Why can't people play more than one MMO at a time?

[Kaykay]

MMo's tend to be built like threadmills, if you stop for a while you'll eventually fall behind. And once you're behind you'll have to work even harder to catch up to others.

Mmo's aren't built with fair play in mind, they are usually made to reward those who spend more time, and if you split your time between mmo's you'll never get to the top of either.

Playing an FPS like PS2 is a fucking chore untill you get some weapons that are interesting, its the same reason i dont play much BF3 anymore, the grind to try out weapons is just too big. And once you got the stuff you want, you'll have to look for a group etc to hang with. They'll expect you to be active, to be able to count on you for raids or whatever.

At the moment i already have 4 arena teams, a raid team and an rbg team taking my time in wow. If i was to play GW2 i'd need a WvW guild and a PvE guild. Wildstar same deal.

I cant play a game half arsedly. Swtor being the only exception, as it was a enjoyable single player experience, i hit 50 and quit with no regrets, good leveling experience.

[openair]

I also play a few different mmos. Have given up wow for awhile, but am bouncing between swtor, sto, and gw2 atm. Swtor I play a healer and tank and enjoy the trinity. STO is a whole different boat. GW2 for the immersive world and casual drop in openness.

But I think a lot of other ppl, the "i can only play THE mmo," the "mmo's are dead or over saturated," crowd are those who really want a second life they can immerse themselves in. They specifically want one game they can call home where they always have something to work towards. People like that, collectors and completionist simply play these games to fulfill an entirely different mind set.

And there are also many who mostly only play wow because it is so popular, flavor of the month rerollers, who may bandwagon to a new mmo briefly, and complain about basic mmo concepts being in "their mmo." These are those who do not actually like mmos but they play wow because it is so popular and they have a drive to fit in and do what everyone else is.

[Deleted]

Eh, might also be poor time management and prioritization.

I watch people stand in cities, chatting with guildies, trolling trade chat, scrolling through the auction house for HOURS at a time.

Last night, I was playing warframe until about 5 minutes before raid time. If you don't waste your time in MMOs, they aren't so demanding.

Depends on the MMO. There are MMOs with large reputation grinds (Rift is a prime example), and anybody that want to raid outside of tier one, needs to put a lot of time into it.

[DemoBytom]

When a video game becomes a job, you may need to reevaluate your hobby. I play them for fun, not to sink every second of my life into. /shrug

And that's the reason why most people don't play multiple MMOs. Those games are time sinks, giant time sinks, unless all you do is log onto wow, do tiller's farm and log off.. I currently have two lv 90s and a lv 70 that I play and each week there's at least one char I don't even log onto, just because I lack time.. Many of us are grown up, we have families, jobs, friends, schools etc.. And day still has only 24h.

[Uko]

This falls along the same lines as jack of all trades master of none. Sure you can play multiple mmos but you most likely wont be able to do all the content within multiple mmos such as clearing heroic raid content or gladiator pvp in multiple mmos without a massive time sink.

[evangelism]

Most of the reasons have been touched on in this thread already. One hasn't. Some people like to play games besides MMO's as well. Playing one MMO slows progression in other games down enough, multiple would bring it to a standstill. MMO'S are a big time commitment. Most people don't even like to think about playing more than one.

[CandyCotton Marshmallows]

small minds; people only cheer for one team. They have a misplaced sense of brand loyalty brainwashed into them from an early age. They have bought into being a consumer and a follower so bad, they cannot think rationally what is best for one self, and the market as a whole. It is all or nothing. Coke or Pepsi. McDonald's or Burger King. Reebok or Nike. Xbox or Playstation.


Outside of that syndrome above; some people don't have time. Each MMO takes a minimum amount of time to really be involved in the community and lore. You can then start speaking of competitive play or just adapting to vastly different control schemes.

I've played and enjoyed WoW, SWtOR, Rift, Tera, FFXIV ARR. I've played all of them this year at least some. I've played others that couldn't catch my interest (Wildstar and ESO betas as examples, as well as Aion, EQ2, etc).

I won't mention other genres, as your title is explicit about MMOs, not action rpgs, mobas, etc.

Variety is good. Trying competition with an open mind is good for all; but quite a few don't have the capacity to do it. They are too narrow minded. Even if they try something, they do it with bias and their opinions are jaded by it.

At least, that is what I see as some of the problems as to why a lot of people can't play more than one MMO at a time (or at all).

[Fortera]

I'm one of many people who can't throw themselves into more than one game at a time. It's not a money or time issue. I just can't care for more than one gaming experience at a time. I always play one game and then take a break or stop and go play something else. I can't say if I got Guild Wars 2 or EQ Landmark right now I'd still be playing WoW. And if I got tired of GW 2 or EQL, I probably would quit and go back to WoW.

[RoninaThorstone]

Depends on the MMO. There are MMOs with large reputation grinds (Rift is a prime example), and anybody that want to raid outside of tier one, needs to put a lot of time into it.

I actually got pretty far in SL rep grinds with the exception of Torvan hunters.

