What made you quit the game for good?

#1

For me, it was a number of small things that ultimately killed the unbridled joy I once had for the game

The sheer prevalence of discord organized runs. I miss the days of realm when a random group of people could actually complete a difficult dungeon together. I don’t want to be stuck in a discord queue for ages on end, only to be forced to listen to some pubescent teenager talk about gross shit for thirty minutes, or be subjected to god awful music. It’s also equally annoying to try to enjoy the game by yourself or with some friends, and suddenly have a horde of players join the realm that you’re in.

The change in art style, that contributed to a much more noisy and busy screen. For a pixel based bullet hell, increasing only parts of the textures to higher resolutions did not help me discern what was enemy and what was bullet.

The amount of friends leaving the game over the years. I played the game for 11, 12, 13 years. In that time, I’ve made amazing friendships and memories. But within the last few years, I’ve noticed a steady decline in my guild and circle of friends. It could be due to a lot of things, but I think time has a real factor to play here.

Which ties into the next topic, age. I picked up this game back when I was 12 or 13. I had ample time to enjoy wasting hours on it. But as adulthood came, so did the value of my free time increase. Still, in college I had some time to spend with friends, make unwise choices on time management, the ilk. But now in my mid 20s, I just don’t have the drive to keep playing in the permadeath cycle. I’ve done thousands upon thousands of snake pits. I’ve seen three different game companies take the reigns. Resetting ranks, adding new dungeons, adding more powercreep to the game; it’s not going to turn back the clock on the aging player base. Realm, as is, just doesn’t have the same staying power in my life, as other games. To this day, I’ll happily boot up Minecraft or Oblivion. Play Rust or League if I’m feeling masochistic. A myriad of triple A games, or indie ones, but not Realm.

Eventually, you have to put down a game like Realm. I just wish it wasn’t in the manner that it occurred. There are plenty of games that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, and quit, without losing that innate joy or fondness over.

#2

I quit the game ten-plus years ago and have played consistently since. I am 47 years old and have never been on a discord run… I’m a Taurus… I enjoy long walks on the beach, high-stakes gambling, skateboarding, and various inhalants.This is why I am quitting the game for good.

The lack of toe-sucking and foot-photo requests.

The non-stop emotes.

The flying saucers are real, too real…

SHOES!!

#3

Nothing yet

#4

I’m still playing. But I know there are many more who’ve given up the game than are still playing. 10+ years is a long time for a game to keep going, longer than your time at high school or college, longer than many jobs and relationships. People quit because they change, or because the game changes, or because it doesn’t change and they exhaust all its possibilities.

My PC’s only not filled with dozens of games I’ve abandoned as it’s a new PC and I’ve only installed games I play. That’s not including the hundreds of web games I’ve played, the dozens of console games which now live in a box of their discs.

#5

Thanks for the post and for sharing your thoughts.

They say coming back to RotMG is like clapping. You never actually stop for good, the time between just gets longer.

I don’t meant to be a party pooper, but your posts reads like complaining and nothing else (which is fine). As a daily player, I still have genuine moments of joy doing a dungeon with strangers. Sure, it’s rarer, but being in a dungeon and saying hey to your fellow players generally gets reciprocated. I’ve never done a discord raid and I don’t intend to, just like you I enjoy the serendipitous encounters that come with playing the game and finding temporary friends.

Since coming back to the game in March, it’s been nice seeing the same friendly faces on EUWest and feeling a little sense of community.

People will leave RotMG and guilds. But, as in life, making new friends continuously along the way is a necessary part of the journey. Thankfully a large part of the community is still down to make that happen.

You say the value of your free time increased, yet you still happily boot up other games. I don’t think time is your issue but enjoyment, which is fine. Everyone has phases of enjoying one thing or another, same with RotMG.

Don’t abandon the game completely, the playerbase and the game itself still have plenty to give, there are plenty of fun encounters to be had, friends to be made, and new Realms to be freed.

#6

I haven’t quit, but I’d like to explain why I’ve stuck to this game for as long as I have (which is like 2 years lol). RotMG was not only the first MMO I’ve ever played, but it’s also a really unique one to me because of how different of a game it is. I’ve only played two bullet hell games before, I’ve never played MMOs, and I’m not usually one to actually socialize in multiplayer game servers. It’s also why I get a bit sad sometimes thinking about the long history of the game and all the great people who left it behind for one reason or another. I’m not one of “you,” the boomers who played through it all, but I can understand that it must be hard considering the game’s rocky history. Similar thing happened when I learned more about the Sonic franchise’s history when I got into the games more.

I don’t blame you for leaving due to many of the game’s flaws and just genuine fatigue from playing. Even I’ve been playing a lot less, yet I still enjoy making RotMG-related stuff like art and music. It’s this weird thing where I boot up RotMG and realize that I don’t want to play, but then I open up Google Docs and have fun writing down unrealistic yet fun dungeon concepts. If anything, even if I stop playing the game for a while, it’ll still have a place in my heart for how unique it is and how enamored I am by its, well, everything, including its flaws.

Sorry for rambling a bit, I just really fucking love this game despite even its own veterans saying that it peaked in 2012 or something.

#7

Copy-pasting my response from the last similar thread:

Reason 1: I don’t really care anymore about reaching some goal like 100k fame/a divine pet/exalts in a game anymore

Reason 2: The actual gameplay is just not very fun. You do the same ~25 dungeons/bosses for hundreds of hours while also spending massive time on the content that you don’t care about because most dungeons are so rare. The bosses are just a procession where you do the same thing that you already did 600 times again. There is zero challenge in 95% of the game and permadeath coerces you to avoid the remaining 5% which are actually fun.

#8

I think that the Realm Rework is going to try and fix this repetitiveness in the gameplay loop, along with the rarity of most dungeons and many other issues of course. If this blog post holds up, then DECA plans on essentially reducing how many stat pots you need to max by increasing the initial stat amounts and guaranteeing that you get stat increases, along with a chance at getting an increase in DEF with each level up.

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I’d say more, but I’d actually like to post my thoughts in a different topic so that more people can discuss this outside of this one single tangentially-related thread.

#9

cuz i can never keep a character alive i always die and no one ever gives free items, toxic community

#10

Lots of people give free items, but I won’t argue that the community can get toxic, just like many others.

#11

You’re looking for free items? You need to ask more. When giving away items I can’t just drop I use two strategies. Call out in Nexus in Realm, or look for a player who might benefit and offer to trade them.

The latter is normally more successful, but it takes more time as I look for light blue stars, the lower rank the better, on the assumption that they’re new so need gear/eggs. I can also teleport to them which is safer for them than teleporting to me.

But this means I’d never offer to trade with you, a red star. You would need be on when I shout out “free xxx” instead, but as that rarely works I do it less and less. I do give stuff to anyone that asks if I have it, but that’s even more random as I don’t keep anything I don’t need for long.

#12

All good things must come to an end eventually, right? I’m 19 years old… I started this game at around 10. I wasted countless hours and spent tons of money on the game. I was so hooked that I had played even during my birthday parties lol. I’d come home from school and immediately hop on. It brought so much joy to me back in the OG flash player days. It was until they switched everything over to the new platform, that my interest died off. They basically changed every single dungeon and everything I grinded for and learned, was for nothing. I knew so much and now so little. I quit for several years because of everything that changed. It’s not fun anymore and everybody is so ahead it feels like I’ll never catch up. I’ve also always hated the drop rates and “luck” in this game. All I ever wanted was certain event whites. After 9 years of playing, I never got anything I wanted… no matter how much time I spent grinding for it. I logged in this week for the first time in 2 years and it felt somewhat nostalgic. I’m kind of enjoying it again but I don’t think it will ever be the same. I miss the shatters being what it was. Same with pets… the old days of a small guild with friends just grinding dungeons and closing realms helping each other max characters… so fun… now everything has changed. I was 3 stars away from white star back then, now I’m a blue star and it just feels sucky. I don’t want to build all the way back up for years again, just to get a star that I already had from my years of playing.

#13

Sounds like me when I was 10 lol. It’s natural to have that nostalgia, especially for things like the art style. On the other hand I’d argue the upper limit of the game has been expanded. Although the dungeons you learned to grind have been replaced (although still grinding sprites, udls, and abysses is meta) think about the alternative: if the game was exactly the same today as it was 10 years ago, it would be inconceivably boring to farm the same comfortable dungeons for 10 years.

