MMO Apathy

[Big W Powah!]

..So, yeah.

Discussion time; Is anybody else sitting around longing for the days of old EQ? When you logged in just cause it was fun? And I'm not talking nostalgia--I just can't find the want to log into an MMO anymore.


Thats, honestly, what I miss. The WANT to log in to have fun. Any more, when I log into EQ2 (my latest attempt) I analyze where I can go, and give up before I start cause I know I will be soloing or in a PUG I won't ever see again.


I don't know, any guilds in any other games that are -established- and not going anywhere anytime soon recruiting? Heh.


Anyways, as far as the discussion; What keeps you logging in night after night?

[Kindnugs]

This really isn't anything new for me. I haven't been wanting to log onto an mmo since bwl or mc in wow. Before that I was addicted to AC and before that UO. I thought AoC would do it for me, or even TR but nothing has. I have pretty much given up.

[r3probate]

Nothing keeps me logging in night after night. My guildies were (are) awesome but I mean, you can only sit around on ventrilo so many nights talking about how we griefed a Lethon raid back in vanilla or how the first KT kill was amazing or how that dumb asshole priest had 35k healing on HIMSELF on PATCHWERK before you've told (and heard) the same stories over and over and over. Yeah, being the first group of 5 to 70 on our server was awesome. Yeah, spending a few months helping guildies grind to 14 was awesome. Yeah, I liked being 99% attendance through all of vanilla and the first half of BC.Then you get out of college and realize you have to actually do something with your life at night outside of a 50 hour work week. Raided through BT, took a six month break, raided in Sunwell, guild falls apart on M'uru, no reason to continue. Played EQ2 on the free summer offer, got to level 45, got bored, quit. I didn't buy into the AoC hype (luckily) so I dodged that one. In any case, I think I've put to bed the urge to really go hard and raid for awhile.

Quit the habit, pick up a new hobby. Or go play a ton of DotA.

[meStevo]

I've had MMO ADD since I had to quit EQ because of work.

The social component of EQ is was truly had me hooked.

It's kinda like playing games without achievements those became so addictive that it diminished the point of playing them without achievements.

[Dumar]

yes. the game should be designed such that you want to login to see what's happening in the game world. ie, with your friends or enemies you've made on the server.

not because you want another purple item that gives 10 more str in a zone you've ran 30 times already.

it's not nostalgia at all. mmo's have regressed something awful. and they probably will not progress for a long time.

[Ripe]

I blame the quest/chore system that all the mmo's have now. They put you on a schedule of stuff you have to do, many things at a time so you never have time to feel like you are playing a game or developing a character that you are attached to because you are too busy doing the exact same tasks every other player is doing.

But you can't stop doing them or else you fall behind other players. Then one day you log on, look at your to-do list (quest log) and just say fuck this I'd rather be back at work than do this.

[meStevo]

Originally Posted by Dumar

yes. the game should be designed such that you want to login to see what's happening in the game world. ie, with your friends or enemies you've made on the server.

not because you want another purple item that gives 10 more str in a zone you've ran 30 times already.

it's not nostalgia at all. mmo's have regressed something awful. and they probably will not progress for a long time.

Well, with WoW in particular the game is so transient that it can be difficult to start or maintain a guild of eventual friends because every chunk of adversity people hit they jump ship to find some guild that is at least 1 step beyond that... and with instancing your only enemies are the morons in trade that you haven't put on ignore yet.

I miss getting our teeth kicked in by a guild that was able to mobilize quicker than us, it made kicking their ass that much sweeter.

If you can keep a guild of good people together then you've 'won' the game as far as I am concerned, and now get to enjoy progressing through content together.

[brekk]

My guild becoming a bunch of close friends keeps me coming back to MMO's.

The only "magic" of EQ was it being the first one where I had that close online family. Any MMO that I found that close knit group in I've stuck with. Any MMO that didn't i dropped after the free month.

It's not the game, its the people. (Note: This is assuming the game has a certain level of enjoyable gameplay. Its not a high bar, but it is a basic requirement.)

[dechire]

been pretty much always playing an MMO, wow mostly for four years, 3 or four in eq, middle class w/wife, no kids, still manage to go to Vegas from time to time. seven years isn't a short amount of time.

boredom from life comes and goes.

[Duppin]

When Vhex sees this thread, you'll regret making it.

