
We all know those people who are in romantic relationships that aren’t happy, but one (or both!) partners refuse to leave until there’s someone new to leave with. So even though John doesn’t really like being with Marcus anymore, he’s still dating Marcus until he finds a new paramour. And as with many things, there’s a parallel here between romantic relationships and MMOs; there are many people who might be unhappy in ArcheAge or The Elder Scrolls Online or World of Warcraft, but they’re still going to keep playing until they have something else to play.
This is, of course, not universal. Some people will decide that if playing PlanetSide 2 isn’t fun any more, it’s time to stop playing PlanetSide 2, and if that means not playing any MMOs for a while, so be it. So today, we’re asking you how you tend to manage this. Do you tend to have a destination in mind when you leave an MMO, possibly sticking around longer just so you still have something? Or do you leave when you’re not having fun whether or not you have something to look forward to?

I play with my mother so the friend thing usually isn’t an issue. Having a game before leaving a game, we used to always make sure we did. Now, it’s so hard to find a tab-target mmo or even hybrid mmo that is free to play so we have been without a game for over a year. I’m still looking and hopeful though!
Sadly no. Most of the time just a general feeling of sadness, disappointment and acceptance that maybe the genre isn’t for me anymore.
Not usually. Most of the time it’s a notification about a subscription renewal charge that gets me thinking, “I can’t believe I’m paying for something I just sorta… stopped playing.”
Usually yeah. I left WoW to play some other MMOs like LoTRO and AoC. Then left those to play something else (Vanguard, TSW). For years I had the need to play so MMORPG, so when I quit one game I sought another one
Well, with over 200 games in my Steam library, dozens more (and growing) in my Epic Games library, a few dozen sitting on my bookshelf, and a myriad more as stand alone installs or other company specific clients, my destination when I stop playing one game is wherever the feels take me on that day.
Truth be told, it is rare that I completely quit a game forever. I usually rotate in and out even though there are some I am long overdue to fire up again.
Once. I knew that I was leaving EverQuest for World of Warcraft. We had beat the raid game. I had graduated. I wasn’t going to have endless hours to grind anymore. I was fed up with Sony/EQ and WoW seemed like a nice retirement.
Since then, no. The games don’t matter and won’t live up to my expectations within my lifetime, but I do tend to follow the people — friends and family, and over time I find that includes most of the people I encounter in MMOs.
As games MMORPGs suck. They always have, and they probably will continue to suck. I’m always happy to see the next big thing, but really I’m sticking around because of the rest of you people. It’s still better than playing a much better game all by my lonesome.
It seems like with the newer MMO’s I just get bored with them so easily now. Still playing a couple of old school ones though. Probably because of the older mature communities in them.
mmos actually make up a pretty small portion of my overall free time spent on videogames so not really since theres always something im into anyway.
There’s always the “backlog”
I own so many single-player games
Not really, no. I’ve only ever played three MMO games, LOTRO, Guild Wars 1, and ESO. I left LOTRO after I got bored, and it was years before I played and beat GW, then years before I started ESO. Only reason I started that was because it’s Elder Scrolls. Only reason I stopped was because my computer broke, and I can’t afford to get it fixed. I still intend to play ESO, once my financial situation changes. I haven’t gotten bored with ESO yet, but I probably will one day, and I won’t have any MMO in mind to play afterwards. I mostly play single player games, and I have a huge backlog, so I’d be playing through that.