How long have MMO's lasted for you?

[traft]

Everquest 3 years Good: Raiding/Character development Bad: Devs/slow evolution

 

Was too old school, was basically a MUD with a GUI slapped on so it was built around spending a lot of time developing a character in a grindy repetitive fashion. Back in the day when most of your exp was acquired through just killing camps of mobs over and over.

 

Star Wars Galaxies: 3 months on and off, more off than on. Good: Crafting/Sandbox Bad: Everything else

 

In hindsight, SWG was decades ahead of it's time and Sony couldn't pull it off, they ended up dumbing it down into a laughable console level of complexity.

 

DAOC: 6 months, on and off Good: PvP Bad: PvE/Nerf-a-thon

 

Darkness Falls was one of my favourite experiences, on one server I played on where control frequently changed hands it lead to interesting times. Given the crap technology at the time the size of the battles was pretty epic. The problem with PvP, for me at least is that it gets repetitive and boring after a while so it has very limited playability for me.

 

World of Warcraft: 7 years Good: PvE Bad: Time/Dumbing down/Ghostcrawler is a moron

 

Played WoW since original beta, was a fantastic game, was sloppy at first but became a very polished game of a high standard. However, they have made it so you can play the game in a coma, even raid in a coma and are moving towards having more or less no real character customisation or effort involved in character development other than a skin you choose.

 

EVE Online: 3 years Good: PvP/Sandbox/Trading Bad: Egotistical developers

 

One of the few games where PvP had any real interest to me because what you fight over is more than an achievement or title. Goes to show that you don't have to spend hundreds of millions constantly making content if you give players the means to make their own content. Developers had a great simple concept and executed it well, but they started to believe their own ******** and took the game places nobody wanted it to go.

 

Guild Wars: 5 years on and off Good: PvE Bad: Too instanced

 

Probably more a limitation of expensive bandwith cost at the time combined with no sub, for what it charged it is a fantastic game and definitely look forward to GW2. It probably relies too much on the competitive PvP thing for constant interest which wasn't my cup of tea.

 

Lord of the Rings Online: 5+ years Good: Tolkien influence Bad: Slow development/poor endgame

 

Game is fun to play and is more of the journey than the destination type game. Since going FTP and Turbine being bought out by WB they have had more resources to put into development. I think the let down was the lack of sandbox given the end-game was fairly weak. Being FTP it is a game I still contribute financially towards where I don't with subscription games I do not play constantly

 

There was some overlap between MMOS obviously, late in EQ I think I started DAOC and headed to WoW during beta, stopped playing DAOC prematurely due to WoW. Played LOTRO, GW and EVE during slow periods of WoW but took a long break from WoW during WotLK and ended early in Cataclysm after the first tier of content.

Edited February 25, 2012 by traft

[Shinavast]

Rift - ~ 9-10 months. Made it to hammerknell progression (3/11).

 

I loved the game overall. The only reason i stopped playing was my guild fell apart because of SWTOR coming out, and i couldn't find one that had amiable raid times / the skill level i was looking for. Honestly, other than being a teency bit grindtacular, I loved this game.

 

SWTOR: Since "early release".

 

The good: The gameplay is fun, the graphics are relatively nice.

 

The bad: bugs, tons of them. Nothing feels like a challenge (except bugged to all hell type stuff, which isn't challenging, its frustrating).

Edited February 25, 2012 by Shinavast

[Bloodstealer]

DDO - Since the very first day of early Beta 7+ yrs... been stuck in Stormreach ever since and love it.

Like SWTOR the game has a solid backbone born out of those early days spent in cold dark basement rolling a variety of dice and imaginary foes... SWTOR on the other hand had Star Wars, which I and many others at the time saw as being so far ahead of its time.. and now 30+ down the road its still as popular across the age grps.

For me tho its about the players past and present I run with / have with that has become the key to the fun in game and thats how it should be. Some are now RL friends.

 

Its changed lots over the years and imo now has most of the things every MMO stives to implement. Many differnt kinds of raids, Wide variety of quests and objectives, some are soloable, many grp related, built in Voicechat system, constant game updates, crafting is getting bigger every update, EPIC lvls, puzzles, mini games, special / anniversary additions, F2P as an option and a shop catering for anyone wanting to spend coin.. which is in turn a good call cos it brings mon ey into the game and more content is being relesed more regularly now than I have ever seen in the 7yrs+ ive been around it... Now has its first proper expansion looming so exciting times ahead for DnD fans

 

Guild Wars - On and off since it launched.. cant wait to see what GW2 has to offer

 

SWTOR - Since Beta

 

LoTRO - On and Off for about 30 minutes... Lord of the Banannas... simply drove me banannas

 

WoW - On and Off for about 30seconds... nuff said!!!

