, FPS have better combat...MMO's have persistant worlds and ingame communities. That's why you play them.
You gotta figure out your playstyle. Sounds like you don't like PvE grinds so you may need to try something different. There are more then enough games that support that syle. Don't restrict yourself to just new games. Avoid playing MMO's at launch. This will crush your will to play them. MMO's are notorious for having really bad launches and taking 6-12 months to straighten themselves out. Again, research first.
Overall the content in most MMO's is pretty poor. "Kill 10 rats" chores are a waste of your time but you need to look at the overall intent of the game. (which most times is going to be about some sort of community) Poor MMO's like Vanguard will disolve as you progress because there is no glue holding the community together. Stronger MMO's like WoW, FFIX, EVE, CoX & GW bind their communities together in some way.
When you do play, be balanced about it. Don't just log on at every availible moment just because. If you have something to do ingame, do it, chat a bit then log off don't beat a dead horse. If you are the type who plays 6 hours at a time everyday, don't be shocked if you get bored after a few weeks. MMO's are games not a replacement for life. Doing anything for 6 + hours a day will burn you out fast.
Don't prejudice your judgement about a game just because some random turd on a forum says it sucks. In fact, I honestly suggest stop reading forums altogether. Unless you have a strong enough conviction to support your hobby, they will just drag you down. Every MMO has it's pro's and con's. 9 times out of 10 people posting on forums have a bone to pick about something. That's why they are there and not ingame or doing something else lol.
I'm not tired of the genre.
There just hasn't been any really good MMOs released in the past couple of years, and there's only so long that you can play the same game day in and day out before you hit the "meh" stage. It's not a problem with the genre itself, it's just that the developers have been comprehensively half-assed lately, and haven't provided me the practical means to continue enjoying the genre.
I'm not playing much at the moment, but once a decent game is released with core concepts that appeal to me (TOR!) then my playtime will jump back up to my old 20/week level.
I'm not so sure about Aion, it looks pretty and I'll definately buy it once its released but I don't know too much about the meta-game and if it's another "end-game or bust!" item-ladder then I'll probably dump it after a few months.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
Yeah, the only two MMOs I'm looking forward to at this point that seem to be at least trying to bring some new twists to the genre are FFXIV and The Secret World.
There's likely others as well, but with so many new ones being announced all the time, it's become very difficult to keep up. The list of games on this site alone has gotten insane, and there are some they don't even have listed here (yet).
I *was* very eager for Aion up 'til about 3 days ago. After playing in a couple beta weekends, talking about it and reflecting on the experience... It's leaving me wanting. Not going to say it's a "clone" because it has enough flare to stand on its own... but it feels too "familiar"; not different enough.
As a result, I've found myself going back and re-playing single player games. Currently playing The Witcher again, and also have some console games waiting for me... Picked up Odin Sphere, so I'm eager to get into that; I really dig the 2D animation and multi-faceted storylines.
Meanwhile, I'm following FFXIV and TSW and seeing how they come together.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Great Post OP and I feel the same. And there are a ton of great comments in this thread I agree with. And I also for the first time am not subscribed to an MMO maybe since I started back with old EQ(damn thats a long time) but the point is I dunno if Im burnt of the genre. I personally think they have gotten more shallow though. EQ seemed like a world for me and had alot more options. I had my run with wow had me a pretty damn nice lock
but it never fully sucked me in...but it is a great game just not the depth and choices I like. Hell even the loot Icons in EQ seemed cooler than current MMO's. ( my on personal pet peeve..I like cool gear Icons with cool bags and stuff).
Anyways thats my ramble and I will say this and I promise you I am not an Aion fanboy at all barely even followed it cant name any classes lol but I played one of the betas off fileplanet and it had that "it" feel to it...haha you know the feeling.....didn't play alot but like I said it gave me the "ahh yeah here we go feeling" but who knows if it last just saying it gave me the high!
so maybe there is hope for all of us questioning our selves.....there have been some crappy crappy MMO's lately ..I wanted to love WAR so much ...I loved DAOC but thats another story for another time!
I've been feeling burned out on and off for a while. It's not the community that bores me, it's the endless grind, doing the same thing over and over and over and over with only minor variations and knowing that if you ever start another character, you'll be doing the exact same thing again. How such large worlds can feel so... similar, I don't know, but since you're always doing the same old grind, no matter what the game, what difference does it make if you're killing the red monster over here or the blue monster over there? You're still killing essentially the same monster.
I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago, figured it would do me good to get away from games completely for a while, I really haven't felt like logging on at all since I got back. Maybe this is a good time to take a nice long vacation from MMOs, see if I ever want to go back again.
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
I truely feel where everyone is comming from on this thread it seems we have entered MMORPG limbo, with the only thing to hold us is hope. Hope that something will come out and change the way every devloper will stop and say "We had it wrong all this time." What is it they got right who knows but thats what we are all hopeing for right that new world.
and all honesty I want an mmo where getting to the last level is not the ulitmate goal. And I dont mean every level feels like a grind either, I mean every level should feel like a new adventure. wishfull thinking on my part though.
