Like a lot of you here I'm sure, I spent a lot of time playing World of Warcraft. I played it for years and years and it was a great laugh, even if it did severely stunt my growth as a functional human being.
Very slowly, my interest in the game and faith in the developers dwindled, and I eventually quit the game. I played for about 5-7 years, honestly that time is a blur. Since then there hasn't been a game that has hooked me like that. I've not been able to recreate that obsession.
I've heard from quite a lot of people that the first MMO one gets themselves attached to is the pinnacle of gaming fun. That nothing will recreate that sense of joy and adventure, and it's a lost cause trying to find something to stand up to it.
Is that true? It sounds exactly how I'd imagine a drug addiction works. You get that initial high, you love it, then the rest of your time is spent chasing that initial high, to no avail.
I don't know whether to believe that or put it down to other factors, such as growing older, gaining more responsibilities and less time to lose yourself in. Maybe WoW was a truly excellent game that hasn't been topped MMO wise since?
I had that feeling when I quit WoW, figured out I was playing for more than fun and that's why I didn't feel as satisfied when I tried playing other games again. Only quit when my computer exploded due to not looking after it.
I managed to get into super serious gaming and play Counter-Strike Source alot in leagues and stuff which filled the void a little. Maybe you should try something like that?
I'm actually playing FFXIV atm and it's basicly WoW mixed with FFXI. It's worth giving it a go at least, only £15.
>It sounds exactly how I'd imagine a drug addiction works. You get that initial high, you love it, then the rest of your time is spent chasing that initial high, to no avail.
That sounds exactly like my first girlfriend. Still feels as if I'll never meet anyone who makes me happy like that ever again. Addiction finds itself in all sorts of guises I guess.
As for gaming, seriously just quit and go outside. I wasted much of my youth playing games (mostly pointless online FPS) and only now have I finally got to the point where I feel no desire to play games. There are a handful of really good games that can arguably be treated as a kind of art, and there's nothing wrong with using a game to plug time where you have nothing better to do, but if you've an addictive personality it will stunt you and make you a thoroughly uninteresting person. Get addicted to something healthy instead.
>>16847 >As for gaming, seriously just quit and go outside.
Well, no. I enjoy gaming, and I can enjoy it responsibly these days. Quitting gaming makes about as much sense as quitting reading books, or watching TV. I enjoy something that may not be very tangibly worthwhile. Who doesn't?
I'm not sure of your age or your stage in life OP, but the post you wrote could have been exactly about me.
Looking at myself I think it was such a glorious time for both the reason you give (First experience of such immersive games) but also because it hit when I was able to play so much. Playing in my A-Levels and all through University very nearly had disastrous consequences for me (and it did for many) but I find that the deep sadness I feel now when I look back to WoW is mostly down to having no time to play games like that anymore.
Back then I was staying up all night, playing 12h a day etc, and ignoring the difficult and stressful real world. It was fucking disgusting and pathetic looking back, but at the time it was complete bliss. Part of me misses being that ignorant and having such a simple life (wake up, eat, WoW, bed) now that I've been forced to grow up, take responsibility and use my time on priorities (aka be a normal human being).
I've recently started playing EVE and I'm going through phases of not/wanting to play. What draws me is the social aspect; I often find myself logging in to say hi rather than to play. There is no hiding from me the point of the game being to 'make more money to make more money'. Every so often I'll think "oh hey I could make a difference" but that only really comes after a few months effort and even then the difference you make is only visible if you look for it. Its almost like Dwarf fortress in that the game is what you make of it. If you want fun to happen you have to organise it yourself rather than just play the game.
One of the aspects of MMOs that greatly appeals to me is the idea of rare items and the market/drama they create.
I can still remember Mia after 8 or so years; the only character in Legend of Mir (Europe) to own Heaven Armour.
Then there was the time I found a Benediction Oil, oer 'Bene', from the most unlikely and lowly of creatures. I ran right back to town to sell it, only to have it trust scammed off of me.
I was akin to a peasant in that game. I would never have any gold to my name and I'd always die and lose my best gear.
Its funny really. I hadn't even seen half, even a third, of the game content in the years I played LoM yet it is the best online gaming experience I've ever had.
I played a related game to Mir, Myth of Soma for like 3 years. It was just a 2.5 Korean grind-fest and pretty brutal (when you died you could either revive and lose stats, or warp to town and drop random items and money you were carrying). It was the same with items, the excitement that a 1-in-100,000 perfect stat drop could give me was akin to a drug high, and the compulsion to keep searching for more and better items (which were all randomly generated) was a complete addiction.
I was never hooked on WoW, but I was a big player of arena shooters (UT, Q3, CS etc) back in the day.
I think it's fair to say that what you are looking for is a replacement in terms of satisfaction and validation, and it's true- Nothing else will come close. You'll never be able to "get into" another game in the same way because when you look at it all of the reasons you were hooked are pretty unique. You probably had a stunted social life and WoW gave you acceptance. You gained online friends and became part of a community, another life. When attempting to find this again in something else, it simply won't live up to the memory, like your first teenage lover, and you will find yourself though perhaps entertained, unfulfilled.
From here you will probably cease to see games as an all consuming hobby as you once did. Since I got a job and stopped spending so much time perfecting my headshots and straferunning, I have never had quite as much investment in the world of games in general; I'd describe it as being acutely aware of the futility of sitting and staring at the screen when you know you could be doing something productive or self-educating, whereas before gaming absorbed you completely and gave you release from the outside world.
I still play games a lot, obviously- But nowhere near as hardcore. I used to be the sort who upgraded to the latest graphics card every six months and so on, but I've left this machine untouched for nearly five years now. The hard truth is this: You change as a person. WoW was an element of your personality, and now that you have grown out of it, you must look for something else to seek fulfilment in. Don't move on to another MMO, because it won't be the same.
