[Kitalrez]

Well, as someone who left then came back, I guess I could pipe up on here as to what it was that did make me come back to play. That would be nostalgia. No matter how bad the game is, I've still had a good time here. I came here back at the NA release after about 3-4 years on Everquest. I hated EQ at this point, it was a pain to log on. Everyone min-maxed the living daylights out of every encounter, Verant Interactive and Sony rarely bothered to let players in on things they were changing, or even seek our input on how things were working. Events were mainly excuses for the GM staff to massacre players, pretend every GM in this game is GM[Dave] and they write the content of the event. It felt like working a degrading job by the time I got to endgame. So I came here. My first day in the game I got a pointy hat for my caster, something I'd been asking for in EQ for years. After that, I enjoyed a wonderful cathartic release from running around in a pumpkin shaped hat and whacking things with a little bat on a stick. I met nice people, and I had fun. Most of them are gone now. I started on WHM, and hated partying, so I found my own way to make it to the 20s. It was slow, but I enjoyed myself.

After awhile, I blew up at a few ls's... I put a buttload of work into one, and the leader decided to punish people for not promoting his own agenda better. He booted my friends, and I went with them. On my own, I grew more and more distant from the people who were enjoying the endgame, and after retreating as far as I was comfortable with, struck out for other games.

I have learned something from other MMOs out there. They, by and large, suck. Content isn't great, or if it is pretty good and has potential it's rare that that potential is realized. Take Saga of Ryzom for example, it was founded on a great set of ideas, the original parts of the game are fun to play. However, Nevrax went under due to poor marketing or market variations very soon after it was released. It never got a real US following, and now it's sort of stagnant and unpleasant to play. D&D Online suffers from the opposite problem, they had a horrible set of ideas based on a pretty decent module. They had great game structure and development, but that was all lost when you realized it had about the same level of story arc as Everquest had. It just wasn't fun to play after a week or two. Which was a shame since you had a month free and it took less time than that to get to or close to max level and realize how empty the content was.

The people that play MMOs fall into two categories. Ruthless min/maxing dipshits, and the types of people you actually enjoy being around. In my tour of Ryzom, D&DO, Corum, and Rappelz, I found that these two types of players usually were distributed in about the same amounts across the sphere. If I really applied myself, I could easily find someone who's worth to me was so incredibly low that I could easily see myself driving across country to forcibly sterilize them. By the same token, I could find people I really wished I could meet IRL and hang out with. Relationships can be forged anywhere, it doesn't matter how odd the backstory is. If there's a chance to group with people, or join their guild, you can meet worthwhile or worthless individuals.

So, I came back here. I was only intending to stay for a month or so, see my old friends and regroup a little. That was January. Since my departure my old friends are largely gone or no longer play enough to really stay in touch. I'm still here. I guess if I had to say why, it'd be because I've met new people who I like just as well, and if they leave I know I can always find someone else to play with. The story is good, the content is enjoyable, and the idiots leave in roughly the same amounts as the good players. Its all a matter of patience, really. On my return, I got into campaign, which I was pleasantly surprised to find a viable way of soloing my way up on several jobs. I can solo WHM again and I can't believe how much fun I've been having doing this. I made the last 4 levels of summoner doing this as well. As for my relationships? Well, I know I can build them anywhere now, it's just a matter of choosing where to start. I like this place at the moment. If the people I need aren't here, I know which types of people can grow into them, and I'm more than willing to start building.