My first MMO and also the one I played the longest was EQ. I started in 1999 and played until EQ2 Beta started. I only left because I wanted to see what EQ2 was all about. Then of course I HAD to try Vanguard... :) I have spent the past decade it feels like looking for an MMO that had the "feel" of the original EQ with the improved graphics/features etc that are now possible given todays technology.
PANTHEON Save me ! ! !
I think EQ was my longest, started in 2003 where I met the woman i am still married to (and 4 kids later) and played till about 2007. We tried EQ2 just as Vanguard was going to open beta and went there for about 2 years till I just couln't take the bugs anymore. Never forget the day i died so badly the GM could not even find my corpse LOL. Played EQ2 for a few years after that, but the game changed. It felt like the primary focus of the dev team was keeping the cash shop going and the game suffered. Since then I have dabbled in just about every MMO that has come along looking for..well Pantheon.
The longest time a played an MMORPG was in Wow, I hope i don't get punished for that :) But in the vanilla days it was at least for me not that bad game.
How long might it be? at least 4 - 5 years. Later it was less fun as at the beginning, but hey.
Would played it even longer, but the circumstances changed, it was not that game as at the beginning.
GW 7 years but I played other MMOs besides it. Quit it because it just got too old and the updates dried out. Also, it was originally pretty hard but constant nerfs killid the challenge.
Or EQ2 if you don't count GW as a MMO (the devs called it a CORPG), 5 1/2 years. Quit for a few reasons. The content started to get worse. Sony leaked peoples credit card information (well, they were hacked but same result) and the final nail in the coffin was the F2P/Freemium convertion. SOE got too greedy there and it seems like their inspiration started to die out after EoF.
Currently I play GW2 and have for the last 3 years. Not always and I had a few breaks of 2-3 months but when it start to feel like a chore to log in it is time to get a break (and if it also is summer I do other stuff then sit in front of my computer).
I usually take a 1-3 months break every year no matter what game I play, makes the rest of the time more fun.
In a nutshell:
EQ from beta thru Omens of War with only a couple short few Month breaks in there. Played pretty hardcore, was only a teenager though for most of it. PoP being my favorite. Still have all my game boxes and beta cd ;) #1 in my heart
WoW from beta thru 6 months of TBC. Never went back after that.
Shadowbane for about its first 6 months. Was a lot of fun from launch. Groundbreaking MMO without enough resources.
A short stint in Rift at launch.
LOTRO from beta thru DG. Really fun learning the raid content.
Spent lots of time /played on Project 1999 over the last few years.
Never been one for alts. In all my years in EQ I never had any character other than my main at max level. Wood elf Ranger. same story in LOTRO, one max level hobbit guardian.
P99 being time locked and slow to expand first enabled me to have multiple max level characters that I played alternately.
- Rylas
Played Anarchy Online for a good 4 years, then moved to EQ2 for maybe 5 years solid. Gone back to both a few times, but always end up leaving again, mostly because all my friends stopped playing. No other game has kept my interest for more than a year...there is a massive lack of community and depth in new games.
Everquest II -- November 11, 2004 ( third day live) till 8 years later --- totally loved it ( did not love the changes they made later, though)
broke my heart, but what good is riding your horse all over Antonica and dreaming and wishing for the "good old days" ? ...
my friends quit sooner than I did -- that was a big factor
some are still there raiding, but after 4 yrs of being away, you KNOW what that does to your "raiding gear"
just found Everquest too late -- no friends to help me figure the game out, no one to group with, and just gave up when I heard about EQ2
Einelinea said:Everquest II -- November 11, 2004 ( third day live) till 8 years later --- totally loved it ( did not love the changes they made later, though)
broke my heart, but what good is riding your horse all over Antonica and dreaming and wishing for the "good old days" ? ...
You might want to check out the Stormhold "Progression" server. You'll need a sub to join it, but it's presently the closest you can get to those goold old days. Unfortunately they are already 4 expansions in, but the progression is much slower and they are not yet far enough for things to be ridiculous - no Mercs, much harder mob spread population, buffed mobs in dungeons, no insanely stupidly over-powered gear, not 100 different forms of currency, and no adornments. It's NOT 2004 (I wish) but it's much more like the old feeling than the Standard (free) servers. Lookup the guild Atlantis. Very active, nice spread of players including many low level characters and returning players.
I have played many different MMOs over the years (ESO, Warhammer, SWTOR, both Guild Wars, the list goes on), but the one I have played the longest would be (shocker!!) World of Warcraft. Started in early 2005 and have been playing it on and off ever since.
Still play to this day actually even though I am looking towards the MMO horizon for something in the future, preferably this game!
