Can You Go Home Again After Leaving A Game?
Here's a simple question for you: Can you ever “go back” to an online game you once loved, but drifted away from?
I'm not talking about something you dabbled in for a few weeks when it was new and then stepped away from. I'm talking about games that were the game for you for an extended period of time – months or years. Once that passion wears off, once you find one reason, any reason, to jump off the hype train, can you re-board with anything resembling your previous interest?
The first game that was like that for me was City of Heroes. Though by my current standards, I maintained a subscription for a relatively short period of time (seven months), it was still my day-and-night obsession for those months. Some update near the end of my last subscription month tweaked me the wrong way and I stopped paying. I went back for a month here and a month there over the next few years, but never got into it on nearly the same level.
Next for me was The Lord of the Rings Online, a game I played solidly for five years. Again, an issue with the game finally broke me – though there was a long-accumulating discontent both from me and from the members of my dying-off kinship – and led to me deciding I'd had enough. In the years since, I've dabbled in the game, sometimes even playing it semi-heavily for weeks at a time, but as a strictly casual player. Even with a lifetime subscription, making the game essentially free-to-play for me, I can't see myself ever raiding in it again or subjecting myself to the stat and gear grind.
That's made me wonder if anyone else has experienced the same thing, or even if they've managed to reverse their emotions about a game. In my case, I feel like online games, MMORPGs in particular, tend to squeeze more and more out of players as they age. When the “breakup” finally happens, when a player sees that the game demands too much of them – time, money, whatever – when they realize that they no longer need that game in their life and that it's possible to live without it – they do.
To be sure, I love to reminisce about my experiences in these games, by looking back at old screenshots or occasionally chatting via social media with my old friends. But the notion of getting back into the game, of overcoming various hurdles – leveling, gear acquisition, learning new mechanics, even the social aspects of ingratiating myself with a new guild – put me off. Those feel much more like work instead of fun. I'd rather play something new and interesting, and ideally less onerous.
Maybe that's another reason why going back is so hard for me. There are so many new games, online or offline, single-player or multi-player, that there's always something new to try – usually for free. After thousands of hours in an MMO, anything new, even another MMO, seems like a birthday present, a rare gift to break up the monotony of the everyday grind that I'm used to. Sure, I'm time-rich enough to get into multiple games at a time, but taking a few minutes here or an hour there eventually eats away at that big MMO I used to play for four-plus hours every night. It becomes three hours, then two, then … well, I can't really stay caught up playing so little now, so maybe I just shouldn't bother?
Guild Wars 2 is my most recent “abandoned” game. Maybe in a year I'll look back and want to get into it again, but even if everything I dislike is changed, it's going to be hard to re-commit. As with LotRO, there were a few things that sparked my discontent until I finally decided to leave altogether. I've found new things to play and I haven't regretted moving on, for the most part.
But maybe that's just me. Have you ever returned to a game after a long break? Or have you found it impossible once the “magic spell” it had on you was broken? We'd love to hear your thoughts!
Related Articles
About the Author
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
More Stories by Jason WinterRead Next
Neverwinter sure seems to get a lot of content updates.
You May Enjoy
Bring harmony back to the lands of Seon by challenging Mu, God of Mist.
Get a peek at tonic brewing, new weapons and artifact perks, and more.
Become the bounty or become the hunter.
There was a lot of work on Blue Zones.
According to Jason Schreier, Neflix shows were in the works for StarCraft, Overwatch, and Diablo
Halo was "best in class" visually when it was released, and it needs to be that again according to the newly renamed studio.
My second MMO was cabal online, loved it. those level grinding, equipment building and dungeon runs was fantastic, there wasn't really a time I am not playing for solid 5 years. I got into this game by the same friends that introduced me Corum. Soon later, one of my friend left, and the few that left with me joined a stranger friendly happy guild. After class, i would hop on just like any other players in the guild, we chat and grind, at some point we are pretty much tired, a point in mmo where it is too much effort to be stronger, so we just kinda laid back. we chat, farm some runs, discuss about the next expansion etc. i had a great time, but is just like any MMO, players start to login lesser and lesser, you see the new batch of players. As time goes by, we are bored with the "same but different but still same" expansions, clearing them within a month and getting bored of it after the following month. As guildmates ,we log in to socialize with each other, sometimes things get personal by that time guildmates are no different than real life friends. Eventually, just like other mmo, not enough expansion will keep us together play, we age as we game, some move on to real life obligation. one follow another, slowly a guild turns to a small group chat, and slowly nothing left. We are still friends outside of the game, but just feel less relate-able to each other after since.
