I am one of those people who would most certainly fit in as not just a MMO addict but a gaming addict in general. I also suffer from ADHD which doesnt help either. I can tell you from personal experience just what "gamming addiction" can do to your life. Sometimes I think Im a walking-talking poster boy for gaming addiction. There are times when I tune out everything else around me or even pass on the horizontal mombo with the old lady...been there. for hours and hours on end. Mater of fact, my gaming habits are a direct cause of the divorce I am now going through.
Articles like this one are what guys like me need to see. I cant even go over to my mom's house for 2 hours to have dinner without thinking how much more fun I could be having if I was sitting at my computer logged into whatever MMO or game that happens to hold my attention that day. In fact I even play them at work, when I should be working. Good thing my job doesnt require me to do much actual work I guess. As long as I can manage to stay awake all night they prety much leave me alone. Not that that is good justification for it to begin with. The bad here, is that I know I have a problem. And I tell myself to step away every single day. I just never seem to accomplish it.
I dont think I am addicted to any particular game however I do find I get itchy to play something if I have not played a game for a while.
This applies to all games. PC or Console. MMO FPS RPG Puzzle .... pretty much anything
I would not call myself an addict I just find it a good way to relax and let off steam.
I used to visit this site a lot however in recent years it has become the home of negative forum posts, illogical opinions and tantrums so I visit less often.
Played or Beta'd: UO / DAOC / Horizons / EQ2 / DDO / EVE / Archlord / PirateKingsOnline / Tabula Rasa / LOTRO / AOC / Champions / Darkfall / Mortal Online / DCUO / Rift / STO / SWTOR / TSW
I am one of those people who would most certainly fit in as not just a MMO addict but a gaming addict in general. I also suffer from ADHD which doesnt help either. I can tell you from personal experience just what "gamming addiction" can do to your life. Sometimes I think Im a walking-talking poster boy for gaming addiction. There are times when I tune out everything else around me or even pass on the horizontal mombo with the old lady...been there. for hours and hours on end. Mater of fact, my gaming habits are a direct cause of the divorce I am now going through. Articles like this one are what guys like me need to see. I cant even go over to my mom's house for 2 hours to have dinner without thinking how much more fun I could be having if I was sitting at my computer logged into whatever MMO or game that happens to hold my attention that day. In fact I even play them at work, when I should be working. Good thing my job doesnt require me to do much actual work I guess. As long as I can manage to stay awake all night they prety much leave me alone. Not that that is good justification for it to begin with. The bad here, is that I know I have a problem. And I tell myself to step away every single day. I just never seem to accomplish it.
I would disagree. I believe that knowing or admitting there is a problem is the first step and is a very good thing.
This is quite an awsome read as I too have been part of the MMO live and learn life. I wonder if people really just get burnt out or if its more of "looking for that spark" you got from your first MMO experience. I started out in EQ and also began to neglect my wife and son to many hours of endless raids and griding that next level/AA point. I made myself quit after 2.5 years and get my life back in perspective. To my astonishment it worked however I bounced around lots of MMO's in the last 5 years playing casually to semi casually trying to find something that caught my attention the way EQ did. I honestly have to say though I think its more that I have learned in my older age to balance my gaming and RL. I spend maybe 2-3 nights a week now playing 2-3 hours per on LOTRO, but still allow myself time for the gym. I also allow for at least 2 nights of watching a movie or TV show with the wife and helping my son with his homework. In recent revelations however my son who is 12 is now addicted to playing COD online on the PS3, is this the beginning of a new cycle or just life repeating itself?!?!?! GAWD I hate IRONY lol
I must work too much to get burned out, from my perspective, so many MMO's out there, not enough time to give even a 1/10 of them a try.
Right now I'm playing EVE (I'll probably die in my Tempest 20 years from now) and Aion, and would love to find the time to give FE, DFO, MO and a couple of others a try.
Sometimes I do feel a bit burned out, but then I just ease up and focus on real life activities for a spell and then come back for another round.
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
I am glad someone finally wrote about this. I can barley get three months out of a mmo anymore being the exploration type who does not feed of item reward systems so well. I am getting good at quiting
Originally posted by ProfRed they won't last forever like your real life.
hmm......
OR your real life DOSENT last forever, which is why you shouldnt waste the few years away on shitty games that bore you ha.
Originally posted by Scagweed22 is it the graphics? the repetativenesses? i mean what is the point? you could be so much more productive in real life Real life brings repetition and pointlessness too. The only thing real life offers is Great graphics. Its kinda expensive too and way to dependent on the cash shop. Totally pay to win as well. No thank you. Ill stick to my games.
