I used to love Final Fantasy XI.... at the time the world was incredibly immersive and the music was very memorable and engaging.

It was also rock hard (you lost xp for dying and could even go down a level) and it was also stat heavy and nigh on impossible to succeed very far without a group. The toughness could be inconvenient but lead to what must be the friendliest and most helpful online community I've ever seen in an MMORPG. You'd always get higher levels running past and buffing you or healing you if you struggled and it didn't benefit them in any way, it was just how the community was. Of course one good turn deserves another so when I got to higher levels I would do the same.

I also played a long running beta known as Mercenaries of Astonia (V2) which, at the time was like crack. I'd get up at 6am on school days to play it for an hour and all my mates played. It's no longer in the running.

Guild Wars 2 is the latest one I own, played it for a bit but haven't really gone back to it for a while. It's good but I'm starting to see that mmorpg's are a timesink that don't really feel very accomplished compared to offline games (of which I have many to complete.)

1999 - Everquest (My first MMORPG and introductory to MMORPG's.)

2004 - Everquest 2/Linage II

2005 - Guild Wars

2012 - Guild Wars 2 (Now)

Anticipating The Elder Scrolls Online, Everquest Next, Neverwinter.

Not playing any currently.

Played EQ for about 3-4 years. Quit cold turkey and said I'd never go back to another mmo due to the time investment. Friends got me into EQ2 around 2006 and played that for about 4 years (From Kingdom of Sky upto the month before Velious was released). Was a lot of fun before SOE's shenanigans made it less so until I finally had enough. Quit cold turkey and said again, I'll never play one again unless its casual. This was December 2010 I believe - haven't played one since for more than a trial.

Dabbled in DAOC, LotR and DnD for a few months, as well as TOR beta, Secret World free weekend, Guild Wars free trial. but nothing has stuck. Liked Secret World the best of these and maybe if its for $10 or so, I may bite on it since its FTP now.
But EQ/EQ2 are the only long term mmo's I played and while I was playing those, missed out on a lot of pc games that I'm now just discovering thanks to all these digital retailers and the 75% off sales they periodically run on games I'm interested in.

Edit: Forgot to mention Rift, from beta to about 3 months after release.

I've tried dozens but stuck with very few. My friends and I played EQ2 for a number of years until last year, when we finally gave up thanks to SOE's destructive meddling and woefully misplaced priorities. We wandered off separately for a while, and have recently reconvened in Rift. It's not as good as EQ2 used to be, but it works. We're tearing through it with alarming speed, though, so it remains to be seen if it will keep us busy.

I wonder what you SOE did to EQ2 that made you guys leave.

anybody heard of the new wizardry game? i hear its going to be really hard, your characters permenantly die when you get killed! jeez!
I'm still playing it!

EQ for a couple of years. Loved my Bard! Lots of late nights and good memories with that game.

Dabbled in Anarchy Online for about 5-6 months but the graphics were really pulling me out of the experience by the time I got around to playing it.

Currently playing Star Wars The Old Republic for the first time. Just hit level 16 and am finding it to be a lot of fun. It's fast and fairly easy but it still has its hooks in me. Maybe because it feels like it respects my time and wants me to experience the content.

Plan on getting into DCUO but don't think that will ever happen.

Swarm kiting *grin*

Yes,swarm kiting required lots of practice. I spent hours practicing in Overthere and later on, in the front yard of Plane of Growth. But once you nailed it, you ended up killing stuff that sometimes even a whole group of 60+ wouldn't be able to take down.

Lord Of The Rings Online


Best F2P MMORPG there is. End of story.

My first MMO was Everquest: Online Adventures on Ps2. Then I played Star Wars Galaxies, Final Fantasy XI, WoW, Warhammer Online, Final Fantasy XIV and Star Wars: TOR.

My favorite is Final Fantasy XI.

WOW (obligatory) - quit twice, but only relapsed the first time due to my ex-wife's demands that I play it with her. Been done with WOW for a long time.

Dungeons and Dragons Online - still awesome, wish I still played it.

Lineage 2 - loved it at launch, super grindy, hear the F2P version is fixed up and the polar opposite of the version I played in all the ways that would make it better. Launched before WOW and still better looking.

Lord of the Rings Online - really for only a day or two, didn't draw me in, wanted to play DDO instead. It did seem good, I just had a lot sunk into DDO at that point.

The Secret World - my current fancy and something anyone who ever has mildly liked RPGs should try out.

Warhammer Online - until it was so shitty I couldn't stand it anymore, I quit WOW to play this at launch and was not sorry. Very fun leveling via pvp, pre-level cap BGs were a blast.

Wizard 101 and Pirates 101 - occasionally to play with my kiddo, these games aren't terribly fun, there's a few charming elements, but nothing I'd want to seriously play.


Non-MMO, F2P games - Path of Exile, SMITE, League of Legends, and Firefall.

Hey Orc - Just Started Dungeons and Dragons Online and enjoying it - Trying to work through the Salvation of Kothos

I also played Lineage 2 almost from the beginning and it is my Favorite of all time. Still have a number of toons I check in with from time to time.

I also dabbled in Memeno Mori: Requiem - I really enjoyed it but it got to be too tough to solo when I wanted to

My two youngest have both played Wizard 101 and my youngest plays Pirates 101 - any advice on paying for a full subscription as my son wants to go for a better ship in Pirates - is it worth it?

They call it F2P, but really it's not, there's nothing to do past a certain level in Wizard 101 and I think Pirate 101 is similar (I haven't played it enough to be sure). If he plays both you can get a discount on either family subs or subs to both games at once (you even use the same account login for both games).

I suspect your son is capped at what he can reasonably achieve, after that it's a fairly standard MMO with a sub (albeit a child friendly one). If he loses interest easily I wouldn't jump on a long sub, just pay month to month if he does his chores or whatever.

My daughter has had Wizard subs, but we haven't subbed to Pirates yet.