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Gone Gonzo  Posts: 3432 Joined: 14 Jan 2008     | |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 72 Joined: 28 Apr 2008   | I've played probably 20-30 MMOs, but I think i have video game ADD cause at most I last a few weeks with the game before I get bored... Except Ragnarok Online for some reason...? |
Paperboy  Posts: 35 Joined: 28 Apr 2008 | Developer disconnect. 9 years of EQ and I quit because the devs showed that they weren't listening to the community. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1535 Joined: 13 Feb 2008    | On the topic, I leave MMOs because I imagine it as a single player game to judge it. I realize that it is a treadmill, and leave it.
I cannot really agree with you. The reason I still play Guild wars is because I have someone to play with. If he's not playing, I'm not playing. Simple as that. We can do this because we don't have to pay for it. We lapse in and out of the game, playing for a while and leaving it alone. Heck, I've had the game for almost two years now, and I'm still lvl 17 with my best character. There is something to be said for the PvP though. If you get factions, the battles get to be pretty awesome. That is the reason I still play Guild wars. It has a good plot. Most MMOs don't even HAVE a plot. The story and the main quests keep me interested, and the lack of loot-treadmilling is nice. There is very little grinding - in fact the fastest way to get XP is to do the quests. There is PLENTY of direction. If you want to, you are always doing a quest, and the quests are good. There are few to none of those "Go to X kill Y collect Z" quests that plague MMOs |
Infamous Scribbler  Posts: 590 Joined: 6 Dec 2007    | Too many cheaters. There's no point in playing when most of the people you come across are botting their way through the game (which completely defeats the purpose of even playing). |
Paperboy  Posts: 17 Joined: 28 Apr 2008 | I played guildwars for a while i stayed with it because i had a great guild and great friends unfortantly we stopped playing and went back to our lives and stuff so i never played with them again i tried other guild and most of them were idiots so i left.thats why i quit GW. so i tried WoW but theres no story and its grind tastic and people were jerks so i left. Then i got Tabula rasa and i play that occasionally but its not the best and its laggy if u have a bad pc so i might leave. I tried runescape, maple story and others that friends suggjested but i left because of bad communites bad desingn and other things At the moment im tryingout CABAL so i might stick with that for a while but im not sure |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 108 Joined: 18 Mar 2008    | I've played many MMO's and I always give up for either A. The game is hit with an overwhelming plague of stupidity, greed, and outright hatred towards a fellow player or B. the game isn't good enough to hold my attention. I was tempted recently to pick up WOW but I know better, I'm not going down that road again... |
Anonymous Source Posts: 7 Joined: 20 Mar 2008 | I confess I play WoW, though I admit right now I'm not doing it much, and it has to do with one of the reasons why I've left MMOs; getting to a point that seems impossible to get past because you can't get the help you need. How many times have those of us who have played WoW come face-to-face with this scenario: you're ready to go into a dungeon or take on a quest that requires more than one player, but you can't find anyone to help. It gets to the point where you start alternate characters just to experiment. Then there are all the other usual reasons: tediousness, lack of a plot (my main reason for leaving Vanguard: Saga of Heroes), or ill-mannered players. |
BANNED  Posts: 102 Joined: 1 Mar 2008 |
That wasn't my intention but now that you've said it I think I'll retcon it to have been my intention to make WoW sound like a disease. I certainly wasn't myself whilst online playing it. User was banned for: Zero Punctuation: Mailbag Showdown. (Permanent) |
Beat Writer  Posts: 167 Joined: 21 Nov 2007 | I've tried more than a few MMO's over the years, only ever really got into one. That being Earth and Beyond. It may have been the scifi theme and story, or that it at least tried something different in many areas that other MMO's at the time (and most since) seem to refuse to try as if their slogan is "Change is bad". That said, my main beefs with MMOs are thus: 1: Pay to play - Now, it's not that I can't afford to pay 5 to 10 dollars a month, it's just that I don't see why I should have to pay. Yes, I know they need cash to keep the servers up but, in the end, it's like me having to send a check to a factory that makes ping pong balls every time I try to play some ping pong with friends. Most of them overcharge for their monthly fees and they never consider other methods of garnering income. 