For those of you that follow me I jumped right in the deep end and picked up my old Runescape account and bought a months membership. I played a lot of Runescape when I was back in school and kept playing for a few years, but eventully stopped and never touched it untill this past weekend. I had only ever been Free to play as well so not only was I going back to it but I was buying a months worth of membership. This was on about Saterday/Friday and I have already decided that I am never going to play Runescape or any other MMO ever again, so does that mean I had a bad time with Runescape, fuck no it was really good, let me spin you a tale of why MMO's are no longer for me.   

I started off by deleting everybody off my friends list, there was a few people online but they had no idea who I was, and I to had no idea who they were. I then decided I would walk around and see how much has changed, I felt like an old man asking for vinal records on iTunes, everything had simply moved on. There was so many different things even in free to play, the towns had all had a graphical upgrade, new buildings were in place and there was all these new gameplay mechanics that I just overwhelmed me. I then ventured into the world of membership and did a great deal of exploring and walking around membership land, I walked all over and really got lost. After that I started doing some quests for people, soon discovering that Runescape is a funny game, the humor in Runescape is done very well and made me chuckle to myself.   

This went on up untill today, I decided to average how long I had played Runescape for, and it adds up to about 30-40 hours.  
I looked at the calculator in disbeleif and I assumed it was broken, but after the same answer multiple times I agreed it was fact. But how could that have been, I had done about 5 quests and just walked around a bunch, I had hardly made any acomplishments and really done nothing at all, this is why I am going to stop playing Runescape. This situation would have been fine back in school because school takes up less time than work plus all the holiday breaks including the 6 week summer holiday. But now at work I only get weekends plus 21 days holiday, and on week days my leasuire time adds up to about 3 hours each day. Which ok is quite a lot but I don't really want to play Runescape in that time, and boy does that game make time fly. I've just come off of a 5 hour session which I thought was only a 2 hour session, Runescape is very clever by not having a clock on screen when you play the game.  
 
In the time I have spent playing Runescape I could have finished Shadows of the Damned, Alice: Madness Returns and Duke Nukem Forever, but instead I have been walking around a virtual world saving my money up to buy a virtual sword which does slighlty more damage than my current sword. It even once occured to me that I could go and use real money to get in game money, that was the moment that snapped me out of it and I wondered what the fuck I was doing. So I am quitting Runescape, I hope to never return, I will also not even attempt to play World of Warcraft when my Mac comes because thats like Runescape only a good game. 
I'm going to have a shower now...

For those of you that follow me I jumped right in the deep end and picked up my old Runescape account and bought a months membership. I played a lot of Runescape when I was back in school and kept playing for a few years, but eventully stopped and never touched it untill this past weekend. I had only ever been Free to play as well so not only was I going back to it but I was buying a months worth of membership. This was on about Saterday/Friday and I have already decided that I am never going to play Runescape or any other MMO ever again, so does that mean I had a bad time with Runescape, fuck no it was really good, let me spin you a tale of why MMO's are no longer for me.   

I started off by deleting everybody off my friends list, there was a few people online but they had no idea who I was, and I to had no idea who they were. I then decided I would walk around and see how much has changed, I felt like an old man asking for vinal records on iTunes, everything had simply moved on. There was so many different things even in free to play, the towns had all had a graphical upgrade, new buildings were in place and there was all these new gameplay mechanics that I just overwhelmed me. I then ventured into the world of membership and did a great deal of exploring and walking around membership land, I walked all over and really got lost. After that I started doing some quests for people, soon discovering that Runescape is a funny game, the humor in Runescape is done very well and made me chuckle to myself.   

