（#MMO #edition #style）MMO.ver. Edition or Package Boxed Edition

The MMO Login "Life Routine":
Highly Anticipated "New Expansion Packs":
When Forced to Choose and Prioritize Your Games

Logging In

If you log in every day, daily content is always waiting for you.

This is already a part of life—a comfortable routine.
Considering the content is relatively easy to clear, the rewards and items you get are quite generous, making it the classic, go-to content you can never go wrong with.

This isn't limited to gaming; I think it's a similar feeling to having any kind of daily task or routine in everyday life.

The catharsis of steady, guaranteed progress through consistent effort.
Even if it's just little by little, the number of items and in-game currency reliably increases every single day.

"If you do it, it will always yield results, and there will always be something to gain."
This is the absolute greatest merit that game systems possess.

It's completely different from real-world "investing," which, let's face it, always carries the risk of losing money.
People often say, "Let's invest to build up our assets."
I get the logic, but there's a chance you could actually lose out, right?

If it makes you lose money left and right, it's not exactly "building" anything, is it?
I honestly wish those real-world investment systems would take a page out of gaming's book.

The same can pretty much be said for side hustles.

I bet you've taken all kinds of actions thinking they would lead to extra income, right?
Out of 100 actions you took, did you even get 10 in returns?
If you got 10, you're on the lucky side. There are probably people who got absolutely zero—nothing at all.

If you put in 100 effort, you should be getting 100 in results.
Just like in a video game.

A system where everyone can gain equally and steady progress is guaranteed—that's something you only find in games.

Steady Effort: The Completionist-Style Player

Not to brag, but I consider myself a "completionist-style hardcore player."

Being able to fully resonate with a game system where your actions always yield guaranteed results
is probably one of the main factors that helped me grow into this type of player.

Back in the days of DDON (Dragon's Dogma Online), even while commuting to the office five days a week and not having as much playtime as I do now, I still managed to balance both an MMO and Dragon Quest XI.
Come to think of it, I was pushing my playtime to the absolute limit back then, and I might have felt like something was constantly rushing me.

No matter what game I played up until now, as a so-called "hardcore player,"
I wanted to be at the front lines, ranking near the top.
As a matter of pride, I felt that's exactly where I needed to be.
With that mindset, I kept pushing forward.

I was always chasing the backs of the top tier players—
or perhaps, I was right there alongside them as one of those top players myself.

How Long Do You Stay Immersed in a Single Game?

How long do you guys usually keep playing a single game?

Take FF14, for example.
There are world-class MMO titles out there that have been running for over 10 years, with players who are 10-year veterans themselves.

In any MMO, if the development team passes the torch to the next generation and keeps servicing the same title, even a "100+ Years of Service Game Award" could realistically be within reach.

So, am I one of those 10-year players too?

I've never actually played FF14, so this is just speculation,
but analyzing myself as a player, I think I probably wouldn't have lasted 10 years.
That's my self-assessment.

Looking back at my own "MMO history," I seem to have moved on to the next title in roughly 2 to 3-year cycles.

Looking strictly at MMO titles, my track record is:

• DDON

  (Dragon's Dogma Online)

• PSO2NGS

  (Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis)

• BLUE PROTOCOL

  (Blue Protocol)

• Tower of Fantasy

  (ToF / Gentou)

While there are titles like DDON and BLUE PROTOCOL where I stayed until the very end of their service,
PSO2NGS and Tower of Fantasy are still going strong.

That said, lately I've been feeling like both of them have reached their ultimate state—
a sense that they've gone about as far as they can go.

If I look for reasons to keep going, I can name plenty, like reaching even greater heights or collecting ever-increasing limited items.
But a question suddenly crosses my mind: "Is it really worth forcing myself to keep pushing forward?"

Part of me feels like, "You know what? I think I've already run the full race."

This is a complex, indescribable feeling that can't be brushed off with simple words like "I'm satisfied" or "I'm bored."

Maybe it's the timing to shift my mindset—not to completely "cut ties" or "never play" MMOs again,
but rather to "gently tuck them away in a drawer of my mind as cherished titles woven into my muscle memory, which I can always return to whenever I want."

The Limits of Multitasking:
It's Simply Easier to Focus on Just One Game

As humans, we just can't do everything all at once.

You can't run a marathon while giving a work presentation, right?

Since we're talking about games here,
it's not impossible to break up, say, "10 hours" of daily playtime to multitask across two or three different titles.

However, the amount of time you can dedicate to each individual game inevitably shrinks.

Psychologically, you start to feel rushed, thinking, "I need to hurry up and finish my dailies so I can move on to the next game." This easily turns your gaming style into something restless and driven by a sense of obligation.

If that's the case, dedicating those full 10 hours to a single game is much easier on the mind and far more enjoyable.
You can truly immerse yourself in the gameplay without constantly watching the clock.

Whether it's work or gaming, it's always easier to focus when you concentrate on one specific task at a time.

Though, you might still feel a lingering tug of regret for the other games you couldn't get to during that time...

The Volume of a Single Game Title

Simply put, games with larger volumes are more likely to be praised as massive blockbusters.

