Why did you quit a game?

[SoulsSilhouette]

One of the biggest obstacles in any game that relies on cooperation is player retention.

So, I thought, as we are all gamers to one degree or another, maybe a discussion could be had about why we've quit other games that we've played.

Maybe by examining the varying reasons people quit, we can come up with strategies to retain our players in our fellowships and neighborhoods.

 

[SoulsSilhouette]

I've quit games for a variety of reasons at different times.

Here are my top three:

1. The investment of time into the game was prohibited by real life.
2. The rewards were not worth the time invested.
3. Not enough interesting play to continue.

 

[Iyapo1]

1. Real life
2. Other players
3. Artwork for teen boys

 

[SoulsSilhouette]

1. Real life
2. Other players
3. Artwork for teen boys

Your #3 made me laugh so hard that my grandson (age 3) came charging down the hall to see if I'd gone loopy!

 

[Dopeykr]

1. Game requires that I start over from the beginning because they claim my game file has been corrupted.
2. International Game that gives priority to players who are local to where the game company is established.
3. Games that continually change the rules by which the game is played.
4. Games that don't enforce the rules that they themselves have created.

 

[SoulsSilhouette]

Wow, they are all really good reasons to quit.

Time zones are a curious thing when it comes to gaming.

 

[ajqtrz]

The biggest reason I quit games is the presence of "kiddie warriors" with credit cards. If the game has a PVP aspect to it and I am required to participate to advance/survive, I won't do it. I've read a lot of studies on the relationship between adolescent boys and aggression outside the game and do not think such games are healthy for those boys. So I don't support them.

After that I've been actually thrown out of one game (they settled out of court -- I can be tenacious and it took several years but I won). I had one game discontinued after a number of years -- due to insuffiient revenues to justify it's continuance. And one game I left because my eyes became weaker and I couldn't respond to screen changes fast enough (yep, I'm officially a "senior" citizen.).

I generally play games I like for 3-7 years at least.

AJ

 

[Lille Kraake]

I quit Evony: Return of the king because of hostile players in the server trying to zero out my alliance members just because they could. Other games, because of the constant requirement of watching ads in order to progress in the game, the pay to play, and/or zillion pop ups in game. I don't mind paying cash occasionally for boosts, but I don't want to be badgered by ads.

 

[Raccon]

There is a simpler reason to abandone that game, it's 24/7 requierment of player's staying online and being watchful of incoming attacks. Because the Envoy game encourages stronger players, through weekly events, to loot and plunder newer players resources (often times paid for by hard currency $)
To me, there is no difference between someone who steals your mony on the street with a 'player' who steals the in game resources that you paid cash for it in an online game!

 

[Kadhrin]

* Game play does not reflect the ad. Pet peeve: Games that advertise specific puzzle types that are then rarely used.
* Art designed for stereotypical teenage boys. Pet peeve: Dysfunctional armor for only one gender.
* Boredom due to exceedingly repetitive game play for lackluster or negative rewards.
* Inability to advance without spending significant amounts of real money, or without spending on a regular basis.

 

[Yavimaya]

I was playing a mobile game (always logged in on playstore account when I start any) and when my phone broke and I had to get a new one I used my same info to log back into the playstore and get the game again. Everything I had accomplished was gone and that particular game makes you start completely over. (I forget which game it was bc so long ago)

 

[Darielle]

I quit playing another game that I spent nearly seven years of my life on. The reasons were myriad, but the main reason was that I saw it go down, down, downhill as far as game features, loading times, and glitches.

In order of importance:
1. Increased loading time ... wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. They tried to make the wait more pleasant by adding little sayings like "Pearl is polishing her seashells" ... "Pearl is visiting Iris" and on and on, but those just irritated the heck out of me. I wanted to scream at the screen, "Stop with the dang seashells and start loading already!" They got the message; they quit with the sayings, but the loading time was still horrible.(About 10x longer than Elvenar for a game that doesn't look half as good.)
2. Making the experience less enjoyable for players by taking away their ability to see just how much further they need to go before they reach the last "star" in a scene. That was very important; if you didn't know how close you were to it, you might hit it accidentally. You wanted to save up scenes that were close to completion so that during quests, you could do a bunch of scenes quickly. (I know I'm not making sense if you've never played a hidden object game, but trust me on that.)
3. Unfair costs for the same packages. My Adventure Club members and I were shocked when we found out that the same package was costing some of us $1.99, some $2.99, some $4.99, and some a whopping $14.99 ... for the exact same items.
4. Management that would not listen to our constant complaints. All they did instead of fixing glitches was to add some extra doodad that nobody wanted, which only made loading times worse. (Yeah, we know there's a glitch that's causing problems, but that's too hard to fix so instead, look at this cute little balloon that floats down over and over and over and over!)
5. Wrecking the collections building, a building that used to take a couple of clicks to get all your "presents," but suddenly took click after click after click after click after click after click after click after click ... as many as 50 clicks at one time. My fingers hurt by the time I was through.

