Tonight, as I played on our freshly wiped FTB Minecraft server, I realized how similar a fresh start in Minecraft feels to a new MMO. The first day is all about getting a feel for the terrain, figuring out where you want to begin your new life, and then getting to work. I realized I was squirreling away items and hanging onto every advantage I could find.
Like playing a new MMO for the first time, everything feels dangerous. Even though I’ve played Minecraft for hundreds and hundreds of hours, having nothing but a wooden pickaxe then coming face to face with a creeper still makes me scream like Blaine from Rat Race during the airport scene. Soon that fear is replaced with apathy, and eventually I cease to appreciate all of the little things that I used to treasure.
Just like Minecraft, my favorite part of every MMO is the beginning. I crave it. I wish it could be relived over, and over. When World of Warcraft came out there were so many people starting to play that Blizzard kept creating servers months and months after release. I made a new character on all of them, and on 3 of them I went from 1-60 and did server first raids.
Anyone else love the fresh start in a brand new MMO more than anything else? There’s just something magical about it.
I do love that feeling too, so I guess I know exactly what you mean. Maybe that’s some part of what makes DOTA so popular? You’re starting a fresh character every game.
I enjoy it as well. We actually wiped our custom mod pack minecraft server just over a week ago too! First few days are always the funnest. With the tech trees I feel that it extends that by a long ways as well. So it’s fun for me for a good long while.
Absolutely. For years back when Everquest was popping new servers every few months I made a character on every one. Playing even an MMO you know well against a blank slate can be exhilarating.
I think this plays into the whole “three-monther” thing. There’s a perception that the obsession with novelty and the fickle loyalties of current MMO players has something to do with the kinds of games being made but maybe it has more to do with the types of people playing them. Back when I used to jump ship to each new EQ server as it launched, playing there exclusively for days or weeks, very few of my friends and acquaintances on my home server joined me. Most preferred to work on their regular characters rather than start over. The same tended to apply when persuading people to try a new MMO.
Nowadays it seems far more people are in the New Paint Smells Good camp and fewer in East, West, Home’s Best. I’m not sure that’s because the games have changed all that much. I think it might be the players.
Oh hell yeah I love that feeling of just starting an MMO. When everything is unknown and your imagination goes wild with what’s to come. It’s actually what had made me never love rift, despite TRION doing an amazing job with patching and just overall improving the game, never compensated for never having that “New” or “unknown” factor.
You briefly mention the sense of danger in a new game. To me, that is the core reason these games are compelling, not simply that they’re new. I think that is one of the reasons EQ held people as long as it did – while it stopped feeling new, it never stopped feeling dangerous.
On the other hand, I quit more MMOs than not these days in the first few hours because there’s absolutely no sense of danger.
I absolutely love fresh starts, new games, new servers, whatever it is as long as its fresh.
The reason i think mmo’s are so much fun at the beginning is the race/progression and how this coincides with a guild mentality. To me there is nothing more fun than starting a new game with a group of like minded people going after the same goal as you. Whether its to get max level first, to make yourself a big time guild on the server, or to just have fun; thats the thrill that i seek after time and time again.
To be honest outside of wow and ffxi i cannot think of a single mmo that i have thoroughly enjoyed (albeit for short amounts of time) that i did not start on either day 1 of the game of day 1 of the server. Now a days when i try a new game out i get bored within a week even if i feel like its a decent enough game that i SHOULD enjoy. Its just not the same as with a group of friends or even a group of strangers for that matter.
And i mean ive played some pretty terrible games that i got on board at the start and had a blast: I can think of a few F2P games that are bad games by themselves but just the thrill of waiting for servers to come up and then progressing for the next few weeks is so much fun.
I only enjoy fresh starts of an MMORPG if your ahead of the curve.
You do not want to be in the hell that is called 30 people trying to tag one mob.. and next to you just as many people on the next mob.
Other then that yes.
I love starting new MMOs for the reasons you describe + just seeing their interface and systems , what new ideas they have and which bits they have cherry picked from other games.
I get yelled at by my friends for MMO hopping because I love the start. I never got anywhere in EQ1 because all I did was start new characters all the time… I’m a little better now that I’m older but I still love that first day of an MMO.