 

AoC - Loaded it, started it, hated it

 

Question... why didnt BW ever think to build on its success of Baldurs Gate... it was simply one of the best ever Single Player games of its generation.. deserves an MMO moment surely!

Edited February 25, 2012 by Bloodstealer

[grueber]

EQ1-2+ years. First MMO for me. Great community. Had to quit for RL reasons.

 

WoW- 3+ years. Stopped after BC was released. Went in expecting to play casually. Ended up with one of the two top Alliance guilds on a server and we competed heavily for server firsts in raid progression. Quit from raid burnout and RL reasons.

 

SWTOR- 2 months. Trivially easy content. Minimal community. No compelling hook like the first two MMOs.

 

It is not necessarily a list of features that makes a great MMO. Sometimes it's just sitting down and getting sucked in.

[SDTAXantos]

SWG ... Just after launch until NGE hit, went back for a month or 2 later on to see if it was any good (hint: It wasn't)

 

Not including Pre-Launch SWTOR to present, this.

[traft]

LotRO - 2 years and counting (proud owner of a lifetime sub, don't regret buying that for a second). I don't play it now as often as I used to (haven't logged in for about two months to be exact), but every once in a while I feel like playing and always enjoy the time spent in the game when I do.

 

That is the main advantage of FTP, you don't have to commit financially to it in order to keep it alive so-to-speak. Whenever you are bored you can log into it. They make most of their money from sales for cosmetic and convenience items.

 

It is a lot harder to stay in touch with sub-based games.

[Arkerus]

Thanks for the thinly veiled disguise of why you are quitting SWTOR.

 

That's really good. You actually tried to list a bunch of other games to disguise your "I quit" letter. You'll probably fool a bunch of people. It will mostly be the other haters who want to tell us how important they are. As if your reasons for quitting are the most important topic on the forums and our eyes are now opened. We will all now quit because you have revealed the game's true weaknesses. Thank you, master of MMOs from helping me realize my grand mistakes.

 

Funny how you people are still here...posting on the forums...after you quit. Amazing really.

[Warjhinn]

Do text games count??

 

Ultima Online - almost 10 years. Still a lot of nostalgia for that. if they had not made the armor stat changes from the original concept, I would still be there.

 

Anarchy Online - ummm six or seven years. Played that in conjunction with UO. I really loved that game. If they had not done the Sword and Sorcery - Meets Space MMO, I would have stayed with that.

 

Runequest - on and off with my kids for maybe 2 years. Not bad for a free game.

 

WoW - at launch and came back just before BC, until December 12. The combination of the release of TOR and the upcoming WoW panda world was too much.

 

Age of Conan - Couple months. Has a lot going for it, but not enough for me to subscribe.

 

At some point I dabbled with Neverwinter nights MMO free servers also. liked that as well.

 

So many others I dabbled in and still do dabble in. The ones I mostly visit now are the free to play just for a change.

 

I think SWTOR hase great potential. Kinda excited about it.

Edited February 25, 2012 by Warjhinn

[Zsavooz]

Thanks for the thinly veiled disguise of why you are quitting SWTOR.

 

That's really good. You actually tried to list a bunch of other games to disguise your "I quit" letter. You'll probably fool a bunch of people. It will mostly be the other haters who want to tell us how important they are. As if your reasons for quitting are the most important topic on the forums and our eyes are now opened. We will all now quit because you have revealed the game's true weaknesses. Thank you, master of MMOs from helping me realize my grand mistakes.

 

Funny how you people are still here...posting on the forums...after you quit. Amazing really.

 

are you in therapy yet?

[grania]

I played CoH for about a year, year and half when it was new. I enjoyed a lot of things about it, but it did get boring after multiple 50s. Plus all my friends eventually left and then it was pointless for me to stay. They were awesome people and a big part of why it was fun. I still log in once in awhile now that it's free and work on my earth//ff controller. I'll get that pet someday!

 

I played WoW for many years. I had some fun but never really found my niche - never found a group of people I felt comfortable with and wanted to stick with. It kind of always felt like work when I'd log in, but part of that was because there really was so much to do. (:

 

I've tried other mmos but I don't feel like there's any point discussing ones I only did betas for or played for only a couple weeks. I obviously didn't enjoy them long enough to stick around.

