I used to play WoW, then quit because I kinda got bored with it. A few months ago I was downloading a 7-day free trial of it and my wife had a fit, saying it was not a 'good' game or something. So, to keep the peace I obviously deleted it off of my pc, lol.
Peace with wife >>> video games. It's simple math. You made the right call, sir.
Getting back on topic, there are only two video games I've ever been able to convince my wife to play and that is the Bust-A-Move series of games and more recently Carcassone, which is an actual board game that has been made into a video game on the xbox 360 but plays exactly like the actual board game; oh, I almost forgot, she has played Bejewelled in long times past also.
My wife played Snood (which is a Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move clone) years ago, so maybe I should try to find a cheap or free multiplayer Puzzle Bobble game to try out with her.
Any 360 titles are right out since we don't own a 360 and have no intention of ever owning a 360. Now if it's also available for the PS3 and we end up buying a PS3 this Christmas, then I'd definitely consider it.
Heheh. I actually enjoyed playing WoW with him. But the $30/mo for both of us to play PLUS the amount of time that goes into it...just not the best option.
Not only that, but if we decided to play long term, we'd have to drop $140 for 2 copies of 2 expansions (Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King) plus twice whatever Cataclysm is going to cost. No thanks.
He's really thinking about resubbing for a month Cataclysm, so I imagine I'll resub when he does.
That's the plan. Visit for 30 days, check out the changes in Azeroth, visit a few guilds to say hello, and say farewell again when 30 days are over.
But we can't really do it very seriously or long-term.
/agree
And even if I could, I wouldn't want to. I have what I call MMOADD: MMO games get rather boring rather quickly. I've played too many great games in my time to just settle in to one. I already play Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Unreal Tournament 3, and StarCraft II on a regular basis on the PC. (That's not counting any handheld or console games or other PC games.) Tacking on a timesink like WoW for the long-term just isn't reasonable. There's only 24 hours in a day and I can't spend them all playing games.
What about DDO then? Since it's now free to play?
We tried it. I liked it. I think I could convince Ember to give it another shot, but, again, I'd rather stay away from MMOs. I already play too many other games to play a MMO and progress at an average rate.
My wife and I have been married for 4.5 years, and have never really made more than $17k per year, and we have 2 kids...and the $30/month for an MMO has never really been a problem for us...but then again...we don't have TV, house phone, or much else other than Car loans, rent, utilities, and internet...
We haven't had any cable TV since moving into our house and we didn't have anything above what the apartment complex provided for "free" (i.e. tucked into the rent total) when we lived in an apartment. We watch so few American TV shows and those few shows are all on Hulu.
At first we thought it was rough to pay $30/month just to play a game...but then we broke it down... It's best not to look at it together like that...but to look at it like this... Most people that do not play MMOs and are avid gamers buy a least one game a month, or one game every 2 months...that is $60...per person...every 2 months...if you were doing this for 2 people that would be $60 a month ($30/month/person)...so really MMOs are cheaper... Not only that...but when you really look at it...you are spending $15/month to play a game that constantly updates...and he is paying $15/month to play a game that constantly updates... Adding it together always makes it look bad...
I agree that $30 a month is a reasonable price for the amount of time two average WoW players spend playing the game--but I don't think my wife and I would be average players.
The issue isn't so much the $30 per month price point--it's that, in order to get our $30 worth each month, we'd have to disrupt our schedules. I enjoy Tribe of Judah's TF2, L4D2, UT3, and SC2 weekly game events and I don't plan on quitting those. Adding a few nights of WoW to that schedule has me spending too much time playing games.
Whatever games my wife and I play together (with the exception of 30 days of WoW) should allow the player to play casually and still have fun. I can either play 30 minutes of WoW and accomplish next to nothing or I can play 1 or 2 matches of StarCraft II. It's a simple matter of fun:time ratio and it's one of the main reasons that I quit MMORPGs years ago.
For those who play WoW and no other games or maybe only one other game, then yes, it makes sense. For someone who already plays four other games regularly, it doesn't make sense. Not in the long-term.
EDIT: It's worth mentioning that Soma Bringer, one of our favorite games we've played together, incorporated elements found in WoW and many other MMOs: character classes, leveling, earning skill points as you level, allocating skill points to branching skill trees to unlock new abilities, loot drops, weapon and armor tiers designated by text color, damage per second ratings, and so on. Soma Bringer took classic RPG elements, combined it with fun and fast-paced real-time combat, and added essential touches (like Soma Gates, which are items that allow you to instantly teleport back to town--and then back to where you dropped the Gate). Basically, it felt like a 2-player MMORPG without all the cruft (e.g. trade chat, running for 10 minutes to get anywhere, boring combat, gnomes in their underwear dancing on mailboxes, Chuck Norris jokes, beggars, etc.).
TL;DR: MMORPGs are right out for a number of good reasons, but action RPGs still rock.
I'm still perplexed as to why there aren't more games like Soma Bringer and why (WHY?) Nintendo decided to pass on localizing and publishing the game in the US.