Have You Ever Returned To An MMO You Previously Just Could Not Get Into? | MMORPG.com

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Have You Ever Returned To An MMO You Previously Just Could Not Get Into? | MMORPG.com

Not every game is made for everyone. This is known. Yet even games that seem to have wide-spread appeal don't always click either. However, that doesn't mean they won't click later on. Have you ever played an MMO and initially hated it, only to return and enjoy the same game months or years after you first tried it?

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Mensur

I dont know how many times I tried to get into EVE Online and always quit a few days after.

GladDog

I almost quit City of Heroes in Alpha, because I did not understand the genre, never played an MMORPG before this,  However, a friend helped me learn the ropes and it became my all-time favorite game!  

I also started playing Elder Scrolls Online, and it was awful.  from the 30+ hour patch to get the game playable in the beginning to horrifying lag, and absolutely un0fun PvP, I quit.  Later, I came back after I was assured all of these issues had been fixed, or at least made tolerable.  So I went back and had a marvelous time, playing nearly 2 years before I quit to play Star Trek Online again.

Scot

Does that not happen to our butterflies every day? Play the game for half an hour, find that with their 'modern entertainment induced' small attention span they get bored and then do some more the next day?

Nebless

No MMO's, but a couple of single player games yes.

I tried 3 times to get into Titan Quest. Bought it, sold it, bought it again, sold it again, finally got it on steam and decided I WAS going to finish it. Game finally clicked for me and I'm still playing it.

luouxmont

I've stuck with ffxiv since 2017. My relationship with my adventurer is similar to anyone's with their soulmate - not necessarily a spouse (I'm certain even my fiance relates to my adventurer as one of her soulmates also.).

Whenever I switch to other games, I simply categorize it as one of my adventurer's dreams. She always returns to the woke Eorzean life to do whatever it is she does or not do whatever it is she won't. She's always there for me - consents to every action I input into the keyboard (except when my ffxiv disconnects randomly or for server maintenance, I've accepted this to mean it as a gesture of rejected consent from my adventurer). We witness each other live our own lives - she in hers and I in mine - we learn and draw inspiration from each other.

All else seems to follow.

Angrakhan

Sure there's a number of MMO's I've tried before and gone back to when they release major expacs thinking maybe this is the time I'll get into it only to be reminded of why I was less than enamored with it the previous tries. Usually it boils down to my priorities in life vs what the game expects of you at end game. Honestly, with my life priorities I'm just not the demographic for MMO's in general. I have a 40-hour/wk day job, a small business I run in the evening, plus I'm a husband and father, as well as trying to maintain a few friendships to boot. Every MMO out these days expects you to invest 8+ hours per day to be anything other than just another sideline scrub. Couple that with the fact that being on the top of the heap in an MMO is just an utterly worthless pursuit in my opinion. I mean seriously, if my obituary ends up as just a laundry list of my MMO achievements, what raids I participated in and lead, the purple items I acquired, and a list of fancy sparkle ponies in my mount stable, and maybe some screenshots of my virtual mansion I built with the in-game housing, I would have lived a completely wasted life. What a complete waste of potential. As you might guess I stick mostly to single player games and MMO-lite games like Destiny 2 which tend to respect the casual player more than a true MMO does.

Kyleran

ESO comes to mind, disliked it so much at launch I asked for a refund...which Zenimax denied.

7 years later I returned and had fun for a good nine months or so.  

Got a little stale so started playing LA on a lark, but I might go back to ESO once next expansion comes out.

ConstantineMerus

Kyleran said:

ESO comes to mind, disliked it so much at launch I asked for a refund...which Zenimax denied.

7 years later I returned and had fun for a good nine months or so.  

Got a little stale so started playing LA on a lark, but I might go back to ESO once next expansion comes out.

Ditto. I can't remember why I hated it so much at launch, probably I wanted it to be something else. Now it means more Skyrim and I am happy about it. 

I also remember being very much annoyed at Bill here because he was so much in love with that game made me puke. 

olepi

I tend to rotate through a list of games. There are some I have tried a couple of times and they just don't do it for me, they are not in my rotation. Like Eve, or FF14. I tried both, several times, and just don't want to play them.

MadBomber13

Mensur said:

I dont know how many times I tried to get into EVE Online and always quit a few days after.

Same thing for me. After my year+ original stint have tried to go back numerous times but just can't. Still like reading up on the crazy things those psycho players get up to in there.  

ashiru_1978

LOTRO, Perfect World Classic, Eldevin.

I've tried playing LOTRO for years, but being a poor kid who could not afford to buy the content or had the attention span to grind it out, I made myself believe the game isn't good (the fable about The Fox and the Sour Grapes). But since 2021, I finally decided to take the plunge, got into it and bought everything except Fate of Gundabad, I'm having tons of fun.

I could never get into PW as a kid, because it was grindy and I didn't have the attention span to deal with that, but now it feels just right.

Eldevin was also a game I've tried to get into, but never could, but finally found its charm and it's so good.

Too bad I can't juggle between multiple MMOs and while I wish to play these two along with Turtle WoW and Project Gorgon, I just really can't spread my attention so much and now my focus is LOTRO and everything else is plan B if for whatever reason I decide to not play LOTRO anymore.

ultimateduck

I'm currently trying GW2 again. I'm about a week into it. Even though it's "just ok", it's better than just about every other option I can think of.

