Playing Time & FOMO - Can we enjoy AoC as a Working Adult ?

Hi Glorious Ashes community!

I come before you today to ask questions and possibly some concerns about the typical playing time each player as to commit into the game to fully enjoy it, and possibly the fear of missing out content or important moments in AoC.

English is not my main language, so please forgive me if my English is a little approximative at times.

AoC is a massive in development game, with huge ambitions, I am really looking forward to play it, but when I see the world and all the possibilities I wonder if I will have the time to fully enjoy it.

I love MMO’s, but i love also video game as a medium in general too, I began MMO’s in the late 90’s and I grew up with MMO and video game as a hobby for as long as I remember. Fictive universe, fantasy, roleplaying are a part of my life which I allow time to enjoy. But I am also an individual with a work, chores, family and all the package of our busy nowadays lives.

AoC as a crossover between a Themepark and Sandbox MMO with vertical and horizontal progression are something I was eagerly anticipating for years. I think and feel that it can be; if the game is successful, a door step to a whole new era for MMORPG’s and Persistent worlds.

But will I have the ability and time to play it and enjoy it for a long period of time?

I fear that if I am not totally committed to playing the game nearly each day for months and months exclusively I can’t enjoy it in his full extent, that if I take a break, I could miss about the next big change in the world, in a really important world storyline quest, or that my home will be destroyed and all my efforts ruined just because I wanted to play for some time another game just released.

I have the feeling that it is “Try hard” or “Do not try at all” type of game.

And even for a game who would possibly be one of the milestone of the decade in the MMO Genra. I don’t want to make that type of commitment about a game, over my family and social life, and I suppose that I am not alone in this case. Core MMO players getting older day by day, with a job and a family.

My question(s) then is can I enjoy Ashes of Creation without it become a second job ? Can I take breaks without regretting to miss content ? Can I just play it for one hour and still have the feeling to progress and do something meaningful without the fear of missing out ? How much time should I dedicate to AoC a week to enjoy it to his fullest ?

Thanks a lot for your insight and answers about this,

KloWh

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Comments

mcstackerson

I think only you can answer a lot of these questions and it probably depends on how competitive you are.

There will be content for you if you don't play a lot and many progression systems can advanced solo.

If you leave for a while, the world will probably change. How this effects you is up to you. Will you see it as a new opportunity to explore or worry about everything you missed?

There will be a lot of content to enjoy so you can spend a lot of time in this game. Hard to tell how much time will be needed to participate at the highest level and will be dependent on the guild you are in. I imagine you want to get to max level as fast as possible but after that, i'm not sure.

Voxtrium

I know that for atleast your home, if you put in a lot of work into building it, the destruction or your home will result in a blue print being given to you. I also know that not all resources in said home would be lost. So i imagine homesteads will be a common way to store resources for players that are going offline for 6 months when inevitably a player decides they need that break. Most game devs know that players often quit and come back. Many games are designed to let a player do that. It will always make it more difficult and you will lose something when you come back, but overall i think you will be fine if you end up playing quitting playing quitting etc as life gets in your way.

superhero6785

You likely won't be enjoying some of the content as a "casual" player, but I don't think that means AoC isn't "casual friendly". You'll probably not be able to keep up with top end PvPers waging Node Wars or Castle Sieges, but I think there will be plenty of other content to keep you having fun at your own pace. It just depends what you want out of the game. You can enjoy gathering/crafting, building your freehold, doing the main-story-quest, playing with other casual friends who are on similar level content as you. You may just have to watch the world evolve around you and not get so wrapped up in the politics and wars yourself, but that's ok, that's not for everyone anyway.

Karthos

My best friend and I, who met when we were 18 and have spent the last 20 years playing MMOs together, have had this talk a lot in regards to MMOs. As our lives got busier and more full, we've had several time periods where we sat back and thought:

"Maybe I'm not the target audience for not just MMOs, but video games in general, anymore"

And that's a depressing realization. BUT, we still play them, and it's made us be much more "choosy" about what we spent our time doing.

I feel the responses you've received so far are pretty much on the money. It's really a question only YOU can answer, and the best we can do is answer the question for ourselves and let you compare/contrast your answer to our's.

Will you be able to play for 1hr a day and feel like you're making progress? I dunno, do you feel like 1hr will feel like progress to you? Would that change if you did 2hrs? 3? 6?. Do you still enjoy your time in the game? If not, maybe you should decide if that game is for you, considering you can't dedicate the time YOU need to feel like you are enjoying it and it's worthwhile to you.

