Ever feel a sense of urgency like you have to rush and do everything in a MMO? I sure do. I’m playing FFXIV right now and I feel like I have to maximize my time effectively because there are so many things I want to accomplish.
I want to level up additional jobs to access their abilities and/or play them for fun. I need to earn money because I’m hemorrhaging gil every day. I want to run Ampador Keep to earn tomes of philosophy. I need to start crafting because the items I could make are so helpful. I know I should care more about reaching the tomestone of mythology cap each week, but if I do that it means I can’t do all of the other things I want.
For some reason I feel like I have to do all of this in a week. When I stop, take a deep breath, and focus I realize that I easily have 5-6 months before another MMO launches. I’m enjoying myself every time I log in to FFXIV. What’s the rush? I feel trained to maximize my 2-3 months because that’s what every game has been these days: a 3 monther. Reality is I have plenty of time to do everything I want and then some.
Part of my fear could very well be that I’m afraid people will quit or that suddenly I”ll be left behind. That’s another real MMO disorder I’ve suffered with for the last 15 years. There’s this concept that if I’m not playing on day 1 and keeping up then somehow I’m missing out. I know it’s absolutely not true, and luckily I’ve found a group of people who agree with me, but the feelings are always still there. The feeling is even worse in sandbox MMOs when I start questioning whether or not what I’m doing is actually moving me ahead or if I’m just treading water.
I think the trick really has been to ignore what the rest of the server is doing and simply set goals for myself. I’ll log in each day, run a dungeon or two if I feel like it, help guildies, maybe farm for 30 minutes to an hour,or perhaps skip all of that and just run fates on an alt. I’ll get there when I get there, and maybe I’ll even play the game longer as a result. I’ll take it one day at a time.
I’ve had the same reaction to FFXIV, which is instructive because it’s not how I normally react to new MMOs that I like. It’s certainly not how I felt when I started playing GW2 last summer, where unlike you, far from being done with the game after a few weeks I just became more and more deeply drawn into it.
In fact, now I put my mind to it, I can’t remember the last time a new MMO struck me this way. Yes, they can often be overwhelming, with all the new systems and processes to learn and all the new sights to see, but that’s usually an immersive, exciting process, not a pressure.
The primary things I want from an MMO these days, above anything else, are relaxation and entertainment. Especially during the week after work I want to settle down and lean back, not forward. I want to potter about, work on little personal projects, do things on a whim for the amusement of doing them. I’m not interested in grand, overarching storylines or hitting specific markers to progress my characters, both of which seem to be almost obligatory in FFXIV.
By level 30 it had already become apparent that playing FFXIV in the way Yoshi-P clearly intends it to be played wasn’t going to work for me so I took a short break and let things mull over in my the back of my mind while I enjoyed myself in other MMOs. I decided that I’d forget entirely about the central storyline, progression through which had ceased to be amusing and started to become irritating.
Instead I’m logging in for two or three hours a day to farm mats to sell on the Market. It’s relaxing, satisfying and works towards the medium-term goal of being able to afford a small house when housing is added later this year. I feel back in control, able to make my own plans instead of being pushed down a path designed for me by someone else. As you say taking it one day at a time.
I am level 26 and enjoying the game so far and like you I also feel rushed as well. Some of my friends are higher level and that adds to the pressure!
Having said that, I think this feeling of “rushed” is good since it means that there are lot of content you like are in the game and they are *within* your reach. Provided you don’t actually rush and then burn out, the game should keep you busy for a while.
Anyway like you guys I have set myself small short term goals and I am not looking at the bigger picture at all. My aim now is to get level 30 in my main class and then 15 in another class to unlock a job.
Definitely good for people to take their time in MMOs and smell the roses. For some people a game is a “3-monther” because of their own playing habits, not because there isn’t much content.
As far as FFXIV goes, I’ve actually stopped playing for now. I made it as far as level 21 and was at the point where I had to do a second dungeon as part of the “main quest”. I thought the dungeon was fairly dry and never bothered to finish it. Might come back and play again sometime in the future, but can’t see myself staying subbed to this one.
I feel you here!and that is why MMO will never match the immersion of a single player RPG like Elder Scrolls or Dragon age. In every MMO I say I will not rush and I will enjoy my time. In FFxiv I played almost the double Hours from the rest of my FC but I had that plan to level all crafting classes and gathering along with my battle class. I am 40 level now in my Battle class and 38-40 in all crafting/gathering classes.
But the truth is that the whole process I was always in doubt if I do the “right” thing…seeing people in my FC with half the play time being 50 and already running hard modes I felt that I was way behind them…I started feeling that I did wrong and the last couple of levels I just rush my battle class to catch the others before it is too late and result to “boost” me in hard modes instead of “leading” the hard modes as a tank/officer of my FC and the guy with the most hours in-game 🙁
So basically, the first time I did not rush to max level and already feel bad about it..
Your summary nails it on the head Keen, while I do have the drive to see end game content and begin raiding, the truth is I’m not ready yet. I don’t have the gear, the skill or even the level cap!
BUT I’m having a great time just logging in for an hour or two crafting, fishing, grinding fates, making gear sets, running dungeons with guildies or just looking at the zones.
Tomorrow my 90 day payment goes through, and I have no plans on playing anything else.
(mostly thanks to the horrible last Dev Speak vid from Wildstar, but that’s another topic)
I don’t have much playtime anyway because of school but I think ff14 will keep my entertained until wildstar comes out
Oh man, I thought this was going to be about something else. When I hit 50 last week I did CM for the story and had the most miserable dungeon run I have ever had in memory, even when there were 0 deaths and it was completed faster than hell. I was close to quitting the game if the level 50 community was going to be that bad. Luckily, a Praetorium run convinced me it is only some people that are assholes…
I am the same in MMO’s that I am invest myself in, probably for 2 main reasons:
1) I will most likely have already seen the story in beta.
2) I feel a sense of responsibility to keep my guild competitive.
I also rationalize that once I cap a toon I’ll go back and play at a more leisurely pace with alts, but that rarely happens as I tend to get immersed in PvP.
“Reality is I have plenty of time to do everything I want and then some.”
Bullseye!
Next step is, to realize that actually had always been the case 😉