And so i move on to Vindictus Online, the strongest memories i have. introduced by another friend. Met old time Cabal Online player that i know but never talked to. By luck, we joined in as a guild, and for another 5 years we play the game, going with the usual MMO cycle, grind, making more friends and just having a place where we are together after a long day of lecture or work.is my go to place, a form of escape, a place where to do the same grinding spiced with personal stories and care for each other in the guild. Eventually, it ends in a way of any MMO, one of my best friend left the game for BDO, while i have just joined the society to work now, i dont have the will power to start again, those who still have the passion for MMO kept going, and im left out. As of now, the genre of MMO is dead to me, the game was the interest, in it has thousand of people that had the same as mine, the guilds are the people that share your values. it just a shame that we dont have the same pace on switching interest.
As for me, MMO had left me good memories, but it can never bring me back the passion i had to play a game.
I make a list genre (RPG Adventure, Shooter, Sport) and that how i do it instead of playing the same Genre game that i have already played online. (It a simple thing to do list)
I've tried other MMORPGs, but they never clicked for me the way WoW did and I always compared their features to WoW's and that's probably why I never got into other games. I would get into LoTRO, but I don't feel like buying all the expansions, I also bought the base game for Elder Scrolls Online back when there were no expansions and it was not confirmed that there will be any and even so it didn't click for me.
The bigger problem for me was games that have shut down after I left. Games like Trickster Online and Survival Project. When I found them, I logged on every chance I could. I stopped at some point when the grind got to me. Now, I can only "go back" to private servers, which is surprisingly fun. Now that I think about it, it's probably because most private servers run the game in the same "old" state, without any changes, so you always go back to the same game.
I have a harder time actually finding a new game to suck me in.
Just been a gamer for 33 of my 37 years on earth. Not a casual one either.
It's been my life and no i don't regret it.
It is what i love, but the older i get the more that passion fades with each year that passes.
As games evolve, yet to me they stay the same. I get a new game I feel like I've already been there done that. I haven't owned a single game in past 14 years that has had a learning curve.
Soon as I start playing already know how to play it and good at it. Should do it professionally. They have been many games I've quit for 2 years+ and when I feel like returning I do and I can get back into them just as deep as I did before and on some occasions even deeper than before.
Lot of older mmorpgs still around I'd love to go back to, but most are so dead it's hard to find resources to keep going, so I know just a waste of time to return to them.
But most one of all has been guild wars 1.
I have been playing it for 13 years, take long a break I feel like picking it back up i do, I'll stick to it for couple months then take leave again.
I think the reason most people can't pick online games back up is because they rely on others to keep them happy. People make friends then they leave while they are gone, their friends leave so when they return their friends are no longer there and the interest dwindles.
But when one is like me, a lone wolf, one that relies only on self and game play to keep self happy it's a different story. it's easy to come and go at will. It's easier to get back into it.
I say this because at one point a lone wolf ran with a pack.
I've been there in the past, made lotta friends return they be gone or the guild or group dissolved. It never felt the same. I'd be in game but afk thinking why am i here what purpose was it to return, sometimes back then I'd afk just staring at the screen screwing with inventories storage trying find a reason to play.
At that point a person has 3 options.
1. Tough it out learn to rely on yourself and break that reliance of others.
2. Try to make new friends try to find that connection with people all over again
3. Walk away and never look back.
I've tried all 3 atleast once older I get harder #2 becomes for me.
I went with #1 have been at it like that for about 9 years now.
I've took year+ break from an mmos left as a scrub came back set my goals higher became co-leader one some of the biggest guilds in less then a month of returning. Left games as a leader, came back as a follower.
I've had gaming friends become enemies and enemies become friends. I've seen it all, done it all.
In the end I found it best to rely on yourself for any happiness/interest in a game, you find a groove that works on your terms and you stick to it.
You have to remember the reasons you enjoyed a certain game.
Was it for the game play? Was it for friends? Was it for the feeling of being a part of a community?
It's easy to return to a game, as long as you know why you are returning to it.
If you don't know why you are returning, you wont ever to be able to fully return and get back into it.
For example I set goals in games, like most people do in the real world.
If I quit a game I know why i quit it, when I return to it I avoid the reason why i left.
Was it because I got burnt out? If so i return, take my time at it, but I'll work harder than the time before building apon what I already know.
So when i return to the game, I actually become better at it every time i quit and return.
Eventually, a person hits their peak and feel they've done all that they can do.
By that point you choose #3
Tried GoD and while liked the class compression (specifically all the major buff classes into 1), the basic pve combat turned into the mashing keyboard attack rotation combat that I ultimately got sick of in WoW and LotRO. So I left a few months after. Also they rolled my Soul Hound into the Wizard class so it no longer was a fighter/caster class. Made my Soul Hound into a Knight at launch because I wanted a Kamael to finally wear Heavy Armor and our clan needed tanks.
Currently I have no desire to check out L2 anymore.