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." Albert Einstein
Added that last one for ya....you musta missed it.
I haven't grown tired of MMOs, but I have grown tired of waiting for something new. While I and many others wait around for the UO/SWG system., we keep getting the EQ/WoW models. Untill I see something in the genre that follows the UO/SWG system...I imagine I will not get high hopes about any upcomming title.
Back to the community idea, That has been the #1 thing that makes me leave MMO's (cause it is a social game above all else) All games are "clones" to some degree I know thats not the topic, but my first game was EQ2, back when it first released, I remember when I switched to wow thinking, "okay, they game plays just like EQ2." There are gameplay aspects I like from all the games I play, and with a few exceptions I've yet to leave a game because the game itself was too bad.
You recieve a whisper "HEy would you sign up for my guild you can leave once its formed PLLLZZZZ I give you gold!"
Another "XXX you buy happy fun time gold for cheap! go to www.youcantplaysowedoforu.com we got cheapest PL 10% extra gold when you purchase sippy cup!"
then you got the yellers "CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME...../RUN ME THROUGH..../BE MY FRIEND?
and of course it just takes a few bad apples to ruin a bunch, and I'm a charitable person in RL but start asking me for stuff on a freaking game, and I turn into scrooge.
then you got elitist, and I'm sure we all know the complaint there. Ask an elitist how to do anything, and they act like your an idiot. It would be like someone asking you in real life how to use soap, you wouldn't know what to do, cause EVERYONE knows how to use soap, thats what they act like when ask something in game, like everyone should know what part of the map you run to for X quest. next time you run into these guys, do what I do and barter information, like say...how to use soap.
Come to think of it, anyone know a MMO that has no beggers, gold farmers, elitist, or lonely emo kids not willing to do any work for themselves?
My Thoughts on Content Locust
The MMO genre as a whole as changed. The type of personality player that plays games like World of Warcraft are not like us that played EQ1 , DAOC, etc, etc. Modern day MMORPG's have basically no social element. I started playing Warhammer the day it was released to find that i have never found such an empty gaming world in my long gaming history. I asked and asked why people never talked. My expectation was DAOC 2.0. Even now they watered a once awsome game down to WoW style of solo play. Earlier games fostered social relationships because we needed others to succeed. Helping or being helped was actually beneficial to all involved. Soloing could be done in earlier games but not very efficiently.
If you choose to play a purely PVE game then YES they are and will always be the same. Kill so many x and y and turn in for another kill quest... I've lost faith in MMO developers simply because they've what i turned become non innovative. Even War developers said they wanted to appeal to WOW players which made me wanna puke. Earlier games required a time sink which i never minded. I didn't care of casual players couldn't keep up. The friends i made were on all the time. We played, talked , built relationships and just had alot of fun.
I'm an avid gamer. I prefer a game with human players 100-1 over one without. It wont be until a game developer creates a game that requires social interaction will us old timers be drawn back in. I still think DAOC was the greatest MMO ever created because it fed the mouths of PVE and PVP players like no other. I really don't understand after all the posts we read or write that developers in general still don't have a freakin clue. So many game breaking ideas explained and falling on deaf ears. Maybe some day a game developer will produce a game that the player base is so hungry for. Bottom line is we want something, new, fun, competitive and most of all DIFFERENT.
Logistically speaking, different can be a bit of a problem.
My Thoughts on Content Locust
So true. Despite the fact people clammer for different, rarely will they accept it once it has been delivered.
It sometimes takes several failures of a new idea before someone is able to bring it to market successfully.
Small indie devs are most likely to try, but least likely to have the financial resources to pull off a well built game. Not sure larger firms can either, judging from recent results.. (looking at you Funcom and Mythic)
But larger firms who invest more cash (up to 100M+ these days) are going to be very risk adverse, and not willing to bankroll "new".
Its true in movies, its true in cars, its true in games. New is risky, and when large money is on the line, risk is to be avoided.
"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
Tired of MMOs? Nope....never. Because to me MMOs are still in a fairly young stage in gaming history. So what we are seeing is a separation of bingers from moderators. Ever heard the phase: "Too much of a good thing, is bad."? That's what is happening to players who binge on MMOs. They're saturating themselves with products that are not FDA approved (so to speak).
If you think about it, MMOs have been around, in the approachable sense, since what, 1991 with Neverwinter Nights? And online gaming has been around since, what, 1990-ish? That pales in comparison to the industry as a whole. Which has been developing games on the PC for average consumers since 1977. That's 32 years of PC gaming vs. 18 years of online gaming. Hardly the time to deem any credible genre at it's peak or dying.
