Our home access to the internet died a while ago, and once the company fixed it, it died again a short while later. We wound up with no internet access for about 3 weeks total. (Of course we’re not getting our money back for that time, even though the errors were entirely the company’s fault. Go, go subscription service business model!) At first, it was an annoyance, but it did coincide with my dwindling interest in MMOs, so we really only lost out on email access and bloggish stuff. More than once, my wife noted that she wasn’t as bothered by the loss as she thought she would be, and that she actually kind of liked it. (Facebook detox can be rough, but it’s worth it.) I concurred.
During this time, I dived into some offline games I’ve been meaning to pick up, namely Final Fantasy 12, Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume and Disgaea. I have thoroughly enjoyed them, and I’m more annoyed than ever that I have to check in via internet to play some games that I own. (Even my beloved Guild Wars could and should have an offline mode.)
Specifically, when my daughter wanted to play World of Goo and Audiosurf (her favorites), she couldn’t, because I got them via Steam, and while we were offline, Steam wouldn’t cooperate. Yes, there’s an offline mode for Steam, but we happened to be behind the curve on updating the client (thanks to being offline), so it refused to start up, even in offline mode, because it wanted to be updated first. This was deeply annoying, and I’ve made it a practice to leave Steam in offline mode as a result. As it happens, even that doesn’t help, though, since *any* connection to the internet lets Steam do a little backdoor checking (even in offline mode), and if it needs an update to the client, it refuses to work until you restart it in online mode and update it.
This ticks me off.
A lot.
And honestly, how fantastic is that deal when I’ve got to pony up almost $50/month for internet access just so I can play a game that functions perfectly without the internet? I just have to verify that I’m a legitimate customer and get permission to play. …for a game that I paid for. That doesn’t need the frikkin’ internet. Seriously, this isn’t exactly DRM, but it’s pissing me off almost as much. I’m no pirate, but I sympathize emotionally with those looking for CD hacks or private self-hosted in-house WoW server tech.
Good Old Games does it right. No DRM, no hassle, no checking in, old games reworked to function on new machines “out of the box”. Valve might make impressive games, but Steam stinks.
Back to MMOs, though, I’ve argued strenuously against the subscription model before, and will probably do so again, because it doesn’t offer me good value. I don’t doubt that it’s good for some people, but it’s not good enough for me. There isn’t enough “value added” to these MMO things to make it worth the aggravation and costs, and that’s just to actually play the blasted things. Never mind all the idiots that are online that make gaming a pain oft times anyway (LFG IQ>72, PST). Or the weak storytelling and stupid treadmill design. Or the atrocious time sinks that they have to be to keep people paying for underwhelming design so that they can pay back the investor sharks who thought they could get in on the next WoW cash cow.
So yes, I’m happy to be gaming offline again. I’ve discovered an interest in tabletop Warhammer and Battletech (though it’s stupidly expensive for those dumb little plastic miniatures and paints so I’m not buying in, I’m digging into the rulebooks and finding all sorts of interesting game design… I’ll make my own minis if it comes to that, thanks). I’m working on my own games more (and the illustrations for my mother’s book). I’m having more fun with my family. And when I do play video games, I play on the DS more often than not, and the liberating freedom of being away from the internet permission overlords (and the desk!) is refreshing. It helps that the DS has a lot of good tactical RPG games. Disgaea is the latest one I’ve been playing, and there are a lot of good ideas in that game.
So when I see something like this, complaining that StarCraft 2 will not have LAN play and is toying with DRM, I shake my head, and go dig up some of my Good Old Games (OK, mostly in boxes on CD, but some from GOG that I never have to bother them for past the initial purchase and download) or just work on the Bee Hive board game that I’m making with my daughter. I’ve lost touch with internet gaming, and while I agree that aspects of the battle.net revamp and lack of LAN are exceedingly stupid, and has likely cost them my patronage (even though I loved StarCraft and played it a ton), I doubt that Blizzard cares about that loss.
So I think to myself, why should I care either?