I enjoyed the article and the responses and can relate to alot of people here. I have been a pretty active gamer since around 1987 when i was 5 years old and my first game ever was dragon warrior. I have played mostly rpg's ever since then and was always sad when the game ended.
I am so addicted to MMO's that even though i am not playing anything atm i am always on forums looking for something good to play, but still chasing the excitement of my first MMO which was Lineage 2. I am one of the ones that overplays and gets bored if the content is not there or the pvp isn't fun enough and would rather be gaming than well.. anything really (although i have not once turned down my wife for sex, ever).
It is a great hobby, and it keeps me from getting drunk or anything else that costs money, so i feel its all ok. I don't have any kids yet so im sure things will change even though i wont want them to. With my go hard or go home attitude that may be the time to give up MMO's for good.
Interesting write up, funny thing is I just finished doing the closed beta of STO and now after just a few days of open beta I decided not to buy the game due to how fast I was becoming bored with the game. i went through the same thing with the last few betas I have been in, so I was just thinking maybe its time to stop playing even betas for a while and find a new hobby.
I think mmo gaming has run it's course every developer is trying to copy wow and it has ruined the genre imo. WoW is a great game for people new to mmos but for verterns like myself find it very boring and repetitive and way to easy. I have pretty much given up on mmos for the time being until a company decides to break out and do something really different or try to clone daoc eq or swg pre ngu. The companies that made those games need to just remake them wiht pretty graphics so the people so used to wow will play it and just take the controls and combat from wow.
After a friend of mine got super addicted to EQ (lost her job and her apartment. She ended up moving out of state to live with her mother . . . and play EQ), I vowed never to play another MMO (at the time I had played UO and a bit of EQ.).
Then SWG came along. I became ADDICTED to that game. My wife hated the game. The CU/NGE saved my marriage.
I did not play any MMO's until a few years ago. I decided to to try WoW. I chased the carrot they dangled in front of me through three characters who never made it to lvl 60. played a year before I decided that it was not worth it.
I almost got hooked on DFO, but I got burned out through beta.
I have bounced around a few free trials, but nothing hooks me.
All I am looking for now is APB. Nothing interests me at all. I am almost completely burned out of the genre.
SWG was not my first MMO, but it was certainly the best I played. Nothing I have played since has compared to it , and nothing on the horizon looks like it will compare.
I've hoped from MMO to MMO over the years, starting with EQ and ending with WoW, but "burnout" is a thing bound to happen to a power gamer like myself. Its a shame most people get addicted, but addiction is a human epidemic due to how people grow up these days (unfortunately) & escapism is seen as the "lesser" evil to drugs, sex, or other more physical addictions.
I'm glad I can finally quit games & know when to focus on RL, especially now working out of college - but I kind of feel sorry for those with such a magnetized addiction; is there anything developers can do? or really is that now part of the business plan (or so it seems) .
I am one of those people who would most certainly fit in as not just a MMO addict but a gaming addict in general. I also suffer from ADHD which doesnt help either. I can tell you from personal experience just what "gamming addiction" can do to your life. Sometimes I think Im a walking-talking poster boy for gaming addiction. There are times when I tune out everything else around me or even pass on the horizontal mombo with the old lady...been there. for hours and hours on end. Mater of fact, my gaming habits are a direct cause of the divorce I am now going through. Articles like this one are what guys like me need to see. I cant even go over to my mom's house for 2 hours to have dinner without thinking how much more fun I could be having if I was sitting at my computer logged into whatever MMO or game that happens to hold my attention that day. In fact I even play them at work, when I should be working. Good thing my job doesnt require me to do much actual work I guess. As long as I can manage to stay awake all night they prety much leave me alone. Not that that is good justification for it to begin with. The bad here, is that I know I have a problem. And I tell myself to step away every single day. I just never seem to accomplish it.
I would disagree. I believe that knowing or admitting there is a problem is the first step and is a very good thing.
Best of luck to you in resolving it.
What happened to it just being a game! Good luck cblodgett, the best thing to do is find something involving outside of the computer - Mountain biking or skating or just something.
I loved the post here and can relate to those posting in many ways, I rid my self of WoWcrack when my first daughter came and it was super hard. I still can visualize eating Gnomes with my Feral Druid, nothing better than Gnome blood for a shiny coat! (see it still is there even after 2+ yrs away). Its a shiat game for the dependency its creates!
