My fiance is what I would describe as a casual game player, if we’re only speaking in the sense of time spent. Every once in a while she’ll have one of those Sims 2 binges or she’ll get hooked on things like Chibi Robo, but for the most part it’s something that takes up very little of her free time. If I were to say 5 to 10 hours a month, I’m probably being generous.
The sheer amount of time a hardcore MMORPG player seems to invest into these games dwarfs that number so significantly that it’s pretty amazing. Somehow there are people playing these 40 hours plus a week. And as such, one can put in 20 hours or more a month into various MMORPGs without being considered overly “serious” about them.
In some senses I am hesitant to label this a “casual” MMORPG blog. While I’ve played a lot of MMORPGs, my time in them couldn’t be described as “hardcore” in comparison to many other players. Yet, at the same time, I’m not just playing them a handful of times a month for a few hours. I think in some senses “casual” means something different for MMORPGs than it does for other games.
And that’s the odd thing about being a casual MMORPG player. There’s potentially so much to do in a typical MMORPG and so much time spent leveling your character that 20 hours doesn’t seem as significant in World of Warcraft as it might be in, say, Ninja Gaiden II .… A game that could be finished in less than six hours. By most standards, casual MMORPG players might as well be hardcore game players in other genres.
I’d say that I’m very into video games, overall. While I have no aspirations to develop or write about them professionally, they are certainly a strong hobby that eats up my time and money. I certainly play them more than my fiance plays on her PC or my parents play on their Wii. And I sure as Hell spend more money on the things.
Yet in the realm of MMORPGs I’m not doing anything extravagant. It took me an entire year to get my only character in The Lord of the Rings Online to level 42. I’m only just pushing 43 now. I’ve never gotten past level 30 in World of Warcraft, despite the length of my various subscriptions to it. I couldn’t tell you much about the lore, how to run through an instance perfectly, what the best skill tree path is.
I suppose in some ways, part being a casual MMORPG player means just not caring enough about all of those things. If I don’t have the best armor I could have at the “end game”, I’m not going to kill myself. If I’m not in a guild, I won’t be upset. If my skill tree decisions are considered imbecilic, I can live with it. If I’ve not leveled up most of my professions to what’s expected, I won’t cry. I probably have less money than most anyone else of my level. I pretty much avoid forums entirely because the negativity ruins my time and I just don’t care if there’s a 1% difference in my attack speed that “nerfs” my character that I found out about only by poring over the patch notes.
Unfortunately these are all things you’ll hear about simply because MMORPGs are a social experience. I can live in relative obliviousness in most single player games, never visiting a forum or reading a FAQ or a random conversation. I’m almost jealous of those who manage to avoid this stuff entirely, but with MMORPGs I wonder if those people even exist. Even my little brother knows about big changes in World of Warcraft that are in the pipeline.
There were times I wondered if these games were for me. It seemed like any of my friends playing them were spending more time in them, getting more caught up in them and knew all the things I didn’t. Eventually I realized I could just have fun in these games in different ways. If your goal is to get the best everything, then more power to you. It’s certainly not wrong, but it’s definitely not what I do.
It makes me wonder how many people there are like me and, by that token, how many people aren’t complaining on forums or making a big deal about things. If you were to visit the World of Warcraft forums on a whim, you might think the game is terrible and no one enjoyed it … Yet, somehow, 10,000,000 people are still paying to play it. And I have to imagine a majority of those 10,000,000 people aren’t talking on the forums at all.
I suppose by sheer virtue of making this site, I’m slightly less casual than most casual MMORPG players. In some senses, it makes me wonder if the average casual MMORPG player even exists. If it does, it’s probably only found in free boredom killers.
Oh well. We’ll live.
Online gaming has wiped me out.
I used to have the mindset of the carefree, casual gamer oblivious to the harsh realities that awaited me. It had taken a few years but I had finally hit the ‘End Game’.
It was obvious at first glance that I was completely unprepared, with friends questioning how I even got that far. I was chewed out for my inadequate gear in BGs, no one would invite me to raids for my lack of experience to get the gear and my dislike of guilds and virtually no contacts had left me on my own.
Now I’ma very social person but rarely would I find people who did not discuss only about raids, pvp, the strategies behind them including what skill to use to fill that wasted time when executing their combo moves, getting every possible hit in. Also due to financial issues I’ve had to occasionally cancel my account and when I’d come back my friends would be the max lvl and have no time to hang out with all the raids they are doing, I’d have to find new people to hunt with.
I found myself spending extra hours farming mats and lvling professions in order to achieve decent gear at the end lacking the sense that I accomplished anything and feeling that I just wasted my day.
Right now I am just trying to find a game more social and less combat based, because all I really wanna do is talk and have fun.
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Thanks for your reply to this. I definitely know where you’re coming from.
People sometimes seem to argue about whether or not Turbine offers enough “end game” content, but in a lot of ways I’m glad they do spend time on the earlier portions as well. It’s not a perfect balance, but I don’t know that there ever could be one.
I guess MMORPGs by their nature are never really going to allow for a fully “casual” player. That was kind of my whole thought while writing this original. Casual gaming and casual mmorpg gaming seem to be significantly different beasts, for better or worse.
Perhaps something like Free Realms would be more what you’re looking for? I didn’t love it or anything, but it’s definitely more laid back. I had fun racing go karts haha.
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I did try Free Realms and I don’t know what it is about it but I guess is just not my style.
I did however find an in development game similar to Second Life, though it claims that it is without the confusing folders based system or whatever they got going. Its called Blue Mars, is to go into beta this summer and I’m hoping I get picked to test it.
I’m really fond of the more advanced character customization and often find myself designing building cities and creatures on Spore. I have survived on the simple sprite based games such as Dark Ages that I played for 5 years straight, despite the cheap graphics the more real life experience and player run system really turned me on. There were so many things to do and people took the time to stand near a wall and just chat, nobody cared what lvl you were or what you had on, and everything was achievable by anybody unlike the Free to Play + Website Item Shop’ games.
Don’t get me wrong though, I do like action just not all the time. I recently went back to CoH to find the new AE Entertainment system where nobody did regular missions anymore and everybody farmed it. The new friends I made on there were only interested in pvp, wiping the floor with the ally on my awesome orc death knight was pretty sweet though.
What I found that I enjoyed most out of those games is selling, farming the mats and setting up a stall or going to the AH. I even dreamed of making a guild called The Traveling Salesmen, with all my alts having a different profession..
Sorry I’m just starting to blab on as usual, I need to learn went to stop. Anyways, thank you for replying and understanding, if you come across a game that you like or find suitable for casual people like me, you let me know and maybe we can play together.
I’m not one to make small comments, lol.
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