This went on up untill today, I decided to average how long I had played Runescape for, and it adds up to about 30-40 hours.  
I looked at the calculator in disbeleif and I assumed it was broken, but after the same answer multiple times I agreed it was fact. But how could that have been, I had done about 5 quests and just walked around a bunch, I had hardly made any acomplishments and really done nothing at all, this is why I am going to stop playing Runescape. This situation would have been fine back in school because school takes up less time than work plus all the holiday breaks including the 6 week summer holiday. But now at work I only get weekends plus 21 days holiday, and on week days my leasuire time adds up to about 3 hours each day. Which ok is quite a lot but I don't really want to play Runescape in that time, and boy does that game make time fly. I've just come off of a 5 hour session which I thought was only a 2 hour session, Runescape is very clever by not having a clock on screen when you play the game.  
 
In the time I have spent playing Runescape I could have finished Shadows of the Damned, Alice: Madness Returns and Duke Nukem Forever, but instead I have been walking around a virtual world saving my money up to buy a virtual sword which does slighlty more damage than my current sword. It even once occured to me that I could go and use real money to get in game money, that was the moment that snapped me out of it and I wondered what the fuck I was doing. So I am quitting Runescape, I hope to never return, I will also not even attempt to play World of Warcraft when my Mac comes because thats like Runescape only a good game. 
I'm going to have a shower now...

It's ok. Puberty is normal. You'll also start to notice hair in places you did not have hair before.

nice post i 2 had a similar experience when I hoped on Runescape after 4 years of not playing it , dam shit has chaged.

Haha, well that was fast!

Good, when are you quitting the giantbomb foru...

Nevermind, that may be too mean.

Runescape is pretty shit, and you shouldn't base all MMO's on it.

@TooWalrus said:

Good, when are you quitting the giantbomb foru...Nevermind, that may be too mean.

@Hizang said:

In the time I have spent playing Runescape I could have finished Shadows of the Damned, Alice: Madness Returns and Duke Nukem Forever, but instead I have been walking around a virtual world saving my money up to buy a virtual sword which does slighlty more damage than my current sword.

Shadows is great, but those other two... You were better off playing Runescape.

Man I used to clock in 16 hour days with RS, those were fun times, best way to look at runescape is that it's just a big chat room, I used to talk to anyone who was near but now of days when I do play it I just turn public chat off, such assholes on there now of days plus most of my friends on there have moved on so it's just not as fun anymore.   My most fun times in Runescape was more or less just chatting to friends/randomers I was one of the few high levels that wasn't a stuck up asshole back in the day so most lower levels would be in shock that I was talking to them, that always made me laugh but now of days being high level isn't anything great even having a 99 isn't anything special.   From what I understand you basically a "noob" if you don't have at least one 99 now of days which is bullshit.    Specially since a lot of 99's are easy as shit to get, best example is cooking, cost you a few mill and a week or two of time but it ain't hard and there's nothing "cool" about having it 99 either.
 
Sorry I went off on a rant there.
 
but ya that game nearly sucked a full year of actual game time out of my life, most of it was fun but a lot of it was grinding like a bitch to try beat my friend who hasn't stopped playing it for the past 6 -7 years needless to say I kind of gave up on that she's nearly got 200 mill attack xp alone, the crazy bitch.
 
I don't even know where I'm going with this post, meh I'll just hit the post reply button.

I don't know why I can never get obsessive over MMO's. I want to be super passionate about massive games, too! But, after reading your post, maybe it's for the best :p

I never got Runescape. I know people who play it, I know people who obsess over it. But to me, it was exactly as you described. Walking around aimlessly waiting for some direction or something to happen.

There is nothing worse in life than seeing the play clock for how long you've used an MMO for. One of the deciding factors that led to me quitting Guild Wars was finding out how much I'd put in on all accounts and how little I'd gotten out of it.

I lost two years to that game, it was good fun when i was younger and my cousin played so we got really into it, its very much a my first MMO, but i avoid such games now because i spent so much time playing RS

That's like me and WoW. Spend all expansion busting my balls in a progression guild wasting way too much time on worthless stuff. At the time I enjoyed it and didn't realize the frivolity of it all, but as soon as the new expansion dropped and I had to start from square one all over again and see all of my hard work amount to nothing it really took the wind out of my sails. Bring up that /played counter and see how much time has just been stripped of accomplishment and boom, that's all I needed to kick the habit.