I still play games but maybe 1-2 hrs a week if I am lucky, the wife hates them but knows after a long hard week my brain needs the down time. I only play Spellborn because I can solo it , achieve progression and have a great time in 30mins. Never touch a sub game again - creates part of the addictions in the first place!
Peace, thanks for the article.
EivilSar, Deathhand of International Spellborn PvP
I've been heavy into games every since I was young and my sister and I would spend the weekend playing Monopoly (no computer games back then.. yup, I'm an old timer). When computer games arrived in the 1970s, I loved to played the adventure games like Zork. Then I got my first PC and there were all kinds of games available on floppy disk. Then public computer networks with games became available and I spent nearly a decade playing MUDs and other RPGs.
I liked the Ultima series, so I bought UO when it first came out, got it all installed and signed in for the first time. I was promptly killed by someone any had my meager starting posessions stolen while I was still figuring out how to move the character. I took the game back to the store the next day and have never enjoyed UO since, although I've tried it again.
My first 3D MMO was The Realm in beta, but the PvP kept me from buying it. Then I got an early invite to the AC1 beta and was hooked for over 4 years. That was when my first quitting occured. I'd maxed out my main character and almost maxed out a couple of others. I had tried just about everything in the game and there wasn't anything interesting left to do. Even writing JavaScript macros to automate the tedious parts of playing got old.
So thats when I started trying various new games. First, trying any available betas, and then playing one than was fun until I got tired of it and moved on to something else. The average ones were good for 3-4 months, the better ones for 6-9. And then when I was in the WoW beta, I knew it was a keeper. I played WoW for a full 2 years and only stopped because the new expansion ruined nearly all my fancy addons that I'd developed over the months.
So since then its been back to betas, free trials, F2P games and playing interesting subcriptions for 3-6 months. At this point I've got enough betas, F2P and endless trials so that I have lots of variety without a paid subscription. Like many others, I'm still looking for the holy grail of their ideal MMO, but I'll be satisfied with just another well done one like WoW was. I'm currently in the STO beta and had hoped it might be worth a subscription, but its another disappointment. Maybe later on, it will reform itself like DDO did and be more fun to play, but for now I'm just making due with things that don't cost much (which also helps my entertainment budget).
I doubt I'll ever quit MMOs completely, but I've been going back and revisiting some of the older strategy games that I have and buying the occasional puzzle game on sale like Portal. I've even been dabbling with Java a bit to see if I can code something interesting for my cell phone. But I stil track what going on here, hoping to find something new and interesting.
I can say that I'm almost to that point. For the most part companies with the money to pull off an MMO look heavily to WoW, a game I do not enjoy, for inspiration. That's a turn off for me so I'm finding less and less games that I can say with some measure of comfort that I'm looking forward to them. If not the WoW forumla, then these same companies are taking leaps and bounds away from world building with more simulation aspects and choosing instead to make more arcade-like, single player type games. This too is not appealing to me.
I plan on trying FFXIV for the reason that I've never played a SE MMO. I doubt my time there will be long. After that World of Darkness Online and possibly the game that 38 Studios is working on if it has more sim, less SP/game aspects. After those two, unless a developer flat out states they are making a game for those who enjoy a sandboxy, world simulation type game I'm done. There is just too much room in this genre for those type of games and no one is making them that has the financial backing to do them halfway decent in all aspects of game design. There are enough gamers out there that with interest in such a game that at least one AAA company could produce such a game and make a tidy profit.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
I gave up EQ and WoW because of the grind, and boredom. Sad part about it is I let both of those games ruin my college grades. I've seen engineer students go into complete failure due to being sucked into the life of a raider. I can honestly say quitting EQ and WoW was the best decisions I've ever made when it comes to gaming and it has nothing to do with them being bad games.
The only MMOs that I have enjoyed without being sucked into hardcore carrot on a stick mode were games that basically weren't built for it, Guild Wars, Planetside, UO. I could honestly play these games 2 hours a day and be fine with it, enjoy myself, and not feel like I'm left in the dust, or under-geared to do anything remotely fun. However boredom over took me with these as well but the decision to quit was never as painful or excuse ridden as the former MMO's I mentioned. I could easily and happily put down Guild Wars or Planetside for a few months and never have a bad thing to say other than, I just got bored, trying new things out.
