We've all felt it at least once before with a game we love to waste time in on a weekly basis. That feeling in the depths of your stomach when you're sitting there staring at your monitor screen eyeing all the icons on your desktop. That feeling of helplessness when you realize that there's nothing on your desktop that gives you the instant feeling of "Yea, let's boot that up and have some fun :D!".

The moment you get this feeling you also immediately feel an impending dread that somehow you've completely lost any urge whatsoever to log back into your favorite MMO. That somehow, you've reached the limit to what that particular product can do for you in terms of virtual accomplishment or satisfaction.

What happened?

Did I play too much?

Is the game simply not "deep" enough to keep me engrossed to keep playing anymore?

Have I seen all there is to see?

Are the goals that I set for myself within this virtual space no longer interesting to me anymore?

Am I getting too old for these types of games?

These are the questions you might ask yourself in order to justify to yourself that NO! No you haven't gotten bored! Somehow, somewhere, for some reason something happened to MAKE you stop playing. Unfortunately, you come around to the realization that you might not actually have a reason. You might simply just be "bored" with that game you've been waiting on forever to come out, and then you hit the ultimate "bottom" of that feeling in your gut. The feeling that, perhaps, that game has failed you somehow, but the real kicker isn't that the GAME "failed" you. It's that you have failed to see what the game had to offer to begin with, and understand exactly what that game was from the very beginning.

That feeling, that utter sense of dread, is what I believe to be nothing more than your awakening to the fact that your "perfect" MMO doesn't exist yet.

This is what I call the "I Quit" syndrome with regards to the MMORPG market.

This is where I believe a majority of blind "Fanaticism" & "Hate" comes from with regards to newer products being announced, talked about, and eventually released. People want SO BADLY for that new game that moderately identifies with them to be that "One Game" that returns them to the euphoria of their past experiences. Nostalgia drives this mentality, and it is in the search of this nostalgia that drives the cycle ever forward without slowing or stopping.

It has always been my drive to inflict a specific amount of critical thinking into what a new game has to offer, where it wants to go, where it looks like it will go, where similar products in the past have gone, and how that product differentiates itself from the last. This is where criticism comes from, and this is where products are measured.

I believe this syndrome has a key element to it, and that element is far too complex to be narrowed down to a handful of answers. It depends entirely on what the individual is looking for, and what kind of experience they want to have. If you don't know what YOU want to begin with how can even one game ever be fitting enough to keep your time spent valuable? Remember, it's never wrong to question something that doesn't clearly define itself. That includes your own opinion :D!

Do you have your own theory as to what causes this issue or do you relatively agree that it is based on a person's specific expectations being improperly weighed against realistic products?

That shit is deep man.

I think i'm currently in that situation, Looking at my desktop looking for a game to boot up to fulfil my enjoyment.

Recent mmorpgs TSW, GW2. AoC have left me with the feeling after a while of why am i doing this, its not fun. or when the current task is done was it worth the time investment? and the big one i think: all games lack depth our days.

It's gotten so bad over the last week that ive resurrected a couple of single player game franchises and realised that they too are not doing it for me.

So in true self diagnosis i think:

1: i'm a suffering from some kind of burnout. which happens to everyone from time to time.

2.I've failed to realise that i have changed and What I tell my self I like in games is not really true any more.

3.The industry has failed me. What i value in games is not profitable for the mainstream.

Originally posted by Nitth

That shit is deep man.

I think i'm currently in that situation, Looking at my desktop looking for a game to boot up to fulfil my enjoyment.

Recent mmorpgs TSW, GW2. AoC have left me with the feeling after a while of why am i doing this, its not fun. or when the current task is done was it worth the time investment? and the big one i think: all games lack depth our days.

It's gotten so bad over the last week that ive resurrected a couple of single player game franchises and realised that they too are not doing it for me.

So in true self diagnosis i think:

1: i'm a suffering from some kind of burnout. which happens to everyone from time to time.

2.I've failed to realise that i have changed and What I tell my self I like in games is not really true any more.

3.The industry has failed me. What i value in games is not profitable for the mainstream.

I think these two are the primary issues most people are dealing with nowadays. However, currently for me personally #3 is the issue.

Right now I'm considering rezzing up some EQ1 or DAOC. Can't decide offhand just yet.

I believe many people are disappointed because they do expect a game to be more than what it is in reality. Guild Wars 2 was the first mmo in awhile that I did not let myself get overly hyper about expecting completely new experience. The game is very fun but there isn't that much new to it. Although the game offers new elements, it has the same feel as many other games I have played. The success of games like Everquest and WoW have set a standard in the market that other companies copy for the sake of profit.  They take the concepts built by previous games and added a couple new things here and there. Rift is a great example of this. They all but copied a game and added 1 or 2 new neat features. I am not saying that Rift is a bad game. I had as much fun at the beginning of Rift as I am in Guild Wars 2.

In my mmo experience I can only think of 3 games that gave me a unique feeling when I played them. UO was the first, Everquest was the second and Eve was the third. What gave me the unique feeling in these games was that the entire game was a new experiece for me. I would say your I quit syndrome is very similar to the new puppy syndrome. Everyone loves a puppy but eventually the puppt turns into a dog and are nowhere near as entertaining. The mmorpg market hasn't been revolutionary in a long time, only evolutionary.

