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How I weaned myself off MMORPGs
BeefFandango
Member UncommonPosts: 31
I was thinking of writing a self-help book, but then I realised that two paragraphs wasn't enough, maybe on Kindle, because people buy any nonsense on that, but good conscience took over and I decided to post it here: -
I should say in advance that I have been bored of MMORPGs for a long time, I have been searching for that thrill I got from that Star Wars game, followed by that one with gnomes and wealthy shareholders. I think that WOW was the first MMORPG I truly enjoyed; I was addicted. I truly believed my friends were these faceless online avatars and forgot that my real friends were the people who bought me a pint at the pub. That was a mistake.
Honestly, I only played WOW for nine months in total. A lot of it was spent in vanilla, and I still have fond memories. Some of it was spent in BC, and very little was spend in WotLK before I realised the game was going in directions I no longer enjoyed. At this point, I quit, and I never looked back. I heard about flying mounts and the loss of the open world in favour of quest hubs, and I never felt any desire to return.
Yet I continued looking for my MMORPG fix... DDO, Warhammer, that buggy one with troll looking things, that shooter that was so unfinished you could not hit a tree at nine yards, AOC, that Star Wars one with endless cut scenes, the one that pretended to be the Elder Scrolls. But my itch remained unscratched.
I started to realise that MMORPG was a genre that fell away from me. Or perhaps I grew above it. I was unsure, either way, it was no longer fun, just a habit I was compelled to fulfil, like a needle full of pixels to the arm. I even watched Pixels... that was my lowest point, I have never felt closer to gaming suicide than watching Sandler's miserable face yawn through that travesty of a film. Did I laugh? I cried!
I spent my days at work wondering what meaningless piece of hamster-wheel nonsense I might pick up that evening. A piece of armour that is marginally better than the previous piece I wore. The loincloth of power, the chest of ultimate lactation. But it had become a hollow desire; something I no-longer really wanted, just something to fill the empty void of post-work depression. It may as well have been the screaming soap-operas that infest prime time schedules, it was that pathetic.
In short, it was no longer fun, just a means to fill up dead hours.
I do not know when it dawned on me. Suddenly I was aware that it was no longer enjoyable. I tried other games, single player games and Hungry Hippos. Nothing worked. All the drive had left me. I was a husk that had been sucked dry by disappointing MMORPGs.
Finally I decided that enough was enough. I decided to quit the genre. It was a surprisingly easy decision, I merely read some of the threads on mmorpg.com and chastised myself for such idiocy.
You may ask what I did instead? I would ask the same question if I was you. Well, I awoke, drew back the curtains, and saw the sun rise. In that moment I knew this one simple truth; "there is life after MMORPGs".
I should say in advance that I have been bored of MMORPGs for a long time, I have been searching for that thrill I got from that Star Wars game, followed by that one with gnomes and wealthy shareholders. I think that WOW was the first MMORPG I truly enjoyed; I was addicted. I truly believed my friends were these faceless online avatars and forgot that my real friends were the people who bought me a pint at the pub. That was a mistake.
Honestly, I only played WOW for nine months in total. A lot of it was spent in vanilla, and I still have fond memories. Some of it was spent in BC, and very little was spend in WotLK before I realised the game was going in directions I no longer enjoyed. At this point, I quit, and I never looked back. I heard about flying mounts and the loss of the open world in favour of quest hubs, and I never felt any desire to return.
Yet I continued looking for my MMORPG fix... DDO, Warhammer, that buggy one with troll looking things, that shooter that was so unfinished you could not hit a tree at nine yards, AOC, that Star Wars one with endless cut scenes, the one that pretended to be the Elder Scrolls. But my itch remained unscratched.
I started to realise that MMORPG was a genre that fell away from me. Or perhaps I grew above it. I was unsure, either way, it was no longer fun, just a habit I was compelled to fulfil, like a needle full of pixels to the arm. I even watched Pixels... that was my lowest point, I have never felt closer to gaming suicide than watching Sandler's miserable face yawn through that travesty of a film. Did I laugh? I cried!
I spent my days at work wondering what meaningless piece of hamster-wheel nonsense I might pick up that evening. A piece of armour that is marginally better than the previous piece I wore. The loincloth of power, the chest of ultimate lactation. But it had become a hollow desire; something I no-longer really wanted, just something to fill the empty void of post-work depression. It may as well have been the screaming soap-operas that infest prime time schedules, it was that pathetic.
In short, it was no longer fun, just a means to fill up dead hours.
I do not know when it dawned on me. Suddenly I was aware that it was no longer enjoyable. I tried other games, single player games and Hungry Hippos. Nothing worked. All the drive had left me. I was a husk that had been sucked dry by disappointing MMORPGs.
Finally I decided that enough was enough. I decided to quit the genre. It was a surprisingly easy decision, I merely read some of the threads on mmorpg.com and chastised myself for such idiocy.
You may ask what I did instead? I would ask the same question if I was you. Well, I awoke, drew back the curtains, and saw the sun rise. In that moment I knew this one simple truth; "there is life after MMORPGs".
