Okay this is all going to be pretty rough around the edges, since I don't remember the exact timeframe surrounding them... however, here goes.
Ragnarok Online - Approx. 2 years + 2 years off and on - Played since Alpha, through Beta, through Beta2, to retail. Quit and started back up about 3-4 times. The game was simply a vessel to hang out with some of my best buds. Every time I quit, they kept on playing, so it was hard to resist going back for several months at a time. They've finally moved on from the game thankfully, which gives me ample time to recruit them to HJ
They're a more casual crowd, with an emphasis on roleplaying, so it may be right up their alley. Why I quit? Lack of depth, lack of substance, FAR too much pointless grinding and camping mini/bosses with luck involved for drops.
Final Fantasy XI - 1.5 years + 2-3 months current day - Originally imported the game from Japan, due to knowing a rudimentary ammount of Japanese. Found a sizable importer community and made some great friends. Kept playing, leveled about 4 jobs to 60+ in set groups with friends. Eventually quit due to high quantities of
drama between rival factions of importers that occured once the game hit retail in the US and the english-speaking community grew exponentially. All of us importers were splintered off into our own respective niches for endgame activities and generally split apart. Due to having friends in three separate factions that disliked eachother, I couldn't stand the heat and ran out of the kitchen. Now, 2 years later, I'm back and playing again with 5-6 folks that remain.
City of Heroes - 3-4 months - Started up CoH with a static group of people that all left FFXI at the same time I did. We had a great time, but eventually all quit once the leveling treadmill just got a bit too tedious what with constant running of instanced missions that were the exact same thing over and over. Good fun, but far too repetative after a while.
World of Warcraft - 1 year - Started playing in a mid-phase of Beta. Played a variety of classes throughout. Eventually started up with the same group from CoH once it hit retail. Played a Hunter to 60 and started up on the raid game. A bit of personal turmoil came about when the leader of our static group claimed that she thought leveling as a group was a mistake due to gimping the amount of people we knew for the raid game. I got a bit pissed due to all the fun we had leveling being deemed a mistake all because of endgame, which I didn't find fun at all. After quitting for EQ2 for a while, I started back up on a different server with a different group of friends. Didn't take too long before I started getting tedious with the style of play + the PvP server they had chosen and quit for good.
Everquest II - 3-4 months off and on - EQII was sort of a transition game between WoW beta and WoW retail, and then between my two major character levelings. Quit due to it being just a mediocre game in all respects, with nothing special and lots of flaws.
The Matrix Online - 1-2 months - Joined during the final phase of Beta and had one of the best times I'd ever had in an online game during the last 4 days which consisted of one large world event that culminated in the equivilant of the apocalypse with fire viruses and eyes in the sky and imploding. Then retail hit, and there wasn't that same spark. Leveling and questing was tedious, live events were overcrowded and laggy despite being overall fun times. Roleplaying was a very big thing, but the gamplay ultimately killed it for me.
And that about sums it up :lol:
