More and more players are complaining that they have too little time for MMORPGs and hardly find the motivation to log in. What is the reason for this?
If you want to play an MMORPG with many successes, you primarily need one thing: plenty of time. Hours of farming, endlessly long “Attunement Quests,” or leveling professions over several weeks were long part of everyday life in the world of MMORPGs.
But on Reddit and in other social media, you often read under game news, “Who has time for that if they are not unemployed?” Others address the issue directly, saying that after a long workday, they can hardly muster the energy to log into their MMORPG. They simply lack the time to celebrate successes.
Reasons for the Lack of Time Among MMO Players
On one hand, you often hear that people have less time nowadays. This may be true, as the constant reachability through smartphones or longer working hours has increased subjective stress in many areas.
The “old target group,” the teenagers and students from back then who may have started playing an MMORPG during their school days, have now arrived in daily life with work or their own families.
At the same time, the number of high-quality entertainment options that all require time has significantly increased. With Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video, Sky, or anime streaming services, an audience is being encouraged “to watch television” again, which had previously turned away from it and associated it only with “trash TV.”
MMORPG Developers React
The developers of MMORPGs have long noticed this change and are working on solutions that have already sneaked into most games. World of Warcraft is a good example, offering numerous small “snack” tasks in the game that only take 5-30 minutes to complete.
World quests are the “mini-snacks” and dungeon runs are the somewhat longer tasks. If someone can’t log in at all but still wants to earn “a little” something, they can at least send their followers on missions through the mobile app and slowly work towards the Paragon rewards.
But WoW is not the only example. Other MMORPGs are also going this route. Naoki Yoshida of Final Fantasy XIV recently mentioned that many types of entertainment are competing for players’ dwindling free time. That’s why there are “Jump Potions” to skip content directly.
Other games, such as Black Desert, are also addressing these issues. The game allows for automated play while you’re not at the computer – you can fish, follow trade routes, or hit training dummies without being at the PC. When you are actually there, players can tackle the “important” things and play themselves.
We at MeinMMO are also noticing the changing interest of users. For example, our article “These 8 MMORPGs you can still play even if you have little time” was one of the most popular of the past year.
Core Gamers are Being Alienated – But They Are No Longer a Target Group
However, these very changes are what many “core” players, who have a lot of time (students, unemployed, etc.), are unhappy about. They want games that fill their everyday lives and can be used for leisure – for many hours every day. When MMORPGs only offer small “snacks,” they become dissatisfied.
However, this group of “core players” is likely to become smaller and thus no longer simply belong to the primary target group of MMORPGs. The vast majority of players and thus the big money can be earned with the working population, who have very little time. These players want to be provided with content that fits their reality and schedule.
Whether this is a good or bad development for gaming in general is up for debate.
What is your opinion on the transformation of existing MMORPGs? Is it good that they are redesigned for “shorter sessions”? Or does that take away the charm of these games?
