Tipa over at West Karana has a very interesting post about MMO nostalgia and how to recreate that feeling. Go read it and come back.
Back? Okay.
I’m left in the position of having already tried just about everything; the only major western MMOs I haven’t given at least a trial are Asheron’s Call and Dark Age of Camelot, and neither of those holds much appeal for me. But I’m also in the position of being relatively new to MMOs in general, so up to a point, everything is new for me anyway. Nostalgia per se isn’t a factor for me.
However, one of the things she says is that “MMOs cannot be fully enjoyed by dabblers. Commitment is part of the attraction.” Which is, of course, absolutely right, and is an issue that I’ve identified for myself and discussed as recently as last week. I have yet to stick with any MO for longer than three months, and usually they hold my actual attention for less time than that. I need to find the MMO that I will stick with and do so, and really explore it for a year or more.
So I’ll take up Tipa’s challenge, maybe not quite in the way she intended because my situation is a bit different. My WoW subscription expires on April 24, and I’ll make a decision before then. What game will it be? Well, it will almost certainly be one of four MMOs: EQ2, Vanguard, WoW or EVE. But my instinct is to say that it will be one of the latter two. Whatever it is, I will do my damnedest to stick with it, and if I do need to take a break, to play no MMOs at all until my interest is rekindled.
April 7, 2008 at 3:21 pm
EVE Online has an amazing community; if you play a game for its community, you could hardly do better. Plus, it almost forces itself to be played casually, a real bonus to those with limited amounts of time.
WoW, eh. Is there anything you don’t already know about WoW? Being the “default” game makes it commonplace.
April 7, 2008 at 8:15 pm
I think that the key is finding a place for yourself in whatever game it is that you play. To me that means finding friends in the game that you enjoy playing/chatting with and spend time with them.
Friendships are what drive the MMO gaming for me.
Also don’t forget, May 20th Age of Conan hits and that’s something new to try. I know that I’ll be one of those suckers that plops down the dough for a collectors edition — as I’m just a sucker for those things.
April 8, 2008 at 5:32 am
Sad to see Tipa is such a ‘wow hater’ now.. sure there are a lot of great mmo’s out there, yes, wow is written about frequently and by numerous people. But discouraging someone to play it because it is ‘common place’ and the ‘default’ game doesn’t make it any less fun then the other mmos out there.
April 8, 2008 at 7:07 am
What about some sort of twist to the challenge? Don’t play any MMO’s for 6 months (or whatever time period) and see what game calls to you the most? Old favorite or maybe a brand new game? Maybe none of them or all of them will tug at you but I suspect one will pull harder.
April 8, 2008 at 8:35 am
Tipa – I think I’ll address this today; WoW may be old news to many, and I do know quite a lot about it, but I’ve nenver really experienced all that the game has to offer. I’ve played some EVE and understand how awesome it is, and I’ll get back to it at some point, maybe soon. But not before the 24th.
Blake – I have mixed feelings about AoC; one the one hand, I really love the IP and want it to do well; on the other, I’ve heard some worrisome things that make me want to give it 6-12 months to solidify before I get into it. It MAY sing to me from the Best Buy shelf, however.
Jason – Great idea, but I pretty much just DID that, and I’m playing WoW now. Granted, it wasn’t 6 months, but it was close to 3.
April 8, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I have played EQ2 since it came out. I think the reason I continue to play it is that I have put so much time into it. I’ve tred 10 day trials of Vanguard and WoW but I always came back to EQ2 before the subscritions were up. I guess I’m saying I’m committed to it because I’ve committed to it. I’m so confused.
I also compared everything else to EQ2. Such as interfaces, graphics, class choices. etc. This was my first MMO. Before EQ2 I only played single player games like Morrowind, NWN, or Diablo 2, so I don’t have anything else for EQ2 to live up to. To me EQ2 is the standard. I must confess that I am looking forwrd to Warhammer’s release. Maybe that game will finally turn me away from my standard.