I know that Yahtzeehates them, but they seem to be pretty popular (I mean, the whole of south Korea plays WOW for a start). I’ve played WOW and WAR and tried out Rift, Star Trek Online and Guild Wars, but on the whole MMORPGs leave me feeling cold. Sure there’s the great open world in which you can play with other real people, but to be honest when I’m playing games I’m a bit of a narcissist and want everything to be about me (hellooooooooooo Elder Scrolls games).
Anyone else feel like this? Or am I in an irrelevant philistine who just doesn’t get this awesome type of gaming?
I definitely do. I’m a big sucker for immersion in both world and narrative, and nothing breaks that quicker and more devastatingly then random 13 year olds wandering around pwning people and calling them fagget n00bs.
Yeah, I’ve come to feel this way. I actually get a bit of a sick feeling these days just THINKING about playing an MMORPG. I have old guildies emailing me from time to time to give this game a shot (currently it’s the new Star Wars MMORPG), or come back to that one (a lot of my old WOW buddies are always trying to get me to reactivate my old account and start playing again in preparation for the Coming of the Pandas! :p), but I simply can’t get myself to do it. At this point I’m playing Sins and Skyrim, some occasional Total War Shogun or Empire, and even King Arthur II from time to time…and that’s enough for me.
Maybe you’d like LotRO, since it pretty much IS all about you, for the most part, and has a VERY BARE minimum of idiots talking leetspeak or otherwise making nuisances of themselves.
(Yeah, I know, you weren’t asking, but it’s the MMO I play, and your complaints don’t really apply, so I thought I’d explain WHY I don’t share your issues.)
That said, I don’t really have the “narcissism” you do, but stupid people DO ruin the experience for me in other games.
Oddly enough I find myself feeling the opposite. I never played an MMO before WoW, but now i find that i can’t get excited about a single player game. For example, Skyrim looks like an amazing game so i bought it to give it a try… Indeed it is an amazing game, but i just can’t get excited about sitting down to play it… i dunno, maybe i just need to give it some more time, i haven’t played it since the day after i bought it a couple months ago.
I tried Eve Online for a while – didn’t get it.
I tried City of Heroes for a while – got boring to me.
I don’t even really like playing online shooters.
So, I followed the OP’s train of thought and on a whim this week (thanks bonus check) I picked up a copy of Skyrim. I was sucked in by the promise of a huge open world in which I could find any number of adventures, without being run roughshod by a bunch of tweeners.
I was a fan of Fallout 3, so I figured I’d be good to go. Unfortunately, I’m just not very much of a Dragons and magic spells kind of guy, but I was willing to go with it. Double-unfortunately, I just can’t figure out how to win a fight in this stupid game. I mean one-on-one, I’m fairly okie-dokie, but now that I’m trying to knock off a few of the first few quests where I end up going up against three or four baddies … deader than Elvis every time.
Granted, I’ve only had the game for a day, so may I haven’t caught up on the learning curve yet.
This thread isn’t about Skyrim is it? Sorry. Got carried away.
Nope, not about Skyrim, but here’s a hint…try the bow. Or just wait for the next Fallout release (supposedly they are working on a Fallout 4 using the Skyrim engine…should be kicking when they get it out next year, hopefully). I’ve also enjoyed rolling up new characters in Fallout New Vegas and going through the DLCs at lower levels, as a challenge.
I am a huge RPG fan, and a huge video game fan in general. I have played a few online RPGs, but the only one I ever cared for was Phantasy Star Online. This was because when you were playing, you were in a party of 4 or fewer, it had a nice tight-nit community, people were nice (generally), etc. Of course, these were in the days when the Sega server shutdown and we were playing on a private server, so there is that to consider. I also appreciated the fact that there were no long traveling times, like in Wow, where sometimes you are stuck flying/walking for 10 or 20 minutes or more! Not my idea of fun.
