After playing the betas for Monster Hunter World, I definitely feel like this game scratches an itch that Destiny and Diablo also scratched in their own ways. I've seen that rather than character progression, MH is more equipment progression based (finding materials to upgrade your hammer/bow). Was looking for some tips and general ideas from the expert hunters here on a few things about the series in general.

Good tips for a newbie.

How long does a Monster Hunter game generally keep your attention before you move on to something else?

Not planning on pre-ordering, but what seems like a good timeframe to give MHW to see if it'll have legs compared to other MH games, or burn out quickly?

It kinda depends on whether you find going on the same hunts repetitive or not. I usually end up play around 100-200 hours before tapping out, but I have friends that play for 1000s of hours and don't get bored. The difference between games like Diablo and Destiny are that the fights themselves are a lot more difficult, think more along the lines of a Souls game boss, only with different hit zones and stuff. When fighting monsters for the first time you'll probably fumble your way through, but as you get more familiar with their attack patterns and movement you'll feel yourself getting better.

Also here's some random tips, but keep in mind I haven't played the beta myself so I don't know if they've changed anything drastically from the older games.

If you're new, play with the different starting weapons (I'm assuming you get all of the very base weapons like the other games) and find one that clicks, and stick with upgrading that weapon type instead of upgrading a bunch of stuff. If you try to upgrade too many things you'll run out of materials and money faster and have to grind quests a lot more. I'd say if you've never played these games, it might not be a bad idea to stick with Sword and Shields or Dual Swords. Their attacks are faster and are a bit more forgiving. I wouldn't recommend Lance, Gunlance, or Greatswords to start off with unless you want to put some time into getting used to their slow movement (unless you've already played with them in the beta and have fun with them, then by all means go for it). I've heard Greatswords have been changed up a bit to be more forgiving, I think you can change your attack direction now between moves (can someone verify that)?

Bringing the right items on a quest is important. You'll pretty much always want max potions, but you'll want to bring things like flashbombs and traps to make things easier for yourself.

There is some etiquette to playing online. Be aware that while you can't actually do damage to your teammates, your attacks can trip and launch others. So just be aware of where your attacks are landing. It's okay if you accidentally trip someone, but don't be that guy carelessly swinging a Longsword interrupting every one of your teammates' attacks.

I usually feel "complete" with a MH game after about 200 or so hours. For a lot of people, that's pretty low. You can get a LOT of time out of a single game, and this one has an easier way of introducing new content since it's not on a weak portable device. They've already got a fan-favorite monster in the pipe for a spring release.

As for how long the game will have a community, hard to say. 4U came out in 2015 and as of a few months ago I still could find full online rooms. Not many, mind you, but enough to scratch that hunting itch, since I skipped out on Generations.

Thanks for the awesome info duders! After watching Jason's live-stream the other day, I'm looking forward to getting into the game. Just want to give it a little while before buying (Destiny 2 just...left a bad feeling overall).

But from what you've both mentioned, that hopefully shouldn't end up being the case. Definitely felt somewhat of a Souls-vibe while fighting the more difficult bosses in the beta, so looking forward to more of that style combat.