 

Swtor I've played since beta and I pretty much loved it immediately, plus I find it quite fun to do group content. I haven't grouped as much as I had originally intended to, but life circumstances tend to change without asking your permission first.

[grueber]

Thanks for the thinly veiled disguise of why you are quitting SWTOR.

 

That's really good. You actually tried to list a bunch of other games to disguise your "I quit" letter. You'll probably fool a bunch of people. It will mostly be the other haters who want to tell us how important they are. As if your reasons for quitting are the most important topic on the forums and our eyes are now opened. We will all now quit because you have revealed the game's true weaknesses. Thank you, master of MMOs from helping me realize my grand mistakes.

 

Funny how you people are still here...posting on the forums...after you quit. Amazing really.

 

Everyone that can post to these forums paid $60 for the game.

 

If Bioware wants to refund my $60 I'll be happy to give up my forum posting privileges.

[Khryn]

DAOC - I can't even remember. I played since Beta. God I loved that game. You think PvP is bad in this game? I played an infiltrator first. Could not be killed. Then they buffed up some other classes, so I thought I'd try a Sorc (I followed the trend of avoiding FOTM and played whatever class was considered the worst... Yes, I know it's funny since Infiltrators and Sorcs ended up being God. )

 

 

Well with my Sorc I could go 1 versus 8. Talk about a rush! Killing an entire enemy group by myself. The cries from the PvP chat "Let us kill some!" made it so worth it.

 

Lost interest when by the time Catacombs came out.

 

It's like my first love though, It brings back GREAT memories.

 

 

 

WoW - I played WoW at launch. It was fun. I quit because I ended up getting a real job and not being able to play MMOs' at all. Came back for the expansions. In the end had a great guild that was a lot of fun, but WoW didn't have the same charm DAOC did. I don't regret quitting like I regret quitting DAOC.

 

 

 

 

Those are the two major ones for me. I played UO, Eve Online, Star Trek Online, DCUO, LoTRO, and Planetside.

 

 

TOR is the closest to my enjoyment of DAOC.

[Rigota]

SWG was all about the freedom, WoW was all about the polish, TOR is all about everything (Yes, I'm 1 of the rare forum posters that love TOR) Sure it's not perfect, but I love it all the same

 

Swtor actually misses everything so also which are painfully, freedom and polish.

[haliy]

Anarchy Online [5+ years: played a Doctor, Agent, Soldier, Crat] - Loved the sci-fi feel of it and the customization of the entire thing. Not a single item had a level requirement. they had stat requirements (ie 300 agility & 300 stamina). So, if you really wanted to get that QL 100 piece of gear equipped on your level 10 character, you could. You just had to do a whole lotta work in order to get it on. Reason I left was because I wanted some new scenery. Nothing wrong with the game and I might end up going back to it later on.

 

Warcraft [7+ years: played a Priest, DK, Mage] - I joined just after TBC released to see what all the hype was all about that a couple of my friends were endlessly talking about. After that, i was pretty much one big social event and since i was the guilds main healer, I was always invited into raids and I absolutely loved raiding. Stopped playing towards the end of wrath when i got tired of the achevment hype and gear score crap. I mean, my main had all of them however, when I was on an alt that had none of the achevments, no raid invites because "i must have never been nor know the content since i don't have the attachments..."

 

SWTOR [since release: play a sentinel & shadow] - No more general chat drama. Back to the Sci-fi feel of the game. Yes, the game has its bugs but whatever, its something that I can live with until the bugs get worked out and the game becomes a bit more polished per say.

Edited February 25, 2012 by haliy

[Tegamal]

1. Everquest. A friend bought me a copy of Everquest in 1999, mainly because I wouldn't buy it myself. After playing for a couple hours, I was hooked!

 

I played for the next 4 years, was about to quit when Lost Dungeons of Norrath came out, but someone I had met online, who had pre-ordered two copies by accident & couldn't return one, e-mailed me the CD-Key to keep me playing. He left the game a few months later, & I decided I didn't have time for two games, so I chose SWG over EQ in 2003.

 

2. Star Wars Galaxies. I got SWG in 2003 because of a few friends at work were into it & talking about it all the time. I was already familiar with MMOs from EQ, but I soon realized SWG was not your normal MMO. I fell in love with it! Everything was so different! The completely player-run economy, TRUE player housing, open world PvP, etc.

