The Daily Grind: How long do you really plan to play a new title?

by Eliot Lefebvre on Apr 2nd 2011 8:00AM

Culture, New Titles, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

Let's be honest with ourselves for a moment. While we like to talk about being a lifetime member of a new game, we generally are referring to the game's lifespan rather than our own. No matter how awesome a game is on release, it's going to show signs of age over time, and some of us just don't have the attention span or the will to stick with a game for years on end. It's unusual to even get the chance to be in a game from opening day to closing day, and there are few Ultima Online players who were there at launch and refuse to start a new game until they're completely finished with this one.

So we leave. And when we buy a new game, in the back of our minds we pretty much know that an online game is a long-term commitment, but not necessarily a lifetime one. So how long do you expect to be playing a new game once you buy it? Did you purchase RIFT expecting to get a solid six months out of it before you moved on, or did you pick up Aion just for the free trial month? Or did you go the other route, buying Star Trek Online at launch and sticking with it for at least two or three years before changing games?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Tags: aion, culture, gameplay, life-of-play, lifetime, new-games, new-titles, opinion, planning, playtime, rift, star-trek-online, sto, tdg, the-daily-grind, ultima-online, uo

Reader Comments (32)

Expecting to get certain amount of playtime out of a title is a bit too hardcore for me, I play games for fun - not because I've planned to put 6-months into title N or because I have a set of goals I need accomplish.

In other words - I play until the game is not fun anymore.
Then I shamble off to seek something else.

Sadly, I can't even get past the free month nowadays. I had high hopes for RIFT but eventually I just stopped logging in and decided to unsub. I was expecting 3-4 months at least.

With MMO's I expect to play for 6 months at the minimum, after that it's dependant on how much fun the game's end-content is to play & how much fun it is to play an alternative character, if an alt is only going to be going through the exact same content as the previous character that's a big downside, for example EQ has so much content you could level through entirely different zones on 4 or so characters, without mentioning that the "hot zones" get changed often.

Eventually though even an awesome game will feel stale & it will only be the company you keep & the friends that you made that really inspire you to keep logging into that game, I left EQ after 8 years mostly as there just wasn't anyone I cared about still playing it anymore.

@SkuzBukit When are these companies going to learn that one starting zone for each side doesn't cut it? EQ and EQ2 has always had multiple starting zones with different quest lines, and vanguard as well.

It can range from 5 minutes to 5 years depending on game.

I'll play a game for as long as it is entertaining. Right now I am playing Age of Conan. My last MMO was WoW, that lasted me about 9 months starting from launch. Never picked it up again after that, never played any of the expansions. Basically I play MMOs for the PvE content, once I gobble that up I am pretty much done. I play to experience the world, level and gear up, group with other players, admire the art work, level design, music. The gameplay in AoC gets my blood up, it is such a bloody hack n slash! Those fatalities never get old.
Eventually I will have my fill of AoC and hopefully find another MMO I enjoy playing as much.

I play until it's not fun anymore, but if I don't think I will get 2-3 months out of it, I probably won't play it. RIFT I planned to play 3 months or so, but I didn't even get one month out of it. FFXI and WoW I both have racked up multiple years on. AION I got about my expected 3-4 months.

If I make it to that 3 month mark, I consider the game a success for me at least.

I thought Rift would be the one that would keep me occupied for at least a year or two - didn't get past the free month - although in saying that; the devs nerfing several callings viability into the ground has a lot to do with it.
Nothing coming up, GW2, Tera or TOR do anything for me - so not sure what I'll do in the meantime.
At least its footy season - that'll keep me occupied through the winter.

@meanieme

This has to be one of the worst things i've heard... today, at least. You didn't like Rift but yet you say games like TERA and GW2 that are actually bringing something new to the MMO table have nothing that interest you? So you're pretty much saying will probably never find another MMO to play again...

Every game I buy I hope is going to be compelling enough to keep me around for years like 2-3 have before it. That hasn't happened since EQ2.

If I've bought a game, It's got the included time to get my attention. I usually will give it a few fair chances, even if it's at the last minute to see if it's worthy of a stay of execution.

