Is there a bigger game for you than WoW?

[Skizzit]

If we are talking about games that had a big impact on my life, I think the only other thing besides WoW that would be pretty close would be Ultima Online. That was my first exposure to MMO's and I played it for a number of years and met many people I consider friends through that game. Really, if it had not been for UO I might have never evne played WoW.

[Tekkommo]

I've been playing it since 2005, so no, nothing comes close.

[Enfilade]

But that is not really the point of this thread is it? I mean I loved Zelda, Final Fantasy (non mmo), Mario Kart (SNES) and few others. Long before WoW came to be. But even those games.... newer or older versions are in no way matching up to how I felt about WoW. Not my initial experience (vanilla) nor when I quit for the first time (Mid Cata).
These games that I mentioned before did "tickle my obsession gland" but only for a very short while in comparison.

How do you figure? I mean, yes I loved the Metal Gear franchise long before I ever played WoW. I loved it when I played WoW, and I still love it the same long after quitting WoW. It’s a lifelong passion of a franchise of mine, and I don’t think they’ll stop making core titles, even after Kojima’s departure.

Also, OP didn’t explicitly say it had to be another MMO so there’s that.

[Vaelorian]

How do you figure? I mean, yes I loved the Metal Gear franchise long before I ever played WoW. I loved it when I played WoW, and I still love it the same long after quitting WoW. It’s a lifelong passion of a franchise of mine, and I don’t think they’ll stop making core titles, even after Kojima’s departure.

Also, OP didn’t explicitly say it had to be another MMO so there’s that.

Either I am misunderstanding this... or you are. (not making assumptions on who is incorrect)
Trying to make a comparison (which will fail.... everyone always takes apart comparisons... ):
I love eating at McDonalds. Like when I was a kid, I was really happy and excited to go there and get my happy meal. Even the adult versions of burgers I loved later in life. I still like to go there now. While growing up (growing up is about time, not about taste) I got access to a restaurant where they not only have great all you can eat and drink meals... but they also provide entertainment while eating. For a long time I could only go to this particular restaurant. I tried others, but was severely dissapointed. They changed their entertainment regularly enough and the food changed every so often as well. After a long period (years) the restaurant got new owners and tried to get more customers in, which lead to (imo) a decline in the food quality as well as the entertainment. But... to this day, even when I go to McDonalds... I still remember how that particular restaurant used to be and how I loved it. I can now no longer really get excited about other restaurants. Nothing to this day beats the experience I had at that particular restaurant.

So while I loved Zelda and still do. Or other games that I followed and had amazing fun back then (before WoW) and still have fun with today.. it is to me very clear... that the amount of fun that I had while playing Vanilla WoW until mid Cata, I will never get to repeat elsewhere. Atleast that is my expectation and experience sofar.

So my palette seems ruined for games. Even though I did not stop loving games such as Zelda or Final Fantasy, I can not get that umpf/high anymore. I play them, have a bit of fun with it and let it collect dust. I no longer care to repeat the game unless absolutely bored.

edit: So I am not saying that you may not love and continue loving Metal Gear etc. Zelda and FF has been a passion for me too. But in my case: obsession beats passion and WoW had me obsessed for years. I lived in that game. Everything around me was not important anymore unless they were playing WoW themselves ánd a part of my gaming experience.

I am happy that I stopped obsessing and quit. Got a "life" instead. But I do want to be happy with the gaming titles that I grew up with or entered adulthood with... and their new versions. But the feeling I had back then about those games are severely diminished since my experience in WoW.

[I Push Buttons]

Pretty much any game.

I just play WoW for a few weeks at the beginning and end of each expansion for the last few expansions. Haven't played it for real since they got rid of ten man raiding.

Hopefully one day the game's population has dwindled enough that they get rid of the twenty man meme and bring back ten man, when that happens I will play WoW again.

[Phookah]

Virtually anything right now. I -want- to play WoW, but then I log in and realize there is nothing enjoyable to do, I just log off.

[Tenjen]

I played WoW for nearly 11 years. I dont play anymore but no game has come close to its scale and the commitment i gave it during all those years.

I left not because of getting burnt out or disliking the game, its just that my longest term Guild eventually fractured as the main personalities couldnt play as much due to life stuff, it then fragmented without them and I just couldnt reconnect with a new guild no matter what. Those bonds meant too much after so long and couldnt be replaced. WoW was that room in your house you associated with a lost love or relative. Just cant walk back in there without it hurting.

[Ladyoftheforest]

Virtually anything right now. I -want- to play WoW, but then I log in and realize there is nothing enjoyable to do, I just log off.

For that reason I gave FFXIV a chance and haven't regretted it. Still hoping that Blizzard get their act together and stray away from 'new systems' and timegating. If they build their content around the cinematics and warbringers, giving lead characters prime time, quest time and more ingame time then I'd be very happy. The two continents are ok, but it feels disconnected.

[DeltrusDisc]

Got back into Path of Exile close to a month ago, only opened WoW to get the anniversary achievement. Got bored of doing the "classics" world bosses.

Honestly, what bugged me about WoW, is the majority of the time, I would go and do old content - i.e. old raids, dungeons, etc for mounts and achievements. Far less new stuff. Mehhhh

I also intend to get back into Final Fantasy XIV.