Yo, showers are good too. Get on that.

Time investment in itself is OK but only if you get something out of it. I guess some people love, or think they love, getting slightly better items on an endless ladder, but especially without people to compare to, or meaningful accomplishments to shoot for, it feels hollow.
 
I guess the big question is: how can an MMO keep player attention, which helps pay the bills and pay the people who make the game and keep it running, while making a worthwhile experience for the player's time and money investment. Sounds rather cold when you put it that way I guess, but I think novelty and genuine growth is important in an MMO. 
 
It's like building a skyscraper while people are already inside trying to take the stairs to the top. How many distractions do you want to put in the way of people to prevent them from reaching the current top floor too quickly, but which are still interesting enough in their own right to prevent people from taking the express elevator back down?
 
Eventually some will get exhausted with the MMO formulas that are currently out there, or the principle in general.

I enjoyed the skill based progression that Runescape has. Though I never got that far into it. I had the Morrowind syndrome, creating a new character every few days.

I should go back and try the Tibia MMO again, I played a lot of that game with friends in high school many years ago.

For those of you that follow me I jumped right in the deep end and picked up my old Runescape account and bought a months membership. I played a lot of Runescape when I was back in school and kept playing for a few years, but eventully stopped and never touched it untill this past weekend. I had only ever been Free to play as well so not only was I going back to it but I was buying a months worth of membership. This was on about Saterday/Friday and I have already decided that I am never going to play Runescape or any other MMO ever again, so does that mean I had a bad time with Runescape, fuck no it was really good, let me spin you a tale of why MMO's are no longer for me.   

I started off by deleting everybody off my friends list, there was a few people online but they had no idea who I was, and I to had no idea who they were. I then decided I would walk around and see how much has changed, I felt like an old man asking for vinal records on iTunes, everything had simply moved on. There was so many different things even in free to play, the towns had all had a graphical upgrade, new buildings were in place and there was all these new gameplay mechanics that I just overwhelmed me. I then ventured into the world of membership and did a great deal of exploring and walking around membership land, I walked all over and really got lost. After that I started doing some quests for people, soon discovering that Runescape is a funny game, the humor in Runescape is done very well and made me chuckle to myself.   

This went on up untill today, I decided to average how long I had played Runescape for, and it adds up to about 30-40 hours.  
I looked at the calculator in disbeleif and I assumed it was broken, but after the same answer multiple times I agreed it was fact. But how could that have been, I had done about 5 quests and just walked around a bunch, I had hardly made any acomplishments and really done nothing at all, this is why I am going to stop playing Runescape. This situation would have been fine back in school because school takes up less time than work plus all the holiday breaks including the 6 week summer holiday. But now at work I only get weekends plus 21 days holiday, and on week days my leasuire time adds up to about 3 hours each day. Which ok is quite a lot but I don't really want to play Runescape in that time, and boy does that game make time fly. I've just come off of a 5 hour session which I thought was only a 2 hour session, Runescape is very clever by not having a clock on screen when you play the game.  
 
In the time I have spent playing Runescape I could have finished Shadows of the Damned, Alice: Madness Returns and Duke Nukem Forever, but instead I have been walking around a virtual world saving my money up to buy a virtual sword which does slighlty more damage than my current sword. It even once occured to me that I could go and use real money to get in game money, that was the moment that snapped me out of it and I wondered what the fuck I was doing. So I am quitting Runescape, I hope to never return, I will also not even attempt to play World of Warcraft when my Mac comes because thats like Runescape only a good game. 
I'm going to have a shower now...

The game itself used to be so great, but as of late they've been implementing things only the investors wanted and not focusing on good game content. Thus, as of now, the game is going through a steady decline of active players, mostly due to them changing the way the entirety of combat works to essentially match World of Warcraft's combat system.