The dailies were VERY quick once you learned them. You logged in, did you dailies in about 30 minutes at both hubs, and then logged out till raid time to play some firefall.

Additionally, if I had a guild which coordinated our great hunts better, I would have repped up with torvan hunters faster.

[Nosdrone]

I can see where many of you are coming from. It's good to see the varying opinions.

I guess I'm one of those "jack of all trades" kind of players who doesn't mind not being the best, or highest ranked, in a certain game. As long as I log in, have fun, and feel that I accomplish something during my time, I'm a happy camper.

[Itisamuh]

I barely have the patience to keep up with the gear grinds and whatnot in one game, let alone multiple. Plus, the subscription costs would add up.

[Crocadial]

I find most MMO's have some grind involved to reach the more desirable content, GW2 was different as I found the levelling more fun that any other part of the game. It's hard to find the time to do this on multiple games at once, I view each game as something to be savored and to take my time. I have friends who have to do everything new and as fast as possible I would imagine they can handle multiple MMO's.

TLDR, I would say I am the wrong breed of cat for multiple MMO's

[Tedbuckland]

Because some people have full time jobs as well as lives. I'm lucky an IRL friend recommended me into a 14/14H guild that only needs to raid 1 night a week for a full clear.

[notorious98]

Personally, I do play multiple MMOs, depends on the situation. I play ESO with the wife. When we're not playing together, I may be playing Marvel Heroes, SWTOR, Hearthstone, LoL, or possibly on my PS4 playing FIFA. I don't like to limit myself to one game. But I can see the opinions of others who feel like they'll be too far behind if they're not constantly playing one game. However, at a certain point, you're as up to date as you're going to get. Someone brought up Rift and the rep grinds, but eventually you hit your max rep and the grind doesn't exist any longer. Eventually, in WoW, you've gotten as much gear as you're going to get and that grind doesn't exist any longer. At that point, you're either waiting for content or you can move on to another game and wait for new content.

The people who don't do that are usually the ones who feel the most spurned when the devs change something they like and treat the game like an ex-lover when they decide to "break up" with it.

Edit : That being said, I won't pay two subscription fees for two separate MMOs.

[Thetruth1400]

Playing most MMO's requires a commitment, which is a time sink. It's hard to play several different MMOs and get very good / far / into a good guild / etc when you're only willing to commit to it very sporadically. If you only have 10 hours of free time a week, it's hard to get everything done in WoW let alone MMOs which are more in depth then what WoW is. Now take that 10 hours and divide it by say 3 MMOs that you want to play and you're lucky to put in 4 hours in one game a week due to the restricted play time.

On top of that, a fair few MMOs have a subscription cost. Do you really want to drop $15 per game that you're going to spend very little time playing? I know for me personally, if I was only able to play WoW for 4 hours a week, I definitely don't think that it would come anywhere near worth paying for.



Seems to me that OP might be in a situation in which they have a ton of free time they can commit to just sitting around and playing games. Sure, if you have a spare 40+ hours a week to sit around playing games, then there's no reason that you can't commit to multiple MMOs at a time. For the majority of people though, that much free time is a major luxury.

[Nosdrone]

Seems to me that OP might be in a situation in which they have a ton of free time they can commit to just sitting around and playing games. Sure, if you have a spare 40+ hours a week to sit around playing games, then there's no reason that you can't commit to multiple MMOs at a time. For the majority of people though, that much free time is a major luxury.

Actually, I work 50+ hours a week (IT admin) and have around 12-20 hours a week for gaming (including weekends, and 20 is on the very high end/3 day weekend or holiday). Married, responsibilities, house, pets, the whole nine. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are my 'late nights.' Back when I was a college student, I had all the free time in the world, it's just not that way anymore. I guess I just balance my time well.

[RoninaThorstone]

It's hard to play several different MMOs and get very good / far / into a good guild / etc when you're only willing to commit to it very sporadically.

Most MMOs use the same forms of content, controls, and skill demands.

Being a good raider in Rift makes you a good raider in FF14, Swtor, and WoW. You just have to google the best spec and rotation. I've fought bosses that were almost carbon copies of bosses in different games.

The skills you learn in one MMO tend to be generalizable to others if you put in a little research.

[Deleted]

Sure they can. I play Rift, SWTOR, TESO and FFXIV casually.

[Raven]

Becouse the rules of life says that you can only play and enjoy 1 game at the time, and when you move on from 1 game to another you have to spend all your free time talking crap about the first game to convince yourself you did the right thing to move on.

[notorious98]

Most MMOs use the same forms of content, controls, and skill demands.

Being a good raider in Rift makes you a good raider in FF14, Swtor, and WoW. You just have to google the best spec and rotation. I've fought bosses that were almost carbon copies of bosses in different games.

The skills you learn in one MMO tend to be generalizable to others if you put in a little research.

I don't know about FF14 because I haven't played it, but the other games you're 100% correct about. Hotkey MMOs such as those are generally the same idea with different abilities. Once you've gotten down the gameplay of one, the others are interchangeable.