Remember when you were like, 13 or so and you thought Linkin Park, or Eminem, or whatever shite you liked then, was the best music ever, and you'll never change your mind? Yeah, you did change your mind, didn't you. It's kind of like that.
>Remember when you were like, 13 or so and you thought Linkin Park, or Eminem, or whatever shite you liked then, was the best music ever, and you'll never change your mind? Yeah, you did change your mind, didn't you. It's kind of like that.
Reminded me of a guy I knew who got Guns n Roses tattoo'd across his shoulders aged 16. 10 years later he hates (even classic) rock.
I am very similar. I played a really shit game called Knight Online for years, as well as playing a lot of games when I was younger. When I got a job, and a gee eff (now my wife), the only game I play is the very odd game of Dota 2. Even then I see it as a futile waste of time, knowing I could be doing something productive.
I think learning a new hobby, like programming, really helped me. I remember I was playing a round against a bunch of russians (lovely chaps), and was side-thinking about learning some more openGL. I quit in the middle of a dreadful round (that was just making me angry) and did some work, and it felt very liberating.
The darling and I also recently took up rabbiting with the new air rifle. Much more fun (and delicious) than asking if anyone on my team speaks English.
I used to game pretty hard. I don't really feel many great memories about the online games I played. Sure there were moments where everything would line up for you and you'd rape everyone else but really I just remember most of it as amusing timewasters. I remember playing good single-player games a lot more, especially if there is some sort of story to go along with it. Shame the number of games with decent stories is so low though.
You posh cunt. I wish I had somewhere I could take my air rifle other than my back garden where I won't get arrested.
I occasionally shoot birds in the trees that line the garden out of my window, but I feel like a right 'orrible cunt for doing so. It's not real hunting unless you're in the country and after something you can eat after.
You're almost certainly breaking the law, and you probably have access to perfectly legal hunting grounds. Wild birds in the UK are protected by default and you're only legally allowed to kill a very short list of pest species under very specific circumstances. You can see the General Licenses at the link below. You may also be committing a firearms offence if your shooting may cause a public nuisance.
Many farmers are perfectly happy for some spod with an air rifle to chip away at their vermin problem. If you knock on a few farmhouse doors you're bound to find someone who's happy for you to take potshots at the rabbits in his arable field or the rats in his barn. BASC provide a useful pro-forma permission slip for this sort of shooting (second link). You can find opportunities to shoot through the BASC's GoShooting website (third link). There are usually plenty of opportunities, even in quite built-up suburbs.
How do you guys go about naming your MMO characters? I find myself staring blankly at the character creation screen for hours (no, really) trying to come up with something cool and edgy but always fail miserably.
You can kill feral pigeons and wood pigeons (amongst other pest species), but only if they are causing serious crop damage or pose a threat to human health and if non-lethal control methods have failed. Just shooting pigeons for a laugh is a criminal offence.
Yeah, I knew I was breaking the law. Your links are pretty helpful though, me and my mate have considered asking farmers and the suchlike (normally we only shoot targets anyhow) but somehow just saying "The bloke in charge let us shoot here" never felt like it would hold up very well with the filth; seeing as we are both the type of youth a police officer would be likely to take a stern approach towards. That permission slip will be handy in such a case though.
>>16855 I played EVE for about 4 years, and i never had the urge to quit until the last year. Find yourself a group of people to play with, for some reason there seems to be tons of middle-aged British men (and women, for that matter) that play. And the Johnny-Foreigners usually speak brilliant English (i'd say the only time i saw people who didn't was Russians in 0.0, but that might as well be a different universe).
As for "making money to make more money", i fell into that trap very easily. Eventually you should aim to stop caring and concentrate on PvP. I did that for most of my EVE career playtime, you should still chose your targets carefully but the aim is to not give a damn if you die, if you win, then you have a nice little kill-mail and something to tell your corpies about and some stuff to sell (i found it much more fun living playing like this, it make loot and kills much more valuable and i had a hell of a lot more fun than some random who buys 4 plex a month so he can lose his shiny faction fit Cmd ship in a gate camp).
But if i ever wanted money, i threw together a shit-fit Hound and either risked the gates or wormholed into deep Great Wildlands/Curse and grinded rats until i got bored or died (Of course other fun can be had here, finding faction rats, ninja looting some Russians complex or popping a hauler at a gate..). I don't think i ever bought a plex in 3 years.
TL;DR Put effort in and you'll get a hell of a lot out of it (unless EVE isn't your sort of thing), Try to find some good people you can play socially with, Don't care about money or loss, and remember to have fun PvP/0.0/WHs/Grief'ing your heart out
On second thoughts this post is probably just me talking to myself about old-times, might as well submit anyway
>>16886 As a few people have said, EVE is the type of game that even non-players can find stories of entertaining.
If you have the time, please do regale us of your old-times.
All I'm really doing at the moment is mining .6 systems and the occasional worm hole (which don't seem to be nearly as dangerous as they say).
>>16987 >All I'm really doing at the moment is mining .6 systems and the occasional worm hole (which don't seem to be nearly as dangerous as they say).
You say that, but then Vladmir and Boris uncloak their 3bill T3's and chase you down for the sole purpose that you are in "their" hole.
But, you're never, ever, ever safe in a wormhole. Wormholes can be worse than 0.0 in the sense that people bring their biggest shiny most expensive PvP built cloakies because they make a ton of isk from the wormhole and can afford to lose faction fit command ships and slaved clones everyday. If you've truely found a wormhole with no player presence whatsoever, its probably because it isn't very high-yield and people have moved onto bigger and better things, or the owners recently left.
None of my stories are really interesting, usual corp drama and some 0.0 fights, nothing worth reeling off