Fantastic gentleman of site excellence & a majestic sir of podcastery.
No Monday is complete without TSM, you will be missed – best of luck in travels, big kiss <3

@Bup: Maybe next week, when you’re a panelist.

@Imitanis: I am worn out playing with endless grinds/economy sims that go nowhere. Gain levels to gain levels to gain levels; get gear to get gear to get gear; craft items to make money to craft items to make money. If the game doesn’t have a definitive end, I’m done playing it. My time is too limited and valuable to spend on Sisyphean tasks devised by greedy but creatively-impaired game devs.

@Wolfe: What I just said to Imitanis. I’ll often think back on things I did in XI, WoW, XIV, etc, and briefly want to play it again–or I’ll hear about some new feature and want to try it out. But then I’ll remind myself that I could be playing an actual game–something with a point–something that isn’t just a time-sink.

Because that is what MMOs ultimately are: they are time sinks (and often money sinks). They are a series of chores that are completed so that the player can then do another series of chores. And so on. Forever. Until, one day, they turn it off or the player gets fed up. And then for what was all that time spent? Nothing. Nothing at all.

I’m not claiming that beating some other game is a huge moral accomplishment, or creative production. But it is the difference between paying a fee for the privilege of sweeping a floor whilst talking on the phone, every day, for years; OR, reading a good book, and then another good book, and then another good book, and then another.

One of those two tasks is significantly more beneficial to the subject in terms of breadth of experience, personal growth, and the development of unique skills and perspectives.

Once I realised that, I was done. It took years and several MMOs, but now I’m bound and determined to tell everyone else and save other people from years of missed gaming experiences. There are so many excellent games that I never played or finished because of MMOs, and I deeply regret all of the time I put into them–like dumping money into a well, only worse. Because, you see, they print more money every day. I can earn more money. But the lost time is gone forever.

LOL I guess I was!

Re: FFXIV > I feel like the MMO is something I’ve looked at from afar with curiosity for over a decade. From the outside, it looks like a thriving, living world you can vanish into.
I did play a free trial on the PS3 a couple of years ago, and the two aspects I loved were the customization of avatar, and the landscapes. I found the combat duller than hell. I had been playing Dark Souls for the year prior and that’s still my standard for addictive combat, and I in fact when right back to it without even completing my 30 day trial.
I’m not going to say the appeal isn’t still there. For now I’ve opted out of leaping into it due in part to this discussion, and also due in part to my irl friend directly stating that he could not refute everything you claimed (I passed the tweets along). Monthly fees are also just a deal breaker. Broke as I am, I just can’t see paying 15 bucks a month for a game I’ll treat as a dress up walking sim.

Re: Konami: I took the dang survey just in hopes of seeing Suikoden return from the grave, but the smartphone resurrection is the most likely. Castlevania at least, the REAL ‘vania, lives on with another name. Not so worried about its future.

The comment about British commercials was another ‘laughed and choked on coffee’ moment, and I am now convinced that this show is actively trying to kill me.