The Psychology of Playing MMOs

[Tastum]

Hm... I have mixed feelings about this subject.

Before 2011, I had put six years into Everquest and three or so into EVE Online after that. I've also tried a number of other titles and didn't really get into them. If those two were my only experience I think I'd agree with Greg.

However, in 2011 I signed up for Rift and played it through August. I already knew it wasn't going to be my ideal game (I want something with the crafting from Vanguard, the resource control/pvp elements of EVE and the gameplay style of Warhammer) and that I had to start going back to school in September, so I knew my time in Telara was set in stone.

Despite this I had a really great time in Rift. I was there for beta testing and the early class balance issues. I was playing the forum warrior at work when it was quiet, imagining new DPS and hybrid builds for my cleric and trying them when I got home. I joined a guild that raided only three times a week, and ended up being a key member. In short, despite a limited timeframe AND a limited number of hours per week, I felt a sense of achievement and actually enjoyed my time in game, something I couldn't always say about EQ.

What I take out of that experience is that uberguilds are not for me - finding a guild that matches my pace and desire for achievement (somewhere between hardcore and casual, that focuses on getting those three raids a night done efficiently) is important if I'm going to enjoy an MMO again. If it feels like punching in for raid night is becoming a job, it's time to cancel.

Since then I've been doing the same things as Greg - my Steam library is starting to become impressive and I've played a heck of a lot of Minecraft - but I've got my ear to the ground for a new MMO to play.

 

[Micalas]

What? But you could very easily spec back to a healer. I don't see the big deal with you respeccing for PvP. I'm aware this was long before dual-spec but I played Vanilla WoW and if anything, respeccing was just a minor inconvenience because you had to set your bars back up. I don't understand your guild's line of thinking.

For my character, it was expensive, and the price went up each time. I didn't "game the market" as often as they did, so I wasn't rolling in gold. But it was more that they were saying, "As long as you're a shadow priest, we won't even put you on the waiting list." I was "working" for them, in their eyes.

Damn, that really sucks. You should've played on my server (Shadowmoon represent!). Our guild had banking officers that would play the AH with rare material and gear drops that no one needed to make a communal money pool. The handing out of that money was discretionary but as long as you weren't breaking the bank, we were there for you.

 

[Islet Battle]

Here is what might happen, which happened to me:

Instead of feeling guilty that the new MMO will ruin other games, the opposite might happen. That you feel guilty for not playing SWTOR when you know you should since you've just bought it and spent a lot of money on it, but instead you end up playing your steam games.

 

[achilleas.k]

What? But you could very easily spec back to a healer. I don't see the big deal with you respeccing for PvP. I'm aware this was long before dual-spec but I played Vanilla WoW and if anything, respeccing was just a minor inconvenience because you had to set your bars back up. I don't understand your guild's line of thinking.

I mostly played during Burning Crusade and the cost of respeccing on a daily basis was very restrictive. Some people did it, but it meant farming gold like mad. In vanilla especially, there wasn't that much gold in people's pockets (it sounds weird using "real world" idioms to describe the "old days" in a virtual world). Constantly changing character builds was something that caught on mostly during the mid Burning Crusade era, which is why it took until early Lich King for Blizzard to make dual-specs an option.

I don't think changing spec more than once a week (or month) was something you could really do in vanilla, money wise.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Never played WoW myself, other than a level 2 on a friends account. I did do some beta for LOTRO though, and being the massive LOTR fan I am, I played it about half n half with BFME2. Had to stop about a year later and picked it back up when it went F2P. The Monthly is what kept me from going back, cause I knew I'd just get in the mood to play something else and stop playing it completely for extended periods (last one was two weeks)

 

[Alandoril]

Just play ToR for the story and you'll be fine. It is not an MMO.

 

[LetalisK]

The compulsive gaming because of a fear of "wasting" your money is a scary thing. I've had this too and it's insane, really. Even when you do it, you know it's insane. I don't know how or why, but at some point I realized how foolish I was being. It's $15! It's really not that much. You can piss that away and nothing bad is going to happen to you. You probably piss away much more than that on even worse things and don't even realize it(like fast food, for example). Stop thinking about the money and just play. If it does end up that you only play for an hour the entire month...so what? It's $15. Cancel the subscription and move on. This is an instance where it's okay and probably better for you to be a little capricious.

