First off, my apologies if something similar exists, I did try a search and nothing came up so here goes:

I started playing World of Warcraft shortly after it first came out, and quickly became one of your stereotypical addicts. A couple of months ago I finally stopped playing, and since WoW my interest in games has severely diminished.

It used to be back in the day before WoW hit the markets that I was quite the avid gamer, getting through three or four titles a month and experiencing a wide variety of different games.

Since quitting WoW, this desire to try many different games seems to have almost completely disappeared, nowadays I find it difficult to come up with two or three titles I would actually even consider buying.

What I want to know is, are there any other ex-mumorpuger players out there who are or have experienced a similar thing? Did you find yourself gradually getting back into your old trend of gaming, or like me are you stuck in this middle ground where you sometimes find yourself wondering if you should re-activate that MMO account because nothing else really catches your attention?

Opinions, stories, witty anecdotes all welcome :)

Maybe you've grown up?
I play an MMO and can't wait to get my 360 fixed, and I can't wait for the new Silent Hill (spoilers WILL result in castration). If you're trying to force an interest in games then there's no point.

I dont get how people get addicted to video games. I played wow, got to level 30 something, quit for 2 months of the summer without even thinking about it. Started playing again, got to sixty, havent touched it since. Am i just better than you or whats the story? :P

WeedWorm:
Am i just better than you or whats the story? :P

Nope. Not all people are created exactly the same. That's pretty much the story.

I'll say though, MMORPG's really don't grab me very well. Meridian 59 was awesome. Star Wars Galaxies could have been interesting, but it's certainly not anymore. I can't think of too many others.

It wasn't WoW. I'm like WeedWorm, I played, took a break, played, took a break. Over two years my strongest character is a level 54 Pally. But I still love experiencing new games. You've probably just grown out of gaming in general, it's not that uncommon. I've seen it loads of times before. Just pick up a new hobby, or if you want to try and reignite your gaming passion, try making games.

Never played an MMO that kept me hooked for more than two to three months or so. Maybe Puzzle Pirates' total playtime but there was a year-and-a-half pause between my two stretches so not really. Regardless I too find myself less interested in games, definitely not because I have more of a life (I don't), but it could be because most games today suck (FPS's are either zombies/space marines or silly crap (read: TF2, Battlefield Heroes etc.), RPG's...not many of those coming out if you don't count the Japanese ones, I'm horrible at RTS's so don't play those much. Other genres...whatever, it's 2:47 AM).

Luckily for me I have Sacred 2 and Fallout 3 so I do have things to keep me interested for now. Summer was boring as all hell though. Also, I hate chatspeak so most MMO's communities repulse me. Besides, most MMO's are shitty grindfests anyway, even PP, though better community that most. Plus grinding puzzles is more fun than grinding mobs. Only other MMO's I'm slightly interested in are Star Trek Online and Tatsumaki: Land at War. But enough offtopicness. I do occasionally wonder if I should play Project Entropia, I mean, Entropia Universe, no, I mean, Planet Calypso..(Make up your minds MindArk) but then I remember as a newbie all I did was stand around gathering sweat for hours then buying 100 bullets and promptly wasting them all missing every shot I fired at the nearest beasty.

I've been on and off addiction to MapleStory for almost two years now, but I always knew when I was getting too much into it. It never really made me want to stop playing other games, or games in general either. I bought five or six games just this month.

First of all, let me preface this with the fact that I dislike MMORPGs and have no idea why anyone would want to spend so much time on what is the equivalent of a digital slave pit for which YOU have to pay.

That said, I think if you ever need to hear about others who've gone through what you've gone through, it never hurts to look at www.wowdetox.com

mabey its just time for a new MMO, Warhammer online currently has me by the balls and isn't letting go anytime soon.

Actually I'm quite the opposite, after dropping MMO's I started playing singleplayer and multiplayer games and I have to admit, playing team fortress 2 for 2 hours is far more fulfilling than wiping in front of a boss for 4 hours.

I have to say that i feel the same way you do Fragamoo.
I've recently left for University and i decided that if i wanted to get a degree by the end of my course that WoW should be thrown out the window.
Of course i wasn't going to completely stop gaming so i took my trusty xbox 360 with me.
Before WoW i too was a very avid gamer, i would put a lot of money aside to buy new games to play Online with my friends on my original xbox.
Few months after i got my 360 my friends decided that they would buy WoW.
So we all got a subscription and began playing. 2, odd, years passed and finally i had escaped it.
Now i've recently brought Fable 2, Fallout 3 and Left for Dead and i have to tell you that i really don't enjoy playing my games anymore.
As you've already said you're stuck in the middle ground as you find that nothing grabs your attention.
I feel exactly the same way, i look back on the days of playing with a headset on and chatting to my friends, yes we make friends in MMOs.
Its upsetting but once you play an MMO you can never really get back into console gaming as the experience you recieve is so much different.
Anyway good luck mate.
Nice thread.

