I had a friend who would get deep into MMOs and kept trying to convince me to join. When I eventually said OK to giving one a go his next move was sending me a textbook sized guide on game’s meta. Having to start studying to play a game was a step too far for me.
oof I’ve had friends who liked to do research on the games they played and learn how to do things externally before coming into the game and doing the things, but if they ever expected me to do that homework I would probably have felt the same as you. I get that it must be fun for them to give themselves that homework (otherwise they wouldn’t do it right? lol) but for me I have fun by exploring, learning on my own, and overcoming challenges on my own. The only way my friends like that ever spoiled anything for me was by telling me how things worked before I had figured it out on my own or giving me items that they had learned how to get externally before I knew how it was possible etc
For me the main reason I ever played MMOs was that they seemed like an easy genre to play with friends and to find new friends in, and I did both a lot. But I just didn’t know at first that in most MMOs the main thing to do for most people is all the post-game activities lol. My fav things to do in games are usually to explore and learn the lore, which in my experience aren’t things many MMO players care much about. The last MMO I got really into was GW2, and I had helped build a guild that didn’t mind casual players, but even in that guild I couldn’t really participate in end game content because they’d still get frustrated if I didn’t follow the meta strictly. I ended up being “that guild lady” who ran overworld event trains, sometimes dungeons, and sometimes pvp, cuz everyone else who had the rank to run community schedule stuff usually only ran Fractals and Raids and I generally didn’t feel welcome in those categories since I didn’t stick to the meta. That’s not to say I didn’t like the guild, I met a lot of good friends in it and the community was overall really sweet and welcoming, it’s just that despite being essentially one of the founding members and one of the highest ranking members I still couldn’t even participate in most of the content we did without being lectured about doing it “wrong.” And after a while I just got bored and lost interest in playing it (I mean there were other reasons too but that was a big part of it), and haven’t had the motivation to really try any other MMOs since then :/ (GW2 is still probly my fav MMO though, it had a really good story and a lot of cute mounts and pets, I personally especially liked the POF expansion which had a couple big existential moments imo. But after a while it’s like well I know the story pretty well and I know the world really well so because of how I like to play games there’s just not much more for me to do anymore (thanks for coming to my TED talk))
I’ve been idly considering jumping back in, I was more or less up to date in late 2020 but there’s been what, 2 expacs since I last played, getting the gryphon mount was fun.
Yeah, End of Dragons came out in 2022 and Secrets of the Obscure came out in 2023. End of Dragons had just come out right when I was putting the game down
i’ve thought about picking it back up now and then too, but nowadays i’m mostly couch-gaming with a controller, and to my knowledge GW2 doesn’t have controller support. And finding a new guild and everything sounds overwhelming to me right now lol. The only “online” game I currently actively play is No Man’s Sky, which is probably much better suited to my general preferred playstyle. But I have no idea how to go about finding player civilizations to join lol. I also recently got Helldivers 2 to play with my bf, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of game that would be my usual cup of tea so idk how likely I’ll be to find friends/communities through it. I also recently got Sea of Thieves but so far I’ve been too shy to actually play it >.<
but you should totally play GW2 again if you want to, imo it is definitely the best MMO i ever played
I had a friend who would get deep into MMOs and kept trying to convince me to join. When I eventually said OK to giving one a go his next move was sending me a textbook sized guide on game’s meta. Having to start studying to play a game was a step too far for me.
oof I’ve had friends who liked to do research on the games they played and learn how to do things externally before coming into the game and doing the things, but if they ever expected me to do that homework I would probably have felt the same as you. I get that it must be fun for them to give themselves that homework (otherwise they wouldn’t do it right? lol) but for me I have fun by exploring, learning on my own, and overcoming challenges on my own. The only way my friends like that ever spoiled anything for me was by telling me how things worked before I had figured it out on my own or giving me items that they had learned how to get externally before I knew how it was possible etc
For me the main reason I ever played MMOs was that they seemed like an easy genre to play with friends and to find new friends in, and I did both a lot. But I just didn’t know at first that in most MMOs the main thing to do for most people is all the post-game activities lol. My fav things to do in games are usually to explore and learn the lore, which in my experience aren’t things many MMO players care much about. The last MMO I got really into was GW2, and I had helped build a guild that didn’t mind casual players, but even in that guild I couldn’t really participate in end game content because they’d still get frustrated if I didn’t follow the meta strictly. I ended up being “that guild lady” who ran overworld event trains, sometimes dungeons, and sometimes pvp, cuz everyone else who had the rank to run community schedule stuff usually only ran Fractals and Raids and I generally didn’t feel welcome in those categories since I didn’t stick to the meta. That’s not to say I didn’t like the guild, I met a lot of good friends in it and the community was overall really sweet and welcoming, it’s just that despite being essentially one of the founding members and one of the highest ranking members I still couldn’t even participate in most of the content we did without being lectured about doing it “wrong.” And after a while I just got bored and lost interest in playing it (I mean there were other reasons too but that was a big part of it), and haven’t had the motivation to really try any other MMOs since then :/ (GW2 is still probly my fav MMO though, it had a really good story and a lot of cute mounts and pets, I personally especially liked the POF expansion which had a couple big existential moments imo. But after a while it’s like well I know the story pretty well and I know the world really well so because of how I like to play games there’s just not much more for me to do anymore (thanks for coming to my TED talk))
I’ve been idly considering jumping back in, I was more or less up to date in late 2020 but there’s been what, 2 expacs since I last played, getting the gryphon mount was fun.
Yeah, End of Dragons came out in 2022 and Secrets of the Obscure came out in 2023. End of Dragons had just come out right when I was putting the game down
i’ve thought about picking it back up now and then too, but nowadays i’m mostly couch-gaming with a controller, and to my knowledge GW2 doesn’t have controller support. And finding a new guild and everything sounds overwhelming to me right now lol. The only “online” game I currently actively play is No Man’s Sky, which is probably much better suited to my general preferred playstyle. But I have no idea how to go about finding player civilizations to join lol. I also recently got Helldivers 2 to play with my bf, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of game that would be my usual cup of tea so idk how likely I’ll be to find friends/communities through it. I also recently got Sea of Thieves but so far I’ve been too shy to actually play it >.<
but you should totally play GW2 again if you want to, imo it is definitely the best MMO i ever played