Is It Possible to Defeat the Time Sink?

[Tsubaki187]

The reason why there are time sinks in MMO is exactly what you described. For pay to play MMOs, the game needs to keep players playing and paying month after month to keep subscriptions active and turn a profit. Without time sinks and carrot on the stick type designs, pay to play games will not succeed.

What you are asking for is exactly what Guild Wars 2 is like. You are rewarded for everything you do, there are no time sinks in the general sense. There is no carrot on the stick mentality.

Keep in mind, GW2 will be released as a buy to play game, no monthly fees. It won't be advertised as an MMO that you'd spend month after month playing, simply because they don't need you to play every single month between expansions. They make their profit from initial box sales, plus a little extra from a cash shop (most likely just vanity items).

Because of this, they don't expect people to play it like pay to play MMOs. If you play for a few months, achieve everything you wanted to, then stop until the next expansion, that's fine with them. As long as you had fun during those few months they know you're likely to buy the expansion, generating more revenue for them.

So it's up to you to make the decision. Do you want to play an MMO that keeps you busy indefinitely or do you want an MMO that you can essentially "complete", put it down for a few months, then continue after an expansion releases?

This. GW is a perfect example of a game designed without time sinks. They make their money off of units sold, nothing more. So whether you play for 5 minutes or 5 months makes no difference, except for fun game design that makes you want to play. Time sinks and mind numbing grinds is not fun, so the game isn't developed around the traditional "keep them playing for as long as we can to milk money" mentality. If that's what you seek then GW2 is the answer.

In my opinion, most people want the same things in every MMO; money and end-game gear. That's all you really need. But I think people get to distracted by other things or they're to ambitious and set to many goals and end up spending more time doing things when they should just be focusing on what the really want. If you only have like 4 hours to play everyday but spent those hours on, i.e. making gil and doing primals, then I think you would be more satisfied with the progression of your character.

As long as you're paying a monthly subscription, there will always be a time sink. Just have to use your time wisely.