 

Even though I feel that the overflow of Jedi into the game eventually killed the timeline feeling of the game, I will admit I got caught up in it & did the hologrind myself (28/32 professions later... ugh). I enjoyed playing a Jedi, hiding from the public, watching out for other players on my radar, but it really alienated me from others. In the end, it made the game more of a job than a hobby.

 

I didn't mind the Combat Upgrade all that much, but the NGE was the last straw. I couldn't continue playing. Before 2005 ended, I left that galaxy far, far away.

 

3. Everquest 2. I pre-ordered Everquest 2 & started playing it in 2004. I loved it at first & almost stopped playing SWG, but after about 2 months, it got boring. I don't know what it was, but everything seemed so repetitive. That game didn't make it to the first expansion.

 

4. World of Warcraft. After I left SWG in 2005, I didn't play any games for a little while. In mid-2007, a friend at work convinced me to try World of Warcraft. A lot like Everquest 2, after a few months, it got stale & repetitive & stopped playing after less than 6 months.

 

5. Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now we're all caught up, got invited to the beta in early November, pre-ordered the following Monday. Hopefully it lasts longer than 6 months...

[avariambush]

Not too much of a gamer.

 

WoW: Quit 1 week into a 2 week trial. The game has no soul, period.

 

AoC: 1 year. Good game. Great PvP, nice graphics, great setting, classes were cool, mature. Gawdawfully boring at endgame. Sieges were a disappointing experience. Had fun, but wouldnt touch it again.

 

DDO: Lasted about 25 minutes.

 

SwTOR: So far I absolutly love this game. I love the planets, the classes, questing is curiously mapped out. Character creator could be a little bit better and my one real complaint is the voice acting that straightjackets the type of toon to roll. Space combat is a joke, but you expect that to improve with expansions. At the end of the day it's that bioware feel that I love. Bioware has good taste. There is always something about the mechanics/graphics/music/storytelling that engulfs you in a bioware game, like it's greater than the sum of the parts.

[Svengoole]

The first one I played was around 2000 called Motor City Online. It was to be a Need For Speed title that focused on American Muscle cars from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Was a great game, the best driving game ever made. THe ability to tune your car and then race it was quite advanced. No game to date allows you to tune a car like you could in MCO. They licensed a ton of parts from major auto manufacturers, it had an auction house to buy parts. Car lots to buy cars, you could sell your car on auction. It also had some real nice tracks to race on. It had typical MMO issues, bugs lag, etc. I played on dial-up which put me at a disadvantage to people who used a cable connection. I left after they decided to put two rice burners in there with 350 CI Chevy motors.

 

Next I played SWG, after playing MCO I wanted try another MMO. I believe I joined in 2005 and played to 2009. Enjoyed it more than any MMO I have played yet. I quit because it was getting boring and I wanted to try another game.

 

Played City of Heros but not for very long. Leveling to 50 was a real grind. I think my highest character was only 23. Quit it to play Star Trek Online.

 

Was a beta tester and had early access to Star Trek Online. Game was a mess early on but they made improvements to make it playable. Played it until they announced the release of this game. May go back and see how it is doing. The space battles were where it was at in STO. Everything else was the same MMO fare.

 

Had a chance to do a few beta weekends in SWTOR and they do a fairly good job with fixes. Overall it is a good game and I do play it a few hours everyday. None of my characters are lvl 50 yet, but I have 5 characters that I am leveling. Plus I know the ways MMO's are done now, end game content comes later, so no point in trying to get to lvl 50 quickly. I have to say though that I miss a lot of the elements of SWG. The open endedness and the abilty to go anywhere at anytime made it more adventurous. There was a ton of side questing missions that gave good loot, armor, ship deeds, holos, etc., that made you want to go and do the mission. Better community, remember having to take crafters into the dungeon to get materials to make Madolorian armor. The merchant character class is sorely missing in this game. Helped create a better economy that here as there was so many unique items thanks to the detailed RE system. It seemed to create a better game community, one I have not seen since. I will keep playing this one and see how it goes. I am more patient than most as I understand the complexities in creating a game like this. I do not go on a forum rampage everytime something does not work and threaten to quit.

Edited February 25, 2012 by Svengoole

[Leiralei]

DDO - 2 years. Ruined by free-to-play store greedily taking over the entire game.

WoW - one week free trial. Meh.

Rift - 9 months. Ruined by level 50 pvp faceroll being boring and all my guildies leaving for SWTOR. Altitis couldn't keep me.