What are the warning signs that you may not be enjoying MMOs as much as you used to and that you should step away? MMORPG.com columnist Jaime Skelton shares her opinions in this week's Player Perspectives column. "I don't really have the money to try a new MMO," a friend told me recently. "I guess I'll keep playing this one, even though I don't really play anymore." When asked why she didn't just quit, she told me, "It's boring, but I still have some friends that miss me and I like to pop on and chat with them once in a while." I couldn't convince her to quit, even after relating my own stories of how I'd gone through the same feelings repeatedly, to find I was just wasting time and money. The MMO Industry doesn't want you to quit, of course. It makes money by your loyalty to its game styles and brands, just like any other entertainment business. By that logic, I shouldn't encourage players to quit either; writing about the industry pays my bills, and if they don't prosper, neither do I.
To be honest its the industry itself that is making me less and less interested in playing mmos. With the latest developments of paid betas and cashshops im really thinking about getting some good single player games that i,ve missed. Dragon Age comes to mind as its suppose to be along the path of baldurs gate.
When I first started MMO's I never wanted to play anything else. However, I didn't have a computer so I actually did play my xbox to kill time until I could get on and level my character in Ragnarok or WoW.
Now that I do have my own computer, I have played TONS of MMO's and logged hours on in without trying the other games. Really, after I played WoW for 4 years, I found all other games to be very boring. I tried quitting when I felt the game was a fruitless endeavor but, I kept coming back and starting fresh to feed my addiction. However, never really realized it until WoTLK. Basically, the game was clearly the same thing over and over at that point.
Now I play all kinds of different games again! And they are really fun and I wish I played them long ago. I tried Warhammer Online for a year, but it never stuck with me because the end game made me think of the boring loop in WoW. Then I tried Aion but never got to 50 because of the endless grind.
I don't enjoy those boring routine MMO's anymore. Once you break from them, you don't feel like going back (well sometimes you do, because the community was fun). Now I'm waiting for new-age MMO's like Global Agenda, APB, or even MO that will hopefully have the same fun as my favorite non-MMO games but bring the small knit community that comes with traditional MMO's.
I could tell you my life story but I wont I'll keep this short. I've been addicted to games before.
I should of seen the signs back in the 80's when I got my first console (Atari 2600). I would skip Church, School or pretend to be ill just so I could sit at home and bash some space invaders.
The 1st game that I played too much was Championship Manager back in 1992 but it didn't take a proper hold on me (probably because it was single player).
Counter-Strike was my first real online gaming addiction, 2nd game was Star Wars Galaxies. Both game however came at a time in my life where I had moved to a new City. I was kinda lonely, vunerable, in new surroundings and not knowing a soul apart from work collegues . I needed some social interaction. Going to bars was an option but I didn't fancy going alone. I was a computer geek and gamer and started playing games like Counter-Strike and Star Wars Galaxies. These provided me with a platform in which I could interact and socialise with other people. To this day some of my best friends are people I met while playing those games.
I still game but I don't get sucked in and addicted like I used to. Its probably down to the fact I now have 2 children, 1 on the way and a gorgeous girlfriend. I think life in general contributes to many addictions and games can definatly fill some holes
Very good and appropiate article! MMOs can ruin lifes, many examples out there. Devs know they're creating game dynamics not focused on enjoyment but addiction (basically grind) and someday those corporations will get a blowback.
Not playing any mmo currently (since many months ago)...but testing STO beta XD (what a grind!)
One of the best articles I have ever read on this sight, Nice work Jaime:) Struck a cord in me as well. I think gaming adicction is a very real problem, and its nice to see somebody looking at it objectivly for once. I was expecting a lot of the replys to be very self defensive and negative but was pleasently surprised by what I have read through so far. Very interesting thread.
There certainly are those who hang on when they should go. But there are far more who go before they should, like a swarm of locusts they buy each new MMO, play a month and move on. On a personnal level not quitting is harming players, but not staying is harming MMO's.
It is sometimes hard to leave a character that you have put so much time into to develop. Ingame friends make it even harder. New lures of content and items are even harder to resist. But in the end you are no longer playing a game - the game is playing you to pay for the sub.
Very few players actually quit until they are really pushed away. This can ofc be RL issues. But more often than not - this happens when the devs screw up. The class you play is beeing nerfed to death. A feature of the game has been changed and new added that you dont like. And over time these things pile up and turn into hate rather than love for the game. Many gamers need to be pushed to this point before leaving a character(s) that they have developed over long time.
In the end it is becoming very aparent that the gaming industry is very stagnant atm. The big companies are no longer creating games. They are creating software to make money. The best games I have been playing lately (with truely enjoyable gaming features) are games like Trine - Hinterland and Torhclight. But even those games are bringing nothing new to the table. They are just focusing on the improtant parts of games (for me).
