Stop right there. I know you’re about to object and say that you don’t do resolutions, let alone MMO resolutions. That’s fine. A lot of us don’t do resolutions either. They’re not even necessarily the best way to make life changes. So consider this week’s traditional Massively Overthinking a chance to issue resolutions or just goals you have for your MMO play in 2024. I’ve asked our readers and our writers to tell me about their goals and aspirations for the new year, specific, of course, to MMOs and gaming. And then, if you want, tell us whether you pulled off your goals from 2023 too!
​Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): My first goal is to have my new laptop set up before the end of January! My current one’s not dead yet, but most modern, traditional MMOs make it blackout, poor thing.
Then I wanna hit something that isn’t just pixel graphics. No offense to the games I enjoy that use them, but between mobile titles and VR (yes, I fired it up a few times this year), my Switch weirdly had the best game graphics in my library this year, not including crossover titles like Palia. Maybe I’ll finally be able to try Baldur’s Gate 3!
And finally, I wanna be at least a bit more active in my non-friend groups this year. 2023 was rough, and I had to take care of a lot of personal issues, but I know I neglected some e-friends (and game friends I sometimes see around town).
Andy McAdams:Â I think my goal for this year is to be less cynical about gaming. There’s a whole lot crappy stuff happening in gaming, But there’s also just as much, if not more, amazing stuff happening in gaming too. It’s really easy to get hyper-focused on the negatives and ignore the good things. This doesn’t mean I want to ignore all the crappy stuff going on, but maybe more of an optimistic pragmatist, instead of a pessimistic pragmatist. This last year has felt like lots of folks had a glass-half-empty kinda view, and maybe it would be cool to have a glass-half-full kind year.
Maybe I’ll try to play some mobile games this year? All this talk from Sam about the Harry Potter mobile game has me curious, and there are a few others that might be worth it to check out. I have such a negative opinion of mobile gaming that I tend to ignore all of it – the good and the bad – and that’s not really helping anyone, least of all me. So maybe I force myself to actually try a couple mobile games? Who knows, could be fun!
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): Last year I resolved to get to cap in Lord of the Rings Online. I didn’t pull it off – I always get distracted by other MMOs and even by other characters and content in LOTRO itself, which I’m not mad about since that was all fun too – but I got pretty close and played a ton of the game this year. I’d like to finish it off in 2024, and I’m also hungry to make more progress in Project Gorgon, which was my surprise new MMO of the year (new to my investing lots of time into it, that is). I’d like to get back into City of Heroes with my kids this year; they’re a bit older, and I think it might stick better with them now than it did when the game was revived (almost) four years back. And finally, I need to come to a decision about my play in SWG Legends; in 2023, I didn’t do much more than bare-minimum maintenance on my shops there, and I know I’d turned it into a chore. I must sort out how to salvage my relationship with it and figure out how to play it without doing that to myself again.
Carlo Lacsina (@UltraMudkipEX, YouTube, Twitch): For this year, I want to become a better MMO writer. That means two things: get back to writing about MMOs on the regular, and going deeper into the MMOa I write about. I didn’t do much writing this year because of some pretty big life changes and growing responsibilities in my career. (I went from going home at 3:30 p.m. 6:30 p.m.) This year was a tough year for me to just sit down, game, and write about the games I play. With my daughter getting a little older now and my having a smidge more free time, I might just be able to squeeze in more writing and gaming in the upcoming year.
My second resolution goes hand-in-hand with my first: expand the things I write about. I play MMOs mainly for the combat, but lately, I’ve been exploring things I’d never touch like housing, gardening, and crafting. I’d like to actually do some more writing about those topics in both my Asian MMO column and BDO column.
Finally, I’d like to start playing at least one new MMO. I’m talking about one that comes out in 2024. Most of the games I play are from 2016 and earlier. Bree and Tyler convinced me to give New World a shot, so I’ve been giving it a try recently. Here’s to hoping I stick to it long enough to write about more in depth things about it!
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog):Â I’m hoping that I can find another survival sandbox that I really can get stuck in to. My time digging through Craftopia showed that there are games like this possible, so I feel like it’s worth the attempt. I’m also going to continue to try and find a sandbox MMORPG that speaks to me, particularly in light of the fact that Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen just isn’t going to happen. This resolution is a bit harder to complete, I contend, and is kind of like the one I made last year (or was it a couple of years ago), but again I’d like to find a living world.
Finally, I want to get more behind VR gaming again; it’s clear this isn’t the revolution techbros wanted, but it’s still such a neat platform that deserves attention, so I want to write about that more as well as maybe try and stream that experience.
