If I've been busy with work and get home tired, I usually pick a slower-paced RPG game instead of, say, an FPS. I've asked my friends and most of them either can't relate to this, or they play a single game exclusively, like a pay-to-play game, and consider themselves not having time to waste with other games. I keep hearing this all the time, and I'm wondering if this is due to the actual nature of pay-to-play games or because they want a more relaxed style of gameplay? Any thoughts about this? Can *you* relate to my thoughts?

What is it that they cannot relate to? That you play RPGs or that you don't play MMOs?

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Original post by SymLinked If I've been busy with work and get home tired, I usually pick a slower-paced RPG game instead of, say, an FPS. I've asked my friends and most of them either can't relate to this, or they play a single game exclusively, like a pay-to-play game, and consider themselves not having time to waste with other games.

I think it's part of people justifying their expenditure. If you're paying every month for a service, in order to justify it to yourself you have to make the most of it. Any time spent NOT using that service is money down the drain.

Oddly, the same effect applies to Gym memberships, but usually wears off after about two months [grin]

Yeah, when you're deciding what game you fire up, the one that costs you fifteen bucks a month will seem more worthwhile than the one you picked up for $5 at the bargain bin, and paying $50 for a new one when you're still paying rent will be harder to justify. I can remember times when I'd play a less desirable game just because it was rented and I didn't want to have it sit around for two days and then go back without my having gotten my money's worth.

Having played WoW and EvE, I'd say that WoW had this effect far more, because you always had to be levelling and raiding and manually grinding your character up, whereas in EvE I always felt okay not playing it, as long as my guy had a skill going. But it would weigh on my mind when I knew the skill was complete and I wouldn't be able to log in for hours or days to start a new one.

I don't know much about the psychology of addiction, but I'm guessing there are some parallels.

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I think it's part of people justifying their expenditure. If you're paying every month for a service, in order to justify it to yourself you have to make the most of it. Any time spent NOT using that service is money down the drain.

I don't know about that. You're talking about 15 dollars a month which is next to nothing. That's two trips to the movies or a pay-per-view.

I'd think it's more of either immersion, attraction to reward for time invested, social aspects, persistent characters/ownership, or any number of several other reasons that people invest a significant amount of time in a single game. I don't think justification has anything to do with it. I also don't think subscription base is a factor at all really, since you have the same type of attachment and time investment even in the F2P and item mall games of same or similar design.

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Original post by Iron Chef Carnage Having played WoW and EvE, I'd say that WoW had this effect far more, because you always had to be levelling and raiding and manually grinding your character up, whereas in EvE I always felt okay not playing it, as long as my guy had a skill going.

Absolutely, this is my experience as well. I did enjoy EvE more than WoW, and GuildWars more than both, because I didn't feel as stressed and forced to play.

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Original post by Sandman Oddly, the same effect applies to Gym memberships, but usually wears off after about two months [grin]

So true. Too bad it doesn't seem to wear off as fast for gamers.

There are people who do the same with FPS games. They play the same game for years, with their clan, or related online communities. They often move to a new game together too.

Happens offline too. Me and my gaming buddies always ended up playing the same handful of games competitively.

Mortal Kombat 2
Super Tecmo Bowl
Killer Instinct
WCW/nWo Revenge
Duke Nukem 64
Perfect Dark
etc...

I think it's simply because the quality and community of the game are better than that of your average f2p game.
That and there are far fewer hackers.

Ah, so I guess I wasn't the only one. In the old days I used to play a variety of games. Then I started WoW, after a few months I noticed I wasn't playing anything else. I certainly did feel that since I am paying to play, I didn't want to spend money on other games. But also, I was addicted.

I had periods of quitting and reactivating, but I've quit for sure now. (WotLK has no power over me!) Interesting thing in this is that when I finally kicked the WoW habit, and since I had stopped playing other games, I found that I pretty much have stopped playing games altogether.

I would agree as well, I have Alot of new games, and a wow subscription
and i found even months after buying a game im still playing wow.

Dunno if its the cost though, cause im also paying for warhammer, and i haven't got around to that either (my brother is playing on my account so its not a total waste)

Wow I play with people at work, so it gives me a chance to talk to them outside of work, since I work different hours to everyone else in the company