Why MMOs are as evil as Ikea

Three things go into a bar, something initially humourous occurs, but upon later retrospection you realise the joke wasn't that funny, leaving you feel cheated and used.

• 33. I have a deep fear of joining the real world. Where I actually have to WORK for what I require. All my life I've been able to coast by with immense ease, that will soon change. I think that's why I'm writing so much crap no one will ever see, it's my own version of the Monkey-Shakespeare thing. If I type out enough crap, eventually there will be SOMETHING worth money.

What kind of nerd blog would this be if I did not pay tribute to the most visible nerd-ism in the past 50 years?

MMOs.

Avoid.

I say that as someone who played City of Heroes for two years.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's look at the general requirement for a computer game. "Entertainment". Now, let's make the following general assumptions.

Statement A: Computer game publishers are businesses, that are attempting to make money.
Proof: It's a common statement of fact that the point of businesses is to make money, and computer game publishers are no different.

Statement B: A large number of the more widely known MMOs are pay-per-month affairs
Proof: Google Warcraft, the most popular MMO ever. Pay per month. Granted this is a weak proof, but this is a commonly accepted idea. Some MMOs are NOT pay per month, but in general they are not the commercial (money making) majority, rather they make less money then their peers, at least in Western countries.

Statement C: It is easier to create 'time sinks' then genuine story arcs.
Proof: A Time sink is a simple "Collect X number of Ys" or "Kill A number of Bs", sometimes supported with a generic story ("Those Wolves sure are plaguing my sheep! Go kill fifty of them").

Statement D: A Time Sink is less fun then plot progression
Proof: Plot progression in a combat based game will involve fighting a vast, vast majority of the time. This makes Plot progression and Time Sinks both about killing things, but plot progression has the added factor of story. At very worst that makes plot progression equally as fun as time sinks.
Note: I have a bias here towards story arcs. However, even if someone actively dislikes story arcs, there is little way that doing so could actively interfere with their fun, since it is (literally) free experience to level up your character. Even then, chances are you'd still have to kill things, which is presumably what someone with no enjoyment of story is playing the game for.

Conclusion A: Statement A + Statement B = For MMO publishers to make money, they need you to be playing their games for a long time.

Conclusion B: Conclusion A + Statement C = MMO publishers want you to be playing for a long time and it is quicker to make time sinks then story arcs.

Conclusion C: Conclusion B + Statement D = Therefore they are far more likely to fill the game with plot sinks then story arcs, despite story arcs being of equal or greater fun. Thus providing evidence that they don't care about fun, so much as trying to keep people playing as long as possible.

And don't get me started on making people 'invest' in the game. No one wants to leave behind something they've invested so much time/social life/money into, especially when they realise how little they've gotten out of it so far.