f13.net

I've got an uber top secret project in action at work that can be summed up as "Why people quit playing the game!" since it is usually wise to look at that sort of thing, and exit surveys are not nearly as fun as up close and personal comments from people not afraid to say "Because the Elves didn't shit Unicorns." (Imagine that for a moment...)

So, if you wouldn't mind being quoted/linked in an internal document, I'd love your feedback in this fun (?) and easy (for me to process) format:

Game Title:
When You Played:
Your 'Main' Character:
Why You Quit:

Please be honest, unless I'm the reason you quit, then make up some other sort of answer eh? I don't need to get fired for my report.  :ye_gods: If you are still playing, twist that into a 'why I still enjoy it' answer if you please.

It's highly likely that I won't be able to share the finished document, but I'll give some kind of feedback when I'm done.

Is this limited to SOE titles?

Game Title: Everquest 1
When You Played: 1999-2001
Your 'Main' Character: Whiff Dirtnap (he was a monk, OK? And iksar, they used the word "whiff" a lot.)
Why You Quit: You banned my guildmate for ranting on the internet. Also, I was too busy to play. More the latter, but the former sounds good.

I'd list my wife's experience with SWG, but.. well... she was a bioengineer. The NGE was not kind to bioengineers.

If it's just SOE...

EQ1, on and off over the years, Therod the wood elf druid, latest quit was 01/08, left because all my friends were in WOW.

SWG, on and off launch till NGE, Chinwa the spike-head (Maul's race, whatever they are) rock-n-roll ninja, quit because the NGE wasn't fun for me.

Pirates of the Burning Sea, launch for two months, Leonardo the Spaniard Privateer, quit because it just got boring.

Planetside, just for the free month, Slyfeind the pilot, quit because it wasn't deep or sticky enough. (ew huhuhu lol)


I plan to return to EQ1 because of the sheer amount of content, and the accessibility of it all.

Game Title: Everquest
When You Played: 2000-2004
Your 'Main' Character: Kirth (Ranger)
Why You Quit: Did not like the direction the game was taking with Omens of War / Gates of Discord. World of Warcraft was much funner at the time.

Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: late 2007 - early 2008
Your 'Main' Character: Htrik (Dirge)
Why You Quit: Game lost appeal. didn't want to get involved in the end game. game play overall was boring. The world felt polished at times(Kunark zones) and a mess others (basically leveling 20-70)

Game Title:  SWG
When You Played:  From Beta til a little after the 2 year anniversary.
Your 'Main' Character:  Drider started as a Doctor/Swordsman, then hologrinded to Jedi.  Ended up as a Bounty Hunter.
Why You Quit:  Pretty much the NGE killed it for my guild.  Didn't have as much fun after that, but was still playable.  Toward the end I was bored and tired of the constant changes and rebalancing of the classes, or lack of class functionality.  I've heard that some of this has finally been worked out, but I've just moved on to other games.

Fair enough.

Everquest: 1999-2000, 2003-2004
Sondara D'Tiruuk
Quit from the grind.  More helpfully, quit from the grind because I was unguilded; playing EQ solo and in pick-ups was akin to beating myself with weasels.

Planetside: 2003-2004, 2005-2006
KitFix
Quit from the horrifying incompetence behind the game.  SOE's inability to modify the game and make real improvements or fixes was just pathetic.  The price hike and the loss of the reserve players put the final nail in that baby.

EQ2: 2006-2006
Cyllix
Quit for the same reasons as EQ1: Never found a proverbial posse, and the game without friends to play with was just bland.

I can write your paper for you by hilighting the obvious above: People make people stay in MMOGs.  Anything that cockblocks a person from playing with their friends (harsh party level restraints (I'm looking at you here, Mythic. Fuckers.), hassles that make organizing and communicating difficult, driving off 90% of the guildmates with NGE, etc.) is ruinous for a MMOG.  The easier it is to play with your buddies, the easier and better the guild functions, the better off the game is in that regard.  The wise MMOG designer makes a game with making and building friendships in mind, because a shitty game with friends is more fun than an okay game without.

Just the Sony titles until we hear otherwise:

Game Title: Everquest
When You Played: God, a few years ago. Around the time of Kunark I think.
Your 'Main' Character: Zashalla. DE Warrior.
Why You Quit: Bored. Only lasted a month or two. I've ranted a lot, but there's absolutley nothing about EQ I liked.

Game Title: Star Wars Galaxies
When You Played: Few years ago.
Your 'Main' Character: Thuron (Weaponsmith)
Why You Quit: NGE. Straight up. I was an off and on subscriber, but NGE cured me of that.

Game Title: Planetside
When You Played: Few years ago.
Your 'Main' Character: Konig
Why You Quit: Wasn't sticky enough. And the Core Combat expansion kind of harshed my enjoyment of the game.