There certainly are those who hang on when they should go. But there are far more who go before they should, like a swarm of locusts they buy each new MMO, play a month and move on. On a personnal level not quitting is harming players, but not staying is harming MMO's.
Gamers pre-order or buy new MMO titles cause they are actually looking for a new MMO (are playing a game that they should have left long time ago). They leave the new MMO game BECAUSE that game is not delivering the basics that the old game got right.
You can not blame the gamers for leaving a MMO game that doesn't have the features - they quality - or the gameplay enjoyment that the gamers are looking for. Those MMOs are harming theselfs in not focusing on the true parts that the majority of gamers are looking for.
Niche games like WAR - AOC - Darkfall will never be mainstream games even if they were launched as such. THey have to many annoying features (that were actually designed into the game and supposed to be part of it) for the normal gamer to consider it as enjoyment. Games like WOW try to remove this annoyance part asap and manage to keep the majority of their playerbase happy that way. But games like WAR and AOC ignore this majority - or are simply unable to deliver like in case of AOC with long loading screens and torn apart landareas, single player storyline - and broken core systems like the stats on items and the entire city building and siege system. Just to name few. Add on top of this very poor quality control and you see mass exodus of gamers that are STILL looking for new game.
You can not blame gamers for not wanting to play bad games.
Comments
I am one of those people who would most certainly fit in as not just a MMO addict but a gaming addict in general. I also suffer from ADHD which doesnt help either. I can tell you from personal experience just what "gamming addiction" can do to your life. Sometimes I think Im a walking-talking poster boy for gaming addiction. There are times when I tune out everything else around me or even pass on the horizontal mombo with the old lady...been there. for hours and hours on end. Mater of fact, my gaming habits are a direct cause of the divorce I am now going through.
Articles like this one are what guys like me need to see. I cant even go over to my mom's house for 2 hours to have dinner without thinking how much more fun I could be having if I was sitting at my computer logged into whatever MMO or game that happens to hold my attention that day. In fact I even play them at work, when I should be working. Good thing my job doesnt require me to do much actual work I guess. As long as I can manage to stay awake all night they prety much leave me alone. Not that that is good justification for it to begin with. The bad here, is that I know I have a problem. And I tell myself to step away every single day. I just never seem to accomplish it.
I dont think I am addicted to any particular game however I do find I get itchy to play something if I have not played a game for a while.
This applies to all games. PC or Console. MMO FPS RPG Puzzle .... pretty much anything
I would not call myself an addict I just find it a good way to relax and let off steam.
I used to visit this site a lot however in recent years it has become the home of negative forum posts, illogical opinions and tantrums so I visit less often.
Played or Beta'd: UO / DAOC / Horizons / EQ2 / DDO / EVE / Archlord / PirateKingsOnline / Tabula Rasa / LOTRO / AOC / Champions / Darkfall / Mortal Online / DCUO / Rift / STO / SWTOR / TSW
I would disagree. I believe that knowing or admitting there is a problem is the first step and is a very good thing.
Best of luck to you in resolving it.
Your fail comment, failed.
This is quite an awsome read as I too have been part of the MMO live and learn life. I wonder if people really just get burnt out or if its more of "looking for that spark" you got from your first MMO experience. I started out in EQ and also began to neglect my wife and son to many hours of endless raids and griding that next level/AA point. I made myself quit after 2.5 years and get my life back in perspective. To my astonishment it worked however I bounced around lots of MMO's in the last 5 years playing casually to semi casually trying to find something that caught my attention the way EQ did. I honestly have to say though I think its more that I have learned in my older age to balance my gaming and RL. I spend maybe 2-3 nights a week now playing 2-3 hours per on LOTRO, but still allow myself time for the gym. I also allow for at least 2 nights of watching a movie or TV show with the wife and helping my son with his homework. In recent revelations however my son who is 12 is now addicted to playing COD online on the PS3, is this the beginning of a new cycle or just life repeating itself?!?!?! GAWD I hate IRONY lol
Great article! I've been through the burnout, break and rediscovery of the genre and couldn't believe how much I could relate to it.
I must work too much to get burned out, from my perspective, so many MMO's out there, not enough time to give even a 1/10 of them a try.
Right now I'm playing EVE (I'll probably die in my Tempest 20 years from now) and Aion, and would love to find the time to give FE, DFO, MO and a couple of others a try.
Sometimes I do feel a bit burned out, but then I just ease up and focus on real life activities for a spell and then come back for another round.