I generally stick with a new MMO up to the point the good single-player content runs out; then I move on to a new game. On this basis, WoW kept me happy a good long while, Guild Wars 1 even moreso.

I enjoy multiplayer activities, too, and happily participate in occasional group dungeon runs, but for me that's just a side benefit of playing an MMO, just like the options of PvP or selling crafted items on the AH or participating in seasonal events with other players.

As soon as it starts to feel like "LFG" is all I have left in an MMO, I'm done and I move on to something else.

I dont expect to play a game longer then the first month. the only ones that have kept me past that time are:
Ultima Online, DAoC, WoW, and LoTR

Im hoping that soon i will have one to stay with for a while, as i hate jumping around.

Well if RIFT is a benchmark two weeks...a company has two weeks to keep me or I'm gone, and with RIFT I could tell after the first three days. I have decided no slack will be given hence forth they make the game I want to play or they don't get my money period.

Usually, not too long. Very few MMOs can hold my attention past the first month, so I very rarely try one unless I can do so for free or very cheap through a refer-a-friend or trial program. Of course, the one that did click with me, City of Heroes, has been getting subscription money for the better part of a decade now.

Since my money's exceptionally limited, my sense of 'money's worth' is probably horribly skewed to most folks. I get like 2-4 new games a year (not counting f2p mmo hopping). THESE GAMES BETTER BE GOOD (no I don't hold the mmos to that rule. they're almost never good).

I treat MMOs somewhat differently then I treat, say, Dragon Age. The staying power of any MMO is more about the people you play with rather than the game itself. While game mechanics, setting, story, etc help to give my characters life, and help me to empathize with them (the same way I would a character in a good book), it’s the connection to the people you meet and play with that define how much actual “fun” the game ends up being, and how long I’ll end up staying with a particular MMO.

So far I’ve only really had that kind of connection with folks I found in Guild Wars and then WoW. For both games people have moved on and so have I, but I got a few years out of them. Here’s hoping I can find some entertaining folks in Star Wars and/or Tera. :P

I find it interesting that on a site about MMO games, the majority of the responses here seem to indicate that most of you people don't even like mmos. Why would you spend $50-60 on a game you don't plan on playing more than a week or two.

I want to plan to stay with a game for years and years. Problem is many of the newer MMO's just have no soul to them at all. I can't find a reason to stay with them after 30-60 days of playing. Games like DCUO and STO were so souless at launch, I was done with them within 2-3 weeks because they were far to easy and gave no reason or benefit to want to group and meet others. They would have been better off made as singleplayer/co-op games.

Guild Wars for life ... or no life ?: D

Jokes aside i expect to play each part for many years till next wil come come out

I've been a WoW subscriber since Launch and I'm quite content with the game. I did hit a plateau but recently my guild has been making some decent raiding progress which is very encouraging. I picked up Rift just to see if it was possible for another MMO to shake me from WoW.

Unfortunately, I'm spoiled by the graphics in WoW. Rift looks and feels too clean as opposed to WoW's graphics which feel quite organic to me. I prefer the art in WoW over Rift. The gameplay in Rift is quite similar. to WoW. The talent system is pretty sweet, however. I'm still a lowbie so I think my final conclusion about the game will come from tanking my first instance. That's probably going to determine whether or not I'll continue the subscription for another month.

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The Daily Grind: How long do you really plan to play a new title?

Reader Comments (32)

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 8:06AM SgtBaker1234556 said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 8:07AM Nephilim said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 8:36AM SkuzBukit said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 12:48PM socialenemy2007 said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 8:40AM Anciegher said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 9:02AM Poordevil said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 9:04AM Addfwyn said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 9:14AM meanieme said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 2:56PM truthlesshero said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 9:22AM TheGreatMachine said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 9:32AM Tom in VA said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 9:38AM Inspectah said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 9:48AM Dunraven said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 10:34AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 11:21AM VioletArrows said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 11:26AM RavenCries said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 11:38AM cyb3rpunk75 said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 11:46AM CCon99 said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 11:51AM Qho said

Posted: Apr 2nd 2011 11:56AM Malvicus said

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