 

[fierydemise]

I guess I'm going to be the first dissenter. WoW is only a job or a chore if you make it one and it isn't the money sucking pit that Greg makes it out to be.

Even a game as big as Skyrim generally only lasts for about 1 month at the outside. People who picked it up at launch are moving onto other games around now. Even a game that really sucks you in generally only has that kind of hold for a month on intense playing before you move on or are playing it for want of something else to do.

If you figure the average lifespan of a game is 1 month then WoW is a pretty decent deal for the money. Skyrim or Arkham City or whatever other big name game that chews up 1 month of your life is going to run you $40-60 so if one of those comes out more often then every 3-4 months WoW is cheaper on a per month basis. Just looking at all the games I've purchased and enjoyed this year and even with almost all of them coming through Steam sales of 50% off WoW comes out pretty even. Portal 2 (40), Witcher 2 (30), Deus Ex HR (25), Skyrim (40), Arkham City (35), Bastion (10), Space Chem (10), Frozen Synapse (15)=205 and this isn't a complete list. 12 months of WoW, also including the cost of Cataclysm spread over its 18 month lifespan (an additional $2 per month), is about 200.

As for the time complaints and raiding horror stories above, there are a few guilds on my server (nice to see another Shadowmoon player) that finish every tier of content while its relevant, they raid 12 hours a week, less after progression is over. An extra couple hours reading up on boss fights and figuring out gearing and your at 14ish hours a week. You can play beyond that but at that point its your choice, you can be a reasonably competitive raider (World top 1000) at 15 or so hours per week. Yes WoW can suck time like no tomorrow but it doesn't have to, 15 hours a week is enough to see most of what there is in the game.

 

[tcurt]

I have a lucky situation. My household plays a few MMOs. Only one is subscription. The rest are F2P, though in nearly all we have made a small contribution at one time or another. In every case, the Alts are all different family members. I don't feel bad at all that I'm not playing or haven't played in months, because somebody (my son, one of my daughters, or my wife) has played it. We spread the bill across everybody, and as long as someone is playing it, I don't feel like it's a waste at all. And I don't feel I have to do squat.

I only have to make sure that I am higher level than everyone else in my family.

Most MMOs I've experienced work with this just fine: seperate inventories, friends lists, names, etc. It's not perfect: one MMO combines everything (all Alts) together in a big jumble. That's too bad, but I just deal with it and expect less from the game.

I have never played WOW or TOR though. Does this work for them?

 

[2xDouble]

The Old Republic brings a much-needed refocusing of MMO games' emphasis away from progression and grinding to the story.

Is the story good enough to carry the game? it's Bioware, of course it is.
Is the story good enough to justify maintaining a subscription by itself? There are many who disagree with me, but I say no.

Spoiler: Obligatory competitor's plug

If you're looking for something a little more different, with the focus placed squarely on community and personal growth as well as story, then I definitely recommend checking out Guild Wars 2.

Yes, I do have to plug GW2 every time this sort of thing comes up. I have an unspoken, unconfirmed, and unrecognized deal with the developers for beta access... which I don't have... heh.

Relevant, but slightly off-topic:
It's incredibly convenient that Youtube personality Totalbiscuit addressed a topic very similar to this one in his Mailbox video just yesterday. The question was about concern for a game's dying community when its progression ended (WH40k, in case you were wondering). He talked about people who play games, not because they're fun or even because they're activities that players want to do, but because there are prizes attached to them: achievements, perks, unlocks, etc. typical "Skinner Box" stuff.

...that's why I enjoy playing The Old Republic, because I don't feel like I'm grinding. I'm there for the story telling, and the combat's kind of fun as well. But I have a feeling that if it got to that point once I reached endgame, that I would certainly stop playing it because I can't be bothered. If your game dies at that stage it's indicative of one of two things: 1. The game isn't fun enough and it's reliant on its progression system because people want the shinies; or 2. There's a real problem with certain gamers today in that they are so obsessed with progression that they don't care about the actual experience.