MMOs are "time waster" games. They really are designed to be played long term, and thus much have content that takes time to complete. I think the balance that game studios struggle with is making content that is both Accessible to casual players, but Satiating/Satisfyingly enough for more hardcore players.

Given the information we have now, my answer to your question would be:
Yes, you can play AOC with limited time, but you probably won't be able to do everything, or even a wide range of the activities available. You will have to budget your time, and temper your expectations about progress some. You will likely have to specialize in certain areas of the game, and things that require hours of constant game play (raiding for example) might be out of your scope.

I wish you luck in answering this for yourself

Sawtooth

Let’s be honest, no you won’t compete with NEETS, teenagers, and streamers who have no other obligations other than to play.
I don’t think that reflects badly on you. Good for you, you’ve got a life.

That being said seems like there will plenty of things you can do more casually like being an Innkeeper, animal husbandry, or exploring some dungeons with your friends. And what’s stopping you from taking part in a node siege here and there? Ok you won’t be top damage but you’ll still have fun. And when the game is turned off, you’ll have your real life to get back to.

Spurius

The idea nowdays is that you HAVE to do EVERYTHING or you are "missing out". This is some modern thing, people did not use to worry about that back when I was playing - or maybe it was just the circles I was playing in.

Maybe it happened because of the internet. These days 100'000 people are watching one guy every day who plays the game 24/7, and feel that they are "missing out", whatever that even means. It use to be that you just play as much as you want, and get as much as you get.

As I am writing all this it got me thinking - maybe the internet was one of the things that ruined the genre for all of us and eventually brought us all here. The internet created that fear of "missing out", and to battle that fear developers started to offer solutions. "Don't worry, you won't miss out" should be an offisial moto of modern MMORPG's.

Level boost in Burning Crusade Classic is one example. The idea of paying real money to get to the max level is insane to me - but in the context of this "what if I am missing out" thinking it makes sense. What if I don't have enough time to get to the max level? THEN YOU DON'T GET TO THE MAX LEVEL FOR GOD'S SAKE JUST LIVE YOUR LIFE IT'S OK I PROMISE.

Sorry

Sawtooth

I agree, the advancements in Internet as well as a generation that’s fully technology based has brought many changes to gaming.

One of the biggest changes that happened is everyone following guides and playing the exact same build because it’s meta according to icy veins or whatever. That will undoubtedly happen in ashes as well. The launch will be a blast but within 3 months a guide will be composed saying that X class is the best dps as long as it does X, Y and Z. At that point you’ll see a lot of the “competitive” players and FOTM followers switch to that build/class. Similar to how when WoW classic launched tons of people were playing warrior and mage.

It isn’t the game’s fault. It’s the players’
I just hope the toxic anti social behavior that’s become prevalent in mmos lately will be kept to a minimum in Ashes.

Crivel

Hi KloWh!

I am 48, so I understand your worries.
I have a lovely wife who let me enjoy gaming, so I can put quite a few hours/week on it.
However, I have choosen to view AoC as some sort of second life, in the virtual world.
Might even get my 75 year old mother to play, she want to make a tavern, grow crops and supply players with foodbuffs

Anyway, this virtual world of AoC will be huge and ever evolving, so I doubt anyone of us will be able to take part in everything that will be going on, so I will enjoy this world, as I see fit and as much that I can in the time I have available.
There wont be any "end game" to rush for, so play at your own pace.
Its a virtual fantasy world, enjoy it

bloodprophet

Missing out on content will be the norm here. With the ever changing world, even if you are online a one time event tied to a node leveling could and most likely will happen. It might be across the continent or on the other one.
Hopefully the world is constantly changing and things don't settle down into a super static position.
As others have the rest of your questions are personal. Some might feel an hour a day is plenty.
Comparison is the thief of joy. Log in and play your game the way you want. Don't allow others to own you and determine what you want.

Alimorn

Sometimes you miss stuff. I think that in an evolving and developing system like this one, you'll be able to find the time to play at some point. I had to check out of gaming of any kind for a couple of years while I worked on career advancement. Job done, I got back into it.

I've missed entire chapters of MMO development before due to concerns and circumstances beyond my control. I was always super active in my guilds when I could get on, and that's a nice feeling, to say, "'sup, everybody?", and spend the next ten minutes listening to cheers and whistles and my player name being shouted in the chat, after being gone for six months.

So, make an effort when you're there. When you can be there. Be supportive and friendly and do social things. Make RL friends with guildies, and they'll keep a spot warm for you. The right people won't write you off because your hours are weird.