Aion, WoW Cataclysm, SWTOR, EVE, Jumpgate Evolution, Star Trek Online, Guild Wars (even the sequel, despite how awesome it looks), Puzzle Pirates, Wizard 101… it’s all just so much static now (even the games I love on that list). And you know… it’s nice, tuning it all out for a bit. There are still things about those that interest me as a cog in the gaming machine (I work in the field, so it’s good to keep up to date), but as a gamer… not as much as they once did. Oddly enough, they would interest me a LOT more if they were offline games, especially SWTOR, Cataclysm, GW2 and EVE. (I do love Privateer and Freelancer.) They just don’t offer me enough value in their “onlineness” to make them worth getting riled up too much about or feel like paying a sub for.
Will that change what I write about here? And how often? Probably. I never said this was just a place about MMOs, that’s just what I’ve written about so far (more or less). I think I have some interesting things to say still about game design (board, card and digital) and art (traditional, digital and photography), so that’s probably what I’ll get into a bit more. If I do get into Cataclysm as a result of the Arthas contest, I’ll probably have fun with it for that month, and I really do want to look around at the world changes (and take pictures, lots of pictures) and write up a few articles about the experience (not unlike the Death Knight articles), but I’m certainly not signing in for a long haul. Though Blizzard, if you do make an offline “Old Azeroth” retail box, I promise to buy at least one. It’s the perfect time to do something like that, after the Cataclysm… there’s a strong nostalgia streak out there.
You could call it “burnout” if you want, but I take a critical look at the genre as a whole, and just don’t see that it offers me anything that I want enough to put up with the aggravation or the costs of playing online. Perhaps it never really did (I never did dive into WoW even when I first played it years ago), and it just took a bit more experimentation to confirm that. It should probably be noted that for the duration of this blog, I’ve never been all that happy with the status quo. This isn’t really all that radical of a mindset shift, it’s just… shifting gears a bit.
And y’know… it feels like a weight is off my shoulders. I wish current and future MMO players and devs well, to be sure. I’ll certainly play W101 a bit here and there (yay, Access Pass business model!), maybe dabble in DDO, and will probably pick up GW2 when it goes on sale in 2012, so it’s not like I’m /ragequitting the whole shebang. It’s just time for something else for me, at least as a major focus of what I do around here, at least for now.
Maybe more pretty painted pictures. 
One of the things I have been looking forward to for so long is getting back into console/offline gaming. It has been far too long for me to really enjoy offline gaming, and I think this fall is really going to help me get back to it.
Yes, Champions Online is amazing so far. And yes, I might even be able to get my non-gamer fiancée an account eventually. But with work amping up and my wedding, a night of Bioshock 2, Mario Kart Wii, Beatles Rockband, or a DS Castlevania game to unwind sounds a lot more enjoyable than struggling with LFG and guild drama. That, and my fiancée is much more likely to play a console game with me than a PC game with me and “massive” amounts of other people, my gaming habits might find themselves regressing back to what made me love gaming to begin with.
I feel ya, Tesh.
These silly launchers just tick me off. Impulse, Steam, NCsoft Launcher – needed to update your games, needed to update themselves, needed to run the game.
I buy only games that are exclusively available on Steam there. I wonder how Aion works if bought over Steam: Launch Steam, which launches the NCsoftLauncher to launch Aion?
There are certain Captain Picard /facepalm pics on the Internet. Feel free to imagine a similar image now.
Very interesting.
I think that in the long term I really value playing online. The shame and glory of it, the competitiveness, the chance to be clever against/for other players.
But I certainly think it’s good to tune out, as you’ve found. And it’s something I’ve not done for a while.
I think after my current obsession with Eve fades I might follow your lead and play something offline. Particularly if Diablo 3 is out.
Avowed soloer learns that the games he enjoys don’t need to be online — Film at 11!
*chuckle*
Soon to be followed by an exclusive report on where the sun will rise in the morning.
Note that I may well like several MMOs as offline games. It’s not like I’m saying that the actual *game design* of these things isn’t interesting, just the onlineness of them. I don’t see that they are really taking advantage of the benefits of being online. And with the Steam example, these idiot companies are taking the *worst* parts of onlineness and imposing them on offline games. It’s like the industry is regressing, and that makes me a bit, well… grumpy.
