Thought I'd make an account and give my 2cents.
I don't really have that much experience with MMOs. Played a few F2P stuff when I was fourteen~sixteen, then played no MMO at all for years until Final Fantasy XIV release made me interested in trying a MMO again. Yes, Final Fantasy XIV. I've been playing since open beta, and let's be honest here, while I'd say the game right now is "good enough", release was utter crap. Still, with all the problems, I logged in almost daily and was having fun. I guess that grinding for 5 hours straight in Tam Tara wasn't so bad while reading some stuff on the internet and talking with my in-game friends. And no, I don't do that anymore, I had plenty of free time circa december 2010.
Anyways, I think the whole community aspect is one of the strenghts of the genre and can make the difference between "oh, this game is so boring" and "DJIGGA DJIGGA DJIGGAS LOL!" and other weird stuff we spout on LS vent when doing stuff together. Heck, even the damn Moogle prereq quest - thanks god they patched that thing and made it less annoying - was very satisfiying as we laughed together a lot every time a Spindigle aggroed us and linked 2-3 trees, wiping out our party more times than I can count. I wouldn't have endured that thing much long a single player game, that's for sure.
As for the question at the end of the article, I'd say you're a sucker. If you didn't feel like playing a game, just don't do it. If you feel you're wasting your money if you don't play, and only play to not waste that money, they you really should stop playing. Maybe the game isn't for you, paid or not. Maybe the genre itself isn't for you.
Using myself as an example once again, I was really burned out / busy in real life a few months ago and stopped playing for like 2 months. I just posted on my LS forum telling them I wouldn't be around for a while, logged in a few times to say "Hi" and that's it. No one complained, kicked me out or removed from 'raid' groups. In fact, once I started playing again they helped me finish the stuff I missed while I was out. Okay, to be fair, FFXIV wasn't really P2P until a few days ago, but I can assure you I would do the same thing if it was (cancelling my sub for that period, of course).
The point is: I don't play a game when I don't want to, even if I'm paying for it. The same way I don't go to the gym when I don't want to, and I pay monthly for that as well. If you feel the game is not fun anymore, just stop playing it. It's *that* simple, IMO, but maybe I'm just an exception. May'be it's hard to do that.
It also helps to plan up stuff in advance if you're having some trouble getting time to do other stuff. I do that myself, I sorta have planned in advance which days I'm going to log in, which days I'm going to sleep early, which days I will just watch anime, etc, etc. Stuff like "Tomorrow I'm going to log in and try to level my gladiator" or "Tomorrow I won't play FFXIV at all and watch some anime" or whatever. But I guess the most important advice I can give is just what I've already said: Don't feel like playing it? Don't play it.
As for people that had problems with guild officers and other stuff, I'd like to point out that douches exist everywhere and just because your guild leader kicked you out because you missed a raid, doesn't mean everyone out there is like that.
And for the one guy saying about MMOs ruining people's lifes, the same could be said of any form of entertainement and addictions in general. People got too sucked into things of little "real life" value long before MMOs, they aren't the only "life sucking villain" out there and I don't think people play games expecting to have some sort of life changing experience or whatever. Don't see the problem here.
I don't really have that much experience with MMOs. Played a few F2P stuff when I was fourteen~sixteen, then played no MMO at all for years until Final Fantasy XIV release made me interested in trying a MMO again. Yes, Final Fantasy XIV. I've been playing since open beta, and let's be honest here, while I'd say the game right now is "good enough", release was utter crap. Still, with all the problems, I logged in almost daily and was having fun. I guess that grinding for 5 hours straight in Tam Tara wasn't so bad while reading some stuff on the internet and talking with my in-game friends. And no, I don't do that anymore, I had plenty of free time circa december 2010.
Anyways, I think the whole community aspect is one of the strenghts of the genre and can make the difference between "oh, this game is so boring" and "DJIGGA DJIGGA DJIGGAS LOL!" and other weird stuff we spout on LS vent when doing stuff together. Heck, even the damn Moogle prereq quest - thanks god they patched that thing and made it less annoying - was very satisfiying as we laughed together a lot every time a Spindigle aggroed us and linked 2-3 trees, wiping out our party more times than I can count. I wouldn't have endured that thing much long a single player game, that's for sure.
As for the question at the end of the article, I'd say you're a sucker. If you didn't feel like playing a game, just don't do it. If you feel you're wasting your money if you don't play, and only play to not waste that money, they you really should stop playing. Maybe the game isn't for you, paid or not. Maybe the genre itself isn't for you.
Using myself as an example once again, I was really burned out / busy in real life a few months ago and stopped playing for like 2 months. I just posted on my LS forum telling them I wouldn't be around for a while, logged in a few times to say "Hi" and that's it. No one complained, kicked me out or removed from 'raid' groups. In fact, once I started playing again they helped me finish the stuff I missed while I was out. Okay, to be fair, FFXIV wasn't really P2P until a few days ago, but I can assure you I would do the same thing if it was (cancelling my sub for that period, of course).
The point is: I don't play a game when I don't want to, even if I'm paying for it. The same way I don't go to the gym when I don't want to, and I pay monthly for that as well. If you feel the game is not fun anymore, just stop playing it. It's *that* simple, IMO, but maybe I'm just an exception. May'be it's hard to do that.
It also helps to plan up stuff in advance if you're having some trouble getting time to do other stuff. I do that myself, I sorta have planned in advance which days I'm going to log in, which days I'm going to sleep early, which days I will just watch anime, etc, etc. Stuff like "Tomorrow I'm going to log in and try to level my gladiator" or "Tomorrow I won't play FFXIV at all and watch some anime" or whatever. But I guess the most important advice I can give is just what I've already said: Don't feel like playing it? Don't play it.
As for people that had problems with guild officers and other stuff, I'd like to point out that douches exist everywhere and just because your guild leader kicked you out because you missed a raid, doesn't mean everyone out there is like that.
And for the one guy saying about MMOs ruining people's lifes, the same could be said of any form of entertainement and addictions in general. People got too sucked into things of little "real life" value long before MMOs, they aren't the only "life sucking villain" out there and I don't think people play games expecting to have some sort of life changing experience or whatever. Don't see the problem here.