Sorry to be vague on the "when played". It's been years and I don't keep track of that kind of stuff...

Why I quit games in general: Kitsune nailed that one. There are so many cockblocks to playing with my friends. I don't do PUGs. They're just not fun and not worth my time. I'd rather go offline and play some solo games.
Plus, I don't give a shit about endgame content - if I'm not having "fun" after mastering the basic gameplay, and I can't hang with my friends, I'm pretty much done.

Haha

I r Sony's bitch


Game Title: Everquest 1
When You Played: Late 1999-2003, 2004-2006 on and off, 4 months in 2007 2 months in 2008
Your 'Main' Character: Blackivar Backbiter (Rogue) Laozee Mcharma (Shaman)
Why You Quit: Mostly associated with lack of groupmates, the lack of excitement, roleplaying or fun, combined with financial issues.

Game Title: Planetside
When You Played: end of beta? a month tops? God knows what year that was?
Your 'Main' Character: ? brain cells?
Why You Quit: Never actually thought the game ran well enough compared to other FPS on my hardware for release, and because other FPS games multiplayer ate it for breakfast. Never went back to this game, it's had no free trials, and it also isn't on my Station pass as a game I got to own for free (but 3 others are).

Game Title: Star Wars Galaxies
When You Played: Last 3 months of beta, June 2003 till June 2004, a month or two each year until NGE, then 2mos a year to keep my "properties" paid off and not taken by the Empire.
Your 'Main' Character(s): Laozi (a rebel, combat medic who was severly gimped since the NGE) and Karmantra (an Imperial  smuggler merchant prior to the NGE, who now is a Millionaire Domestics resort owner).
Why You Quit: Each time with SWG it had more to do with changes that tore my classes all to hell or changes that caused me to go WTF?, combined with the same issues as EQ finances and lack of "fun" groups and roleplayers.

Game Title: Matrix Online
When You Played: In beta, when it wasn't a Sony game, and then 4 months last year on a Station Pass Sony let me own the game with a free trial. Last two months on my Station this has also been active.
Your 'Main' Character: Laozi or Karmantras
Why You Quit: Beta was hardly stable or smooth running on my machine of the time, and it was a hollow experience. I attempted playing it, but the game itself needs more grouping, reason to battle, and rewards. Looks really pretty on my recent hardware, but still is missing the collectables game, exploration, and variety.

Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: Beta for the last 5 months, after release not at all until a free trial in 2006 which allowed my Station Pass this year and last year to also think I had purchased the game.
Your 'Main' Character: Karmantra, Blackivar and Laozi
Why You Quit: Beta was a nightmare for me, and it was extremely crash prone with many aspects of combat I didn't like. I think the balancing they did helped, and I since I magically owned it, I did play some during 4 months last year, and a couple of times in the past month, but it's still missing much of what I liked in the original: Roleplaying, fun and exploration. Looks nice, plus runs decent compared to the machine I beta tested with, but I still hate the sound and mnay things that it lacks from it's predecessor.

Game Title: Vanguard
When You Played: Beta player from end of Beta phase 1, didn't actually work until start of Beta 2 on my machine. Was magically added as a game I "own" not in last year's attempt at Station Access, but during this year's.
Your 'Main' Character: Dunno, think I was named Soused in beta. Haven't installed it in the two months my Station acct has been active.
Why You Quit: OMG THE HARDDRIVE SPACE!! Never purchased at launch because it was a pale, empty version of EQ, that seemed kind of empty, lag ridden and almost too massive (OMG THE HD SPACE). Still haven't bothered to install it in past two months (OMG THE HD SPACE).

Game Title: Pirates of the Burning Sea
When You Played: Both Stress Tests, and end of Beta 2, into Preorder in Jan of this year, and until present.
Your 'Main' Character: Laozi Mi'Karma
Why You Quit: I haven't, but damn if FLS don't get their shit together and overhaul like 60% of the game, I probably will quit. Ship combat is awesome and a great stress relief, but there's way too much broken that has been broken forever. Breaking things when fixing others is the norm, and lately changes have made the low level game harder, while not improving the end game. It's slowly sinking under it's own weight, and is a better game than it's numbers show, trapped by a crap interface, grind boredom and a crowded market where it became a niche title.

EQ1 - 2001 - 2002

I quit because my wood elf druid actually shit out a unicorn. It was spiky and painful and it made me fall off Kelethin again.

I did something vaguely in the ball park a while ago. (http://research.thebeholder.org/mmogexit.htm)

Chart-tastic!

Game Title:SWG
When You Played:first time from launch for about 5 months second time just before jtls until NGE.
Your 'Main' Character:He changed around a lot pistoleer with various other skills.
Why You Quit:First time lack of content and bugs.Came back for jtls and life was good then the NGE came and I'm sure you don't need any details on that.

