I'm stuck.
I've reached the end of my potential with my character in WoW short of raiding. I'm in a friends only guild and currently we are raiding but nothing too hard. We've done Obsidian Sanctum and a few bosses in Naxxramas, but nothing very complicated.
Now, what do I do? I can keep running the heroic dungeons, getting emblems, but there isn't anything currently I need from them for my tanking set. Course, I could start grinding gear for my retribution set, so I can do dsp when needed, but that seems like a huge waste of time, especially since I really only want to tank.
Blizzards small fix, which came in the form of patch 3.2, has kept me interested, but that only lasted a month or two. Not much in the form of choices. Short of dumping my buds and trying to find a nice causal raiding guild, I'm pretty much stuck in neutral. This is why people leave WoW. Blizzard tries hard to keep people interested by adding a few little tid bits at a time, but unless your really into farming or raiding, you'll eventually get bored. This is how I ended up getting into Warhammer last year. I was stuck and here was a new game that grabbed my attention for a short period of time. Seduced me away from WoW with it's promise of being better on the PvP front, but in the end it failed to keep and sustain a base of players.
How do MMO's keep their audience? I know that Eve online has managed to maintain a huge following, but I think it's because the game is so cut throat and powers in the game change on a regular basis which must keep the action fresh. Everquest 2 is so huge now and leveling isn't the easiest thing to do, that it will take months or longer to reach the end game, so it will keep the player interested, if they can stand the look of the characters.
I just don't understand, how games like WoW can stay on top, if they are boring people to death by the end of a years playtime? I'm not bashing WoW, I like WoW, but I don't understand why I go through these periods of boredom? I just don't get it.
So basically, what do you do as a player to keep your MMO fresh? Do you just use it as a social network or are you hip deep in raiding? Is it just a place to lose yourself in the mundane to forget your daily troubles? Or does the game never get old for you?
I'm just curious.
A few years ago some studios said industry data indicated the average player gave 18 months per MMO. Not necessarily all together, mind you. Some did way more, some way less.
ReplyDeleteLast week, one of the LOTRO devs said that number is now down to 9 months.
Is the genre flooded? In my own opinion it's flooded with too much of the same game, the only differences being the sights and sounds.
This is why I take breaks. I've chosen LOTRO as my One Traditional MMO to call Home, but I haven't played in months. I'm not decked out in Radiance gear (I have most pieces but not the full set) and all my Legendary Items are still Third Age. But that's ok, because all that will still be there to look forward to (if I should be so insane as to look forward to that grind?) once I decide to return.
In the meantime, I've been enjoying the hell out of Guild Wars on the PC because it's totally not traditional or DIKU-influenced. Otherwise I've been primarily gaming on the 360 just to get myself off the darn PC desk.
I'm in a similar situation but in the opposite spectrum. I have a level 80 paladin in full epic tanking gear that I used to raid with. For some reason I can't play him anymore. Maybe it's because he's a blood elf, maybe it's because I just don't care much for the class anymore.
ReplyDeleteI took a break from the game, came back after all of the rif raff drama queens left the game. My wife and I decided it would be fun to level together and give her an opportunity to see the expansions. She's a slow leveler and only around level 29 now.
I'm currently toying around a death knight and warrior wondering which play style I like more. All the while not wanting to progress too far ahead of the wife. I'm being held up at low levels.
Not that I mind terribly, but it would be nice to start doing some of the new dungeons with her and such.