"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
I am glad someone finally wrote about this. I can barley get three months out of a mmo anymore being the exploration type who does not feed of item reward systems so well. I am getting good at quiting
hmm......
OR your real life DOSENT last forever, which is why you shouldnt waste the few years away on shitty games that bore you ha.
Originally posted by Scagweed22
is it the graphics? the repetativenesses? i mean what is the point? you could be so much more productive in real life
Real life brings repetition and pointlessness too. The only thing real life offers is Great graphics. Its kinda expensive too and way to dependent on the cash shop. Totally pay to win as well. No thank you. Ill stick to my games.
I enjoyed the article and the responses and can relate to alot of people here. I have been a pretty active gamer since around 1987 when i was 5 years old and my first game ever was dragon warrior. I have played mostly rpg's ever since then and was always sad when the game ended.
I am so addicted to MMO's that even though i am not playing anything atm i am always on forums looking for something good to play, but still chasing the excitement of my first MMO which was Lineage 2. I am one of the ones that overplays and gets bored if the content is not there or the pvp isn't fun enough and would rather be gaming than well.. anything really (although i have not once turned down my wife for sex, ever).
It is a great hobby, and it keeps me from getting drunk or anything else that costs money, so i feel its all ok. I don't have any kids yet so im sure things will change even though i wont want them to. With my go hard or go home attitude that may be the time to give up MMO's for good.
Interesting write up, funny thing is I just finished doing the closed beta of STO and now after just a few days of open beta I decided not to buy the game due to how fast I was becoming bored with the game. i went through the same thing with the last few betas I have been in, so I was just thinking maybe its time to stop playing even betas for a while and find a new hobby.
I think mmo gaming has run it's course every developer is trying to copy wow and it has ruined the genre imo. WoW is a great game for people new to mmos but for verterns like myself find it very boring and repetitive and way to easy. I have pretty much given up on mmos for the time being until a company decides to break out and do something really different or try to clone daoc eq or swg pre ngu. The companies that made those games need to just remake them wiht pretty graphics so the people so used to wow will play it and just take the controls and combat from wow.
After a friend of mine got super addicted to EQ (lost her job and her apartment. She ended up moving out of state to live with her mother . . . and play EQ), I vowed never to play another MMO (at the time I had played UO and a bit of EQ.).
Then SWG came along. I became ADDICTED to that game. My wife hated the game. The CU/NGE saved my marriage.
I did not play any MMO's until a few years ago. I decided to to try WoW. I chased the carrot they dangled in front of me through three characters who never made it to lvl 60. played a year before I decided that it was not worth it.
I almost got hooked on DFO, but I got burned out through beta.
I have bounced around a few free trials, but nothing hooks me.
All I am looking for now is APB. Nothing interests me at all. I am almost completely burned out of the genre.
SWG was not my first MMO, but it was certainly the best I played. Nothing I have played since has compared to it , and nothing on the horizon looks like it will compare.
Great article.
I've hoped from MMO to MMO over the years, starting with EQ and ending with WoW, but "burnout" is a thing bound to happen to a power gamer like myself. Its a shame most people get addicted, but addiction is a human epidemic due to how people grow up these days (unfortunately) & escapism is seen as the "lesser" evil to drugs, sex, or other more physical addictions.
I'm glad I can finally quit games & know when to focus on RL, especially now working out of college - but I kind of feel sorry for those with such a magnetized addiction; is there anything developers can do? or really is that now part of the business plan (or so it seems) .
God speed to those stuck
PS. FFXIV better not get me addicted ><
I would disagree. I believe that knowing or admitting there is a problem is the first step and is a very good thing.
Best of luck to you in resolving it.
What happened to it just being a game! Good luck cblodgett, the best thing to do is find something involving outside of the computer - Mountain biking or skating or just something.
I loved the post here and can relate to those posting in many ways, I rid my self of WoWcrack when my first daughter came and it was super hard. I still can visualize eating Gnomes with my Feral Druid, nothing better than Gnome blood for a shiny coat! (see it still is there even after 2+ yrs away). Its a shiat game for the dependency its creates!
I still play games but maybe 1-2 hrs a week if I am lucky, the wife hates them but knows after a long hard week my brain needs the down time. I only play Spellborn because I can solo it , achieve progression and have a great time in 30mins. Never touch a sub game again - creates part of the addictions in the first place!
Peace, thanks for the article.