It seems that there will be many opportunities to still be in a good group and have a good time, even if you can't be on for long. It looks like there will be things that you can do on your own time that will help your groups or guilds. I focused on that, when I couldn't do anything else. I'd go dump money from rewards or materials from farming into the guild, just so people knew I was there still. It helps.

meedx

MMORPG's are a time sink, 1h daily isn't enough to progress at a decent pace in any game and that won't change anytime soon honestly.

If you want to juggle an MMO, work and family then you need to sleep less and be more prepared.

Do your dailies at 6am before work, if there's queues then leave your pc on and queue via team viewer ready for when you get home, find and follow guides to the letter to make the most of your time in game and be efficient, plan pre launch your routes and intentions, work out at home to save time on one less commute, eat meals with small amounts of cooking time or do meal-prep.

It may sound crazy or too much but this is the standard now if you want to "keep up", if you want to just play casually and enjoy at your own pace then 1h a day is fine if that's your speed.

But you can't do both.

truelyyy

I think the key is joining a guild that plays at a similiar level and number of hours as you do. I personally joined other guilds in games that were too casual which made it unfun as my expectations were different to others. However also how casual is a thing. If you arent playing a minimum of 10-15 hours a week, MMORPGs probably don't suit your lifestyle too much and maybe single player RPGs or arena games are more suitable.

1sab3la

You do realize maybe it is not the game or something. It is if you can go as hard as you once did and then compare to a different time in your life. You made the comment core mmo players are getting older so then you'll match those people right? Seek out a guild and friends who match your lifestyle. Also you forget new mmo players are always being created

Caww

Some of the most dedicated players and Guild leaders are in fact people with jobs and families, not just high school and college people. If you look at AoC as your game of choice for the long-haul, think several years, then players will progress and achieve just fine.

If you don't like the game and it doesn't suit your lifestyle then there are plenty of other cheap thrills out there for your entertainment, just drop the subscription and you lose nothing else.

fabula

Back in EQ in a top guild we had our raid times after 5pm because most of our core members had jobs. Its always been that way since the beginning so I don't see why some believe they have discovered something new by getting a job and having a family.

Nothing has changed, it has ALWAYS been that way so I must wonder if people who write these posts have even played the games at all.

Dygz

In Ashes, you will definitely miss out on some stuff no matter how much you play.
It is impossible to experience everything because Verra is a dynamic world.
So, you should play with the expectation that you will miss some stuff.

Your home might be destroyed even if you play 24/7.

tautau

You cannot do everything in 'real life' either, right? You aren't going to be an airline pilot, Wall Street banker, mercenary and Mayor of a large city. You choose something that (hopefully) you really like for your profession and have a limited number of hobbies.

So, it will be the same in the game and you will have a lot of fun.

Elri1

tautau wrote: »

You cannot do everything in 'real life' either, right? You aren't going to be an airline pilot, Wall Street banker, mercenary and Mayor of a large city. You choose something that (hopefully) you really like for your profession and have a limited number of hobbies.

So, it will be the same in the game and you will have a lot of fun.

Bad example, because most people live bland and unfulfilling lives. If you're giving someone encouragement that they can play AoC and have the role of a generic NPC, that isn't good.

Tbh, I think everyone is overestimating the game. The PVE will probably be on par with New World, and the PVP will probably be worse than Warhammer Online.

Balrog21

We make time for what we want or desire to do. I think you will find there is going to be lots of things for you to do in Ashres even with a limited time available. 24/7? Probably not, but I think you will be just fine.

1sab3la

Elri wrote: »

tautau wrote: »

You cannot do everything in 'real life' either, right? You aren't going to be an airline pilot, Wall Street banker, mercenary and Mayor of a large city. You choose something that (hopefully) you really like for your profession and have a limited number of hobbies.

So, it will be the same in the game and you will have a lot of fun.

Bad example, because most people live bland and unfulfilling lives. If you're giving someone encouragement that they can play AoC and have the role of a generic NPC, that isn't good.

Tbh, I think everyone is overestimating the game. The PVE will probably be on par with New World, and the PVP will probably be worse than Warhammer Online.

idk about pvp because you haven't been able to see or experience the full combat and I'm sure you'll see more down the road. Probably one of my largest concerns

But for pve nothing will be as bad as NW. NW all pve content was tacked on within about a year including the healing staff and a lot more. The dungeons and raids might not compete with savage raids from ffxiv or maybe stuff from WoW but WoW is just a bad mmo. All they have to do is meet expectations and will do better. Granted I would hope they exceed

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