Well I finally got around to it, my first topic started ever on these forums. *Cracks knuckles* lets get to it.
Recently I haven't been playing a large variety of games as I haven't had the time. Instead I have been playing an MMO which has been fulfilling all my "needs" so far and it has kept me from spending 60$ on games I really don't need. The game is GW2
Disclosure: GW2 is only my second MMO, the first was SWTOR and I had never touched an MMO before that or even knew what they were.
As a gamer you could categorize me pretty well with Yahtzee in that I shy away from social/multiplayer games and prefer my single player adventures such as Skyrim,KoToR,Half Life 2, Thief,Bioshock,etc. However, I actually realized once I started really getting into GW2 that I liked the community and that I was beginning to see why so many people are drawn to these games. But then I went to the forums a few months after launch and started reading the hate,criticism, and overall complaints about the game. I'm not complaining about the criticism or the hate, all people are entitled to their own opinions about the game and have their own reasons for having them, but one trend caught my attention and inspired me to start this topic.
That trend was people threatening to leave the game and expressing distaste for it because it was going "in the wrong direction". These people were stating how aspects of the game reminded them of "the good old days" of Everquest 2 and Dark Age of Camelot but now they are realizing that they no longer find it fun and want to leave, but not before some of them attempt to burn it down on the forums in torrents of hate and sorrow. This makes me curious about them more than anything. I'd never heard of EQ2 or DAoC before, so I went searching for info on them. I discovered that I was only 12 when DAoC released. Now, I know that the people who played DAoC when they were younger who are playing GW2 now aren't "Old People" like I put in the title but still they are quite a bit older than I am.
I actually played with some of them in the world pvp that GW2 has and heard what they had to say in our server's VOIP. Many would praise the game but when it came right down to it the game could never even touch the mighty DAoC. Roll the clock forward a few months and many of these players have moved on to something else only to start leveling the same complaints and criticisms at the new game they are playing. I've noticed that a lot of the community in MMO's do this. They are like locusts. Content locusts. They move from game to game, devour all the content, decide it isn't good enough and move on to the next one. Hey, if thats they way things are in the MMO world, fine. If you don't like a game you don't need to stick around and continue playing it.
But on the forums I read such compelling stories about the experiences many of these older gamers had in DOaC. They sound like they had so much fun playing those games and building the online communities that still exist even today. They networked their guilds and clans and made so many friends who still continue to maintain contact and keep playing together. That is great. But then they say how this game, and the last 3 they played were continued disappointments and that they feel they might never have that first joyous experience again. So I ask, why keep playing MMO's?
I don't mean that in a "well you just can't be satisfied anymore by anything so GTFO!! hur hur" way, and I'm not a fanboy of GW2. I'm sincere. If this game and the previous ones you played were all disappointments then why continue on? Could it be that the DAoC experience was like a drug users first high/euphoria and you'll never reach that high again with the new games? Many state that the new direction of MMO's is bad because of the dying sub based model and the growing ftp w/ cash shop model encourages predatory behavior of the company toward the player. It wasn't like that back in the day. Well you were there so you would know.
Perhaps it's time to let go and move on instead of constantly expecting to find that old experience hidden in a new game, only to be disappointed again and again. I know The Elder Scrolls Online will be out soon enough, and I confess I'm not expecting good things.
Recently I haven't been playing a large variety of games as I haven't had the time. Instead I have been playing an MMO which has been fulfilling all my "needs" so far and it has kept me from spending 60$ on games I really don't need. The game is GW2
Disclosure: GW2 is only my second MMO, the first was SWTOR and I had never touched an MMO before that or even knew what they were.
As a gamer you could categorize me pretty well with Yahtzee in that I shy away from social/multiplayer games and prefer my single player adventures such as Skyrim,KoToR,Half Life 2, Thief,Bioshock,etc. However, I actually realized once I started really getting into GW2 that I liked the community and that I was beginning to see why so many people are drawn to these games. But then I went to the forums a few months after launch and started reading the hate,criticism, and overall complaints about the game. I'm not complaining about the criticism or the hate, all people are entitled to their own opinions about the game and have their own reasons for having them, but one trend caught my attention and inspired me to start this topic.
That trend was people threatening to leave the game and expressing distaste for it because it was going "in the wrong direction". These people were stating how aspects of the game reminded them of "the good old days" of Everquest 2 and Dark Age of Camelot but now they are realizing that they no longer find it fun and want to leave, but not before some of them attempt to burn it down on the forums in torrents of hate and sorrow. This makes me curious about them more than anything. I'd never heard of EQ2 or DAoC before, so I went searching for info on them. I discovered that I was only 12 when DAoC released. Now, I know that the people who played DAoC when they were younger who are playing GW2 now aren't "Old People" like I put in the title but still they are quite a bit older than I am.
I actually played with some of them in the world pvp that GW2 has and heard what they had to say in our server's VOIP. Many would praise the game but when it came right down to it the game could never even touch the mighty DAoC. Roll the clock forward a few months and many of these players have moved on to something else only to start leveling the same complaints and criticisms at the new game they are playing. I've noticed that a lot of the community in MMO's do this. They are like locusts. Content locusts. They move from game to game, devour all the content, decide it isn't good enough and move on to the next one. Hey, if thats they way things are in the MMO world, fine. If you don't like a game you don't need to stick around and continue playing it.
But on the forums I read such compelling stories about the experiences many of these older gamers had in DOaC. They sound like they had so much fun playing those games and building the online communities that still exist even today. They networked their guilds and clans and made so many friends who still continue to maintain contact and keep playing together. That is great. But then they say how this game, and the last 3 they played were continued disappointments and that they feel they might never have that first joyous experience again. So I ask, why keep playing MMO's?
I don't mean that in a "well you just can't be satisfied anymore by anything so GTFO!! hur hur" way, and I'm not a fanboy of GW2. I'm sincere. If this game and the previous ones you played were all disappointments then why continue on? Could it be that the DAoC experience was like a drug users first high/euphoria and you'll never reach that high again with the new games? Many state that the new direction of MMO's is bad because of the dying sub based model and the growing ftp w/ cash shop model encourages predatory behavior of the company toward the player. It wasn't like that back in the day. Well you were there so you would know.
Perhaps it's time to let go and move on instead of constantly expecting to find that old experience hidden in a new game, only to be disappointed again and again. I know The Elder Scrolls Online will be out soon enough, and I confess I'm not expecting good things.
