Why do you play PSO?

jaredchansen

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Just a simple question: is it the grind? The weapons? The lore? Raising a mag? I'm just curious.

I feel that I'm pulled into wanting the next rare weapon, and the objective to make it to the end game. But lately I've been obsessed with raising the perfect mag, but I'm sure I will soon return to TTFing until Ultimate.
 
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Nostalgia, like everybody else.

I met my wife on this game 16 years ago, so it's fun to revisit it with her every so often. And it's also what I end up doing when my life is a fucking mess and I want some "comfort food". Every time I go through a tough period, I end up restarting to play PSO, then I get bored and move on to other games. Until I go through more crap and the cycle continues...
 
For me, it's kind of exhausting playing new games nowadays because of constant updates and changing metagames and whatnot, so PSO is my slice of heaven frozen in time. Part of its charm is that PSO (for the most part) stays exactly the same as the last time I played it and I can pick up my hunts exactly where they might have been a few weeks or months ago.

I can't put a price tag on coming back any time I want to the same PSO I know with the hype of finding that uber rare, the same memorable areas, the same soundtrack that bangs to this day.
 
above all else: it's still fun.

but in a very realistic sense, that rolls into a practical reason: raw replay value. i've invested a TON of time into this game, but my investment pales in comparison to many of the top players. for the sake of argument, let's say i've invested a total of 15,000 hours into PSO.

$50 original GC purchase price / 15,000 hours played = 1/3 of a penny USD per hour played. Or, to put it another way, this game cost me $1 for every 300 hours played.

i've yet to encounter a game that makes me want to play so much for so long. until that happens, i'll either be around, or i'll come back to it eventually if i've taken a hiatus.
 
Just a simple question: is it the grind? The weapons? The lore? Raising a mag? I'm just curious.

I feel that I'm pulled into wanting the next rare weapon, and the objective to make it to the end game. But lately I've been obsessed with raising the perfect mag, but I'm sure I will soon return to TTFing until Ultimate.
Been telling players for Years now the SAME thing..."It's not so much the Game mew loves...it's the PEOPLE she ADORES!". <3!
 
I haven't played in some time (been working on other games and haven't really found the time to return), but there's quite a few reasons why I was so drawn towards the game.

First reason: kinda silly, but the first time I heard about PSO (though I was never able to play it back then) was while I was still actively playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on the Gamecube and raising chao. Heard a good few rumors, obviously, but the info I found that really stuck out was for the Tails chao. For those who were unaware, you could get a Tails chao for SA2B GC through the use of a GBA and Phantasy Star Online: Episode I and II. I thought about the idea of getting the Tails chao (and also playing another fun game), but since I was still a middle/high schooler without a job or budget (which made P2P games a practical impossibility, anyway), I had to settle for what games my mother could get me, so PSO kinda faded out of existence for me. I looked at info for the Tails chao again at one time after returning to SA2B, and saw PSO again. To say the least (and this is related to the second reason), I gave PSO a look, found out about Ephinea, and...here I am.

Second reason: somewhat the same as Ascot's, somewhat not the same. See, I don't have any nostalgic memories of PSO during its official days, because I never played PSO until about a year ago. But I AM starting to get tired of more recent MMOs. Part of it is because I'm still using a laptop with limited space that can't properly run most of them, but the big reason is: many of them look and feel like the same old same old. Constant updates, I don't mind. It tells me a game's at least making enough to warrant attention. But aside from the changing metas for each game and such, many of today's MMOs just feel bland, like they're just being made for the sake of making a quick paycheck with no real effort put into the gameplay, story, etc. The only two games that really stood out for me in their primes were Dynasty Warriors Online and Dragon Nest, but the former was shut down after three years of service, and the latter...you could say that it's a bit of a shadow of its former self. In light of this, PSO (and PSU, to an extent) was a HUGE burst of fresh air for me. It has fun, unique gameplay with an interesting and dark story (both of which are hard to find these days), and the character designs and environments are all pretty great...despite the fact that we're talking about early 2000s graphics. Though being a partial retro gamer, I'm fine with that. Contrary to popular belief, a game DOESN'T have to have 4k HD (or whatever the latest graphics craze is these days) to be amazing or still fun to play.

Third reason: new grounds in general. PSO plays quite differently from other games that I've played (besides Monster Hunter, but regardless), and all I had going for me the first time I logged on to Ephinea was basic understanding of RPG standards and some preliminary knowledge gathered from a few sources (not a huge amount, just enough to get me started). As I said, it was a fresh experience playing PSO:BB for the very first time, and there was a lot I had to learn. And...still have to learn, since I got my ass kicked the first time I entered Solo Seabed Lab Easy...as a level 34 HUmar. Not the most fun experience, and highlighted quite a few mistakes I've been avoiding since.
 
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