To be honest, playing Champions solo has been pretty fun for me. Playing EVE solo, even though I’m in a corp, has been fun as well (though mining in a ship that can’t tank is … adventuresome in lo-sec space, but meh). I mix in console gaming now though to break it up and I’ve been happy. I stopped raiding in WoW (might try again when ICC comes out, but not sure on Cataclysm) and have been having fun just playing on my own schedule.
Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with soloing in these MMO things. I guess I’m just also feeling more than a little peeved at the Steam thing, and more than a lot peeved that SWTOR will be an online game, among other little things like my overall disgust with the inanity of the MMO genre. KOTOR was great, and I’ve been waiting for a great sequel, but now they are going online with it. I *really* don’t like the trend of games going online. (Especially if I’m going to be stuck offline in the land of inane Gears of War and Bioshock sequels.)
It just feels like the bandwagon effect more than anything, rather than anyone stepping up and really trying to take advantage of the unique facets of the medium. (Really, how many WoW clones and stupid treadmills do we need? Where are the dynamic, interesting, *living* worlds that these MMO things *could* be? Where is my dang Harvest Moon Online already, complete with a great economy?) Not only is that bad business, but it screws over those who don’t have the internet but would otherwise exhibit brand loyalty. It’s similar to the backlash against DRM; the businessweasels try to find ways to get players paying more, rather than just making quality games at great prices and trusting in that to bring in the money.
(I had a similar initial reaction to WoW, now that I think about it. I loved the Warcraft games and Starcraft, but that WoW was online ticked me off to no end. I saw no good reason for it, and in many ways, I still don’t.)
Steam is an interesting case. The question you need to answer: Does the benefit of cheap games and being able to download and play anywhere outweigh the annoyances of having the online connection requirement? I’ve used Steam to pick up a few cheaper games (just got Braid this weekend, finally) so I’m fine. Would I pay $60 for a new release game on Steam? No. If my internet barfs for a few weeks, I still have plenty of other games to occupy my time (even if I should be working on my own stuff).
Tesh wrote:
Where are the dynamic, interesting, *living* worlds that these MMO things *could* be?
Crushed under the masses running to play WoW one more time before the cataclysm hits? Sitting ignored in a corner because it’s not pretty enough or even “MMO enough” for some people?
[J]ust making quality games at great prices and trusting in that to bring in the money.
Except that doesn’t work; just ask Looking Glass. Not that all their problems were due to piracy, but you can’t just make awesome, innovative, genre-defining games and expect the magical money fairy to come visit you for being so wonderful. You sometimes have to stack the deck in your favor with DRM or online activation. Most of us here probably spend a lot of money buying a bunch of games, but the sad reality is that there are a fair amount of people out there that won’t pay unless essentially forced to.
Honestly? Steam is a success at this point. Expect more of this type of system in the future. Hope your internet doesn’t crap out.
Find us a publisher and dev team to work with and I’d gladly design HM:O with you, Tesh
@Psycho: At what point does the revolution begin though. It has to start somewhere and it may take a few failures, but where do you find the people with the money to believe in that though?
The industry is in SERIOUS need of innovation; people who can see outside the WoW money-box, but the people with the money are too stupid to realize that NO game will be like WoW except for WoW. You can make a WoW clone and it may do ok, but it will never be WoW. The only thing that will kill WoW will be WoW itself, or Blizzard’s next MMO.
I just don’t understand why people don’t step up to incite the revolution. I realize money is a big deal, but material things should be able to be worked around. I would hope so anyway. Is every indie development studio just in the industry to be the next WoW?
[...] by my previous rant and Tesh’s subsequent rant (if he classifies it as [...]
Guild Wars 2 has to bear a lot of weight on its shoulder. IMO it is the last straw not only for you when it comes to online gaming.
MMORPG – heck, everything is a MMORPG nowdays!
You are right, there is fun in single player games, and not every freaking game needs to be a goddamn MMO recycling some stone old MMO formulas.
So yeah, I hope Guild Wars 2 does it right. Guild Wars 1 kept me entertained for years. But at the moment people are cheering at false prophets.
