I've only ever really played Shadowbane. I've tried WoW for maybe a total of 10 hours and could not enjoy it. The prospect of running errands for NPCs does not appeal to me. Neither does taking weeks to level a single character. I've seen my brother play it for hours. I also tried Anarchy Online briefly.. but I really only ever got hooked on Shadowbane.
I started playing Shadowbane a month or two after release after I saw my brother selling his farmed gold online at a rate of about $20/hour (impossible now). And, I got hooked on it. The community was amazing. The graphics sucked, the game was buggy, there wasn't much content - but it all kept improving.
But then, I got hooked on it and played it for a ridiculous amount of time. I got very good at PVP and started dominating. Then I became a guild leader and everyone on my server (Chaos) knew me. The problem with me is that I have an addictive personality. I play a game until I get bored of it or beat it. In Shadowbane, you can just keep getting better. There is no 'end-game' since there's always more people to kill and cities to crush. My life began to revolve around bane times. I would set my alarms for 6am banes and skip classes if the banes went too long. Being a guild leader takes an enormous amount of time in and out of game - it's a full-time job with no pay and no benefits other than personal satisfaction and virtual respect.
I've since quit Shadowbane three times.. and come back to it three times on different servers.. Chaos, Mourning, and Wrath. Every time, I started off with an hour or two a day until I accumulated more and more in game responsibility until I found all my time was taken and I started failing classes.
The last time I quit, I swore to my friends it would be the last time I would have to quit. Ya, I have very fond memories... Once, we had our entire guild show up at 5:45am for a bane on a work day. Once, our guild managed to defend our city against 60 with our 27. Once, I had 13 killshots at a bane. Twice, I led enormous 'zerg' armies of multiple guilds in the huge Chaos Server wars - multiple teamspeak/ventrilo servers, hopping from each, once in victory and once in defeat. Once, we successfully claimed a mine with our spec group of 10 (dorf holy group with one druid (me)) while we had one guild of 20 and three other guilds of 10-15 all trying for it.
But, this was all at the expense of my real life. My friends worried about me - and that depressed me. I like to lead - I can't afford to play an mmorpg and lose stance in real life.
I think I found the problem for me (and for others with addictive personalities or perfectionists) with MMORPGs - YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM. They never end. They have infinite entertainment and more is always added. No matter how much you play, the community is full of people that play more often than you. It makes you feel like it's okay to play 12 hours/day when the other people in your Teamspeak are there all day with you.
So for now, I must stick with single-player games and RPGs. Ya, I might've played Half Life 2 for 8 hours/day when it came out.. But then it was over in two days. That's a good thing, in my book.
And, btw, the pvp in WOW cannot compare to the PVP in Shadowbane until they make the WOW characters more customizable, more varied, and more defined in their roles. Oh ya, lack of buildable assets hardly puts any emotion behind the pvp.
CLIFF NOTES:
- I got addicted to Shadowbane
- I have fond memories and believe it's a great game
- However, you cannot beat an MMORPG
- Perfectionists and those with addictive personalities (like me) should not play an MMORPG
- Shadowbane is still the best pvp mmorpg hands-down.
I started playing Shadowbane a month or two after release after I saw my brother selling his farmed gold online at a rate of about $20/hour (impossible now). And, I got hooked on it. The community was amazing. The graphics sucked, the game was buggy, there wasn't much content - but it all kept improving.
But then, I got hooked on it and played it for a ridiculous amount of time. I got very good at PVP and started dominating. Then I became a guild leader and everyone on my server (Chaos) knew me. The problem with me is that I have an addictive personality. I play a game until I get bored of it or beat it. In Shadowbane, you can just keep getting better. There is no 'end-game' since there's always more people to kill and cities to crush. My life began to revolve around bane times. I would set my alarms for 6am banes and skip classes if the banes went too long. Being a guild leader takes an enormous amount of time in and out of game - it's a full-time job with no pay and no benefits other than personal satisfaction and virtual respect.
I've since quit Shadowbane three times.. and come back to it three times on different servers.. Chaos, Mourning, and Wrath. Every time, I started off with an hour or two a day until I accumulated more and more in game responsibility until I found all my time was taken and I started failing classes.
The last time I quit, I swore to my friends it would be the last time I would have to quit. Ya, I have very fond memories... Once, we had our entire guild show up at 5:45am for a bane on a work day. Once, our guild managed to defend our city against 60 with our 27. Once, I had 13 killshots at a bane. Twice, I led enormous 'zerg' armies of multiple guilds in the huge Chaos Server wars - multiple teamspeak/ventrilo servers, hopping from each, once in victory and once in defeat. Once, we successfully claimed a mine with our spec group of 10 (dorf holy group with one druid (me)) while we had one guild of 20 and three other guilds of 10-15 all trying for it.
But, this was all at the expense of my real life. My friends worried about me - and that depressed me. I like to lead - I can't afford to play an mmorpg and lose stance in real life.
I think I found the problem for me (and for others with addictive personalities or perfectionists) with MMORPGs - YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM. They never end. They have infinite entertainment and more is always added. No matter how much you play, the community is full of people that play more often than you. It makes you feel like it's okay to play 12 hours/day when the other people in your Teamspeak are there all day with you.
So for now, I must stick with single-player games and RPGs. Ya, I might've played Half Life 2 for 8 hours/day when it came out.. But then it was over in two days. That's a good thing, in my book.
And, btw, the pvp in WOW cannot compare to the PVP in Shadowbane until they make the WOW characters more customizable, more varied, and more defined in their roles. Oh ya, lack of buildable assets hardly puts any emotion behind the pvp.
CLIFF NOTES:
- I got addicted to Shadowbane
- I have fond memories and believe it's a great game
- However, you cannot beat an MMORPG
- Perfectionists and those with addictive personalities (like me) should not play an MMORPG
- Shadowbane is still the best pvp mmorpg hands-down.
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