If you've read any of my posts, you probably realize that I spend a huge amount of my game time partnering up with my lovely bride, known here as Scooter, who is also an avid MMO gamer.
Guild Wars 2 is a ton of fun (the most important thing in a game), easy to jump into and play for a few minutes or a few hours. The game has a good skill/progression system, great graphics, plenty of lore, and just a touch of whimsy—without going overboard. I especially enjoy the seasonal events like
Dragon Bash and
Lunar New Year. Scooter and I began playing during the Summer of Betas (2012), and after a lengthy break, returned in the summer of 2018. We have been playing pretty solidly since. And, in fact, we recently pre-purchased the upcoming expansion "
End of Dragons." I have ten characters, all at or near max level (80). As of August 2021, Scooter and I have played most of the story content at least once through the middle of the (current)
Icebrood Saga, although not all in the exact episode order.
I played
World of Warcraft from June of 2006, when a friend got me hooked, until October of 2011. I have
three level-80+ characters, plus many more lower-level ones. I tried the Pandaren starting area in the "
Mists of Pandaria" expansion (in October, 2012), but got a "been there, done that" feeling from the experience. With the release of the Warcraft movie in June, 2016, I again became interested in WoW, and Scooter and I re-upped a couple months before the release of Legion. Honestly, we never really experienced most of the Legion content, choosing instead to level a few new characters up through the expansions that we missed. Time and interest petered out in early 2018, and neither Scooter nor I have played since.
Prior to our stint in WoW, Scooter and I were subscribed to
Star Wars: The Old Republic from April, 2015, through June, 2016. Previously, we had played from the headstart in mid-December, 2011, to August, 2012, pushing to achieve 50 (max level at the time) and finish up the story on
my Imperial Agent. Despite issues I've had in the past with BioWare's customer relations, the game has a lot going for it. During our return, we enjoyed several class storylines, and loved a single run through of the new "Knights of the Fallen Empire" expansion. Unfortunately, the lack of variety in storylines in KotFE didn't help our interest level. And I still haven't completed the Trooper storyline.
Star Trek Online is another game I have returned to with some regularity, playing from just after its release in February of 2010 until May of 2011. I dipped in a toe again in June of 2012, checking out the Duty Officer system and other developments to the game. With the "Legacy of Romulus" expansion, I started up a new Romulan Captain and got my Main up to max level. Most recently, I played for a few months in the winter and spring of 2015. Amongst all my MMO characters, I am still most attached to
my STO crews in many ways.
Scooter and I have drifted in and out of
Rift a few different times. We played regularly from the beta tests in January of 2011 through October of the same year. I cannot say enough great things about this game, or the developer, Trion Worlds. It's not perfect, but the polish and responsiveness of the game and company are things other devs should aspire to. For reasons not really clear even to me or Scooter, when our Mains hit 50 (max level at the time), the wind went out of our sails, and we really had no desire to continue playing the game. We got involved again in summer of 2013, with House Stalwart, but discovered that something about the game caused us both eye strain. We were back again in the autumn of 2014 in for the "Nightmare Tide" expansion, but quickly drifted off again.
We played
WildStar in the summer of 2014. Scooter and I had two duos of Exiles, plus I had a few solo toons. It was a fun game with an engaging storyline and a delightful art style reminiscent of World of Warcraft, but in some ways an even darker tone. Despite the colorful cartoony look, this is not a game for young children. Sadly, Wildstar and Carbine Studios were shuttered by NCSoft in late 2018. I still listen to Jeff Kurtenacker's soundtrack to this day.
Judging from the shear number of posts tagged with
The Secret World, it may have been my favorite game. It's the smartest story and skill/ability system on the market, in my humble opinion, though the additions of the Augment and Aegis systems make an already complicated system unwieldy. The issues from 2013, "The Last Train to Cairo" and "A Dream to Kill," feature the most enthralling storylines I have followed in an MMO. I currently have
a toon in Egypt's Scorched Desert, one in Transylvania's Carpathian Fangs, and one in Tokyo, having completed the main story through "The Venetian Agenda." I stepped into Tokyo, the new zone that opened up with the release of Issue 9, "The Black Signal," but became discouraged with the AEGIS system. I haven't logged into the game in almost a year. I dipped a toe back in during early spring, 2017, but decided I was not interested in the format of the re-released
Secret World Legends.
I have tried
Lord of the Rings Online,
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures,
Defiance,
The Elder Scrolls Online,
ArcheAge,
Landmark,
EverQuest II, and
Neverwinter, but ultimately found them not to my taste.
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