What was the reason you left the MMORPG you played longest?

akabear

Thought for the day.. perhaps a dive into why long-term players leave and possible remedies?
(not a current MMO)

What was the longest you played a single MMO?
Why did you leave?
What might have kept you playing?

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Azherae

FFXI...

Nearly 20 years...

Still playin'.

Villefort

akabear wrote: »

What was the longest you played a single MMO?

WoW, about 16 years. Played on a PVP server (Kel'thuzad) from release until 2020 with a breaks here and there.

akabear wrote: »

Why did you leave?

server population and faction imbalance wasn't addressed and when it was it was too late.

blizzard killed the server community. flying mounts eliminated player interaction. You never saw anyone in the world anymore. Cross realm instances and BGs further killed off the community: sacrificed making friends and meeting people long term for quick queue pops.

Because of this, my in-game friends and RL friends stopped playing...and it was the community that kept me going.

akabear wrote: »

What might have kept you playing?

Fostering a strong server community.

DevSeba

- WoW, 15 years.
- I quited because of long queue times in Battlegrounds.
- They should have shown some love for PvP. PvP content was inexistant not considering that a lot of people enjoy PvP (this can be proved by checking the videos of PvP vs PvE official competitions)

I saw that today somehow it is fixed, but it is too late for me now. I was mad and I'm not going to forgive that lack of respect.

Dolyem

Double post

tautau

L2.

I quit due to the P2W, the cheaters/bots, and my guild leader leaving. I played on about a year after the guild leader left, but I did not re-form the friendships that I had in the guild.

Dolyem

WoW- First time I left was at the end of WotLK, mostly just due to being burnt out and not liking the look of cata. Also it mostly closed the story that I grew up with playing the RTS. Tested each new expansion at a friends house. Hated the massive change of the world in cata. Panda land was a joke and the talent system was sacrilege to me. WoD was just overwhelming with no community. Legion is where I finally came back and fell in love with WoW again. Immediately left 1 week into BfA due to recycled systems executed in worse ways while making all previous progress worthless and pointless. Havent bothered with it since.

Classic WoW- Played the hell out of it, left because people were being sweaty over easy content. Don't have time to get every buff and consumable every time Molten Core needs cleared. Was really just ruined due to over-efficiency neckbeards playing but not having fun. I played a lot of Twinking (low level min/max battleground brackets) which were a blast. Once BC came out I just let ti go due to needing to spend more time on real life projects. Definitely wouldve played all the way through classic WotLK if I had the time right now.

Age of Conan- Left to focus on WoW WotLK

Guild Wars- left it to go back to WoW

Guild Wars 2- I was a hardcore WvW player in a zergbusting guild. I and most others left when they switched up the stability buff mechanic.

New World- That was just a disaster with duping, bugs, and how the devs handled those situations in general. Left after a month or 2

Everquest- Left for WoW

Tera- Terable, the weird little girl animal things creeped me out.

Archage- Pay to win, joined it late and the land grabbing was lame as hell. The story was also really forgettable as well. So I left.

There are others but I would say these are the main ones

Razor001

WoW, from vanilla to somewhere during Pandaville. I left due to all the usual suspects, repetitive content, LFG, Pandas, lack of server interaction, the easing of content to attract more subscribers, grinding said content, quest givers inside dungeons and raids, the desire for a more immersive world. I remember when finding quest around the world was epic and gave the illusion at least of a real world. Many reasons.

What would have kept me playing? Yeah, nah. It was a slippery slope and too far gone for any one thing to fix it I think.

novercalis

Ultima Online --- Left because everyone ended up getting ADSL and I was stuck at 56k and couldnt keep up or compete in pvp. Then Trammel happened.

DarkTides

WoW's The Burning Crusade, with the addition of Dailies, was the beginning of a change in the approach to gaming content for WoW. The philosophy of development laziness, conjured out of greed. A focus is placed on repeatable content, massive time sinks of repetition, to reduce budget and increase profit. Quality begins to degrade, respect for the playerbase along with it. This trend of Quantity over Quality continues in this and other forms.

