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Not just another casual gamer project.
Let me introduce myself I am one of the unfortunate souls that has gone from gaming every free second of the day to now being at the mercy of the US Military work schedule a wife and a 14 month old boy.
With work, errands, being a good father, being a good husband, church and sleeping. I am barely given an hour if that per day (unless I decide sleep just isn't worth it) to play any type of game a day. So I am going to attempt a new project. I am looking at finding that one special MMO that you can pick up for an hour or 2 per day over a 30 day period and see how well it works out for us dreaded and much hated casual gamers.
What I am looking for is a mainstream game with a good population I am currently looking into both F2P and Sub games.
My list is currently as follows:
- SWTOR (I love Star Wars so why not start it off)
- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
- Wildstar
- The Elder Scrolls Online
- Guildwars 2
- The Secret World
Comments
1-2 hours per day? That's rough... but very doable. I guess it just depends on what all you want to do. SWTOR or GW2 might be a good fit, its relatively easy to hop in for a quick flashpoint or PVP match and hop off. Same with ESO, as its very solo friendly. If you were hoping to raid, FF14, WS and the like will probably be tough due to your constraints in terms of both quantity of hours and available timeslots.
You might try Neverwinter or Path of Exile for the same reasons listed above. You could also try Eldevin, which has decent crafting, interesting and varied quests, a good faction system, and a generally solid oldschool feel. Far from the best visuals, but that just means that it can easily be played on an old laptop on the couch with your wife at night after the baby has passed out.
Good luck to you!
Edit: the blog sounds like an interesting idea, could get some good traffic. I'm sure that you're far from the only one under similar conditions. Once the posting starts, shoot me a PM with the link. I'd love to check it out
I would not recommend wasting your precious leisure times on MMORPGs.
If i were you, i would much rather play SP games (so that you can get a bigger variety), watch movies, tv shows (only the best ones, preferably fast moving and short, like those 10-13 episode season runs), and read.
Now I would take this advice if I wasn't already adding that into the factor of using my time. You see I have been and always will be in love with MMO's I started during EQ when I was 13 I am now 28. I like the way there is more achievement and community in what you do with your time in the MMO's and that is what I am looking for. I have never found SP games to be engaging enough for me to devote my time to it. I have not beat a single player game since FFIX on the PSO. Not because of time but because I just don't get lost in them like I do MMO's.
I will outline most of my days to give a broader sense of what I face.
I wake up at 0500 just so I can be at work by 0630 "it's an hour long drive". I work anywhere from 0630 to 1530/1700ish depending on the work load then an hour long drive back home so getting home at about 1630/1800ish. From there I shower and spend time with my son normally playing in the living room watching TV, and movies while we play on the floor. This is going on while my wife cooks dinner. We eat dinner at 1900 to 1930. From there it is family time one night it's my night to pick then her night etc... (Movies, TV) until my son goes to bed at 2000-2030. After we put him down to bed we finish whatever movie or show we started then hit the reset button by going to sleep...Rinse and repeat.
If I get off earlier then normally I can squeeze an hour or two of gaming in and on the weekends I can usually rack up about 3 hours on SAT and SUN but not all together an hour here and an hour there. Some days errands prevail obviously and that time is reduced as well. Don't take this as a rant about my life I am very happy with it and I make due with my limited time available I am simply trying to pursue a cause and see exactly how much can you do in these style of games. Pick a few try them out for a bit review it than move to the next game and do it all over again.
I felt that the reviews that are done on these games are done to the person that will see end game content, that will raid, has the best PC components, and will be the person that can manage all the systems these games have to offer. Not the person that gets aggro from life on a constant basis "not just the guy that has to smoke mid-raid or get food".
So I am taking my hobby and making it meaningful again since I can't get that old sense of passion back from it.
Hmm, you've pretty much collected all of the ones I could've thought of. Except maybe Defiance or Firefall, if you want something more MMOFPS too.
Though that list you've got is enough already to keep you busy for yeeeaaars to come, given your limited playing time. Especially if you actually get sucked into some of those.
My personal favorites are SWTOR and TSW, with a draw between GW2 and ESO for third place.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
I find it funny that you have no free time and yet play on blogging about your experience... apparently you have more time than you think you do. If you really do have minimal time, skip any subscription based games. Waste of your money in the long run. That removes items 2, 3, and 4 from your list. If you want to skip the box price as well, that removes 5 and 6, Your obvious choice is 1. No cost investment. No time restrictions. Perfect for the true casual player.
Maybe he has a job with computer access that lets him blog during the slow moments? I've had jobs where I could've done that if I wanted to.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
He's in the military... if he's surfing the web... that's your tax dollars at work.
Sometimes the important part is not how many hours you can play per day or week, i play around 20 - 25h per week. I prefer speak about week because i have days that i cant even turn the pc on and others where i can play 4h.