I've gone back to DAoC a few times, some longer than others. I think I might stay if some old friends were still on.

nei1000

Just to check out how things are, but never to turn into a loyal player. The first impression for me in a MMO is everything because I know that things never will change and if things change will be for worse in an attempt to call more audience (kill the essence).

If in the first moments I feel limitations and lacking in basic things like character creation, classes, generic missions and lack of creativity in the outfits, boring OST, or its possible see that the devs are limiting themselves I drop the game and will never return.

Ungood

Yup...

Couldn't get into them the second time either.. 

or the Third ..or fourth.. or all the other times my static would ask me to play.

kitarad

I didn't enjoy Everquest 2 initially but a few months before they released the Desert expansion, the first expansion, I went back and completely fell in love with the game. I think when I betaed ESO I didn't like but a year later I enjoyed it for awhile.

Gilcroix

ESO - Tried a couple times to go back as I love the writing/lore. The combat system though is the worst I have ever experienced in all of my gaming years. Also there isn't any feeling of danger when exploring.

I really wish someone would make an emulated server,  overhaul the combat system, and turn the world difficulty up.

Theodwulf

I don't often give games a "second chance". ESO is the only one that got multiple chances and I am still under 10 hours of game time from the open Beta until now. Nothing about it interests me, absolutely nothing.

Octagon7711

ESO was unplayable at launch, even though I had played it during the alpha and beta. Left it alone for a little over a year then after returning played it non-stop, it was great after the bugs were worked out.

Eve, had few problems with it as I had read up on what to expect. There was a lot of information on what to do and exactly how to do it in forum posts, and such, even pirate websites talked about what types of ships they went after and what types they normally left alone. Played it for about two or three years, many many years ago.

Gothic, I played got quickly killed on the beach and left it alone for years, then went in one day and got addicted to it. Played all factions and have liked most of the games in the series ever since then.

Another good idea for an article would be what games have you hated playing but couldn't stop playing them? Lineage2 I cursed every time I played that game yet couldn't stop logging in everyday. Talk about a love hate relationship.

LeCreaux

I would like to like FFXIV since I have so many friends who've left our old games for it. On the surface it looks so beautiful. But the gameplay, to me at least, is too primitive. As is the cosmetic and storage systems. I've never made it out of the basic game main story before it gets too frustrating.

I like the mod ability in WoW and all of the battlegrounds, but they're too heavy in borrowed-power systems and Arena-gating of PvP gear. They're going completely in the wrong direction for casual players.

To me Rift has the best mechanics but when it went free-to-play it became too expensive to play. They time-gated free play but let you pay real money to jump ahead in gear. Killed the game, or at least the community that was thriving at the time.

GW2 is probably the most casual-friendly but I don't like some of the story lines they force you to play through to unlock zones.

Dark Age of Camelot would great if they did a modern remake.

IceAge

x3 Black Desert Online. 

It's a mess ..from my POV. I can barely understand wtf happens on my screen. Fighting is nice tho'.

I tried Eve Online for like 5 times ...until one day. I stick with it for like 2 months. It's a very, very nice game. It can be chill with amazing atmosphere, or get your blood spike high when you are in low sec or in Worm Holes, where most of my time was spent there. I was a Relic and Data site ..hunter and I love this "mini-game" in Eve...until I was hunted down lol. 4 times, where with which one I lost around 200 mil + isk. So almost 1 bill. 

I still have a decent ship and all to go back. Maybe I will after I'm done with LA.

Sandmanjw

Was gonna say everquest....but that that would not be true. I hated the way they did drop rates and thought it was more like a sado-masochistic punishment than a fun game. So yeah.. not a fan.

Only one I can really think of that I wanted to like, and should have, from my other games I enjoyed, was WildStar.

Pretty much hated that from minute one and, was the same no matter how many times I tried it. 

Theocritus

I have done it a few times...Usually with not much more success than I had previously....I guess it depends on why I left as to whether it will be a success later on or not.....My msot recent was Fallen Earth which was recently resurrected from the dead.....I thought a fresh start with lots of people might do the trick, but it just wasnt that much fun....Got to about level 10 and stopped....

Lithuanian

Lord of the rings online. Love from...emmm....third sight?

First time: ok, Lord of the rings, let's try Elf archer, kill some maggots. Sorry, everything is wrong, bye-bye. Playing Istaria.

Second time: ok, Lord of the rings, let's try Dwarf. Sorry, a horde of NPCs, cannot find quest giver, everything is wrong, bye-bye. Playing Istaria.

Third time: ok, Lord of the rings, let's try Human. Oh, it's quite good. Almost everything is right. Playing Istaria and Lotro.

Some time later: playing Lotro and Istaria.

Now: playing Lotro.

Astropuyo

Not with that whole universal heat death thing looming. Nobody got time for that.

cameltosis

Its very rare that I give games a second chance, especially MMOs as they almost exclusively get worse over time for my playstyle.

The only one I can think of I gave a second chance was Wildstar. I tried it in beta and whilst I enjoyed the style and comedy, the gameplay was a mess and the UI was just awful.

I decided to give the game a second chance when it went F2P - despite my dislike of F2P! - but it was still bad. I know everyone likes to blame the hardcore endgame as the reason for its failure, but to me the game suffered death from a thousand cuts. Nothing was overtly wrong, but there were problems with literally every single aspect of the game. Individually I could overlook them, but combined these problems were too much to overcome.