He posted it yesterday, and it can be turned into a broader question about MMOs in general.
Why do we login to these games and play? Is it inertia, friendship, curiosity, addiction, the goal-oriented nature of things, or something else?
For me, I'm not exactly sure why I login.
Does that sound strange to you? It sure does to me.
I mean, I may chat with my friends group on the WoW Anniversary servers, but I don't actually play with them. They'd all reached max level ages ago --and some have multiple toons at max level-- while my own toons are L66-L67. And I've already decided that once ny toons start reaching L70 I'm going to probably not play them much at all and instead play other toons. Perhaps that's borderline insanity to the average Anniversary server player who's got multiple raids already under their belt, but I'm kind of happy that I've never pushed myself to that route. Hell, I probably won't even get epic riding at all on any of them*, much less flying. But getting that stuff isn't why I play. (At least I know that much.)
Maybe it is exploring the world that I'm attracted to the most. When I get on LOTRO or SWTOR, I spend more time just putzing around and looking at places than anything else. ESO is the same way. I can engage at my own pace without worrying about catching up with the Jonses or feeling like I'm missing out. I also did a ton of simply exploring places my last year of playing Retail back in 2013-2014, because the Battlegrounds only made me angry and most people I'd known had quit the game. It was pleasant; empty, but also pleasant.
I think I'll turn the question over to you, the reader: What's your reason for playing?
*One L67 toon, my Shaman, doesn't even have "basic riding", because she's got Ghost Wolf form. Sure, it's not as fast as basic riding, but it's free and it's an instant cast spell that has gotten me out of jams numerous times in the past.
For MMOs, I'd say the reasons are 1) to spend time with my characters 2) to do simple, relaxing tasks that give the illusion of being meaningful and c) to see anything that's new (I.e curiosity.)
ReplyDeleteIf I go back far enough, there was a period of about 5-10 years when socializing with actual humans would have been in there too, but that stopped being a significant factor well over a decade ago. And if I'm honest, even at the peak of my social era in games, my own characters always felt more real to me than most other players.
These days, in the mostly not-MMO games I play, 1, 3 and 3 above still apply but you can add 4) which is to enjoy the increasingly excellent storytelling and narrative. Non-MMOs have such better stories it's ridiculous. Even the weaker ones are more cinematic and literary than any MMO I ever played, with the possible exception of The Secret World. Playing games is getting harder and harder to tell apart from watching TV now.
Gah! 1, 3 and 3 should obviously be 1, 2 and 3!
DeleteGiven that I'd accidently written "my" and "ny", which I always read as "New York", I'm fine with that.
DeleteI have discovered that non-MMO video games tend to have much better stories overall as well. It seems to me that MMOs have fallen into the "one-upsmanship" trap that early video games fell into, where there's a constant need to entice players by saying "If you thought the previous Big Bad was running things, surprise! That Big Bad was under the control of THIS Big Bad!" It's as if the only plan that the MMO had was to just get across the initial finish line and try to profit off of the game by selling live services without any thought given to how to keep people's engagement after the initial content was burned through.
DeleteLove Crendor's Pointless Top 10 series, he has so much love for the world and always shows me NPCs, places and other details I didn't know about. I also voted in the poll he quotes at the start of this video.
ReplyDeleteOh? Will you post about this yourself, or will you share here?
DeleteNot sure what exactly you mean by "this" - I've commented on the latest retail content drop (which was what the poll was about) in this recent post, and gushed about why I love Crendor's content previously in this one. As for the general question of why I log in... there are a lot of reasons for me, so it's not something I feel I have to question in great detail. 😊
DeleteI am mostly still playing to explore. My current LoTRO runs is all about "new to me" zones that have been out for a few years. I enjoy the story line that is running through each area, and it's really interesting to see what peaple got up to after the One Ring was destroyed. It's also wonderfull to see their take on areas from the books like Dale and Minis Tirith. The most recent set of expansions wanders out into Near Harad, which I am looking forward to.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is an issue that the competance of the designs varies a lot from one area to the next. The core story is always interesting, and the zones themselves are always gorgeous. But in some zones simply navigating to quest objectives can be a chore.
For example, I am currently working out of a huge dwarven keep with five or six levels and all sorts to different areas, but that has no functional map whatsoever. I am having to memorize how to get to everything on a really complicate map. It feels like being in Neriak in launch era EQ, which was easier to put up with when the entire concept of a shared virtual fantasy world had enough novelty to carry any gameplay...no matter how clunky.
I still love the overall look and feel of LOTRO, but what annoys me is that the maps are borderline useless. There has to be a way to make them look better without losing their Middle-earth look.
DeleteAnd yes, I play LOTRO mainly to look around and explore.