Its been a few days since my Star Wars Galaxies stint, and after playing Starcraft II for nearly 40 hours straight (SO awesome!!) I’ve begun to wonder about my relationship with MMOs.

<<Warning: Probable Rambling From Sleep Deprivation Imminent>>

I think it goes without saying that over the past year MMOs as a whole have been on a huge roller-coaster.  Gamers are consistently going from “bottom of the barrel cynicism” to “all aboard the hype-train”.  Honestly, I am probably one of the worst repeat offenders of this cycle.  I’ve hyped and abandoned probably twenty MMOs within a two year span, not exactly a great track record.  There are some days (like today) where I feel I should just stop writing because I mislead others, and myself, into liking and eventually leaving games.  Take for example, my current MMO repertoire.

This is by far the most depressing of any game I’ve ever stopped playing.  I truly, without a doubt, believed I had found a diamond in the rough with GA.  Within only a two month span I had logged over 200 hours into the game.  For awhile I ran my own agency, and fought alongside the second best agency in the game.  I have four characters over level 30 now.  Besides all of that, I was also the co-host of the one and only podcast for GA, Global HQ.  We never made it past 13 episodes…

I’m still shocked at how I fell out of love with this game.  Its PvP was, and still is, the best and most action-packed I’ve ever experienced.  The PvE was challenging when I wanted it to be, and easy when I just felt like blowing shit up.  Yet, despite this I still found myself logging on less and less until eventually stopping.  I think I’ve discovered the reason why also.  I wanted the best of both worlds, to play with my friends and also to be the best around.  In a game like Global Agenda, that just isn’t feasible.  You either treated the game like a second job, or you tolerated sitting on the sidelines fighting pointless battles over one or two hexes.

The worst part is, as a fairly well-known member of the community, I spoke with top ranked players often.  As time went on, more and more of them began telling me how they’d become bored with the stagnant Agency vs. Agency mechanics, and how they were no longer battling anyone capable of giving them a good fight.  In a sense, the game had already been won by the top Agency, Protocol.  A lot of people just didn’t seem to want to admit it.

On a positive note, the game never did enact a subscription.  So from a stand alone payment viewpoint, I got my money’s worth given how much I played.  I still log in from time to time for a quick PvP match, but I know I’ll never *puts the rose colored glasses on* relive the old glory days.

EVE is a very strange game.  Many gamers, myself included, seem to play the game in cycles.  They go from being very active, to sparsely logging in, to sitting in station training up skills.  Some cancel their subscriptions from time to time, but most people for whatever reason seem to return at one point or another.

I think the reasoning behind this is the world EVE offers.  In a sense, its a very cutthroat world full of pirates, gankers, elitists, and spies.  Yet, there’s also the sense that any one person can have a massive impact on the game.  CCP has deemed this, “The Butterfly Effect”.  Take for example a few weeks back where one man spent an entire year as a spy within the UK alliance before he was given ample power.  He then stole practically everything and broke up the alliance.

Just reading that excites me and makes me want to become more active within the game.  Sadly, I think I just don’t have the patience, or balls, to fully enjoy EVE.  I’ll completely admit that I succumb to the “instant gratification” mindset of my generation, and that doesn’t bode well for a game like EVE.  Everywhere I go I see people in amazing ships or giant fleets and I think to myself “I want that!”.  Then I look at how long it would take for me to effectively fly said ship, and I slowly cry at how most plans would take over a year.  In addition to that, I’ve lost many ships to foolish decisions and bad choices in regards to Risk vs. Reward.  So for now, given that my sub just renewed, I’ll continue to skill up in EVE, but I’m not very active in it.

I’ll keep this one short by saying that its still fun and I have a lot to explore, but there’s an underlying issue that’s keeping me from playing it a lot.  Surprisingly enough, its not SWG related.

For all the years I’ve played MMOs since leaving WoW, going from one game to the next, I have always placed blame on the games.  “Oh I stopped playing for this reason or that” I would say to friends and family.  It wasn’t until my sister, the little genius that she is, asked me “Why are you playing Game X?  What happened to playing Game Y so much?”  She would ask me this probably three or four times over the course of a few months until the question finally sunk in.  I’m the problem, its not the games.

My real issue, beneath all of the bugs, QQs, and little things that irritate me about each individual game, is my gaming play-style.  I’ll play a game for a few weeks, devoting a crazy number of hours to it and loving every second of it, only to then grow bored with it.  That’s not the real problem though, that’s just burnout.  The real problem is when I pick up playing a new game as a result of that boredom, only to then lose any draw I had for the old game.  The cycle then continues until I’ve grown bored with that game and moved on again.  Instant Gratification and Gamer ADHD at its worst.

So now comes the question of how do I resolve this issue?  After running a diagnosis of all the games I play, I’ve discovered one outlier to my horrible gaming habit.  League of Legends has consistently remained at the top of my most active games, having played it now for nearly ten months.  I play it almost everyday, despite it not being an MMO, and I think I know why.

Remember what I said about Global Agenda?  Wanting the best of both worlds, staying competitive but playing with friends?  I have that with LoL.  The Sailor Scouts, consisting of friends from high school, have allowed me to join them in their ranked matches from time to time.  This gives me a reason to improve, so that I won’t let them down when the time comes.  Besides ranked matches, I also frequently play normal games with old friends who have picked up the game, my siblings, and other internet buddies like Sarc from Lagwar.com.  Thus, I’ve effectively managed to partake in a community practically bursting at the seams with friends of mine, while also being able to sate my competitive edge.

The best part is that new content is constantly being added to the game, always giving me a new unlockable to strive towards, while also keeping gameplay interesting.  As of right now there are an astounding 56 different Champions to choose from.  Along with 30 Levels for your Summoner, 13 Summoner Spells, hundreds of items to choose from, and a Rune Book to fill.  Needless to say, League of Legends is an ever-evolving battleground of awesomeness.  This weekend actually marks another double IP weekend.  IP being the currency used to purchase new Champions and Runes.

So, in summary, I’m beginning to question if MMOs really are the right fit for me anymore.  Its not that I don’t enjoy them, because I do.  Its just that I don’t enjoy them for extended periods of time, and I’ve grown rather tired of moving from one game to the next.  I suppose Star Wars: The Old Republic, really will be my last ditch attempt to finally find a new MMO to call home and keep myself immersed in.  Should it fail, I fear I may just give up on MMOs period and stick to games like League of Legends, Starcraft II, and others that give me a familiar sense of community while also giving me goals to strive towards.  Damn this article is long, lunch break already…. Time for pizza!