How long has it been since you stuck with a single MMO for at least a year? I remember when Tipa used to put out a challenge to people to stick with a single game for a year, and almost no one could accomplish it even when the choices were much more limited, let alone these days where there are games for every genre you could possibly think of. Sure, we may play one game at a time, or two games, or have some combination of F2P & subscription, but more and more I notice that we are ALL becoming nomadic gamers, bouncing between games when the mood strikes (or when that new shiny pops up on the table).
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just something I’ve noticed over the years. I would love to be one of those people who stick with a single game for any length of time but I simply don’t have that in me any more (for a few reasons). One reason would have to be the price point. Money fluctuates throughout the year and my game choices will change based on that. A good example is EQ2. My subscription expires the 2nd week of July, so I find very little motivation to log in and play right now as I know I won’t be re-subscribing (baby on the way, I simply have to re-allocate my funds for a bit). I’ve never really enjoyed playing games with a sub as a F2P player, not because I think F2P is “bad” but because I’d rather have access to the entire game. Speaking of – why doesn’t Trion offer some sort of bulk subscription plan that offers access to all of their games, much like station access? Rift and ArcheAge would certainly be two games I’d love to check out more of, but I’m not sure how I’d feel about the F2P options (especially in ArcheAge where owning land is tied to having a subscription). Offer a package deal and those subscriptions become a lot more favorable. I blame Belghast and Bhagpuss for my sudden interest in Trion games, both of them have been posting about Rift / ArcheAge on their blogs. I was interested enough that I updated glyph though I haven’t actually logged in (yet).
Speaking of EQ2, a new server opened up yesterday. It’s the Isle of Refuge, and it runs just as all the other servers in the EQ2 line up do, except the majority of items can be sold / traded and don’t have the heirloom tag. There’s a great write up about it over at EQ2wire, and the server reminds me a lot of Firiona Vie, the RP server over on EQ. There are a few other rules to the FV server besides that but it was one that stuck out to me. Why Daybreak has added such a server I have no idea (nor does anyone else it seems if you read through the comments on the article) but it’s nice to see things are not completely stagnant.
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
In the past week I’ve played FFXIV, Civ5, Endless Legend, SWTOR, and Wildstar. TBH, none of them are really “sticking” for me right now, I’m just passing the time. No real goals or anything, just…. wandering around in their worlds.
I think I’m the opposite of you. I stick with one game longer now than I ever have in the past. Of course 99.5% of my gaming is now on consoles and the only MMO I touch is ESO. I think when a game has an ending it’s easier to stick with it because you think to yourself “I’m interested in that new shiny but I’ll just finish this game before I check it out.” and of course that doesn’t work with MMOs since you never finish them. Also by waiting you save a bundle. I’m playing a game now that I wanted to play last September. It was $60 then, I got it for $15 last weekend.
Hope you have better luck getting Glyph to play nicely than I did. I don’t imagine I’ll be playing all that much of Rift or ArcheAge but honestly these days I don’t know myself what I’m going to play until it happens.