Lastly ... they changed the main character, Pearl, and made her look ugly and much older even then her love interest, Klaus. I'm not against older women with younger men (I once married a man younger than me) but there was no point to making her ugly and older. Why couldn't they have just left her alone?

It's a shame, because when that game started out, I told my friends that I had found the "PERFECT" game for me. I never wanted to leave it. I stayed far longer than I should have, but I kept hoping it would go back to the way it was. It didn't; it just kept getting worse.

 

[Alram]

Server Lag.

 

[crackie]

Server Lag.

Noooo! Don't do it!!!

 

[actualfantasy]

Games that start out to be fun and interesting only to become tedious and take up too much of my RL time. Fun disappears.

 

[Alram]

Noooo! Don't do it!!!

I'm not quitting yet. I'm just making sure no one is counting on me since I can only play occasionally. I'm just going to float on the river and look at the stars for awhile.

 

[BrinDarby]

The Killers for me are (in no particular order) :

a) Games supposed to be F2P, that allow P2P players to
dominate too much, to everyone's detriment.
b) Games where the owners/administrators just refuse to
listen to thier playerbase or refuse to address playability issues.
c) Games that inevitably demand too much RL time to succeed.
d) Games that don't have or have enuff social interaction.
e) PvP games where newcombers have litterally no chance, or
where independant players are just harrassed into oblivion.
f) Games where mgmt/owners have lost the passion to admin
or innovate thier game anymore.
g) Outright stupid mgmt/administation.
h) Games that aren't self contained, or force me to rely on
alternate sites/apps too much.... 1 site = 1 game.
i) Games that become "work".
j) Games where the volunteers ( Mods/Chatmods/NPCs ) seem
to adhere to thier own agendas, bias's, and cliks.
k) Games with too many ingame adverts, and/or data sharing.

I think the key to player retention, within FSs, would require those
FSs to keep thier players interested and make them feel included.
Each FS tho, can only control certain things, many reasons ppl quit
have nothing a FS can fix.

 

[Dopeykr]

I have never quit a game thru my actions. Instead several games have quit me. All of a sudden the game stops & when I get back to it; my data has been compromised so hey just start over. Not going to happen.

 

[actualfantasy]

The Killers for me are (in no particular order) :

a) Games supposed to be F2P, that allow P2P players to
dominate too much, to everyone's detriment.
b) Games where the owners/administrators just refuse to
listen to thier playerbase or refuse to address playability issues.
c) Games that inevitably demand too much RL time to succeed.
d) Games that don't have or have enuff social interaction.
e) PvP games where newcombers have litterally no chance, or
where independant players are just harrassed into oblivion.
f) Games where mgmt/owners have lost the passion to admin
or innovate thier game anymore.
g) Outright stupid mgmt/administation.
h) Games that aren't self contained, or force me to rely on
alternate sites/apps too much.... 1 site = 1 game.
i) Games that become "work".
j) Games where the volunteers ( Mods/Chatmods/NPCs ) seem
to adhere to thier own agendas, bias's, and cliks.
k) Games with too many ingame adverts, and/or data sharing.

I think the key to player retention, within FSs, would require those
FSs to keep thier players interested and make them feel included.
Each FS tho, can only control certain things, many reasons ppl quit
have nothing a FS can fix.

I like your list! I'd say you covered it all. :}

 

[Alram]

One thing about server lag, you see way more of the loading screen art than usual. In the pic with the golem building the house, what happened to that lady's dress? Did they just forget to finish her dress? Run out of silk maybe?