Similarly... Everquest... at some point, the leveling and AA(alternate advancement experience) grind takes its toll.

There is a common factor, and that can generally be described as 'fear of missing out' or 'FOMO'. We see this used in P2W monetization strategies, but its evil face has other forms.

In these particular cases, a feeling is generated where you MUST log and grind(and grind, in this sense of the word, is used to describe an undesirable repetitious act), or you're screwed. It becomes very tiring and the only solution is to stop.

Solvryn

Thought for the day.. perhaps a dive into why long-term players leave and possible remedies?
(not a current MMO)

What was the longest you played a single MMO? Asherons Call, ESO, WoW, then TERA in that order.

Why did you leave?

The most important thing in any game is my ability to express myself. So its Combat, Class Design, Race Design, and being able to look the way I want.

What might have kept you playing? Combat is huge to me, a lot off MMORPGs do not prioritize combat.

daveywavey

Nerror wrote: »

That is actually a small worry I have for Ashes long-term. I am sure things will be chaotic and fun at first, but 3 years down the line? I worry alliances will be set and stable and node sieges and castle sieges will be a rarity unless Intrepid adds systems that "forces" players to shake up the status quo. It could be via expansions, where new world bosses are seeded based on where there are no lvl 6 nodes, so players are forced to kill one and build another one up at a different place, causing much drama and conflict in the process.

Hopefully they'll just spawn a few crazy monster events, which will cause a new rush to level up another metropolis.

novercalis

DarkTides wrote: »

WoW's The Burning Crusade, with the addition of Dailies, was the beginning of a change in the approach to gaming content for WoW. The philosophy of development laziness, conjured out of greed. A focus is placed on repeatable content, massive time sinks of repetition, to reduce budget and increase profit. Quality begins to degrade, respect for the playerbase along with it. This trend of Quantity over Quality continues in this and other forms.

Similarly... Everquest... at some point, the leveling and AA(alternate advancement experience) grind takes its toll.

There is a common factor, and that can generally be described as 'fear of missing out' or 'FOMO'. We see this used in P2W monetization strategies, but its evil face has other forms.

In these particular cases, a feeling is generated where you MUST log and grind(and grind, in this sense of the word, is used to describe an undesirable repetitious act), or you're screwed. It becomes very tiring and the only solution is to stop.

BC killed world PvP because of those stupid flying mounts. Everyone flew - hard to get world pvp and when you do - it's usually the one on the flying mount catching a unexpected player wins. But if you had some form of CC, apply it, mount n fly away.

Noaani

I played EQ2 for a bit over 10 years. Logged on all but perhaps 3 days over that time.

I left due to the developers stating that their cash shop (that they implemented on to the live servers without warning or feedback) was not pay to win - when it most definitely was.

I played Archeage for about five years, I left because I realized the game was just a gear treadmill, but with no new content to use that gear on.

A gear treadmill is great if that new gear allows you access to new, interesting content. Archeage just didnt have interesting content, nor new content, but it did have a solid gear treadmill.

Tbis is the situation I expect Ashes to follow - you get gear to keep up with other players, as opposed to getting gear to unlock new content.

Realwrld

Played Ultima Online on the Pay2Play servers from 1997 until about 2003 - a majority of that time heavily invested into RPing a Shadowclan Orc. When they did the Trammel/Feluccia split it made open world pvp and thus, roleplaying an orc, extremely difficult. So I quit playing pay servers and started playing F2P servers based off of classic UO. Only quit playing those servers because I joined the Army and got too busy with real life schools and deployments to be able to stay consistently involved.

Since retiring I've been playing New World, waiting for this to launch.

What I liked about UO that I haven't really found since - open world/full loot PvP and the adrenaline attached to it. Placed and fully customizable player housing. Actual rare/limited edition items that were created naturally in the world vs being bought through cash. A balanced and simple crafting / magic system that didn't make crafting useless past the beginning. I also enjoyed the fact it didn't have levels, and instead used upgrading skills as the basis for growth.

novercalis

Noaani wrote: »

I played EQ2 for a bit over 10 years. Logged on all but perhaps 3 days over that time.