Until then, though:
I can't play MMOs anymore.

Nothing to do with EQ vs. WoW; I just don't enjoy the gameplay style anymore. My gaming style is much more about doing something until I get bored, then stopping and doing something else; MMOs aren't conducive to that, since grouping makes people dependent on you and they generally aren't designed to make soloing an interesting experience.

[Eduardo]

Originally Posted by Big W Powah!

Anyways, as far as the discussion; What keeps you logging in night after night?

Nothing. Not being an ass here, but I feel I just grew out of it. There just seems to be more important things in life now. I used to have a blast playing and developing. Now I see my girlfriends kids play games half the day and it sickens me. There are much better ways they could spend their time, instead it is sitting on their ass with a DS in their hands.

But I won't harp on people for doing what they like. I'm just saying that if you feel apathy towards gaming now, it might be time to look into other ways to spend your time for a while. You can always come back to it, but it will never be the same. I remember the great times I had in my far cry clan, but those days are gone and nothing will bring them back. That's OK though, those days were a blast and that is what matters.

[Phelps]

After gaming on MMOs for the better part of 6 years, I found a good long break was needed just to get my shit together.

Shit being together, I still had some urge to play MMOs, namely I was nostalgic for EQ. EQ, however, was not so nostalgic. It would also be just as much a time-sink as before, and would un-shit-together my life.

Resourceful as I am, I found a nifty emulator server, Dalaya. Balanced for the casual gamer, it's got classic Everquest down, though more divergent from the original.

I think they have Kunark in at this point, I haven't picked it up in a while though.

The game manages to keep me playing over time, because it's casual with an option of being hardcore with far less raiding, making it more open to the casual.

[Surlok TP]

Originally Posted by brekk

My guild becoming a bunch of close friends keeps me coming back to MMO's.

The only "magic" of EQ was it being the first one where I had that close online family. Any MMO that I found that close knit group in I've stuck with. Any MMO that didn't i dropped after the free month.

It's not the game, its the people. (Note: This is assuming the game has a certain level of enjoyable gameplay. Its not a high bar, but it is a basic requirement.)

Outside of your close net friends in EQ, did you spend time with your server?

I only ask this because I did, on nights when we weren't raiding, I would tag along with lower end guilds and run NTOV or something. Being equipped in the best pop had to offer, there wasn't much challenge in it for me but it was fun none the less. I would do this all the time, or we would run midnight raids on like ring events or whatever and have anyone that wanted to come along come and experience the content.

So even if I had nothing to do with my own character, I still logged on to enjoy not just the company of my friends,but the company of the community as a whole. I truly enjoyed hanging out with the people in my server.

WoW? All I see is people charging money, or only letting people in the open raids with X level of gear ( You will be armoried!) and all that shit. It's all buisness there is no community, and I think that even if I have friends in the game, the general hostility of the server just makes the game nauseating.

People are generally self centered shit heads in real life, the nice thing about a game like EQ is they weren't, people needed each other and knew it so there was this sense of a real community. So in a sense it was an escape of the doldrums of your typical everyday life, where outside of your social circle you are generally surrounded by people that could give a shit about you or your existence. The escape in MMO's for me, was in that the world I went into was a fun world to be in where people actually enjoyed meeting strangers and being around others they didn't know.


That shit is long gone.

If I offered to do something for the sake of fun in WoW I would either have people laughing at me and my little noobie raiders and how we are all boarding the fail train, or the people that came along would be trounced for wearing gear they didn't earn or some other bullshit. The games aren't fun because johnny 15 year old is a fucking dumb fuck who didn't get beat enough as a child and is taking out his angst on the game world because it's safe for him to do so. It fucking sucks.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Originally Posted by Duppin

When Vhex sees this thread, you'll regret making it.

EQ NOSTALGIA? VHEX SMASH!

People get tired of video games, who knew.

I feel no need to interject further. Gonna be about 20 pages of people trading self-pity stories about why they quit/burned out with Dumar occasionally talking about how it's all WoW's fault.

[Big W Powah!]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

EQ NOSTALGIA? VHEX SMASH!

People get tired of video games, who knew.

I feel no need to interject further. Gonna be about 20 pages of people trading self-pity stories about why they quit/burned out with Dumar occasionally talking about how it's all WoW's fault.

Can I has your babies?