4 ms·

Is there a key to getting more into MMOs I'm missing? Once or twice a year I'll pick one up for a week or two and blow most of my free time on it... then get bo

Is there a key to getting more into MMOs I'm missing? Once or twice a year I'll pick one up for a week or two and blow most of my free time on it... then get bored and move on to the next thing.

BucketSort 7y ago
Yes. Clan involvement. If you just play alone, you won't get as hooked.
- bdz 7y ago
  Depends ont the MMO as well. For example I only play FFXIV and that's very very single player friendly with a huge focus on story. Same with FFXI that became single player friendly with the Trust system tho that's an old school MMO (akin to Everquest and such)
  - falcolas 7y ago
    Even FFXIV (my current drug of choice) has limits to what you can do as a solo player. Even the MSQ - the most single-player content in the game - requires you to group up with others every other level and do dungeons. It’s a mostly seamless process with all the duty finder enhancements and roulettes that bring existing players back to the old content, but it’s still there. The benefit of a clan/guild/free company can’t be understated. They will provide entertainment, support, and access to a set of content that’s otherwise very hard to do.
    - hatsubai 7y ago
      From ShB onwards, you can now use the Trust system to solo dungeons and MSQ events. I'd be willing to bet they will port this to older dungeons once New Game+ comes out, although I am not sure if they'll ever do this with roulettes.
      - falcolas 7y ago
        Trusts do alleviate a portion of it, but there’s entire swaths of content you can’t do solo (including all of the MSQ-blocking Trials). I like trusts, but they’re definitely a band-aid for a very specific issue (DPS queue lengths).
bart_spoon 7y ago
I don't think you are missing anything, it just may not be your thing. I also struggle with MMOs despite trying to get into several, and I've realized its because they all are fundamentally based on a couple of key gameplay elements that simply don't appeal to me: 1. time investment 2. social interactions with others 3. repetitive gameplay loops Interestingly, the games I do sink hundreds of hours into all have the same sort of principles, but in different forms: 1. I don't mind sinking hundreds of hours into something like Rocket League or a fighting game or a multiplayer shooter, but I also don't feel like I need to in order to get the most out of the game. I can go weeks or months without playing Rocket League and pick up right where I left off. If I stop playing something with a "progression" component, then when I come back, all my buddies are now leveled beyond me, or a new expansion is out, or I somehow feel like I've missed out on a bunch of content. MMOs start to feel like another job almost. 2. I mostly play games to play with my friends online. But I'm not necessarily interested in making new friends I don't know in real life online. So while I love multiplayer games that I can play with my friends, or with/against randoms I don't need to maintain a relationship with, the kind of social interaction in MMOs doesn't really appeal to me. 3. Again, a game of Rocket League or SSB is going to be essentially the same as every other, so they are highly repetitive too. But at the same time, the fun in a game of Rocket League is in the thing you are doing over and over again. In an MMO, the repetition of killing the same monster 100 times to level up isn't generally that fun. Rather the reward is the actually leveling up and the loot, (or the social aspects). And even the social aspects take a lot of work for the payoff (I'm thinking about the amazing narratives that come out of EVE, or tightly knit clans in WoW). But that means I'm essentially spending a ton of time doing something I don't find that fun just for the reward at the end. If I'm going to be doing that I figure I might as well be working, or working out at the gym, or something like that. You may be similar to me in finding the games appealing on the surface, but the fundamental aspects of the genre unappealing in reality.
newsgremlin 7y ago
The social aspect is everything. If I didn't know anyone playing or make any online buddies there would be no hook to the game. It would be just grinding for the sake of grinding.

Is there a key to getting more into MMOs I'm missing? Once or twice a year I'll pick one up for a week or two and blow most of my free time on it... then get bored and move on to the next thing.

BucketSort 7y ago

Yes. Clan involvement. If you just play alone, you won't get as hooked.

bdz 7y ago
Depends ont the MMO as well. For example I only play FFXIV and that's very very single player friendly with a huge focus on story. Same with FFXI that became single player friendly with the Trust system tho that's an old school MMO (akin to Everquest and such)
- falcolas 7y ago
  Even FFXIV (my current drug of choice) has limits to what you can do as a solo player. Even the MSQ - the most single-player content in the game - requires you to group up with others every other level and do dungeons. It’s a mostly seamless process with all the duty finder enhancements and roulettes that bring existing players back to the old content, but it’s still there. The benefit of a clan/guild/free company can’t be understated. They will provide entertainment, support, and access to a set of content that’s otherwise very hard to do.
  - hatsubai 7y ago
    From ShB onwards, you can now use the Trust system to solo dungeons and MSQ events. I'd be willing to bet they will port this to older dungeons once New Game+ comes out, although I am not sure if they'll ever do this with roulettes.
    - falcolas 7y ago
      Trusts do alleviate a portion of it, but there’s entire swaths of content you can’t do solo (including all of the MSQ-blocking Trials). I like trusts, but they’re definitely a band-aid for a very specific issue (DPS queue lengths).

bart_spoon 7y ago

I don't think you are missing anything, it just may not be your thing. I also struggle with MMOs despite trying to get into several, and I've realized its because they all are fundamentally based on a couple of key gameplay elements that simply don't appeal to me: 1. time investment 2. social interactions with others 3. repetitive gameplay loops Interestingly, the games I do sink hundreds of hours into all have the same sort of principles, but in different forms: 1. I don't mind sinking hundreds of hours into something like Rocket League or a fighting game or a multiplayer shooter, but I also don't feel like I need to in order to get the most out of the game. I can go weeks or months without playing Rocket League and pick up right where I left off. If I stop playing something with a "progression" component, then when I come back, all my buddies are now leveled beyond me, or a new expansion is out, or I somehow feel like I've missed out on a bunch of content. MMOs start to feel like another job almost. 2. I mostly play games to play with my friends online. But I'm not necessarily interested in making new friends I don't know in real life online. So while I love multiplayer games that I can play with my friends, or with/against randoms I don't need to maintain a relationship with, the kind of social interaction in MMOs doesn't really appeal to me. 3. Again, a game of Rocket League or SSB is going to be essentially the same as every other, so they are highly repetitive too. But at the same time, the fun in a game of Rocket League is in the thing you are doing over and over again. In an MMO, the repetition of killing the same monster 100 times to level up isn't generally that fun. Rather the reward is the actually leveling up and the loot, (or the social aspects). And even the social aspects take a lot of work for the payoff (I'm thinking about the amazing narratives that come out of EVE, or tightly knit clans in WoW). But that means I'm essentially spending a ton of time doing something I don't find that fun just for the reward at the end. If I'm going to be doing that I figure I might as well be working, or working out at the gym, or something like that. You may be similar to me in finding the games appealing on the surface, but the fundamental aspects of the genre unappealing in reality.

newsgremlin 7y ago

The social aspect is everything. If I didn't know anyone playing or make any online buddies there would be no hook to the game. It would be just grinding for the sake of grinding.