Colin Henry (@ChaosConstant): For the last couple of years I’ve been in a bit of a rut in terms of MMOs, with Guild Wars 2 of course being my home game, and most of my other gaming time split between The Lord of the Rings Online and The Elder Scrolls Online. There’s nothing wrong with comfortable, but in 2024 I want to branch out a little more and experience some things that I haven’t before. I’m kind of tired of the action combat that pervades our genre these days, so first on my list is Final Fantasy XIV. I’ve tried the free trial (insert meme here) a couple of times before and it never really clicked with me, but maybe the third time is a charm. I would also like to get back to New World, as the word of mouth on the new expansion has been strong. After that, who knows.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): There are some loose goals that I have for specific MMOs that I’d like to do this year, mostly in the category of “finish up the main storyline/content through to the end.” Catching up once again in LOTRO, or finally seeing SWTOR’s tale to its current conclusion, or wrapping up all of ESO’s zone content would be in this category. I’d also like to branch out of my comfort games to get comfortable with some other titles, whether they be older ones that I never quite cracked into or some newer ones on the scene. I can’t get too far into a rut here.
But what I’ve been taking to these past few years is a theme for the year rather than specific tasks. And for MMOs, my theme for 2024 is “simple joys.” I don’t want to play under pressure. I want to have fun at whatever pace, at whatever direction that I’m engaging. I want to find and delight in the simple joys, whether they be making a new friend, seeing a beautiful in-game vista, or finally connecting with that class I’d been avoiding for so long.
Mia DeSanzo (@neschria): I just want to make time for MMOs. Without getting into it and sounding like I am throwing myself a New Year pity party, the last couple of years have been physically difficult for me, which naturally takes a mental toll as well. It’s time to have some fun for a change.
My youngest kiddo will turn 9 soon. He came in to see I had Black Desert running on my laptop and had many questions. I let him play a little, and he was digging it. I may see if I can steer him toward some older games that will run on his hand-me-down laptop that’s as old as he is.
Oh, and as always, I swear this is going to be the year I get my mom to try an MMO. And then I will set my sights on getting my husband to play too.
MJ Guthrie (@MJ_Guthrie, blog): I noticed that my resolutions last year were 2-3 times longer than everyone else’s, so my first resolution is to keep it brief(er). How did my goals go this past year?
- Laptop fixed: Nope
- Play Party Animals: Heckin’ yah! And it has been a blast!
- Play one new game on any platform per month: It’s not from my previously owned list, but I played Placid Plastic Duck Simulator. So 1/12? If we can count the AdventureQuest Worlds Infinity playtest I was allowed in, then we can bump that up to two!
- Check out or revisit at least one game from our MOP gaming list per month, likely on stream (If it wasn’t on list, it was a game covered): Yes! Thanks to Backseat Streaming and holiday events on top of new games and free weekends, I achieved a 12/12 completion rate. Luckily, I didn’t say “play” or the Backseat Streaming ones wouldn’t count!
- Play Stray and Skyrim: Nope, and nope.
- Play sessions with kids: Two out of three (I didn’t play computer games with munchkin; we played with building sets instead.)
In total, I succeeded in basically half of my goals. Honestly, that isn’t too bad of a rate! I’ll take it, especially after how hard this year was for me, healthwise and otherwise. Now, on to the new year. My new goals for 2024:
- Repeat attempt: To check out at least one unplayed game currently on my Steam/Epic/GOG list per month.
- Repeat attempt: Play Stray
- Third attempt! Play Skyrim
- Play Baldur’s Gate 3
- Learn to play games with my new controller! I am going to attempt Party Animals, and now I can also play Headbangers and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (when it releases).
- Complete the Guild Wars 2 – scratch that, make that one-half of the – story I am missing. That means completing Heart of Thorns and Season 3. However much of Season 4 and Icebrood Saga I can get to is a bonus.
- Finally pick at least one actual Ascendancy class in Path of Exile, and narrow down which class I am going to play in Path of Exile 2.
Honestly, my main goals involve getting things in my house in order (like getting floors finished!) so I can stop stressing and actually relax and have more time to enjoy games. And I am looking forward to attending and covering any cons I can go to! I’m also hopeful that my health improves enough that I can get back to writing regularly, not just sporadically. OK, my resolutions are still long, even with a bullet list!
Sam Kash (@thesamkash): I really want to get into a traditional, desktop MMO again this year. In 2023 I basically floundered from one game to the next without any real connections. HPMA is the one exception. I’ve played it everyday since release. It’s a lot of fun but as a mobile MMO it doesn’t quite have the same vibe I get from playing something on the PC. I really like it, but it isn’t the same.
I also would still like to stream but I just can’t be consistent enough. I want to blame it a bit on the fact that I haven’t landed in a PC game in a while but it’s also just my lack of consistency in general. I know that’s what I wanted to do better in 2023 than I did in 2022, but I certainly failed at it. Maybe this year will be better.
Tyler Edwards (blog): I don’t even know what I’m going to be playing next week, let alone next year. Which, admittedly, will be one and the same by the time this is published.
Every week, join the Massively OP staff for Massively Overthinking column, a multi-writer roundtable in which we discuss the MMO industry topics du jour – and then invite you to join the fray in the comments. Overthinking it is literally the whole point. Your turn!