But yeah. WoW, I played up to level 20-something, and just couldn’t bring myself to keep going. I found myself playing alone all the time on the game, and when I played with others it was annoying. I prefer a good storyline, character development, etc, and WoW didn’t really satisfy that for me. It has its strong points too, don’t get me wrong.
If you’re into storyline and character development, you might want to try the new Star Wars MMO. Unfortunately there is no free trial yet, though; maybe you could find a friend to let you try it out? It’s very story-driven, and comletely solo-able if you prefer to play that way.
I wouldn’t say I have an aversion to MMO’s, more like an indifference. I tried WOW a few times and it didn’t do anything for me but then again I’ve never been a huge fan of online gaming. When I play a game its to get away from people, not to surround myself with random idiot gamers. (I’m just generalizing a little)
The new Star Wars game looks pretty good though. A buddy of mine got it and I must say it does look like a lot of fun. I might have to buy that one and try it out myself.
Thing is - I really WANTED to like WAR. I like the Warhammer universe and the set up really appealed to me, particularly the battle grounds (which were actually pretty awesome), but it didn’t have long term appeal. I’m tempted to have a go at the Secret World though, and (assuming it ever actually appears) Warhammer 40K online, but I suspect that one will be vapourware.
I have an aversion, I will never play one again. The problem is I play one now. Its very addictive and when it ends, I’m never going to pick up another one for fear that I’ll fall back into it
I dislike them too, but for a completely different reason: I don’t like the subscription model. I find it hard to justify for myself to keep paying for a game, when I can just pay for a different game once and play it as much as I want. And if I did sign up for one, I’d feel obligated to play it as much as I could, to ensure that I was getting my money’s worth.
I’ve played Everquest, FFXI, WoW, City of Heroes, LotRO and a couple other minor MMORPGs. These days I feel they’re largely lacking in immersion and the shift to cash shop models has turned me off. Everquest just announced its going Free to Play so that pretty much leaves WoW as the last major subscription based MMORPG. Too bad I have no interest in WoW.
In principle, I love the idea, and if someone somewhere would make my dream MMO I would be there in a heartbeat (tho I’ve refined my “wish” since that post). In principle.
In execution, however, the entire genre bores me to tears. I want to be the hero (or to help the hero, or the “good” side of the force, and triumph over my enemies. Problem is that MMO’s are inherently designed not to let you do that (perpetually static gameworlds, for the most part), for various reasons both good and bad. I get the good reasons (for one, the leet’ers would ruin things in a heartbeat if given the chance), but I still wish the world would progress, eventually ending in a Ragnarok kind of final cataclysmic battle.
I also find the entire concept of grinding (and associated tropes) to be abhorrent, insulting, and degrading, and a total waste of time. I’d much rather be involved in secret negotiations with the dwarves to screw over the humans (with all the intrigue that entails) than to spend countless hours whacking rats in some hole in the ground-you know the old “role” play vs. “roll” play thing. Give me depth of characterization, depth of the gameworld, depth of organization, hell in the end it’s all about depth of meaning ultimately. These games are typically a mile wide and a millimeter deep, and I frankly have no interest in playing in the kiddie sandbox when we could have MMO games which would put the current crop to absolute shame. Yeah my idealism is showing once again, but there you have it.
Can’t stand them. Kill 30 rabbits? Bores me to tears. I’ve tried three or four over the last decade, and they were all the same game in different clothing and boring very quickly.
With me it’s not aversion, it’s fear. I heard people talking about “Evercrack” a long time ago and thought about how easily I get addicted to games. I therefore never played any MMORPG.
It’s sort of like how my college room mate went to a few Grateful Dead concerts and came back all smugly enlightened and I decided I was never going to go to one. I was already enough of a dickhead, no need to go for extra credit.
Or just wait for the next Fallout release (supposedly they are working on a Fallout 4 using the Skyrim engine…should be kicking when they get it out next year, hopefully). I’ve also enjoyed rolling up new characters in Fallout New Vegas and going through the DLCs at lower levels, as a challenge.