Any MMO enjoyers out there who just play to have fun and not chase max level or the best items? I know those are fun things to do for a lot of players but I've always enjoyed just exploring and experiencing the worlds at a slower pace. I know there are both, and more, kinds of players but sometimes it all seems reduced to chasing that end game mentality and that's what is talked about the most. It's hard for myself too sometimes to deal with that "end game" mentality as if taking your time is somehow a waste, or trying to find optimal ways to do things as if that is the only way to play. I think it ruins much of the fun. It can be fun to find small advantages but I think it has to stop there. For me the journey has always been the fun part and trying to shortcut that too much inevitably ruins the whole experience.

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I'm not much of a social gamer. Doing things at your own pace sometimes just seems like a solo, co-op, or small close group thing. I enjoy mmos more for existing in, appreciating the adventure and the smaller things, rather than trying to min-max and rush through content as fast as possible. It also allows for the social situations that do happen to feel more natural, and something worth participating in if you choose to.

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I recently started playing EverQuest 1 on one of the Project 1999 servers to try to get back some of that slow crawl, dangerous world, low convenience features (or the things that people tend to think as that) for that extra immersion. I think even there, in older games, and when played as if for the first time, the smaller item upgrades, the limited fast travel options, the danger of exploring, and consequences of dying, to name a few, feel pretty important in making the world feel enjoyable to be in rather than just something to get through.

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I've played a lot of mmos, I still enjoy some modern ones but so often none of the cool worlds, scenery, even abilities feel like they matter very much, you just do the things and move on quickly. I don't end up feeling very attached to my characters nor to the worlds. Beautiful graphics and flashy abilities are neat but sometimes they feel overdone and lose their impact when you are just expected to zoom through spamming abilities and barely looking at the awesome detailed environments.

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Sure you *could* take your time and RP walk everywhere and read all of the sometimes excessive amounts of dialogue but that'd be pretty extreme and it's clear they aren't really designed for that to be a sensible way to get anywhere. I know that's the themepark style but I'm not sure if I can think of any that actually feel good to really be in. They feel like they have no soul to me, like they're detailed and amazing but the actual gameplay is designed in such a way as to not appreciate the world it is in. The worlds sometime just feel like a backdrop. They often don't feel like mmorpgs, just lower quality rpgs to me, easy to play single player games with crowds of other people around.

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I know the reaction from some people is often that the "real" game is at max level, which is just nonsense to me. Who bother having leveling and all of that content? That just sounds like what I imagine the experience of buying someone else's character would hypothetically feel like.

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I think for me it always comes down to convenience features, the quality of life stuff. Most of those (AH, mounts, fast travel, group finders, others) can work sometimes or in a limited way but I generally feel they take away from the time spent being stuck in a small part of the world and I think that's when you start to feel more attachment and make more meaningful memories of a place. Where you appreciate your surroundings and how difficult it might be to explore. Like in EQ or WoW, as easy examples, early on trying to figure out how to group up with friends who started in distant places. I don't think all of this is exclusive to mmorpgs but I think it feels more pronounced there.

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I'd think that since the mmo part is a focus that it would be even harder to get around than single player games since you now have other players as resources. It makes a little more sense to rush through content in a single player rpg where you might be the hero but in the mmo style I think you shouldn't be a hero character.

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I am often a solo player but I always expected mmos to not be very solo friendly. I like when choosing to play solo that it is an extra challenge. Although it does feel terrible in mmos when content is either solo or full group. Solo often being laughably easy and group being an instant death sentence. Especially bad when there's level scaling so there's no way to come back later when you've adjusted the odds a little. Everything ends up feeling sanitized then, no thinking outside the box allowed, and even the reward for doing so if you manage to is tightly controlled (like if you killed a group boss when solo but you are just handed the standard participation reward). Otherwise it can be fun to try to find solutions to difficult solo encounters or to find others to socialize with.

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I know this has been talked about to death, but oh well. I'm not really here to complain about the state of mmorpgs, just stating some of my preferences and to talk about it. I don't care much for being overly negative about it.
Thoughts?
I think I'm just looking for slower more immersive mmorpg worlds and experiences that are just whatever you make of them, not about grand game world events. I'm not about to list every mmo I've played. I've likely played all of the big names at least, with some of the older classic ones feeling more special. But still plenty that I haven't tried. I'd be fun to get invested in an mmo again, perhaps additionally with some friends.

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(Also, any like-minded people interested in joining me for some games? I'm not super social, I'm not really looking for big groups or guilds but could use a couple closer new friends to play mmos (or other things) with. I'm open to new or old games, and new experiences, or to join me in current games. DM me or whatever if you want to talk about it.)