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The Daily Grind: How do you leave a game?
Everyone leaves an MMO eventually. Sometimes it's a low-key affair; you realize you haven't logged on to Lord of the Rings Online in forever, you cancel your subscription if you have one, and you move on. Sometimes it's done in the heat of the moment, with one failed World of Warcraft raid leading directly to a cancelled subscription and the angriest uninstall you can manage. Sometimes it's even a planned absence, like a month-long vacation from The Secret World just to keep your interest going. That's not even getting into the question of whether you keep the client around or not (on the basis that you might go back some day) or if you get in touch with your in-game friends to let you know. There are a lot of ways to leave, in other words. So how do you leave a game? Do you tend to quit in a huff or just slowly drop off? 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!
Breakfast Topic: Where will your character rest for the last time?
Back in the era when playing an MMO was an all-or-nothing proposition, choosing a final logout location could be an emotionally overwrought event. Today, however, players drop in and out of games with regularity. We may skip patches or even expansions that don't particularly appeal to us. We may temporarily step out of Azeroth to focus on real-world goals. We may fall out of love with a character and pick up an alt, only to return months or even years down the line. Even so, I confess to remaining sentimental about where I log out before an extended (or final) absence. I can still tell you exactly where each of my EverQuest characters is camped out, and I've bookmarked a couple of YouTube videos that run past those areas so that I can occasionally recapture their spirit even without access to the game. I'm a little less attached to logout spots for my WoW characters simply because I use nearly all of them at one point or another for screenshots or in-game contacts for WoW Insider. After this many screenshots, they've ended up scattered across some fairly odd spots. Where will your main character log out for the very last time? Is it someplace you've grown comfortable with over the years? Somewhere representative of that character's adventures or character? A familiar spot behind the counter of a favorite vendor or banker? Or perhaps, like the screenshot above, somewhere holding a tinge of tragedy?
The Soapbox: The best complaint is an empty seat
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. This is a public service announcement for you. Yes, you, with the post open for the message board and your finger hovering over the "post" button. I can't see what you've got written there, but I'm willing to bet some form of "turning the game into World of Warcraft" is there if you're posting about another game. Or possibly FarmVille. Hopefully I'm getting warm. Look, the point is that I now you're about to post this hateful diatribe about threatening to leave. But I've got a better suggestion for you. How about you delete that post, unsubscribe, and then head outside for a walk with some friends. Play a different game, maybe an offline one, for a couple of days. Don't whine and just leave.
The Daily Grind: What tells you it's time to quit?
Sometimes it's an encounter that just rubs you the wrong way. Sometimes it's the breakup of a guild, and sometimes it's just one or two friends who leave. And sometimes it's just a matter of realizing after a week-long break that you no longer look forward to logging into the game. From Lord of the Rings Online to Champions Online to EVE Online, whatever your game of choice or playstyle, there comes a point when you know that it's time to stop playing. Maybe not forever, but at least for now. In all likelihood, you're not playing the same game now that you started with. It's quite possible you've started and stopped many different games by this point. So what convinces you that it's time to stop with a game for at least the moment? Losing friends? Endgame structures? Or do you just plan to head off for another game when it launches, with the expectation that you'll return if your new haunts don't hold up? 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!
The Daily Grind: Do you vote with your wallet?
There are certain changes, usually big ones, that don't exactly produce... positive reactions. In fact, they generally produce screaming rants and huge doses of rage at how they were handled and implemented. You know the sorts we're talking about. Star Wars Galaxies and the Combat Upgrade. Ultima Online and Trammel. Final Fantasy XI and the nerfs to Beastmaster "catch and release" tactics. All loathed changes, many of which led to an exodus of players. Really, leaving a game can be the best way to express displeasure with a change. It's the surest way to send a company the message that they've done something that will no longer justify your monthly subscription. On the flip side, your individual impact is small, you once loved the game... a lot of players will choose to rough it out, in hopes that things will improve or with the knowledge that the changes can't be all that bad. And for games where you have a lifetime subscription or are experiencing it free-to-play, your absence isn't really a deterrent at all. So, do you vote with your wallet? When you're fed up with what's been done, do you head off for greener pastures? Or are you of the mind that it's not even worth the bother, that they might well not even tie your departure to the change, even if you say so?
The Daily Grind: When is it time to give up?
It's almost the end of the year, time for us to evaluate what we're doing and consider dropping our bad habits. And... well, sometimes your favorite game becomes one of those. Sometimes your most-played class gets hit with the nerf bat so hard you can barely walk any longer, or the game's updates are constantly dropping more and more content you find boring or don't even get to play. You might have loved the game for a long time or even just a little while, but time isn't aging it well and you're increasingly dreading logging on. Today, we ask a sad question: when is it time to shake your head and decide that enough is enough? Does one major power-down on your character of preference tell you that you're not really wanted, or do you stick around until everything has been drained dry? Are you the sort who gives the game time and chances to win you back, or do you leave and never even glance back at where you came from? Or do you never say goodbye and just keep playing in the hopes that things will turn around and you'll be glad you waited?