The most important part is: when you play 2h is 2 straight hours or can be interrupt at any time? Because this is my problem, when i start playing i never know how much time i can stay, so theres 2 type of games that i cant play:
- Raiding focus games. Raiders hate to wait for someone and even worse if that someone need to stop for some RL reason.
- Extreme survival ones is not easy but more possible then raids.
If you have the same problem remove Wildstart from list imo and only keep FFVIX if you dont mind not play the "end game".
All the other games are complete possible to enjoy it with your play time imo.
Hehe, "US Military".
So not MY tax dollars. :P
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
As someone else has suggested maybe playing other genres of games may be more fun for you.
7D2D, Rust, H1Z1, DayZ - Any of these post apoc games can feel MMO-like but require little time and are a lot of fun
Gauntlet, Diablo, Path of Exile - These games are pretty fun and don't require massive hours to achieve anything
Firefall, Borderlands Series, Defiance - MMOFPS or open world shooter genre can be very fun with limited time
As a husband and father of three, I can relate to the lack of available playtime (without sacrificing time with family). I've found Firefall is a good F2P title that I can casually play for however long, or short, I feel like. As far as F2P titles go, I haven't really felt that I had to buy something to enjoy the game. In fact, things like the VIP status seem to be routinely handed out and in game currency (crystite and credits) can be converted to premium currency (red beans). Otherwise, the cash shop is largely cosmetic since you can craft a vehicle (somewhere around level 24 or so) and you can unlock advanced battleframes (classes) upon reaching level 40 (current max) in a basic battle frame.
The downside is that, once you hit level 40, and want to try another class, you pretty much go back to the first zone and start leveling it again. You can switch back to your lvl 40 class at any time, but each battleframe/class levels independantly which ends up getting a bit redundant.
Sorry if that all comes off as a bit of a sales pitch. Personally, I'm enjoying the game and, since I find myself in a similar situation, figured I'd give my impression.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
Let me go ahead and entertain this.
Blogging once a week is simple and takes very little time when you are not concerned with the amount of traffic you receive. I can simply take notes as I play and then write it in a journal format, written and directed towards the audience on scratch paper before I type it up at the end of each week much like I am typing this reply. No need to use government assets which I don't even have available to me since I work in a field environment.
Next all games take some sort of investment it is the gain you receive from that investment I am looking for. Even SWTOR has better gains when you are a Sub player. Casual gaming is not just going with the free option so you don't lose anything because you may just lose enjoyment in your hobby.
What exactly do you hope to accomplish? I would argue that almost all mmos can be played casually to good effect these days, its just a matter of what the gamer expects to get for their hour or two a night of investment.
That is the 'real' problem with casual gamers (I have nothing against casual gaming), its that they seem to have an unrealistic approach to their game. If you have 2 hours a day to play then expect to get 2 hours of progress not 6 you know?
I would say all of the games listed can be played casually with swtor and FFXIV being the most casual friendly. Both of these games can be played from 1 to max on just a few hours a day pretty easily and both offer tools such that you can comfortably group up even when you have slim social connections. Both also offer content that really need social connections but that is only at the highest content tier of endgame (like the top end 2% of the game).
1) This one's a bit of a double-edged sword, but stay away from games with too many updates. It might make you a happier camper in the long run. I say double-edged sword because games that see fewer updates tend to have smaller populations (WoW being the exception, I guess). However, it also means it's easier to catch up to others. Now, as a casual gamer it's best not to care about how fast others are progressing, but that doesn't mean you have to write off seeing some sort of endgame content entirely. Consider a game like The Secret World, which I see you put on your list. Development on that game isn't anywhere near the pace it would have to be to satisfy someone who plays 30 hours per week. But it's perfect for someone who only has a fraction of that time to spare and it won't make you feel like you're never making any progress. TERA would be another game I would add to your list. It's a bit of a grind at max level, but getting there is fast and easy with the changes they've made over the years. And the game's free-to-play model is quite unobtrusive.
2) Embrace games that try to devalue leveling. Leveling is, after all, the bane of the casual gamer. GW2 is a good pick in that regard. Rift might be another title to consider. They plan on adding up-scaling in the next expansion. It's also easy to try different classes in that game since, at most, you only have to level four characters to try out all the possible combinations. PlanetSide 2 might also be worth a look. I know you're probably not interested in a shooter, but the game lends itself so well to drop in/out gameplay.
3) Speaking of PlanetSide 2, that brings me to boosts; boosts and XP weekends. These things are your friend. If the game doesn't offer you some way to level faster than normal, it's probably not going to be very friendly to your rate of progression. Some people will argue--vigorously--that things like boosts are pay-to-win, but to the casual gamer they are the great equalizer. This is not true across the board, of course, but it's something to consider. A game like ArcheAge sells boosts, but it's definitely not a game I would recommend to someone with a tight schedule. SWTOR, with its frequent XP weekends on the other hand, is another matter entirely.