Comments
Other than your fond memories of World of Warcraft it sounds to me that mmo's were never your thing to begin with.
Which I think is great. Better to realize that you are wasting your time now than years later with a bitter taste in your mouth.
*raises a glass*
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Reminds me of a comment from a guildmate last night complaining he was burned out from the game we're currently playing.
This comes at the end of a week he had off and almost exclusively played the game day and night. Go figure.
"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
This echoes something I said recently in another thread. Chasing upgrades loses some of it's power over people after a while. Unfortunately MMOs rely far to much on just that to motivate people to play. Quite often the stuff you have to do to chase the upgrades isn't very enjoyable and that becomes a problem for the game when people begin to realize that they don't really care about chasing upgrades anymore.
Too long to read....
But yeah it's a lot easier to quit MMOs if you're bored with them, and that's actually pretty easy to do nowadays since they're all boring single player games for the most part.
I'm not playing MMOs either right now, but I still wish there was a good one to play. I miss having that 2nd virtual life in my life.
Lots of people love to talk about football too ... you don't think they all play, do you?
that was my point. and about football, what?
"Wasting time" and not finding "fulfillment" are matters of perspective. If I build a house, or carve a statue, is it any more futile in the grand scheme of time than the hours I poured into a digital world? Nope.
The most fulfilling thing I do in my life is raise my children. Second to that, everything is fair game.
Obsession is a whole different story. And that is always a problem.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
That is not weaning yourself off an addiction! That's just making a decision and sticking to it.
Admittedly, I went through much the same process years ago. I was "addicted" to MMOs, having averaged roughly 4 hours a day for 6 1/2 years. That was fine for most of the time as my gf also played MMOs so we played together all the time, but after we split up I stopped enjoying it as much and the issues that had been prevelant for years suddenly became a total barrier to enjoyment.
So, for me, it was an easy decision to quit - I was no longer having fun - but it has been very hard to stay away. It left a massive gap in my daily schedule that I found really difficult to fill, especially on the social side. I connected with my guild mates on a level that I haven't ever done in real life (i live in a shitty town in england with a bollocks night life, so really hard to find like minded people) so it was hard giving up that social aspect.
What helped me was to really examine what it was about MMORPGs that I enjoyed and what it was that prevented me enjoying MMOs. I came up with a short list of critical features, so now I measure up all new MMOs against that list. So far, none in the last four years have met my requirements, but I still sign up to betas and give games a chance just to make sure, and also to check that my requirements haven't changed.
My critical features are:
I have found that if any of these features are missing then I'm generally bored within 2 months, usually quicker. As I get my enjoyment from endgame activities and the social side of MMOs, 2 months isn't enough to reach the sweat spot of fun for me so it just ends up being a waste of time.
I am going to make some changes including I think not playing with my friends so their obsession doesn't feed into mine.
"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
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
If I take this at face value, then I say to you, OP, good luck to wherever your pursuit of entertainment takes you.. I, however, shall continue to enjoy (and even design) MMOs in the years ahead.. Regardless of any disappointments that may inevitably arise in game play, I can always find the fun.. And when it stops being fun, I move on.. No gun at the back of my head keeping me there..
..because we're gamers, damn it!! - William Massachusetts (Log Horizon)
I don't have to play MMOs to have fun talking about it. Heck, i am doing it right now.
I had a lot of fun in Asheron's Call (first MMO), but never played it past level 30 (which max level was over 200). So I played for 2 years, always making characters over and over because for me, the best part of the game was early on. That is because after level 30, everything became forced grouping and levels also (at the time, they sped it up A LOT before it shut down) just took so long past 30
I played SWG, played it for again, 2 years. Like Asheron's Call, the best part of the game was early on...however, I never actually leveled or skilled up because that was boring and slow as hell. So I'd level a bit, and then just build houses and decorate and stuff
Then I played Ultima online after SWG NGE. I played UO before AC and after five minutes of playing, took it back to gamestop and got my money back. Some dude killed me and took all my stuff, so I got a refund cause that was bullshit. However, after I tried it again after SWG got destroyed, it was amazing! The first MMO I stuck with one character to "endgame". had all my skills maxed out, and I used a program to allow EVERY skill to max out because otherwise the skills were all locked after a certain point. I like one character able to do everything like in the Elder Scrolls games. However, I played for 4 years (2nd longest played MMO) and joined an amazing guild. Sadly the guild stopped playing and I lost interest.
Then came WoW. I joined around the time of WOTLK. I tried vanilla and it sucked. But the improvements they made from vanilla to WOTLK and a bit past that were AMAZING. And even to this day, I still play (Legion), which both WoD and Legion were and have been AMAZING expansions. WoD definitely by far was my favorite WoW expansion of all time, Legion a very close 2nd. I've been in the same guild since WOTLK, and most of the same people play...some new people, many old. And its the greatest experience. I play a Warlock, Hunter and Demon Hunter (all level 110) and can solo on all my characters, some current Legion dungeons and smaller raids. Its a blast.
So only UO and WoW I've actually really liked. SWG I liked because the decorating and housing were amazing.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul