MMO Tropes: The Time Sink
It would appear that one of the reasons potential new players avoid the MMORPG genre is due to the perception that they are all time sinks. I wouldn’t argue against this assumption because the reality is that it’s true. However any game that you enjoy, irrespective of genre, can become a time sink. That being said, the main difference between other genres and MMOs is as follows. A new player can jump straight into a FPS game and within minutes enjoy some multiplayer action, whereas in an MMO, a new player has to play through a tutorial and several hours of a starter zone before they start making headway in the game. This distinction does not have to be a deal breaker. An FPS can provide a quick fix of gaming and as such fulfils a need. MMORPGs can provide long term entertainment which scratches an ongoing gaming itch. Both are valid ways to enjoy gaming.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I do want to talk about the time I have “invested” into two specific MMORPGs. That investment, or commitment if you prefer, is no small beer. It is a substantial period of time that I could have spent on other leisure activities. Or even non leisure activities, perish the thought. My spare time is possibly one of the most sought after commodities I possess, judging by the amount of businesses, organisations and bodies that pursue it. Hence, I don’t consider spending so much time on MMOs to be something arbitrary. It is a considered choice, one that I constantly review to ensure it is still proving to be satisfactory. The fact that I am still spending time regularly on these two games and enjoying them, validates the overall investment.
I have been playing The Lord of the Rings Online since December 2008. As of 18th November 2024, I have invested 7 months 1 week 6 days 1 hour 7 minutes 28 seconds into my primary character,a human Lore-master. That is 5426 hours. I have two other alts but they have a negligible amount of time spent on them. No more than a dozen or so hours each. Similarly, I have played Star Trek Online since its launch in 2010. However, I have created several alts and really didn’t start playing this MMO seriously until 2013 when the first major expansion was released and a lot of the game’s problems were resolved. My primary character, a Federation Tactical Officer has accrued to date, 72 days, 10 hours, 30 minutes, 33 seconds time investment. That is 1738 hours. Not as much as LOTRO but still a tidy sum.
The obvious question arising from this information is what else could I have done with that collective amount of time (over 7000 hours)? Well, the logical answer is lots of things. I could have learned another language during that time or taken a degree. Yet such introspection is misplaced because I don’t regret my choice. I really don’t. Some people go fishing, bake, play sport, paint lead figures, ring bells, collect stamps, plot world domination or spot trains. I play games. The time I’ve spent has always been “leisure time” and I have never played at the expense of other work or family obligations. If you crunch the numbers, out of the 15 years that have elapsed I have spent about 5% of that time playing MMOs. A similar amount of time could easily be spent watching football as millions of other people do.
Time sink is a loaded and somewhat hyperbolic term. It not only describes the chronological investment but it also infers that it is by its very nature a negative choice. Despite videos becoming a mainstream pastime, there still persists an attitude in certain quarters that they are a childish waste of time and that you’d be better served doing something “productive”. In fact I’ll go so far as to say I know people who still struggle to see the benefits of leisure time per se. They tend to be very two dimensional thinkers. I certainly do not consider investing time in a hobby, working towards goals and the associated positive social interactions as bad things. Quite the opposite. They are very good for one’s overall well being, as are the tangential activities that can arise from gaming, such as this blog. Perhaps we should retire the term time sink and replace it with something more benign like time investment or time intensive.