Aion is basically delivering Lineage 2 to a western audience and calling the korean MMO design principles suddenly PvPvE.
Which means PvP with a lot of grind, even if they tuned it down for westerners.
And well, even if Blizzard re-launches WoW with Cataclysm. I honestly cannot be arsed to play WoW again.
[...] Professor Layton and the Curious Offline Experience Tesh wrote this week about how losing internet access for three weeks nudged him into playing more offline games and breaking the online umbilical cord. [...]
Tesh, I’m definitely in your corner on this one. I’m at the point right now where my free time for games has gone down drastically (more me reprioritizing what to do with my time than actually losing it), but I’ve invested so much into WoW over the past year that it’s hard to let go. WoW is…comfortable. I don’t know how else to put it.
I’m liking some of the solo+ games on my iPod touch though…where it’s mostly a solo game, but there’s still limited interaction with other players. Anyone remember the old BBS games like that? (Legend of the Red Dragon, anyone?)
It’s funny for me reading this article but I’m in the process of moving flat and am having trouble getting an internet connection set up in the new place – everything just seems to take forever and the tech support are totally uninterested. I’m sure (I hope) I get it sorted before we properly move in but has brought to my attention my reliance on the internet.
It’s strange because I’m feeling very nervous about the possibility of not having an internet connection and, in a way, that annoys me the most. I don’t want to be dependant on anything especially not some silly box of electronics.
Half of me hates even the idea of being without a computer or the internet yet the other half of me just wants to be rid of it all and go live in a hut in the middle of the woods.
I think you are realizing how much of MMO play is habitual. We log on not so much to accomplish goals or enjoy engaging play but because its relaxing and familiar, and quickly becomes a habit. But when its gone you don’t miss it as much, because there was no positive reasons beyond that.
The DS is such a great little system though, isn’t it? If you haven’t, please pickup Hotel Dusk for it. It’s a wonderful point and click style adventure. They also even have roguelikes and wizardry-style dungeon crawls: Azuna the unemployed ninja for the former, Etrian Odyssey and the Dark Spire for the latter.
Interesting to hear you are into Battletech, I played early on in high school the classic game. That would be a great MMO. I used to play light recon mechs for the Eridani Light Horse and would love to do that in a lance.
Mmm… Battletech MMO. We’ve talked about that more than once around here. I’d love to make a crazy hybrid of BT and Steampunk, just for another spin on things.
But yes, it seems that modern MMO design is all about habit. The sub model banks on that, and actively fosters habitual behavior to maintain that cashflow.
Ah, Hotel Dusk, right! I loved the Phoenix Wright games, and heard that would be a nice tangential game to explore. Thanks for reminding me.
Thanks for the comments, guys. Like I wrote, I’m not ragequitting, and I don’t have any real antipathy towards the games, I just find online gaming itself to be shallow and hollow. There’s potential there, but when it’s not realized, yes, I’d rather go up in the mountains and take photos with my family, and when the itch strikes, pull out the DS for some sweet *short session* gaming. *shrug*
[...] Tesch posted a very interesting article entitled “Cutting the Umbilical” with the umbilical referring to, as you’ve no doubt guessed, the Internet. Apart from [...]
I just realized that before I move living spaces, the things I always make sure I have turned on before I even move in are Power, Gas (if necessary) and internet. Not even TV, just internet. Weird… Perhaps I need to institute a “non-internet” day where no one in the household uses the net for that day.
If that’s weird, I’m weird, too. That’s not really news, though.
I don’t pay for TV; it’s another subscription service that I wouldn’t get good value out of, and 99% of TV these days is trash anyway. As I noted over at Gordon’s Spitfire blog, the internet is my information portal of choice, but not my entertainment portal of choice. It’s nice to have hooked up and good to go… but it’s not really necessary. A day off from the ‘net would be a good way to keep perspective.
Yea I’m contemplating ditching cable and just watching Hulu for the shows I like and using my tv for console action / Bluray
[...] play. There are no patches, no permissions, no waiting for the Dungeon Finder to work its magic. That freedom can be good for the soul, even if it’s just a periodic thing, another tool in the toolbox of the larger world of [...]