Nah, if anything it's going through puberty. Since to a lot of people MMOs didn't hit mainstream until 1997 with Ultima Online. That's when poor guy like me could actually afford a PC, a game AND a sub. I was 24 at the time, so the MMO genre was about 6 years-old when I first took notice. So for me, 12 years of moderately playing MMOs did not burn me out, but if you've been spending the last 12+ years wolfing down mmo after mmo then it's no wonder you're so sick.......if it was alcohol you'd be known as a drunk.
I think you can categorize players here in three different types:
I think too many enthusiast are being burned out on playing too many mmos and not picking their games wisely.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Yes, totally. The more MMOs I play, the more they all feel the same. I'm waiting for SWTOR, nothing else really, and I don't feel the urge to play anything that's on the market right now. Where are the innovators like Pre-CU SWG and Planetside were back in the day that offer a new experience?
ramonski I think you hit the nail on the head there totally agree with what your saying. And I'm guilty of looking for that next game to basicly emerse myself into like my first mmo experiance and in reality i think thats what the majority of us are looking for.
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." Albert Einstein
I've been playing MMOs for about 5 1/2 years now, technically longer then that but that's what I give myself credit for.
I think the problem we're seeing (those of us who have been playing MMOs since before WoW came out) is that after certain MMOs and the success they've had, other developers are saying "Oh hell yes I want in on that!" and trying to cater to more than a niche market.
The whole premise behind an MMO to some degree, is that it appeals to a niche. Otherwise why would you (in the case of p2p games) continue to pay a monthly sub for something you could find in any other game, including single player games? Without appealing to a niche an MMO loses its most valuable quality, which is its individuality.
I am of the opinion that the old text-based MMO-ish games on the old BBS (bulletin board service for those of you who were born in the 90's) had more character and appeal then a LOT of current MMOs that are out there. The old MUDs were fantastic too.
It just seems to me as time goes on that very few modern companies are willing to publish an MMO that does one thing very well, and instead try to focus on a multi-faceted MMO that will appeal to as many people as possible and instead do several things in a mediocre fashion.
Just some thoughts, don't mind my rambling.
-Cym
To be honest, I haven't played an MMO for over half a year now, the last game I played was Aion and I'm not going to say how I felt about that game since there's a lot of you looking forward to the Western Version. Before that the last MMO I played was WAR back when it was released I believe almost a year now.
You're right to say that the market is still in it's youth, personally I can't understand how can there be so few in the market to be any good unless game designers still don't know what they're doing. It's like the first generation of any new console games, the developers still don't know what the system is capable of until they've developed the experience.
The truth is an MMO is not an easy sort of game to make. Unlike any other game or any other form of entertainment in the history of the world. they require for there to be no end in the game.
Single player games have an ending, movies have endings, books have endings. MMOs demand that a player play on and on and on til you get totally sick of it. I mean if MMOs had endings where would the communities be since the player base is what makes these games what they are.
MMOs are more along the line of what sports like baseball or toys are, you keep playing them til you get totally tired with it. In basketball the grind of continuously having to simply throw a ball threw a hoop has to be a really fun thing to do that requires hours to years of practice or there would never be an NBA now would there.
(I think what I'm trying to get at here is if the grind doesn't require any skill, if the gameplay isn't at all difficult to master and straight up fun.....the game itself will fail to captivate players, in MMO the grind has to matter and not just for the rewards).
Think about it, any other game that you can think of, it doesn't matter how much time passes you can always go back to it and the only thing that would have changed is you. For instance if I fancy myself right now to go play the old Castlevania game made for the NES back in the 80s; I can and I'd notice nothing has changed in all the years.
But if I decide I want to play UO or DAOC at it's prime, or SWG before NGE, I can't do that now can I! Those games are not the same since the communities in the those games aren't the same and so that time has past.
Like you said, right now this market is still in it's infancy, the possibilities are there but they just haven't been realized yet. Right now WoW seems like the best idea in the market, it's not a bad idea but it most definitely shouldn't be the only one that counts.
I guarantee the day another successful MMO comes out a lot less hatred will be felt towards WoW since now it can just be another game to choose from.
nah.....I'm not tired of MMOs.....but MMOs have become tiresome.
It's the same shit, over and over again. And those who DO dare to innovate don't bother to finish the game before they release it. I'm not paying for half-finished broken shit just to play something different.
One of these days we'll get some decent games again....but not yet, methinks.
I did get tired so I bought an Xbox360 about 500 bucks in games, a live account and it was fun.
Hell it's still fun even though I've come back to my two favorite MMOs.
All it took was a couple months off and for me to try two 21 day trials of my favorite sandbox games Eve online and Saga of Ryzom.
Playing: EvE, Ryzom
i just cancelled my LOTRO account. however i was dumb enough to pay 30 bucks and a sub fee for warhammer that actually have no intentions of playing. i havent really played any mmos for the past 3 months and im quite bored at the moment.
Ive thought about the Wii myself. Was at my daughters the other day and played some Mario on the "virtual console" with my grandkids. I enjoyed it a lot. Other than the Aion beta weekends i havnt been playing mmo's at all so it might be just the thing.