I left due to the developers stating that their cash shop (that they implemented on to the live servers without warning or feedback) was not pay to win - when it most definitely was.

I played Archeage for about five years, I left because I realized the game was just a gear treadmill, but with no new content to use that gear on.

A gear treadmill is great if that new gear allows you access to new, interesting content. Archeage just didnt have interesting content, nor new content, but it did have a solid gear treadmill.

Tbis is the situation I expect Ashes to follow - you get gear to keep up with other players, as opposed to getting gear to unlock new content.

I hope gear isnt like that. I want gear not to matter to much to a character strength.
EQ1 (uncertain on EQ2) - while gear was important - it was also rare to constantly upgrade. The stats were helpful but not overpowering. A Naked vs a geared does similar damage, just has reduce stamina/mana/hp pool/def/ac/atk
but the output is probably 10% less than the geared player.

I don't want to see AoC go the WoW route of gear.
I suspect my version to be true due to crafting gear is gonna be a tedious and long process ala EQ gear crafting. Epic Gear will be equivalent to WoW Thunderfurry questline or harder - an EQ Epic Questline to attain stronger / meaningful weapons.

Noaani

novercalis wrote: »

I don't want to see AoC go the WoW route of gear.

Neither do I.

EQ is closer to what I would want to see. In EQ, you always had upgrades to work on, so the gear treadmill was a thing. The difference between EQ and WoW is that in WoW, you could expect an upgrade a week (or more), whereas on EQ, an upgrade a month wasnt unrealistic.

EQ2 fell between these two.

The thing these three games all had in common as well though, was that most players never ran out of content. Any gear upgrades you got now would make content you were working on easier (or even outright possible, in some cases), when meant there was always an actual reason to want upgrades.

Archeage had a rate of gear acquisition for most players that was similar to EQ2 - you could expect a new piece of gear every few weeks if you were working towards that goal, at least up to a point.

However, the hardest content in the game was able to be killed with mid tier gear. Then they added new, better gear, but no new, harder content.

Ince your gear is of a certain mid-tier quality,your only reason for getting gear that is any better is for PvP - yet strategy and tactics are what allow you to win in PvP in Archeage (at least PvP that matters).

When you realized this, and realized that 90%+ of your time in game was spent working towards gaining wealth, the only real use of which was gear improvement, you have to ask yourself why you are even playing the game at all.

This is why I have always advocated for an EQ/EQ2 style of content addition for Ashes. It keeps the game interesting, and gives people a reason to continue playing, gearing and participating in the games economy.

Those that dont want PvE content and are just here for the PvP also then get more PvP targets in the game, so it should be a win for everyone.

Or, you know, we could just have an Archeage situation where you are only getting gear to PvP, and only PvP'ing to get gear.

Hadati

I loved Classic WoW when it first launched, because it was hard. There were no tutorials or handholding. If you accidentally pulled two mobs of your own level, it was touch and go. If you pulled three, you were pretty much either dead or running a long way. But sometimes a random stranger would save you and it'd lead to a lasting friendship. Getting a green drop felt amazing! You'd lose your mind over a rare blue drop. Purples were basically unobtanium.

Quests didn't make you out to be some hero. You were a nobody! (One quest was basically "Go bring some hot cider to the men on the front line before it gets cold.") If you wandered into a high level zone, you'd aggro mobs from a half mile and generally die and learn to be more careful. You had to grind for months in battlegrounds to get high ranks/access officer's quarters.

Every class felt distinct and necessary (only druids could battle rez, only warlocks could summon, etc.) and you needed the "holy trinity" of tank, dps, and healers. PvP made it even more of a challenge to venture outside safe zones. The music in Stormwind and Elwynn Forest, etc. were iconic. Patches, the elite undead abomination wandering through Duskwood, would keep running after you for half the zone and one-shot you if he caught up with you. There was no group finder - you advertised in trade chat. You had to plan ahead for dungeons - food buffs, potions, quest items - you better bring it with you before you head out!

