2013-10-08, 04:35 AM
Dusk Wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_costs#...st_fallacy
I've quit 4 MMOs since I stopped playing MapleStory. The first time you do it, you worry about all the time you've wasted. Then eventually you realize that it's always about the journey and that the destination is only ever fun for a couple hours. Having stuff in an MMO hardly ever provides any entertainment value and doesn't increase your enjoyment at all. It's only the process of accumulating it that's rewarding.
It's funny you mention that. My friend showed me a game called Upgrade Complete where the entire point of the game is upgrading things. There's this terrible "main game" in the form of a dumb shooter but your upgrades boost the performance of your ship. The actual main appeal is getting to upgrade parts of the game to see a visible positive change in your otherwise terrible shooter. Also, you get achievements for that feeling of "completion".
So like, when you play the game, that feeling of upgrading, getting "achievements", and that sense of progression it gives you is so appealing that you keep playing. After you sink so much time into it you finally beat the game... and that was it. There was really nothing left. It is the perfect comparison to the pointlessness to many games like MapleStory: the main "game" is terrible, upgrading is fun and appealing, and in the end all that progression is completely meaningless. Then you start to wonder why such a pointless game was ever fun, especially with all that time you've spent trying to beat it.