The number of items,
the variety of enemy patterns,
the diversity, fields so vast they defy imagination,
and meticulously written flavor text—
putting all of this together at once is a mind-bogglingly monumental task for any development team.

In that sense, the MMO system—where the world is gradually expanded and nurtured through regular updates—makes perfect sense.
It’s completely understandable why trying to pack an MMO-level volume into a single buy-to-play standalone title would take something like 10 years of development.

Want to enjoy your favorite standalone game with the "never-ending volume" of an MMO?
If so, I suggest artificially boosting your volume through your playstyle.

By setting your own self-imposed restrictions or unique goals, you can dive straight into the deep end of the game.
My personal recommendation among these is the "999 Item Style."

This is a playstyle where your goal is to collect max capacity—"999 copies"—of every single thing in the game, from raw crafting materials to gear.

A State of Enlightenment?! "The Max-Out Playstyle"

Even if a standalone game doesn't have as much volume as an MMO,
you can stretch that volume significantly by getting creative with how you play.

To give an example of this kind of self-imposed challenge,
it's the "999 Item Style."

Of course, this isn't a rushed journey.
Sometimes, it's perfectly fine to spend an entire day doing nothing but taking screenshots (SS).
If you give it a try, you'll quickly realize that the road to maxing everything out is far longer and more brutally challenging than you'd think—just like a true game should be.

"Beyond 999 Items"
Using Dragon Quest as an example:

• 999 Medicinal Herbs

  This one's easy.

• 999 Steel Swords

  Impressive, you're getting there.

• 999 Stat Seeds

  Incredible... didn't your HP hit 999 just last month...?

• 999 Yggdrasil Leaves

  This is impossible lore-wise, so let's skip it.

Standalone games don't have login bonuses or daily quests.
It's all about setting whatever daily routine you like for yourself.

How many games have you conquered so far?
Now is the time to put that experience to use.
By reverse-importing your MMO habits into a standalone game, a single title can transform into something many times more massive.

Let's Be Real

This is my actual, real-world dilemma right now.

Even to my own surprise, it oddly caught my attention.

Am I really going to play SAO EoA?
If I do, what happens to PSO2NGS and Tower of Fantasy? That’s the real dilemma here.

It’s not like I’m a hardcore SAO series fan.
In fact, I’ve never played an SAO game before, and I only half-watched one of the theatrical anime films when it happened to be on. I’m pretty much an SAO novice.

But this new SAO EoA might just have a completely different vibe.
Here are the specific elements that caught my attention:

• Anime-Style Character Creation

  Does this mean a brand-new "Uchi-no-ko" (my original character) will be born?
  "Character creation," "Original," "My own character"—
  honestly, this is probably the biggest reason for me.
  I still feel like there aren't that many game titles out there that offer high-quality, anime-style character customization.
  Since this is Bandai Namco's forte, I expect the anime aesthetics to be solid.
  If I'm lucky, maybe I can even view it as a spiritual spin-off to BLUE PROTOCOL?

• An Original Story, Despite Being Part of the SAO Series

  Simply put, the worldview felt like something easy to get into even if you don't know SAO.
  Apparently, it centers around a previously untold, hidden story from the early days of Aincrad.
  As a player who doesn't know much about SAO to begin with, not having any preconceived notions might actually turn out to be a huge advantage.

• Solid Pre-order Bonuses Showcasing the Devs' Commitment

  Which edition to buy depends entirely on the person, but looking at the lavish special editions announced for the pre-order bonuses, I really got a glimpse of their "seriousness."
  Lining up such premium bonuses means they must be pouring a ton of effort into the core game quality and post-launch updates too.
  That makes it much easier for us as users to get our hopes up.

• The Satisfying Weight of the "Slashing" Combat

  When I saw it in one of the promotional videos, something instantly clicked for me.
  That crisp, heavy slashing impact.
  I feel like this kind of visceral effect had vanished for a while due to modern compliance and rating restrictions.
  That genuine feedback of actually landing a hard blow.
  The responsiveness.
  The pure persuasiveness of the slashing action.

Even players who stick to a single MMO aren't only looking at that one title all the time,
right?
Whenever a massive new title gets announced, everyone's heart sways a little, to some degree.

Our daily playtime isn't infinite, so you eventually have to choose one over the other.
And up until now, I usually just went with the flow, thinking,
"Well, I have my daily logins and routines, so I guess I'll just stick to the MMO for now,"
which meant skipping out on countless masterpiece standalone titles released throughout the year.

So, what am I going to do this time?

• Pattern A

  Take a temporary break from both MMOs and go all-in on the new release.

• Pattern B

  Keep only one of the two MMOs active.

• Pattern C

  Juggling all three: "2 MMOs + 1 New Title." Yeah, this is impossible.
  It's way too much load for my brain's capacity.

The struggle is so real~~

PSO2NGS, where I'm constantly chasing rare items that barely even exist.
Tower of Fantasy, where gear progression has pretty much reached its absolute limit and plateaued.
Yet, continuing either of them guarantees a definite return on effort.

Dear fellow gamers,

Have you ever permanently retired from an MMO?
What was your reason?
Are there any MMOs you left for a package title and went back to?

I'd love to hear your personal criteria for "prioritizing and choosing" in your gaming life, so please leave a comment.