[Khuzog]

I'd be doing another run through of Skyrim or Fallout New Vegas if it wasn't for being in a holding pattern waiting for some mod projects to wrap up.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I’ve yer to find any thing. At the moment I’ve just finished with MHW and the new warframe stuff and find my self with a lack of games I want to play. I’ve mainly just been doing meaningless things in wow while i wait for the next POE season.

[Poppincaps]

I don't think anything other than another MMO will ever be as impactful as playing WoW for the first time honestly. I guess Runescape was my first experience with an MMO. It was amazing at the time.

I will say I think Dark Souls will end up being the most impactful for me in my professional work. I am going into Game Design and I find Dark Souls to be the best game I've ever played. WoW is a great game and has changed my life in many ways, but I think the reason it's so memorable is because of the people not necessarily the game itself.

[MeTaL GuArD]

I can list a few games that had a huge impact on me alongside WoW, and which I played the most out of all games I ever tried.

Diablo 2 was probably the first game I'd spent a ton of time on, and the first to truly enchant me into an addiction that kept going for months, if not a few years. Nowadays I'm completely burned out on the unmodded game, but I do get the urge to play Eastern Sun once in a while.
Warcraft 3. Chances are I'll be sinking another 2700+ hours(roughly how much Xfire tracked back when I still used it) if the custom map community comes back alongside Reforged.
Team Fortress 2 is the only FPS I consistently keep playing since 2012. Clocked over 3600 hours in that game and still counting to this day. No other game offers me this much variety in playstyle in the genre.
While Minecraft doesn't have nearly the amount of time played as the others on this list, I cannot deny that there was something absolutely unique and magical about the first time I stepped into the browser version of creative mode in the early alpha builds, and saw all this potential. Potential that has grown into a truly massive game, assuming you take the time to mod it. With WoW burning out a good bit for me in BfA, I find myself coming back to these more.

[seleri]

It's the main series Pokemon games for me. I love replaying through the games with different teams and hunting for shinies.

[Lane]

I think Elder Scrolls Online is superior to WoW in just about every possible respect. The Daggerfall campaign, in particular, is fantastic. I highly recommend it to anyone who's missing the RPG in MMORPG.

[Flame6]

Used to play console in the 90s, WoW felt like an anomaly, for its quality and how huge it was, literaly 300 times a big console game / JRPG.

I don't know PC games much, maybe there's others games like this, maybe another mmo like dark age of camelot, everquest, or a shooter, maybe there's big things going on in them too ?

Very interested to know if I'm missing something big outside WoW.

and especially since online games tend to change or even shut down in the worst cases.

League of Legends and Fort Nite are two games that are bigger than WoW. Both have great alternatives in their genre such as DOTA 2 or PUBG.
World of Tanks was (still is?) huge.


I've always wondered if I put more hours into league or WoW.

Edit: OH yeah, Counter Strike has a massive following, and one of the larger PC player bases.

[alturic]

Sadly (?) nothing will ever beat WoW in what an impact it has had on my life with all the hours of endless fun and friends made over the years. Nothing.

I do however play PUBG, Dos2, rdr2 and some minigames like golfing with friends etc when drunk on disc with buddies etc.

Had, as in you once had, endless fun and making friends over the internet is *not* a reason to cling on to something.

Think of it this way, you had fun in college. You made some great friends in college. You now have a career (new game), whether in the same sector as said friends or not (one of you not playing WoW any longer) you don't cling on to your college years for the rest of your life. Well, some people do but they are not the people you want to be. Ha.

End of the day, people move on with their lives, both you and said friends. Not moving away from the town you grew up in because you feel some sort of clingyness to the area is not a reason to stay in the area if another area has more opportunity for fun and friendship.

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I think Elder Scrolls Online is superior to WoW in just about every possible respect. The Daggerfall campaign, in particular, is fantastic. I highly recommend it to anyone who's missing the RPG in MMORPG.

I think the gameplay itself of Rift, pre-F2P - haven't really touched it since, was far superior to WoW. It's a shame it wasn't as polished as WoW. Definitely would have gotten me to switch to it.

[Appelgren]

Had, as in you once had, endless fun and making friends over the internet is *not* a reason to cling on to something.

Think of it this way, you had fun in college. You made some great friends in college. You now have a career (new game), whether in the same sector as said friends or not (one of you not playing WoW any longer) you don't cling on to your college years for the rest of your life. Well, some people do but they are not the people you want to be. Ha.

End of the day, people move on with their lives, both you and said friends. Not moving away from the town you grew up in because you feel some sort of clingyness to the area is not a reason to stay in the area if another area has more opportunity for fun and friendship.

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I think the gameplay itself of Rift, pre-F2P - haven't really touched it since, was far superior to WoW. It's a shame it wasn't as polished as WoW. Definitely would have gotten me to switch to it.

Yeah... that was way overanalyzed mate

[Lane]

I think the gameplay itself of Rift, pre-F2P - haven't really touched it since, was far superior to WoW. It's a shame it wasn't as polished as WoW. Definitely would have gotten me to switch to it.

Rift was really underrated when it debuted, it was certainly a far better game than Cataclysm.

[Radaney]

I play a ton of Warframe too.