I even had a guild in WoW in 2010…then joined others (4+ with different alts). Then GW 2 stuff as well.
Patience also not a problem (although it seems it’s not really worth it for some things, usually things involving people), I leveled a rogue naked with 0.9 dps daggers in classic in 2019 (and will likely do that in Diablo 4 as well).
I only have about 6 unfinished games (and 2 books) in the past 20 years (ok and some stuff abandoned in the first hours but under 30).
It’s not really “fun…NOW” it’s “fun without extra steps…and not the type that stems from not that complex group organizing and scheduling and sharing blame for failures“.
I’m actually increasingly tired of devs not actually dev-ing stuff and just “yea, make your own fun AND also 50% of the fun is from social interactions which are identical across the board in all these multiplayer things”.
Good thing we are getting AI and probably about to have some more innovation in the whole gaming industry.
Blizzard …well MS should just tell them to cut it out with the BS survival online game and make a 3rd person Diablo MMO that innovates something.
There was this video on the Escapist channel (can’t find it now Why Do We Quit So Many Games? | Design Delve - YouTube) that said something (probably in one of the Cold Take series videos) like “I occasionally had more fun pushing s*** with a stick with my friends”. That’s my problem…I don’t want gaming to turn into companies giving me sticks and asking me to play with friends. There’s quite enough of that already…and it can continue to exist…just don’t think it should happen, well, here.
Not perfectly explained…there can be great group bosses but they can also be 80% as good if they can also be solo’d. In some cases more since it doesn’t need to be designed around groups with different levels of skill and coordination and because it needs to feel good for all classes, sometimes less because of limitations like you mentioned with the “having to account for melee solo and ranged solo in ARPGs”.
I guess here it would be more like…half a stick + something and them telling me I need another guy with half a stick+something. Just design a god damned full thing, or 80% of a thing and a small bit of stick that you hold the thing with and then they can scale it UP just fine if it’s a good something. Then the people that want to have fun with friends will do it anyway.