He has interesting answers to several good questions as well (the first one specifically about SW:TOR and its space combat), but the bit I'm talking about starts around 7:00.

 

[Mechanix]

This man put into words what I couldn't. I went through the same exact situation. WoW really does make you want to play nothing else. Because, you know, why? Why do anything else? It just feels so worthless when you could be leveling up your character and doing something that will stick, and other people will see.

 

[LJJ1991]

This article put into words the emotion I've felt with WoW (and now TOR) many a time. However, for my gaming experience, I actually LIKE it. It doesn't really matter what game I'm playing, I feel this way until I finish. The difference between my time of gaming and yours (and the reason you see this as a bad thing and I see it as good) is that I don't buy many games. I have very few games and I tend to replay them all about once a year. I rarely buy a new game, especially when I have an MMO to keep me occupied.

Now, the problem (or in my case, benefit) with WoW and TOR is that I'm never technically finished. Except, with TOR, I'm not so sure. One of the things I loved about WoW was how there was stuff to do everyday. Sure, sometimes it got monotonous doing dailies or running instances, but there was always something to do. If I was ever too bored I couldn't stand it, I was always able to run a raid. These things were there for me whenever I wanted them to be. I could still focus on school, I could still do well at work, I could still hang out with my friends. But when I wasn't, WoW was always there to keep me occupied.

TOR, however, has implicated such a compelling story, throughout the leveling process, that my expectations have become very high for the end game content. I'll most likely end up leveling all classes on both factions, which is something that I've never felt the need to do (alts on WoW were rarely something I'd spend time leveling). But what happens once I've leveled all the classes? Is there end game story that I can progress through everyday? Probably not. Sure, there are operations and flash points, but being a story- based game, Bioware has sort of made it feel weird to repeat those.

I'm concerned that the end game content of TOR isn't going to be as satisfying as that of WoW. Granted, I understand that expansions will be happening (and they'll even be free), but it still feels a bit worrying. Bioware's games have always had amazing stories, it's always been about the journey, not the finale. MMO's, however, have evolved to the point where the journey isn't really what is focused on by the players (whether it should be or not).

TOR is the first MMO I've ever played that has had a compelling story. And you don't even need to be a lore buff to feel immersed (like you do in WoW). I fear, however, that story aspect is exactly what will ultimately sap TOR's ability to be truly successful.

HOWEVER... If there's any development company that can achieve this, it's Bioware.

 

[isometry]

This is more about the psychology of worrying about money.

 

[Klonoa Prower]

Let's see... at $15 a month, if you play for only 15 hours over that month, you're getting about $1/hour of enjoyment. That's a hell of a lot better rate than any strip club will give you.

 

[Alexnader]

Wow... I mean, I've heard stories from people who got addicted from MMOs before, but never so first-person and self-aware.

I wouldn't call Tito's story one of addiction, though WoW was consuming his gaming time he seems to make it clear that the time was still held separate from family and work matters.

Anyway it's good to see he's gone and put all this stuff into writing after the number of times he's mentioned it briefly in the podcast. I have no experience of subscription MMOs and I'm glad of it, the financial obligation to play a game is already bad enough for me when I've bought one for $3 on steam. The effect a monthly subscription would have on me sounds insane.

Let's see... at $15 a month, if you play for only 15 hours over that month, you're getting about $1/hour of enjoyment. That's a hell of a lot better rate than any strip club will give you.

Fair point but games in general will beat out most forms of modern day entertainment in terms of price/time. I paid $50 for Battlefield 3 and I've already sunk 180+ hours into it, in the long run an initial lump sum will always beat out the subscription.

 

[Kanatatsu]

I've heard a lot of stories about MMOs ruining lives.

I've yet to hear one about an MMO truly enriching someone's life.

 

[magter3001]

I've heard a lot of stories about MMOs ruining lives.

I've yet to hear one about an MMO truly enriching someone's life.

MMO's can teach you though. It's not about having stuff anyway, it's about experiencing them. Why would you limit yourself to the good and bad? There are neutral grounds as well.

 

[Arron Teter]

I think they should do a psychology on nosey people who can't let people do what they feel like with their own money. Seriously will you people ever just shut up and mind your own business for once?