It took several months to reach max level, playing a few hours each night (especially on a PvP server) and when you finally hit max level, there were still dungeons to run and BG's that were fun! Alterac Valley battles could go on for hours!

The movement of the characters felt smooth and responsive. The spells effects were cutting edge for their day and the weapon attacks felt impactful. The ability to put spec points into different talent trees made the decisions really matter. Saving up for a basic mount took a long time. Saving up for an epic mount took forever. Gorgeous level designs like Winterspring and Dun Morogh and Westfall were everywhere. Epic fights over areas like Southshore and Booty Bay were epic and unforgettable.

The modern version of WoW makes me sad. There's tutorials everywhere, achievements for every damn thing. Every class can pretty much do everything, or at least enough to make grouping with others at best, unnecessary. Most classes can pull three, five, hell a dozen mobs and just AoE them down. You can buy a "boost" which instantly levels your character up - which means all the content in-between has been deemed basically worthless and a time sink. Purple gear is barfed out every few minutes as a "reward" for forgettable quests, making white, green and blue gear vendor trash. You can fly over the whole world in just a few minutes on a 300+ speed flying mount. Talent trees are gone. Every monster is somehow magically the same level as you; there are no zones you can go where it's "not safe". Mounts are a dime a dozen. Most zones are ghost towns, unless they are in the new expansion.

Gearscore is all that matters to most people. People treat each other as 100% replaceable because they can just call up the group finder and replace you in two seconds. I don't know about the new XPAC that just dropped pretty much since WotLK it's been a gearscore treadmill and you can't ever stop or you'll fall massively behind. The worst part is that literally everything that made people need each other is gone due to group finders, raid finders, dungeon finders, guild finders. It just feels utterly theme park and scripted and the sense of wonder is completely gone.

Vaknar

The one I've played for the longest period of time? WoW. Since December 2004/January 2005~, I believe.

I still play, lol.

novercalis

Vaknar wrote: »

I still play, lol.

hand over your mod powers sir!

VekoKrava

Wow for over 14 years...

Reasons why I left is because I tried vanilla classic in 2019... It opened my eyes to look at things differently, I started understanding how to relax in a game and have patience, I started understanding what RPG really is and how it changes the way you play MMO... I was highly competitive player back in cata/MoP when I joined retail wow, although I started in TBC when it was Wotlk on original servers, I played on that private servers for few years until I joined original WoW in last patch of cataclysm expansion and I thought its a real thing, the way mobs die faster, the way leveling is easier and all that stuff and I kept playing until vanilla classic in 2019... I was still playing retail for a while, I even tried dragonflight and I quit yesterday after 3 days of game time... But the way I noticed how much classic vanilla has emphasis on realism and the way they designed RPG in a very mature way, I mean how characters were acting and the humor and everything was on really mature level, it was kind of funny because of childish cartoony graphics, but sense of realism was really there, I also liked economy and how you needed to farm for few hours if you wanted to be prepared for content that you wanted to do seriously, it was not hard, but I liked the process of preparing before doing ''core'' content, although economy was core content for me. I liked how professions were mandatory and gave a lot of comfort while leveling as well as earning gold in unique ways on end level.

When I realized all that and I understood what they done to retail WoW, I started hating it a lot... I did not play original WoW a lot since 2019, I was on for a month then off for 3-4 months, but I kept coming back because I believe in forgetting and having ignorance as a protection for bad emotions, basically I realized how ignorance can give you easy and nice life compared when you see the complete truth... I started seeing gaming on another level because now I started playing casually and to relax, and when you realize what people are doing to our internet web is beyond crazy to me...

At least in WoW, people started being full of themselves, instead of having a relaxing time as we once had when I was kid in TBC (I played casual BGs and I was killing specific kind of mobs because it was interesting to me to roleplay as a hunter that hunts bird-men in Terrokar forest and deliver feathers to NPC, until later in classic TBC I found out what reputation really means haha)

It could be a wonderful internet web of gamers if we all played in a more relaxing way, we could even have fun even in MOBAs instead what we have now, just poke and laugh at others...

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