It finally dawned on me this morning why I’ve been so burned out on MMOs the last several weeks … they are like a mana bomb that exploded on my desktop and sucked the everyday joy from my life slowly over time the last several years.
Admittedly, the mana bomb Garrosh Hellscream dropped on Theramore was far more destructive and killed innocent Alliance citizens. However, MMOs may be the ultimate time suck ever created in the last twenty years. The grind for gear, the constantly expanding world, and if you are lucky, the compelling story are all designed to keep players coming back day after day, year after year. There is a definitely appeal to MMOs, personally I like the story lines in the MMOs I play and have become attached to characters over the years. But, honestly after a break the last couple of weeks I don’t miss the grind or the feeling of “oh crap I’m falling behind” that comes with in-game events and expansions.
When I power up my console and load up a game I know that it will have a story I’m interested in (or I wouldn’t be playing it) and I can easily pause the game to change the washer or bake cookies. I’m not constantly having to look for a safe spot to log out and carry on with real life. Admittedly, with DLC for games being so prevalent on consoles there is an argument to be made that there is still a gear grind or always waiting new content but that argument falls flat. DLC is completely optional and most of the time doesn’t interest me and since I rarely, if ever, play multiplayer games on this generation’s console, I am competing against no one else, save my husband for gear. Achievements are nice, and I admit I have on occasion been known to achievement whore, but for me achievements are not important to me overall in a titled.
Another added benefit of console gaming, is that I can enjoy the game’s story while my husband plays and I do something else. More games than I can count have been experienced that way for me and I’m fine with that. He gets to relax and immerse himself in a game and I can read or stitch and still know the story I was interested in without having to play through the game myself. I suppose this benefit is helped because we both gravitate toward the same types of games in general. And heck when he plays games I’m not interested in, I can always fire up my audible.com selection and listen to a good book while stitching.
I’m currently playing LA Noire and enjoying it. I’m going to fire up Tomb Raider this morning for the first time since we purchased it while it was on sale last week. When Assassin’s Creed II released as the free title for Gold Members on 16 July 2013, I will be powering through AC II, AC Brotherhood, AC Revelations, and AC III. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first game from a player’s perspective, but I did enjoy the story. After I tried AC III several weeks ago, I realized that the game play mechanics had improved significantly and I was enjoying the actual game play aspect.
I’m not giving up MMOs, I’m simply checking in with ones I enjoy when the mood strikes me. I’m not going to pay a subscription fee to MMOs any longer. I’ve always been a solo player in MMOs for the most part and thus I’m going to treat them as single player games going forward. Oh I’m sure the mood will strike me once in a while to run group content in an MMO and when it does, I will. However, the other things I enjoy in life are far more important to me than the 1’s and 0’s that are the game and gear of a MMO.
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