SWTOR - 2.5 months so far, ruined by favoritism in game design of classes and pvp handing the advantage to one side over another, will probably resub once fixes are in.

 

Will probably bounce between Rift and SWTOR for the next year unless either one does something so stupid I start playing DDO again.

[obi-joachim]

WOW 2 Years

AO 2 Years

AOC 4 Years

SWTOR 3 Months

[TubMaster]

Why do you even bother to login to do daily quests? Is that fun for you?

 

The Daily Quests are not bad on Ilum. I do enjoy the pvp in Ilum and killing the Reb.'s but I wuld love to get more WarZone LEVELS! So add that to your weekly updates! Which should be MONTHLY updates.

[DarthHarvey]

It sucks... I enjoyed ToR while leveling my first 50, but as their is only 1 leveling path for each faction, i've lost interest. WoW held my attention from 2007 to 2011 but TOR has already got boring for me.

[KantaUO]

Ultima Online since day 1 release for 10 years. (on and off)

I stopped playing paid servers after the necromancy + paladin and sold all my virtual items for a few thousand.

 

FF11 - great game, enjoyed playing with japanese players. No PVP but still played for 2+ years.

 

Shadowbane - frigging great game, i even played when they were free. If they didnt release with so many game stopping issues (AKA Ilum FPS issue) it would have been a solid PVP sandbox niche game.

 

WoW - day 1 release up until WoTLK.

 

Not sure if Diablo counts as a MMO - but played that too from release

 

SWTOR i really enjoy this game, reminds me of Van. WoW a little.

 

I am a pvp'er 1st PvE'er 2nd,

Edited February 25, 2012 by KantaUO

[TubMaster]

Why do you even bother to login to do daily quests? Is that fun for you?

 

The Daily Quests are not bad on Ilum. I do enjoy the pvp in Ilum and killing the Reb.'s but I wuld love to get more WarZone LEVELS! So add that to your weekly updates! Which should be MONTHLY updates.

[Lasarith]

Average is about 6 years- a few have Past 10 years, ( with some only lasting months)

[Darth_Eminok]

The first one I played was around 2000 called Motor City Online. It was to be a Need For Speed title that focused on American Muscle cars from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Was a great game, the best driving game ever made. THe ability to tune your car and then race it was quite advanced. No game to date allows you to tune a car like you could in MCO. They licensed a ton of parts from major auto manufacturers, it had an auction house to buy parts. Car lots to buy cars, you could sell your car on auction. It also had some real nice tracks to race on. It had typical MMO issues, bugs lag, etc. I played on dial-up which put me at a disadvantage to people who used a cable connection. I left after they decided to put two rice burners in there with 350 CI Chevy motors.

 

Next I played SWG, after playing MCO I wanted try another MMO. I believe I joined in 2005 and played to 2009. Enjoyed it more than any MMO I have played yet. I quit because it was getting boring and I wanted to try another game.

 

Played City of Heros but not for very long. Leveling to 50 was a real grind. I think my highest character was only 23. Quit it to play Star Trek Online.

 

Was a beta tester and had early access to Star Trek Online. Game was a mess early on but they made improvements to make it playable. Played it until they announced the release of this game. May go back and see how it is doing. The space battles were where it was at in STO. Everything else was the same MMO fare.

 

Had a chance to do a few beta weekends in SWTOR and they do a fairly good job with fixes. Overall it is a good game and I do play it a few hours everyday. None of my characters are lvl 50 yet, but I have 5 characters that I am leveling. Plus I know the ways MMO's are done now, end game content comes later, so no point in trying to get to lvl 50 quickly. I have to say though that I miss a lot of the elements of SWG. The open endedness and the abilty to go anywhere at anytime made it more adventurous. There was a ton of side questing missions that gave good loot, armor, ship deeds, holos, etc., that made you want to go and do the mission. Better community, remember having to take crafters into the dungeon to get materials to make Madolorian armor. The merchant character class is sorely missing in this game. Helped create a better economy that here as there was so many unique items thanks to the detailed RE system. It seemed to create a better game community, one I have not seen since. I will keep playing this one and see how it goes. I am more patient than most as I understand the complexities in creating a game like this. I do not go on a forum rampage everytime something does not work and threaten to quit.

 

If you love SWG so much and still want to play. Here's a complete look-alike before the CU and is completely free and their working on spae combat. http://site.swgemu.com/forums/index.php