The Daily Grind: How long does a new game have to get you hooked?

10 minutes.

WoW was my first game. I was hooked at character creation. It got me for 2 years. I still go back once in a while. (I know, me and millions of others who all ruined MMORPGs because we were brought in by WoW).

Darkfall got me after I figured out the damn UI. I played for 6+ months.

The rest of the games I've played are about 1-2 months, but never as hooked as those two.

I'm waiting on Battle.net to come back up. I'm hoping for that same thing from Diablo 2, which I've never played.

I typically know before hand if they'll actually get a sub fee from me. So far EQ is the only one to sneak up on me(new to MMO's then), I played it for almost 6 years.

Games I don't pay anything for have 1-2 days to hook me, and games I've paid $40-50 for have 2-3 weeks. When I'm invested monetarily in a game I'm willing to cut it some more slack.

The only two games I've ever played for longer than a month were UO and WoW. Games that I paid for but quit after about 2-3 weeks include WAR, EQ, RIFT, AoC, AC, Shadowbane, and Fury (lol).

A: The length of a free trial (14 days generally).

Two reasons: First, new games have bugs. Companies (smart ones) don't offer free trials until the game is stable and enough servers exist for everyone.

In F2P, I just do 14 days,.


The only game I've ever paid money for, site-unseen, was Star Wars Galaxies. With Star Wars games I generally just buy them like a good little nerd and if I regret it, it comes after my money is gone.

I usually stick around for 6 months to 3 years.

It can be trick to judge a MMO only on the first month. Unless you have lots of free time and can reach the end game in 30 days. I can't do that.

Once you hit the max level ( and it's usually a great journey getting there) then it's up to the developler. End-game, events and expansions.

Bottom like, if you buy a MMO, give it more than just one month. Give it a chance, it can be rewarding.

I tend to give a game about 10 levels worth of play, that should be enough time to get a feel for it and know if you want to experience more or just stop and move on.

if the game isn't interesting enough to pull you in within 10 levels it's pretty safe to say playing the rest of the game would be little more than a litany of suck.

About an hour. That's usually long enough to see the foundations of the game. If I'm not satisfied with the foundation, the game being built on it probably isn't going to be much more enjoyable.

For a new game, I will know within 15 minutes whether I like it or not and will be subscribing long term. Having said that, some I will be undecided about and will give it the free month to impress me with either gameplay or developer service/content. I really liked DCUO but I knew it would have to do more to keep my sub after 30 days, and it didnt so I moved on. Whereas Rift I knew within seconds that I liked it and subscribed immediately and a month later I still love it but with CoH and Fallen Earth, for example I knew within minutes that although it wasnt a bad game, it didnt appeal to me!

Usually before I buy it, in open beta. Followed by 15 minutes after launch, followed by the free month to see if I can put to one side the problems/deficiencies found in the first 15 minutes.

It has actually varied for me with every game I have played. Many times the f2p's I have tried only take me a couple hours or so, once I understand the mechanics, graphics, and how the game stands out.

As for the p2p's, I am a beta/free trial whore. I can usually tell by the end of a beta or trial if I will be subbing or not. WoW was the only one to truly confuse me, I think I did a free trial 3 or 4 times before I finally stuck with it for 3 months, before quitting again, picking it back up, quitting again, and yeah...

Aion is the last MMO that kept me longer than 6 months, you could call it torture or whatever, but I was on the top, and it is hard to quit anything when you are one of the best.

Probably 15 minutes as well. I'll also say I've never seen a patch or improvements come to an MMO that made me want to revisit the game when I first disliked it. It generally is still the same game you left in the first place.

Approximately 2 days.
Basically, if I play it one day and never return to it. I cancel my subscription.
Games these days have to be both beautiful and engaging, in my opinion.
Like any good book, if they do not snag you in the first few pages then you might as well drop it.

In about 15-20 minutes. I look at the graphics, the feel of the controls, etc - if I'm not happy playing it with my first try, then chances are I won't like playing it later. The UI is a big make or break point for me, too. It sounds silly, but I get clausterphobic with large, clunky UIs (like the old PW one). It feels like it cuts off too much of my vision and closes in on the playing area, making it smaller.

Less then 2 minutes to get me REALLY interested then another 10 minutes for me to make up my mind. If it gets my by then, I can realize it's not my cup of tea and still play it for 2-3 months.

Ex: Allods online got me hooked from second 1 with it's art design, and it took me quite a while for the cash shop to ruin the game. (then I came back when they fixed the shop)

Another Ex: I was disappointed with Rift from the first minute when I realized it's WoW (better, but still just WoW)

For me, an mmo is all about character improvement. So that is the first hurdle. 5 minutes. If the races and classes are boring, or if the models or animation are bad, I quit.

Then there is the thirty day deal. By then, you have had to convince me to spend time playing. The game has to be fun, duh, but if I am going to invest my time into the game, and pay a monthly subscription, I must be able to envision what I'll be doing in end game (even if it takes me a while to get there).

It varies widely - sometimes I stick with a game that I probably wouldn't bother with solo just because my mates are playing it, but that's usually a recipe for a short stay in a game.

With RIFT it wasn't until after my first entire beta weekend that I realised how much I had enjoyed it and I couldn't wait for the next beta period - but by the middle of open beta (beta 7 - I had been in beta since phase 3) I was still intending not to buy RIFT and to continue playing City of Heroes and Guild Wars and not look at RIFT til I was done with them (unless GW2 came out first) - but then two of my best mates bought RIFT and I figured I might as well too, so I bought it digitally that same evening.

With City of Heroes and Guild Wars I was hooked almost instantly. With DCUO I knew I didn't like it after 10mins - ditto with Champions Online - I just didn't like their combat systems - though I persisted in case my opinions changed but they didn't.

With most MMOs if I played the free trial and wasn't hooked by the end of it (whether that was a time based end or a level-based one for my first character) then I wouldn't bother playing it, but I would give it at least a few days. With SWG (pre-NGE, post-CU) I spent about 5 nights downloading it and only played it for 2 evenings (maybe 8 hours) before I decided I didn't like it.

With the original EverQuest my friend installed the offline tutorial (remember that?) on my PC and I hated it after 5 minutes and still hated it 30mins later, but so many of my friends were playing it (over a dozen RL friends and acquaintances) and promising that the online game was better that I stuck it out - but I still hated the gameplay - then after a few weeks I was starting to get into it, but it was the depth of the world and lore I stuck around for, I was so bored by gameplay for the 3 years I played (mostly melee classes so I basically had to press 1-2 buttons every 6 seconds and that was it) - and it was the same with EQ2, I played for around 18 months of beta and release but I was never really a big fan of the gameplay.

With WoW I enjoyed the character movement as it was so smooth, and I liked the seamless world, but the gameplay again left me a bit cold - getting so tired of hotkey-bashers - at least with RIFT I can macro (ingame macro) so much that I don't really look at my UI so much - but with WoW I was probably hooked in the first 10mins.

So there's different reasons why I've played certain MMOs and sometimes it's hard to say if I was "hooked" at all, even on the ones I played for long periods.

Its duration of free access.

If I'm planning on trying out a F2P, I'll install the game on a Friday and I usually know by Monday if it's a game that I will invest more time in.

If the game doesn't offer a trial period (Aion, I'm looking in your direction) I'll mine YouTube for game play videos to see if it's worth a look.

The only game I pre-ordered without any play testing was APB. Sure the game failed to survive past 3 months, but I really enjoyed playing it and the character creator/customizer should be the industry standard.