DangerChimp:
First of all, let me preface this with the fact that I dislike MMORPGs and have no idea why anyone would want to spend so much time on what is the equivalent of a digital slave pit for which YOU have to pay.

That said, I think if you ever need to hear about others who've gone through what you've gone through, it never hurts to look at www.wowdetox.com

I think you're misrepresenting MMOs based on what you've heard from other people and less on actually experiencing them, myself :P

I have the almost exact same situation, only it's like 5 or 6 titles instead.
Phoenix is probably right. Maybe you have grown out of most forms of gaming.
Find a new genre that you thought you didn't like, or a shovelware title that looks entertaining. If that doesn't get your gaming inspiration back, or at least a want to play a title that you have enjoyed, then yeah, you've grown out of gaming.

Money constraints perhaps? I'm a gamer, but I find I don't buy very many titles because I don't have that much money. Most of the money I have goes to books and comics, because people don't interrogate me when I try to buy them.

CantFaketheFunk:

DangerChimp:
First of all, let me preface this with the fact that I dislike MMORPGs and have no idea why anyone would want to spend so much time on what is the equivalent of a digital slave pit for which YOU have to pay.

That said, I think if you ever need to hear about others who've gone through what you've gone through, it never hurts to look at www.wowdetox.com

I think you're misrepresenting MMOs based on what you've heard from other people and less on actually experiencing them, myself :P

I think you're totally right, and I'm not about to start paying a subscription fee to prove you wrong. :D I'll stick to my consoles, thanks.

I was a priest lvl 70 i wasted 9 months got bored now im 3 months sober yay me

Perfectly fair. MMOs aren't for everybody, and I do love my 360 (and my other non-MMO PC games). Buuuuuuut that doesn't mean that there are inherent flaws in the genre, or that they can't be damn good games.

DangerChimp:
First of all, let me preface this with the fact that I dislike MMORPGs and have no idea why anyone would want to spend so much time on what is the equivalent of a digital slave pit for which YOU have to pay.

That said, I think if you ever need to hear about others who've gone through what you've gone through, it never hurts to look at www.wowdetox.com

Impressively closed minded. Sounds like you haven't played an MMO and are going by stereotypes. I play FFXI for like an hour or two for sat 3 days a week, I quit for months and float about. And it's not a "slave pit" at all. The amount of jobs and skills and missions and quests on offer mean your bound to find something you enjoy.

You seem to be treating MMOs like a crack addiction that requires which is kind of insulting to casual players of MMOs such as myself. Remember, it's OK to think differently to one another.

Phoenix Arrow:

DangerChimp:
First of all, let me preface this with the fact that I dislike MMORPGs and have no idea why anyone would want to spend so much time on what is the equivalent of a digital slave pit for which YOU have to pay.

That said, I think if you ever need to hear about others who've gone through what you've gone through, it never hurts to look at www.wowdetox.com

Impressively closed minded. Sounds like you haven't played an MMO and are going by stereotypes. I play FFXI for like an hour or two for sat 3 days a week, I quit for months and float about. And it's not a "slave pit" at all. The amount of jobs and skills and missions and quests on offer mean your bound to find something you enjoy.

You seem to be treating MMOs like a crack addiction that requires which is kind of insulting to casual players of MMOs such as myself. Remember, it's OK to think differently to one another.

Hey, thanks for the insult! Good for you! Anyway, I'm not treating anything like crack -- though it's ironic you said you had to "quit for months." I've never experienced that with a video game, but that's best left for you to think about.

It's all good for you to play MMOs, but you're forgetting what the original post was all about. The guy's love for other games is ruined. All I was saying is that he might be interested in looking at www.wowdetox.com, where a LOT of people are saying the same thing as he is. Peace.

When you play any one game too long, you go through Gamer Burn-Out. A gamer will do one of 2 things; play a game with a completely different genre, or take a gaming hiatus that can last for months until slow cravings bring you back. Shit, I do that with everyhting' video games, TV, comics, drawing...when one gets boring I go to the other. It's a circle that loops endlessly.

We as far as I have been around MMOs have been a part of my gaming life style. I had made a pledge to avoid the putrid grind fest that is World of Warcraft but then college mates of mine introduced me to it and since EVE had outstayed its welcome I decided "oh well why not". I find it fascinating that people find this addictive.

