Quote Originally Posted by Sunarie View Post
snip
As someone who claims to be of the old-school, it's a shame that you don't understand one crucial thing about MMORPG's. They're not for everyone. The reason? It requires a certain mindset (and dare I say, devotion) to really get the full experience out of them. Once you get out of that mindset, you're no longer going to enjoy the games in the way you should. More often than not, this means doing things with friends. Mind you, this isn't exclusive to doing endgame content only. If you're rushing to the end without finding any means to enjoy the process, you're not playing as intended. If that's enough of a social interaction for some people, then that works just fine. But the moment you find it lacking, is the moment that you're no longer of the right mind for these games.

Now, I agree that the nostalgia bit is quite rose-tinted, but that's because it's how it should be. That sense of exploration can only happen so many times (typically once per game), but the mindset that you have when you played those games in the past was the right one. Most of us are all about the rush these days. You know what brings me back to the old rose-tinted sense of fun in FFXIV? Doing things with friends I've known for a long time. But wait! Is it really considered a false/vague truth (rose-tinted, nostalgia, etc) if I'm experiencing the same level of fun in a new game by doing that same activity? Furthermore, it's in something that people would consider to be nothing but a "time sink" (leveling, gathering (fishing), etc). Time sinks may not always represent the difficulty That might be something for folks to ponder.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying that people who are not in that mindset should not be playing. That's not even remotely what I'm claiming. I'm just saying that things may not be as bad as people make it out to be. If something is not enjoyable to you, maybe it's just... not for you. The time consuming aspect of something can actually be a challenge, just not one that people care for (including myself). You play MMORPG's for that sense of team work and accomplishment. The longer something takes, the better that sense of accomplishment feels. Seriously, if this applies to you in any way, think about times that you have to save up for something. Maybe you want to get a new car, but can't afford it for the next year or two of penny pinching. There's that arbitrary sense of sentiment attached to newly obtained things that take long to get. Think about how great it feels to obtain something you spent so long getting. These days, you really don't get that because it's so much faster to obtain practically everything.

People really shouldn't look so negatively on things that take long to get, challenging or not. Though something challenging is only that way once... when it's actually completed, that challenge is diminished, if not completely non-existent. It's a legit concern when it's something mandatory that takes weeks/months/years (i.e. impossible to get around to just continue playing), but there's rarely anything like that to be found these days.