2: Repetition - This applies to MANY things in the MMO genre. Repetitive gameplay being the big one. Constant and seemingly endless grinding is the most annoying thing about them. When a game becomes a chore it can no longer be called a "game". Likewise, there's the repetitive nature of the design philosophy behind virtually every single MMO. Most follow the exact same formula in design and thusly make me feel like I'm playing the same game as before, just with different names. Then there's the repetitive content. They try to hide it under the guise of being "new", but in the end it's still the same stuff as before only, perhaps, slightly tweaked. 3: Boredom - This stems from the above. When it's the same thing over and over, and there's nothing new, unique, or what was there from the start wasn't particularly deep or engrossing then one really starts to lose interest in the game. When you have to find reasons to play the game beyond just validating paying that months due, then it's become an addiction. Addictions aren't fun. 4: People - Ironic really that we play these games under the idea that we want to play with others. Yet, when we get in the thick of it we start to realize how obnoxious and downright annoying most of the people playing are. MMO's are like a case study in the dark, dirty, and grotesque nature of the human mind when someone is given the ability to do and say what they will to others while remaining completely anonymous. Besides, if I want to socialize with people, I just step out of the house and visit friends or go to a club. Take these things out of the equation and I might actually enjoy playing them. But then, would a game like that even be an MMO? |
Beat Writer  Posts: 205 Joined: 20 Feb 2008 | E&B I left because it was dying. FFXI I left because I just wasn't enjoying it. I gave it plenty of time to get past the boring bits, but I just didn't enjoy myself. Now I play EVE, and I love it. I can understand why some people would get bored, but I enjoy the game very much. |
Copy Clerk Posts: 72 Joined: 28 Apr 2008 |
The server costs are just made up by the companies. Even if all subscribers just payed them a dollar each month they could EASILY cover the costs of servers. Take WoW for example. 10 million subscribers, all shelling out 10 bucks a month minimum, equals 100,000,000 dollars a month. I don't think servers cost that much (that was sarcastic, of course they fucking don't). Though, they do have to pay all their employees. |
Paperboy Posts: 20 Joined: 9 Nov 2007 | I had a capped and nearly fully merited ninja in FF11 (with great gear and all) but really the only thing that got me to leave was just being busy In real life. I always would justify the time spent playing saying I had nothing better to do. So when I found something better to do it just became natural that I would leave. |
Paperboy Posts: 20 Joined: 9 Nov 2007 | @ AC10 yea WOW operates at 40% profit. Now go buy some act-blizz stock. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1807 Joined: 7 Feb 2008  | I stopped playing WoW for several reasons... |
Copy Clerk Posts: 72 Joined: 28 Apr 2008 |
I wish I bought stock years ago O_O |
Copy Clerk Posts: 72 Joined: 9 Apr 2008 | Ill try MMOs for a bit, because at first, there interesting to explore. But very quickly, you start doing the same thing over and over, and the fact that theres not a lot of ways to customize your character really gets to me. In most MMO's, you have a single class, and your pretty much forced to take specific skills, and all you can do is make certain kinds of skills more powerful. There balanced by being made simple. I leave the trial and never look back. Every once in a great while, there will be that old, boring formula done just right. It still has the problems I stated above, but they just manage the perfect Re-enforcement pattern to hook you. Then, I can play for a few months, start realizing what I'm doing, and quit until I forgot enough of the game to try it again. WoW and LotR are like this. However, GW and DDO, I can always play and enjoy. Theres hundreds and hundreds of distinct character build to mess around with and tune to keep me interested, not merely hooked. So I go on a stint of Guild Wars regularly, and its being free means I never have to technically leave. And DDO is just awesome. You have to actually block, dodge, and swing your weapon into your enemy, making it feel so much more like combat then clicking a button, and you don't regenerate Mana or HP after a battle, so you have to plan ahead a lot more. I do quit it after a few months for a year or so, for the same reason I make fun of those Counterstike or Starcraft obsessives who play every night for years on end: theres a ton of other interesting games out there, and it will do you good to get some variety in your life. The thing about MMOs is that they don't ever end, so you have to quit. |
