I was reading Tipa's entry on the Sony debacle and it got me thinking; if the PSN system has been down for so long, what happens to the gamers, in particular the mmo gamers? Unlike other console games, where if they were for some reason prevented from playing a certain game, they would put in another game and play that in the meanwhile. An mmo gamer is typically different, are they not? Some people have a huge stable of games they play per fellow bloggers like Tipa. Most of them I notice though, all require internet connection. Similar to my entries on Steam, if you don't have internet connection, or Steam is down, you can't get access to your game even if you just want to play single player.
If you lose access to all your games for such a long time (2+ weeks now?), what do you think will happen to your interest? Will it increase exponentially making you crave it even more and have a binge-fest when its available again? Or will your interest drop as you find different things to occupy your time? What would you do if your favorite form of entertainment was unavailable to you for a long time period?
Rift is my main and only game at this time; a week before it came out, I had upgraded my pc, ram, video card and operating system. I enjoyed the smoothness of Borderlands, liked how L4D2 didn't crash constantly, and was pleased as punch that Dungeons (by Kalypso) would actually load the map! But then came Rift and that changed.
I generally spend 'a bit' of time every day of Rift and just like the other day's thought.. i wondered what would happen if I stopped Rift, what would I do? I know i'd spend more time on msn talking to the gf instead. I'd be on Steam looking for new upcoming games. I'd spend more time taking photos and touching them up on Lightroom or Photoshop. I may do more research on Guild Wars 2, but heres the catch, I think my interest in mmo's would fade; ever since the days of UO, Shadowbane, etc has mmo's been at the top of my interest. Nothing is more rewarding or fun. And now, I don't think i'd return to one if I ended Rift. There is a fantastic community aspect to mmo's which I truly enjoy, but there is a boatload of upcoming games that need to be experienced. And with each iteration/generation (?) of game, the quality increases to a very interesting level; never one to play first person shooters, I fell in love with Borderlands and enjoyed the freshness of Left for Dead. Feeling nostalgic, I got Dungeons. Hoping for the best, I look forward to Diablo 3, Dungeon Seige 3 and Heroes 6. Fallout 3 and New Vegas brought rpgs to a new level of detail, graphics and story that had me at 100+ hrs played and was forced to stop due to bugs (which reminds me of another game to go back to).
If your game system was inoperable for an extended period of time, what do you think you'll do instead?