EivilSar, Deathhand of International
Spellborn PvP
I've been heavy into games every since I was young and my sister and I would spend the weekend playing Monopoly (no computer games back then.. yup, I'm an old timer). When computer games arrived in the 1970s, I loved to played the adventure games like Zork. Then I got my first PC and there were all kinds of games available on floppy disk. Then public computer networks with games became available and I spent nearly a decade playing MUDs and other RPGs.
I liked the Ultima series, so I bought UO when it first came out, got it all installed and signed in for the first time. I was promptly killed by someone any had my meager starting posessions stolen while I was still figuring out how to move the character. I took the game back to the store the next day and have never enjoyed UO since, although I've tried it again.
My first 3D MMO was The Realm in beta, but the PvP kept me from buying it. Then I got an early invite to the AC1 beta and was hooked for over 4 years. That was when my first quitting occured. I'd maxed out my main character and almost maxed out a couple of others. I had tried just about everything in the game and there wasn't anything interesting left to do. Even writing JavaScript macros to automate the tedious parts of playing got old.
So thats when I started trying various new games. First, trying any available betas, and then playing one than was fun until I got tired of it and moved on to something else. The average ones were good for 3-4 months, the better ones for 6-9. And then when I was in the WoW beta, I knew it was a keeper. I played WoW for a full 2 years and only stopped because the new expansion ruined nearly all my fancy addons that I'd developed over the months.
So since then its been back to betas, free trials, F2P games and playing interesting subcriptions for 3-6 months. At this point I've got enough betas, F2P and endless trials so that I have lots of variety without a paid subscription. Like many others, I'm still looking for the holy grail of their ideal MMO, but I'll be satisfied with just another well done one like WoW was. I'm currently in the STO beta and had hoped it might be worth a subscription, but its another disappointment. Maybe later on, it will reform itself like DDO did and be more fun to play, but for now I'm just making due with things that don't cost much (which also helps my entertainment budget).
I doubt I'll ever quit MMOs completely, but I've been going back and revisiting some of the older strategy games that I have and buying the occasional puzzle game on sale like Portal. I've even been dabbling with Java a bit to see if I can code something interesting for my cell phone. But I stil track what going on here, hoping to find something new and interesting.
Good article.
I can say that I'm almost to that point. For the most part companies with the money to pull off an MMO look heavily to WoW, a game I do not enjoy, for inspiration. That's a turn off for me so I'm finding less and less games that I can say with some measure of comfort that I'm looking forward to them. If not the WoW forumla, then these same companies are taking leaps and bounds away from world building with more simulation aspects and choosing instead to make more arcade-like, single player type games. This too is not appealing to me.
I plan on trying FFXIV for the reason that I've never played a SE MMO. I doubt my time there will be long. After that World of Darkness Online and possibly the game that 38 Studios is working on if it has more sim, less SP/game aspects. After those two, unless a developer flat out states they are making a game for those who enjoy a sandboxy, world simulation type game I'm done. There is just too much room in this genre for those type of games and no one is making them that has the financial backing to do them halfway decent in all aspects of game design. There are enough gamers out there that with interest in such a game that at least one AAA company could produce such a game and make a tidy profit.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
I gave up EQ and WoW because of the grind, and boredom. Sad part about it is I let both of those games ruin my college grades. I've seen engineer students go into complete failure due to being sucked into the life of a raider. I can honestly say quitting EQ and WoW was the best decisions I've ever made when it comes to gaming and it has nothing to do with them being bad games.
The only MMOs that I have enjoyed without being sucked into hardcore carrot on a stick mode were games that basically weren't built for it, Guild Wars, Planetside, UO. I could honestly play these games 2 hours a day and be fine with it, enjoy myself, and not feel like I'm left in the dust, or under-geared to do anything remotely fun. However boredom over took me with these as well but the decision to quit was never as painful or excuse ridden as the former MMO's I mentioned. I could easily and happily put down Guild Wars or Planetside for a few months and never have a bad thing to say other than, I just got bored, trying new things out.
Read Is It Time To Quit?.
To be honest its the industry itself that is making me less and less interested in playing mmos. With the latest developments of paid betas and cashshops im really thinking about getting some good single player games that i,ve missed. Dragon Age comes to mind as its suppose to be along the path of baldurs gate.
However i will continue to play eve:)
bobm111
When I first started MMO's I never wanted to play anything else. However, I didn't have a computer so I actually did play my xbox to kill time until I could get on and level my character in Ragnarok or WoW.
Now that I do have my own computer, I have played TONS of MMO's and logged hours on in without trying the other games. Really, after I played WoW for 4 years, I found all other games to be very boring. I tried quitting when I felt the game was a fruitless endeavor but, I kept coming back and starting fresh to feed my addiction. However, never really realized it until WoTLK. Basically, the game was clearly the same thing over and over at that point.