BANNED  Posts: 502 Joined: 3 Jan 2008 |
20-30 MMOs? Are we talking like pay 50$ dollars plus 13$ a month or one of those five billion cheesy MMos that you can find on the web like Runescape? User was banned for: Zero Punctuation: Mailbag Showdown. (Permanent) |
Muckraker  Posts: 256 Joined: 13 Jan 2008 |
Slight adjustment. |
Copy Clerk Posts: 66 Joined: 27 Apr 2008 |
Mainly because I like Sci Fi settings and because it was a little bit like Elite. But then I realised it was all about maths, not actual skill or anything. |
Anonymous Source  Posts: 1 Joined: 29 Apr 2008 |
Bear in mind that over half of their subscribers are from China and pay approximately 6c per hour of play and are restricted (if memory serves me right) in the number of hours they are allowed to play per day. I am not disagreeing that they fleece a reasonable amount of revenue from the gaming public, but you are overstating it by a significant amount. As to why I've left MMOs, it would seem that my reasons mirror those of other posters here. 1. I left Guild Wars with a full set of Collectors' Editions because of the in-game community. Outposts, at the time of Nightfall release, were a cesspool of insults, racism, sexual slurs and the scrapings off the bottom of the barrel. I've logged in once or twice and it seems to have improved, but the love of playing it is no longer there. 2. Why not? Because I discovered World of Warcraft and played that for a very long time. But shifting servers, repeating the same old and stale content have bored me to tears. And whilst I once thought of the raid grind, or the honour grind with disdain; the ease with which things are achievable now in that game is so ludicrous that it feels as if a sock puppet can play it and gear up in a full set of S3. The challenge feels "gone" and thus, I've cancelled that and left because it was too boring and too repetitive and too easy. 3. Which saw me pick up my Lord of the Rings Online subscription once more. Luckily I succumbed to the temptation to buy a Lifetime subscription and I've been really impressed with Turbine's ability to add content and evolve the game. And after World of Warcraft it feels relaxing and enjoyable. Right now I'm taking the time to smell the flowers, read the quest text and enjoy the game, but even so there is the nagging suspicion that I'm missing something. In all likelyhood I'll drop this by the wayside as I'm waiting for Age of Conan. I have to agree with an earlier poster though, pen and paper is one of the best, most imaginative games out there. I haven't yet found a MMO that can even remotely compare with that. It's likely to remain my game of choice for a long, long time. |
Gone Gonzo  Posts: 1101 Joined: 9 Dec 2007 |
Ah, I can definitely see that, if you're a great fan of the genre, it can be very attractive. After all, what other MMO options is there for sci-fi right now? Star Wars Galaxies? Hah! |
Beat Writer Posts: 167 Joined: 21 Nov 2007 |
That's exactly what I meant. They make more than enough to run the servers for any given time. As for paying the employees. Pay them for what? It's not like they spend a lot of effort in making new content. Cause God knows the new stuff isn't original or even remotely close to what I'd call compelling. And I'd bet they make more than enough money with just the game sales to pay for the servers and pay the employees to do what they do. Granted, to keep the servers up for a lengthy amount of time they'd need to have people pay a subscription, but there's no way the cost should exceed a couple of bucks a month. |
Copy Clerk Posts: 72 Joined: 28 Apr 2008 |
Probably about 10 of those were pay to plays, good point I defiantly should specify that. I don't know why I have such an addition to wasting my money. |
Copy Clerk Posts: 72 Joined: 28 Apr 2008 |
Well, if your a blizzard employee, programmer, secretary or tax accountant, you are getting payed a yearly salary. Basically anyone currently employed is on the payroll, whether they are doing anything or not. Kind of like me some days at work, I don't do anything. |
Beat Writer Posts: 167 Joined: 21 Nov 2007 |
And sometimes that's the problem. Since the employees and company know they're getting a constant flow of income from the players and that their paychecks are all but guaranteed, there's usually not much incentive to make anything new, at least not that quickly. They tend to think, as long as they keep spewing forth the same crap over and over, label it "new" and slap a price tag on it, players will buy it up. And, since players are already paying to play the game, the company doesn't need to rush any updates out to the community as they're already being payed. It's not really the employees problem, it's the companies. The less they have to do to make money the better for them and the worse for us, the consumer. |