It could be played by a "copy paste" feature with a little imagination. So I foil this pile with other games. Playing WoW makes me appreciate my FPS, RTS, and, real RPG more rather than less. I have played enough MMOs to understand that there will be nothing but WoW clones and variations thereof until a game company goes a pair and does something other than the established format with a different skin.

never tried an mmo. closing I have come is PSO episode 1 and 2, but since there was a hunter's license fee, I never had the chance to try out the online part, but I enjoyed the single player out of it like no other.

MMOs combine the two things I like least in a potential hobby; socializing and comparative achievement. If the industry continues its inexorable descent into multiplayer everything I might just have to take up model railroading.

In some sense the model railroad analogy describes my whole view of gaming in general; I like what's on the screen to be what I've built using the game's tools; to that end I've got a Sims 2 neighborhood that's as old as this computer (and a sim who himself has existed for the duration), a Patrician 3 save where nothing passes through the Hanseatic League without me getting a cut, and Tropico islands where the game year on "Open-Ended" has reached the 24th century.

likalaruku:
When you play any one game too long, you go through Gamer Burn-Out. A gamer will do one of 2 things; play a game with a completely different genre, or take a gaming hiatus that can last for months until slow cravings bring you back. Shit, I do that with everyhting' video games, TV, comics, drawing...when one gets boring I go to the other. It's a circle that loops endlessly.

I think you might be onto something here. Whilst my interest in games has dwindled slightly, I've recently started watching a lot of anime and reading manga, something I did in a lot in my pre-WoW days.

Like somebody else mentioned, money constraints do come into it slightly as well. I'm in my first term at university and frankly its often a choice between eating for a week or getting a new game :P

One game I really do want to pick up is Left 4 Dead, hopefully it will hold my attention long enough to make it worthwhile (which is one of my main concerns, games are hardly cheap nowadays and I don't want to commit to one and then find I can't bring myself to finish it because it can't hold my attention long enough.

I played Maple Story a long time ago. Then I picked it back up and played it some more. Then I stopped. My breaks were VERY VERY long such as like a year at a time without playing.

The difference is that you've grown up in terms of what you expect from a game. When you played RA, then you had an orgasm over it.. even though if you were to play it online, you would declare it a rubbish game. I have looked at several titles recently and declared them crap. BioShock, CoD4, L4D (mainly it's non-existent server browser so it's impossible to organize who you play with), TF2, CNC3 and RA3, DoW. You name it, I hate it. The trouble with WoW is that it's actually a good game, so most other games just don't cut it. It's like after playing System Shock 2 or Deus Ex, you realize how completely inept and useless most modern FPSs are.
It's like, you play Supreme Commander, which lets you control the camera in any way you want. Zoom level, rotation, the works. Then I played the CNC3 demo (and some copies at a LAN) and it was like... I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING!! The truth is, most games do not hold up to the standards set by a few people like Blizzard and Introversion, even when they really should.

It wasn't WoW, it was that there have been no games I've really thought "This is amazing" in the single player market recently, bar maybe Fallout 3 which i need to wait for my 360 to arrive to play on.

I've never played MMOs because they seem like a massive waste of time to me. But then again I'm posting on The Escapist right now in a topic about something that I have no interest in. I suddenly feel inspired to do something with my life.

Maybe your excessive experience with WoW pushed you through the fantasy barrier and now you view all games transparently as time wasting psychological reward systems?

BallPtPenTheif:
Maybe your excessive experience with WoW pushed you through the fantasy barrier and now you view all games transparently as time wasting psychological reward systems?

My God doctor! He may be onto something.
Jokes aside i feel that that is a very good point.
The whole time you play WoW you strive to get more money for better armour, gems etc etc.
Maybe you're missing that want/need to get something to help yourself.

(Needs expansion)

MMO's just never really appealed to me. Dunno if this is due to not having high speed internet until recently, but not even MMO's with good reputations like World of Warcraft seemed like something I'd enjoy spending my time playing.

It sounds more like regular gaming burn out to me rather then something caused by quitting an MMO.
My advice would be to embrace this loss of interest in gaming and do something else you enjoy, rather then force yourself to like gaming again right away.
Chances are you will be brought back by a new ground breaking game at one point, but until then enjoy a different hobby for a while.

I can only play MMO's for like 1-2 hours max if I'm alone. I hate the grind-fest. If I'm playing with at least one friend, at least I can chit-chat with them, so I can go for longer.