Quitting an online/multiplayer game

After around 450 hours clocked on DOTA 2 I suddenly had a realisation today: I'm gonna call it quits.

Quitting an online game where I've invested a big chunk of time always feels a big deal to me. Before this it were Tibia back in the day, then Modern Warfare 2 and HAWX and I have considered abandoning Dark Souls PvP plenty of times, yet I still play that.

So have you quit any MMORPG's, MOBA's, shooters or any extensively played online games and what made you quit? Games you were addicted to even? Or where you've been a dedicated member of the community? Have you had throwbacks? And most importantly what did you replace these time-suckers with?

Discuss!

I "quit" WoW about halfway through WotLK; at the time I was raiding heavily in a progression guild and also writing a popular WoW blog (had over 1200 subscribers) but I kind of got bored and wanted to work on my fiction writing. I felt bad about walking away from the blog, but my readers and also my guild understood though.

Now I'm playing WoW again (and blogging about it, in fact), but I'm over the initial "angst" about it; I guess now I don't care about popping in and out of the game for months at a time. It isn't as big of a deal to me as it used to be.

It's occurred to me that it's kind of strange to talk about "quitting" a game; with most other games your interest in it just kind of peters out rather than there being a decision where you sit down and actively quit.

Every MMO I quit I did so because I lost interest in the game, and every now and again I'll go back to it until I lose interest again. Like I do with any game I play. It's never been a big deal to me.

I quit playing the Call of Duty series sometime after Modern Warfare 3 came out. I just realized that the game frustrated me more than I was willing to put up with, so I decided to stop playing it. I went back to CoD4 and to a lesser extent MW2 for a while, but the CoD-Fever never grabbed me again. Nowadays I only play CoD4, but rarely and only with friends.

I've enjoyed me some games, and played straight through a few here and there. But I can't say I've ever been addicted. I suppose if the experience of those games were designed to last longer, I may well have been. But I've never felt that kind of compulsion or investment in any online oriented games. They just all seem to vapid and empty. The whole "grind for 50 hours to get one little thing" of MMOs, or the fact that MOBAs are designed to play the same fight over and over and over and over again with not a lot of gain from it always turned me off. The idea of talking to trout-talking 12 year olds the whole time doesn't really stack the pot much in my eyes either. So that completely negates any interest in online shooters like Halo or CoD

I've always been curious what that kind of addiction would be like. But people always get addicted to games I'm not interested in. Its like the games I consider good are non-addictive for some reason. Not sure where that threshold lies. I'd be curious to read a study of it, or watch a documentary on it though :3

When I was playing Final Fantasy XIV, I was playing 50 hours a day and 20 days a week. I wasn't getting much done otherwise. I'd work, then come home and play. But my bank had a problem just before my subscription renewed. And I mean like right before. Like two days before. So I took it as a sign and never renewed my subscription.

I'm about to do the same with Dota, Pete. I'm almost embarrassed at the Steam hour count and it makes me too aloof for the hour or so it takes to find and finish a game.

I quit because the beta ended and all the other times were because I no longer had access to a decent internet connection.

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Originally Posted by Pike

It's occurred to me that it's kind of strange to talk about "quitting" a game; with most other games your interest in it just kind of peters out rather than there being a decision where you sit down and actively quit.

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That's true. I think with these games you kinda know you'd still want to enjoy the game and rather not quit, but for some reason you can't enjoy it or suddenly decide it just takes up too much time to be worth the enjoyment. Or could it be an indication that an addiction has been built up?

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Originally Posted by Vyk

They just all seem to vapid and empty. The whole "grind for 50 hours to get one little thing" of MMOs, or the fact that MOBAs are designed to play the same fight over and over and over and over again with not a lot of gain from it always turned me off.

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I can definitely see how the same fight over and over doesn't appeal to someone. Personally I do get a kick out of outsmarting/outplaying people and with a good MOBA there are lots of variations, options and room for creativity to do so in many ways. I think that's what hooked me to the games I mentioned in my first post.

With MW2 though, I had a sudden realisation that I couldn't remember any of the matches I had played. There were no memorable moments, only scores and K/D ratio's. That's the point where I realised the game was indeed vapid and empty, and quit cold turkey.

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Originally Posted by Bolivar

I'm about to do the same with Dota, Pete. I'm almost embarrassed at the Steam hour count and it makes me too aloof for the hour or so it takes to find and finish a game.

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Yeah an hour for a game that requires full-time attention is a big commitment. On many occasions I have not answered phonecalls, the doorbell, or even had time for a quick bathroom break due to people unpausing when I try to pause.

Sometimes having to spend a full hour with unfriendly teammates doesn't help to make it worthwhile either.

My problem lately has been playing amazing games with heroes I like and losing because my friends fed early or don't save for buybacks. Just lost 2 games last night like that. The one thing that might keep me in the game is if I can find an in-house league where everyone's always trying to learn and get better.

With RO, I got bored after a few months and just stopped.

With FFXI, I got bored after a few months and just stopped.

With FFXIV, I go through phases where I want to play and where I'm bored and stop. Currently it's more of IRL reasons, but I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things eventually. Well... maybe not so sure, but it could happen!

i quit CoD after 1 week. because then i rememberd the almighty Halo

i-i-i never played an mmo though..

I "quit" WoW this week. Or at least my hardcore raiding of it. I just wasn't left with any time during the weekdays. When you work full time and have a long commute and are trying to be healthy with gymness and stuff, it's just hard and time consuming. Still going to play casually but I just don't have the time to raid like I used to.

Having a game that requires you to be there a certain time is time consuming when I have so much other trout I need to do.

I don't think I've ever made a point of telling myself I'm going to "quit" a game, I'll usually just get bored or move on to something else. By far the game I have invested the most time in is Diablo 3 and atm I am not really playing it because I got a bit burned out, but I still clocked in over 100 hours when the last season started.

i've quit every mmo i ever played after getting to level 10

sorry Ragnarok Online, Space Aces, Kung Fu Legend or whatever

can't do it

One day all my WoW friends and I decided we were burned out on playing the exact same night and we all quit playing. Five months later I decided I wanted to log in and find something to do so I sent a mass text and we all started playing again that same day.

I've bounced in and out of playing FFXIV four times because I don't have any friends to play the game with.

To actually quit when you want to keep playing would be rough. My last military deployment was when I was pretty involved in WoW and I would have withdrawls/look forward to when I made it home to play again the whole time I was away.