Muckraker Posts: 256 Joined: 13 Jan 2008 | Keep in mind all of this speculation on monthly fees varies from company to company (Cryptic Studios, developers of City of Heroes / Villains, maintain a steady production of free new content (free as in you don't have to buy the next expansion to get it)). Much of what I'm reading here is mostly related to WoW and Blizzard's business models. |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 98 Joined: 30 Apr 2008 | It's depends on the game with me WoW -the community is just horrible and the devs shifted to balancing around pvp combined with flavor of the month class balancing Vanguard- buggy mess, community almost dead EQ2 - I don't know how to explain my problem with eq2, It's like the devs just don't care the combat just seems wrong, they can't decided if its a group based game or solo with some classes can solo easy and other can barely solo. Some classes they outright ignore |
Paperboy  Posts: 25 Joined: 1 May 2008 | - Annoyance of repetive gameplay |
Copy Clerk  Posts: 60 Joined: 11 Apr 2008  | I leave MMOs either if the game is generally craped up (Runescape) or no one ever players and is plagued by asshats that kill games for kicks (Phantasy Star Universe). For Runescape the main reason I left was due to the EXTREMELY overzealous anti gold farmer measures that really just killed the entire game, not only do changes in the games economy have to be approved... but the pvp element... even though its more like coin flips with your shit on the line... got raped up the ass... The Wilderness which was my favorite place in the game got lammed to hell and pvp can only happen in 1 area and you can only fight the person your assigned.... Then theres Phanstasy SUCK universe... I quit cuz the economy got fucked insideout by people duping shit because Sega + MMO = Failure of epic proportions. People were getting their banks wiped, their partner machines reset and items that were needed for making anything cost upwards of 10,000 each. That and the combat was face your character towards an enemy and hit the Square button. The classes were imbalanced, 2 of the 4 races had special abilities that made the 2 that didn't a detriment to use. The "mage" type classes were only good for healing because other classes out dpsed them to the point it was discusting, that and the sword and axe junkies got hurt so much you had to spam heals constantly so they wouldn't die. Oh and there being auto res items that you could hold 10 of... so dying had no consequence... and if anyone died without one of the auto res shits the penalty was so heavy that it wasn't worth finishing the mission... The only reason I played the game so long was due to the community... but that was so small that after most of the people playing realized the game was utter shit there were maybe 200 people online at peak times. |
Paperboy Posts: 16 Joined: 23 Jan 2008 | The only MMO I've ever played was WoW. Why did I quit? 1. Not enough end-game content. Once I've seen a dungeon three times, I've SEEN it. Give me something more. I'm not obsessive-compulsive enough to find doing the same thing over and over again entertaining. 2. Constantly changing rules. Buff this, nerf that. Crap, stop changing the rules and let us play the damn game! Create more content rather than contrived reasons for us to run the same ol' same ol' multiple times. In the end, they weren't earning their $15 a month so I fired them. |
Anonymous Source Posts: 1 Joined: 1 May 2008 | I've played The Sim's Online and am currently utterly obsessed and immersed in FFXI. I left TSO after like two years, I got to the point where I had like four different accounts, two running on a PC and two on a laptop, it was retarded. And FFXI is getting close to that now, lol! So yeah, usually when it's taken over my life. When more of my life is advancing in a game than it is in a real life, it's time to stop, lol...or it should be. |
Press Junketeer  Posts: 377 Joined: 7 Nov 2007 | my problem with MMO's is that people on there are too serious - I've never played one where I can actually have a laugh. doesn't that defeat the object of gaming. |
Pulitzer Laureate  Posts: 978 Joined: 2 Jan 2008  | I've played a few MMOs, including the much-maligned (and deservedly so) SWG, and the reason I quit is always the same. At some point I will realize that I'm no longer having fun, and that the only reason I'm still playing is that I don't want all the time and energy I've already sunk in to be wasted. And then I go out, buy a s |
Well the only MMO i have ever got hooked on was City of Villains. The reson i quit was simple. I got bored. Started srinding myself stupid fighting the same people over and over, i didnt even get to fight them i just got to see my lackys dispatch of them from behind. I tried a new charchter but the starting levels were so slow i just couldnt take it and so i saved my money and spent it on real things like food.