Editorial: MMO or MM-NO?

By Virginia 'Ginia' Herrell
5 Comments

O Hai, Lusi-sprites. Admittedly the tagline needs some work, but really, this post is late enough without waiting for me to attempt to be clever. At the wrist of incurring the Wrath of Shawn, I will draw attention to and apologize for the lateness of my post. Life got in the way a bit this week.

Moving right along …

I find myself in an odd position, one I have not found myself in for quite some time. Before Liles can snort and think any more rude thoughts, I shall explain. I find myself not really playing any MMOs. I no longer play World of Warcraft, I no longer play Aion, and I have not purchased Final Fantasy XIV. I do not even foresee myself ordering Cataclysm. I have not even bothered to login to check my pre-Cataclysm talent changes. I just … do not care.

I had actually intended to purchase FFXIV. I do not share many of the objections that some of my colleagues here have to the game. Better character customization? More expansive crafting system? Linear story missions and daily (well, 36 hourly) quests? Cool. But … I do not want it. If it were somehow a single-player console game set in the same world with a similar setup, I might be all for it, though. Because it is an MMO I do not want it.

I think that after years of competitive WoW endgame content I am just tired of jockeying for position in a game with thousands of other internet nerds. I am tired of trying to keep pace with the elite players (who in real life are probably as un-elite as possible) and in the process not getting to just enjoy my experience. I like the fact that in single-player RPGs, I am my own boss, I determine the rate of progression.

Maybe I just cannot play nicely with others anymore. I blame Lusipurr.

5 Comments

  1. Lusipurr
    Posted 2010.10.15 at 00:25 | Permalink

    “I guess this one’s a success.”

  2. Lane
    Posted 2010.10.15 at 01:13 | Permalink

    I AM VERY ELITE.

    But you play Horde, which is much of the problem. And FFXIV is just plain boring, aside from its gameplay. It is downright mean to players.

    If you are looking for a free-to-play WoW-lite that doesn’t suffer from the “hardcore” phenom, I suggest Runes of Magic. But hey, single-player games are awesome. Catch up on Assassin’s Creed!.

  3. SiliconNooB
    Posted 2010.10.15 at 02:35 | Permalink

    Your tagline was great Ginia. :)

  4. Ginia
    Posted 2010.10.15 at 10:09 | Permalink

    :)

  5. evilpaul
    Posted 2010.10.15 at 18:18 | Permalink

    I’ve been playing FFXI for a little under six years. I’ve been playing it much less the past few months. I could have gotten in on the FFXIV beta, but chose not to. I could pick the game up and play it now on my PC, but again, I’ll pass. I don’t really want to have to commit timeslots to play an MMO with other people in order to get anywhere in the game.

    Some random multiplayer games would be fun, but the constant horserace type thing of an MMO just isn’t interesting or fun to me anymore. There’s too many good games out there (and in my backlog) to dedicate that much time to a single, probably not as good, game anymore.