i'm desperately looking for a game to play. totally offline. which is like rpg. but i have to change my way of thinking.
i said in another topic. that i used to play one mmorpg. but i have disliked social networking. it's microtransactions like two people have said already. and it seems to be emphasized more and more. the higher one progresses with a player character. people are always interested. hooking up inside a game. while they all have money. although in the game i used to play. one of my characters belonged to a guild. which contained three members that demonstrated their class all the way through. i didn't have enough materials to construct a weapon. was about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way. but they helped me out. i also couldn't even construct my weapon. but one of the guild officers did that for me too. without further demands. i still feel bad even today i couldn't remain. in that guild and playing that game.
on that same character, but earlier. i joined another guild. because a married couple running it helped me out. while i was on the point of ragequitting. and was afraid of the bosses. so much i couldn't even make substantial career progress. i got helped through at least two stages. learned a wealth of skills. received other benefits. i wanted to be near mature adults playing. but some of them were into "roleplay." i left because the guy and lady married to each other. weren't logging in much anymore. i was feeling increasingly left out.
i desired to help out people in the game. but some of them had chat comportment i couldn't stand. such as "qq" every other time. overuse of emoticons. a guy kept doing the "looking around" semi-animated feature on chat. which was going to drive me away from the game for good. he was able to type faster than anybody else. while i was able to see it.
also the begging for help, for equipment, for money. the game made a poor demonstration to such people. in the last year or so i played. it seems it made a bid to attract teenagers and young adults. with the luxurious looks of the mounts. for much faster mobility around cities and safe zones at least. but they couldn't be used during battles. otherwise the selfishness would have been evident.
I think this is more of a scale than a choice between two complete opposites. You do not necessarily have to choose between a full MMORPG with hundreds of strangers and a completely isolated single-player game.
It reminds me of the idea of Equivalent Exchange from Fullmetal Alchemist: to gain something, you normally have to give something up. With an MMORPG, you gain a living world, other players, guilds and people who can help you, but you also have to accept the social pressure, begging, immature chat, microtransactions, people showing off and the risk of becoming dependent on people who may suddenly stop logging in. With a completely offline RPG, you escape all of that, but you also lose the spontaneous human interaction and the feeling that somebody else is sharing the world with you.
From what you wrote, it does not sound like you hated every social part of the MMORPG. Some of your strongest memories are about people helping you through bosses, teaching you skills, providing materials and even constructing your weapon without demanding anything in return. That clearly meant something to you. I also do not think you need to continue feeling guilty because you eventually left. They chose to help you because they wanted to, and leaving the game later does not erase the fact that you appreciated it.
The problem seems to be that you wanted a smaller and more mature social group, not the entire MMO social environment. You liked helpful guild members, but not feeling ignored when they stopped playing. You wanted to help people, but not deal with constant begging, strange roleplay, excessive emoticons, “QQ” messages, repetitive chat animations, showing off and people treating the game like a social network. That is understandable. You were looking for cooperation without all the noise surrounding it.
A cooperative RPG may therefore be closer to what you are searching for than either a full MMO or total isolation. You could play with one or two people you actually know while sitting together on Discord, TeamSpeak or whatever you use. That gives you conversation, help and shared experiences without putting you in a world full of random players, guild politics, public chat and people asking for equipment or money.
Even when playing a completely offline game, you can still sit on Discord or TeamSpeak and talk with people. You do not need to be inside the same game to have company. You could play your own RPG while somebody else plays something different, ask for advice when you get stuck and still have normal interaction. It separates the social part from the game, meaning you have more control over both.
I have played a lot of games throughout my life, and I have mostly been a PvE player. I like exploring, fighting enemies and progressing through a story, but I cannot stand it when progression becomes an endless grind. I also agree that microtransactions, premium stores, loot boxes, battle passes and live-service systems have become far too dominant. They often turn progression into something designed around player retention and spending rather than simply making the game enjoyable.
For a fully single-player experience, I would look at games such as The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Exiled Kingdoms or Titan Quest. The Witcher 3 is a large story-driven open-world RPG, while Titan Quest is closer to Diablo, with classes, equipment, loot and character builds. I am playing Titan Quest myself right now, and it gives me some of that old Diablo feeling without requiring me to participate in an MMO community.
Baldur’s Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 are also worth considering because they can be played alone or cooperatively. That means you can begin by yourself and still have the option of sharing the experience with a small number of people. You are not forced into a large persistent online world just because you occasionally want company.
I do not think you need to completely change the way you think. You may only need to work out how much interaction you actually want. There is a large middle ground between being surrounded by strangers in an MMO and playing alone without speaking to anybody. A smaller cooperative RPG group, or an offline RPG while talking with friends outside the game, may give you the parts you miss without bringing back everything that drove you away.