Now I play all kinds of different games again! And they are really fun and I wish I played them long ago. I tried Warhammer Online for a year, but it never stuck with me because the end game made me think of the boring loop in WoW. Then I tried Aion but never got to 50 because of the endless grind.
I don't enjoy those boring routine MMO's anymore. Once you break from them, you don't feel like going back (well sometimes you do, because the community was fun). Now I'm waiting for new-age MMO's like Global Agenda, APB, or even MO that will hopefully have the same fun as my favorite non-MMO games but bring the small knit community that comes with traditional MMO's.
I could tell you my life story but I wont
I'll keep this short. I've been addicted to games before.
I should of seen the signs back in the 80's when I got my first console (Atari 2600). I would skip Church, School or pretend to be ill just so I could sit at home and bash some space invaders.
The 1st game that I played too much was Championship Manager back in 1992 but it didn't take a proper hold on me (probably because it was single player).
Counter-Strike was my first real online gaming addiction, 2nd game was Star Wars Galaxies. Both game however came at a time in my life where I had moved to a new City. I was kinda lonely, vunerable, in new surroundings and not knowing a soul apart from work collegues . I needed some social interaction. Going to bars was an option but I didn't fancy going alone. I was a computer geek and gamer and started playing games like Counter-Strike and Star Wars Galaxies. These provided me with a platform in which I could interact and socialise with other people. To this day some of my best friends are people I met while playing those games.
I still game but I don't get sucked in and addicted like I used to. Its probably down to the fact I now have 2 children, 1 on the way and a gorgeous girlfriend. I think life in general contributes to many addictions and games can definatly fill some holes
(Man my spelling sucks)
Very good and appropiate article! MMOs can ruin lifes, many examples out there. Devs know they're creating game dynamics not focused on enjoyment but addiction (basically grind) and someday those corporations will get a blowback.
Not playing any mmo currently (since many months ago)...but testing STO beta XD (what a grind!)
One of the best articles I have ever read on this sight, Nice work Jaime:) Struck a cord in me as well. I think gaming adicction is a very real problem, and its nice to see somebody looking at it objectivly for once. I was expecting a lot of the replys to be very self defensive and negative but was pleasently surprised by what I have read through so far. Very interesting thread.
There certainly are those who hang on when they should go. But there are far more who go before they should, like a swarm of locusts they buy each new MMO, play a month and move on. On a personnal level not quitting is harming players, but not staying is harming MMO's.
Great article.
It is sometimes hard to leave a character that you have put so much time into to develop. Ingame friends make it even harder. New lures of content and items are even harder to resist. But in the end you are no longer playing a game - the game is playing you to pay for the sub.
Very few players actually quit until they are really pushed away. This can ofc be RL issues. But more often than not - this happens when the devs screw up. The class you play is beeing nerfed to death. A feature of the game has been changed and new added that you dont like. And over time these things pile up and turn into hate rather than love for the game. Many gamers need to be pushed to this point before leaving a character(s) that they have developed over long time.
In the end it is becoming very aparent that the gaming industry is very stagnant atm. The big companies are no longer creating games. They are creating software to make money. The best games I have been playing lately (with truely enjoyable gaming features) are games like Trine - Hinterland and Torhclight. But even those games are bringing nothing new to the table. They are just focusing on the improtant parts of games (for me).
Gamers pre-order or buy new MMO titles cause they are actually looking for a new MMO (are playing a game that they should have left long time ago). They leave the new MMO game BECAUSE that game is not delivering the basics that the old game got right.
You can not blame the gamers for leaving a MMO game that doesn't have the features - they quality - or the gameplay enjoyment that the gamers are looking for. Those MMOs are harming theselfs in not focusing on the true parts that the majority of gamers are looking for.
Niche games like WAR - AOC - Darkfall will never be mainstream games even if they were launched as such. THey have to many annoying features (that were actually designed into the game and supposed to be part of it) for the normal gamer to consider it as enjoyment. Games like WOW try to remove this annoyance part asap and manage to keep the majority of their playerbase happy that way. But games like WAR and AOC ignore this majority - or are simply unable to deliver like in case of AOC with long loading screens and torn apart landareas, single player storyline - and broken core systems like the stats on items and the entire city building and siege system. Just to name few. Add on top of this very poor quality control and you see mass exodus of gamers that are STILL looking for new game.
You can not blame gamers for not wanting to play bad games.