A lot of people are far ahead, but maybe the game isn’t about ‘catching up’. Plus with modes like seasonal and crucible they put players on more of a level footing. There’s content for people who are at the endgame and people at the midgame, like me.

The event whites are highly coveted, but now are actually easier to obtain. Drop rates overall (I feel) have been boosted PLUS we now have blueprints. The other day I got a Crystal Fang Venom BP from the fungal event and that meant I could recycle my Nest whites into an Item I loved. Plus, with the daily login and seasonal missions I got a Jugg BP which again is awesome, though I have only had 1 drop in 10 years.

Old shatts was very fun but again, if you had been grinding it for 10 years even you would be sick of it by now.

I also get the complaint about now building back up. It’s annoying for everyone, I know Skandling (in this thread) also had to grind loads to get yellow star back.

If you miss a small guild with friends just playing the game well… hit me up on EuWest or join a guild. There are still enough of us old boomers out there to make the game worthwhile.

#14

My issue is not some much availability as it is repetiveness. Take for instance the sphinx. After doing it hundreds of times it is not challenging or interesting in any way anymore, not so bad that it would actively ruin your experience, but I don’t think anyone does it for anything else than the loot. And yet if want to get a juggernaut — and rare items is all that the games is about these days — you still have to do the fight countless times.

#15

Started playing the game when I was around 9-10 years old, 21 now and I will say I have made friends, and have spent probably 3% of my life on this video game, which sounds really crazy when you put a number on it lmao. Haven’t played consistently for around 4-5 years now but love to revisit.

Over the years the game became less and less fun for me. The game was sold multiple times and my love for it diminished when It started becoming treated as more of a cash cow than a passion project.

When UT’s became tradeable all of my treasured whites became not so special, I didn’t feel like a chad walking around with my rare gear that I wore as a badge of honor anymore.

Real world traders became rampant, you could just spend a couple of dollars on some pixie swords and max your characters, skipping all the proud hard work…

Loved pets, although the cash cow came into play with them, and it was basically impossible for me to get a decent pet without paying money.

But enough complaining. This game was a giant part of my childhood and the countless hours I’ve spent I do not regret! 8-12 hours per day most of my summer break in middle school, been in many guilds making friends that I would talk to about times we decide to get on and help each other get maxed. My love for video games would not be the same without Realm of the Mad God!

Also, do you guys remember watching people like:
KarlF
Zedmaster
TheMothership
Spenca
or my old favorite, HenezRS?
Many amazing times. reply with any other OG realm youtubers if you can remember any.

Thanks for reading.

#16

The game has been sold a few times, but Deca are seen by most of the community to be the greatest stewards of the game since WildShadow. And if you watch Sebchoof’s video with one of the founders of Rotmg, they never had any interest in maintaining it as a full game but rather as a proof of concept for a bullet hell MMO. Deca have ‘saved’ the game despite having their own challenges, of course they are not perfect and a game like Rotmg isn’t making hundreds of millions a year which can justify the best dev team or the best servers etc.

You forgot:
Kalle
Sllvrdllr
Homiesofmars
Bikuribox12

#17

Wow I used to watch them a lot aswell I cant believe I forgot about them thank you! and thanks for the video recommendation I will go watch the founder interview with sebchoof!

#18

I haven’t quit the game, but I’ve played a lot less than I used to. The reasons are:

  1. I used to have really bad internet that got worse around the time I started playing less, and I eventually adapted to playing more singleplayer games

  2. Don’t really have any friends on this game, they stopped playing

  3. I can’t keep up with the endgame, which seems to be what a lot of Deca’s focus has been (It’s trifficult and it scares me)

#20

Honestly, Nothing too bad. I had a lot of fun coming back to this game last Dec. There was a ton of content to explore and i honestly finished all of my long term goals that i set for myself (Getting decent at O3, Getting okay at shatters, White star, Fully exalted paladin)

Maybe in a year or so i’ll probably see something else that i want to grind out or get good at. Learning O3 was probably the most fun i had in a very long time (shout out my friend for loaning me his whale of an account to practice on :pray:)

#21

Nothing so far. But rotmg is a game that has diminishing returns the closer you are to the endgame, so I always quit after a month or two after coming back.