Originally posted by Scorp2778

I believe many people are disappointed because they do expect a game to be more than what it is in reality. Guild Wars 2 was the first mmo in awhile that I did not let myself get overly hyper about expecting completely new experience. The game is very fun but there isn't that much new to it. Although the game offers new elements, it has the same feel as many other games I have played. The success of games like Everquest and WoW have set a standard in the market that other companies copy for the sake of profit.  They take the concepts built by previous games and added a couple new things here and there. Rift is a great example of this. They all but copied a game and added 1 or 2 new neat features. I am not saying that Rift is a bad game. I had as much fun at the beginning of Rift as I am in Guild Wars 2.

In my mmo experience I can only think of 3 games that gave me a unique feeling when I played them. UO was the first, Everquest was the second and Eve was the third. What gave me the unique feeling in these games was that the entire game was a new experiece for me. I would say your I quit syndrome is very similar to the new puppy syndrome. Everyone loves a puppy but eventually the puppt turns into a dog and are nowhere near as entertaining. The mmorpg market hasn't been revolutionary in a long time, only evolutionary.

My problem is that everyone sees dollar signs when looking @ WoW without realizing that there is a SPECIFIC audience in mind for WoW, and they're already pretty much captured by WoW. Yet, there are roughly 50million total MMO gamers in the market. That leaves at least another 5-10million waiting for somethng that is NOT WoW.

Ignorant Producers not realizing that staying true to fans rather than catering to the masses means they lose credibility and money overall by chasing the money instead of respecting the fans.

Originally posted by Topherpunch
I think what we used to love is gone. When you look at games today you are reminded about games from yesturday. We try to make the same connections we did back then, and yet the factors just are not the same. The gaming community doesn't need a blast from the past either, but more of something new and exciting that not only reminds us of the past, but give us something to look forward too.

I sort of agree as going "backwards" wouldn't be very productive.

However, for example, if all SOE does for EQIII is take EQ and make it super-casual F2P then they will fail so hard, and will completely butcher that franchise into oblivion.

However, I'd like to see a return of business model back to F2P for quality MMOs, and an emphasis back on Social interaction and in-depth game mechanics with the "hard" nature of EQ1.

wtb: Corpse Runs, Item Decay, etc again :D

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

Originally posted by Topherpunch
I think what we used to love is gone. When you look at games today you are reminded about games from yesturday. We try to make the same connections we did back then, and yet the factors just are not the same. The gaming community doesn't need a blast from the past either, but more of something new and exciting that not only reminds us of the past, but give us something to look forward too.

I sort of agree as going "backwards" wouldn't be very productive.

 

However, for example, if all SOE does for EQIII is take EQ and make it super-casual F2P then they will fail so hard, and will completely butcher that franchise into oblivion.

However, I'd like to see a return of business model back to F2P for quality MMOs, and an emphasis back on Social interaction and in-depth game mechanics with the "hard" nature of EQ1.

 

wtb: Corpse Runs, Item Decay, etc again :D

They kind of did that with Everquest 2(except the F2P until recently). They recreated the content from EQ1 but more casual. I agree that going backwards would be a bad idea except for in terms of game difficulty. I Was never a huge fan of corpse runs but I am a fan of xp loss on death and item decay. Open world PvP with consequences was nice too.

I would almost like to see the story ilnes for each class/race removed from mmorpgs. A single player story line really detracts from creating a social experience in a game(especially when everything is instanced). Instead I believe the effort going into the story line should be used to create content that lets a player build his or her own destiny without being guided through a story.

Originally posted by Scorp2778

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

Originally posted by Topherpunch
I think what we used to love is gone. When you look at games today you are reminded about games from yesturday. We try to make the same connections we did back then, and yet the factors just are not the same. The gaming community doesn't need a blast from the past either, but more of something new and exciting that not only reminds us of the past, but give us something to look forward too.

I sort of agree as going "backwards" wouldn't be very productive.

 

However, for example, if all SOE does for EQIII is take EQ and make it super-casual F2P then they will fail so hard, and will completely butcher that franchise into oblivion.

However, I'd like to see a return of business model back to F2P for quality MMOs, and an emphasis back on Social interaction and in-depth game mechanics with the "hard" nature of EQ1.

 

wtb: Corpse Runs, Item Decay, etc again :D

They kind of did that with Everquest 2(except the F2P until recently). They recreated the content from EQ1 but more casual. I agree that going backwards would be a bad idea except for in terms of game difficulty. I Was never a huge fan of corpse runs but I am a fan of xp loss on death and item decay. Open world PvP with consequences was nice too.

I would almost like to see the story ilnes for each class/race removed from mmorpgs. A single player story line really detracts from creating a social experience in a game(especially when everything is instanced). Instead I believe the effort going into the story line should be used to create content that lets a player build his or her own destiny without being guided through a story.

I disagree entirely with regards to EQ2. It wasn't anything like EQ1, and it originally was going to be a different game altogether during Alpha. However, they decided to tack on the "Everquest" fan crowd so it had an immediate fanbase. That's why when EQ2 first came out the game was nothing like EQ1, and only references to EQ1 were made without any connection. None of the zones ever resembled anything like EQ1's mirror-named zones. Like Freeport for instance was NOTHING, absolutely nothing, like EQ1's post or pre-revamp version.

Not to mention the massive instancing going on everywhere making the game feel completely disconnected.