Oldie but a goodie (http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/000342.php).

Otherwise, I'd recommend not limiting it to SOE titles. Too limiting in scope.

Does PotBS count?

If so, Title: Pirates of the Burning Sea
When you played: for less than an month, earlier this year (2008)
Your 'Main' Character: Crain Cutler, Naval Officer. I may be mis-remembering his exact name.
Why you quit: Land-based gameplay was a mere shadow of the quality of the ocean-going travel and combat. Too much grinding required to get to the end (aka level 50), which was where the "fun" pvp was perceived to be.

Rough chronological order, probably stuff I've forgotten

Game Title: Everquest 1
When You Played: On and off over the years, ending in 2003 or so
Your 'Main' Character: Monk, Beastlord, Shaman
Why You Quit: Raiding requirements, PoP keying/backflagging nonsense, friends quit

Game Title: Dark Age of Camelot
When You Played: at release, quit before Darkness Falls
Your 'Main' Character: Friar, Polearm Armsman
Why You Quit:  Lackluster PVE with broken skills everywhere and mediocre PVP experience (yes, later it got better, but I had moved on)

Game Title:  Planetside
When You Played: Few years ago
Your 'Main' Character:  New Conglomerate for life!  Mostly played in a MAX suit
Why You Quit:  Core Combat being the worst expansion of all time leading to server mergers and the death of Konreid and subsequent squad falling apart

Game Title:  City of Heroes
When You Played: On and off since release
Your 'Main' Character:  Kinetics/Dark Defender
Why You Quit:  Mostly because guild quit to go to Warcraft.  Issue 5 ED crap didn't drive me insane like it did others.  Still my favorite game to go back and visit (hell, I'm playing right now with the wife for the free weekend).  Mission repetition and experience grinding were the biggest flaws with the game, both of which are at least slightly improved.

Game Title: World of Warcraft
When You Played: a few months after release, quit before burning crusade
Your 'Main' Character: Orc Warrior
Why You Quit: Raiding turned me into a raving loot whore and it stopped being fun

Game Title:  Vanguard
When You Played: At release + 6 months
Your 'Main' Character: Wood Elf Shaman and  Orc Warrior
Why You Quit: Empty world, a million crazy deaths due to bugs, broken quest chains, crafting revamp, system performance, overall lack of polish and playability.

Game Title: Guild Wars
When You Played:  2007
Your 'Main' Character: Mage, Warrior
Why You Quit: Guild drama, hitting eye of the north and catching myself beginning to faction grind for asuran armor and realizing that therein lays the path of insanity.

I'll limit my response to SoE.  This is like when an ex-girlfriend calls two years later and asks why she was dumped.  Sorry.

Game Title: Everquest
When You Played: Kunark to GoD
Your 'Main' Character:  (If this is important, pm me.)
Why You Quit Retired: Everquest 2 released

Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: Release to KoS
Your 'Main' Character:  (If this is important, pm me.)
Why You Quit: This needs its own paragraph...

I was never happy with EQ2, but I was excited to make the switch and my guild was going and so I retired from EQ.  If EQ was a sandbox, EQ2 was a slide.  It was obvious from day one that every step of your path had been cleared at an executive level.  I still think that Sony overreacted to problems, perceived or real, in the original game.  Elements of the game that were fundamental to its success were completely missing from the sequel.  For example, there was no way that I could cast a spell on someone who wasn't in my group.  This may sound like nothing more than a 'game mechanic' to whoever made the decision, but in Antonica, this meant that I would no long be solicited for and could no longer aid others with a buff.  As a player, I was pretty much useless to 99.9% of other players.  For an online multiplayer game, that is a step in the wrong direction.  In fact, without ranting too much, my entire experience in EQ2 felt like a single player game played online in tandem with other people.  This is not to say that I did not have fun in EQ2, but there was never the feeling that I was part of something epic or even challenging, frankly.

Game Title: Vanguard
When You Played: Release
Your 'Main' Character:  (If this is important, pm me.)
Why You Quit: When I played Vanguard, it was not a complete game.  The bad press had rendered it empty.  There were easily exploitable bugs one could find without trying.  I felt like I had paid Sony out of obligation and that's when I knew the magic was gone.   :heartbreak:

That was cleansing.

Game Title: Everquest
When You Played: Launch
Your 'Main' Character:  wood elf druid
Why You Quit Retired: Fell off Kelethin, lost corpse, everything was dark. Couldn't find anything. Too frustrating. Quit.

Game Title: Everquest Attempt 2
When You Played: Dec 2000 (Velius hype drew me in)-Oct 2001
Your 'Main' Character:  Gnome Warrior
Why You Quit Retired: DAOC came out at the same time I was finally unable to keep up with my semi-perma group outlevelling me. Made several one month attempts to come back but the gear up/level up was too high.

Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: On and off launch to current
Your 'Main' Character:  Gnome Mystic
Why You Quit Retired: Left from time to time to try other games. Longest time off was fight with guildleader leading to me quitting the guild.

Game Title: SWG
When You Played: Launch for two months
Your 'Main' Character:  Twilek Tailor/Image Designer
Why You Quit Retired: Gross incomptence. I loved the game and as the 2nd master tailor on the server, I was insanely successful. (I still have friends from my tailor shop that I chat with occasionally in SL.) The bugs just crushed me. Towards the end of the 2nd month, I started to keep track of how long it took until a game altering bug came up and my record was something like 15 minutes. A new bug was introduced around that time that made factories shut down permanently after one production run. They needed to be redeeded to be turned back on. SOE's solution wasn't to fix the bug, but a bandaid to remove the cost for redeeding factories--which ignored the fact that a critter could spawn in the space or someone else could place, costing you your spot if you were in a prime area. But that's ok, because the band aid patch didn't work either and it still cost money to redeed them. That was the end for me. I came back a couple of times for freebie reactivations and such, but the servers were such ghosttowns there wasn't much point in playing.

Keeping this to SOE titles:

Game Title:  Everquest 1
When You Played:  2001-late 2004
Your 'Main' Character:  Boscorth, mid-50s Barb Beastlord
Why You Quit:  WoW, because it had all the things I thought EQ was missing (no xp loss on death, significant solo play, no camp n’ grind).  I still consider going back from time to time because it was such a wonderful experience even in my limited play capacity. 

Game Title:  SWG
When You Played: Beta and a month into live
Your 'Main' Character:  Severance Ehoe, ranged weapons (don’t remember)
Why You Quit:  Well… I hated the skill system.  I didn’t understand how awesome it was at the time.  Now, it’s all I want from a game  (levels are bad, mmkay?).  Also, I hated how there were random humanoids just standing around for no reason outside of towns.  I kept thinking “who are these people and why are they just standing around out here waiting for me to kill them… and should I?”

Game Title:  EQ2
When You Played:Various short-lived times during live, most significantly at Kunark launch
Your 'Main' Character: Shadowknight
Why You Quit:  It’s a clunky world.  It runs terribly on any system I’ve played it on.  Characters really fall into the ‘uncanny valley’ range in how they look.  I thought Kunark was a fantastic 1-20 experience, but fell flat once it pushed me out into the rest of the world.  Quests don’t logically follow from there, they send a person across the world for no reason.

Game Title:  Vanguard
When You Played:  Beta
Your 'Main' Character:  Various
Why You Quit:  I knew from beta it was not put together properly.  I was astounded they actually launched it the way they did. 

Today, with a wife, kid and full time job, I no longer have time for end-game.  It’s just not feasible.  As a few have said above, I refuse to PUG because it always ends in drama.  If I can’t play with my guild, I don’t play.  If it's something where the game can't be put on hold for a few minutes while I fix a household issue, I won't even start to get involved. 

Also – a note to developers:  Graphics don’t make a game… I’d be happy playing EQ/Kunark/Velious graphics on a game as long as the gameplay was engaging and doable by a busy person. 

Game:  Everquest
Main Character: Half-Elf Druid
Played: off and on between Oct 1999 - April 2004
Why you Quit/ Retired The game wasn't fun anymore. This had been my "fall back" game that I still enjoyed and returned to after checking out other games.  Something changed after SWG so that I didn't enjoy the game anymore.  I didn't care about the whole GoD 'debacle' though that was about the time I quit.  I think it was that too much 'end game' time was spent trying to grind AA's.  Uncapped AA acquisition was a fucking stupid move on SOE's part, really.  Not to mention the horrible amount of points you needed just to be 'useful'

Playing off and on meant you fell behind quickly. I would try to find groups only to be told I didn't have enough AA's to be taken as a group member.   I was part of a 'casual' raiding group.. meaning we only raided for 7 hours on weekends  :awesome_for_real: and I realized the game was just sucking up too damn much time.  Not only that, but having to spend ADDITIONAL time online to grind-out the AA's was bullshit, even for a druid who could quad-kite.  I sold my stuff, destroyed whatever was soulbound and gave away all my plat. I went and played City of Heroes instead.

Game: Planetside
Main Character: None really a 'main' the highest BR I had was a BR6 on TR
Played: Off and on between launch and last year.
Why you quit:   I bought the game sometime when WT/ Corp was running an active chapter and I could pick it up for $20.  I don't think I ever paid an actual sub more than a month.  I played infrequently even during the 'reserves' promotion.  Simply put, persistence in an FPS is pointless.  What little persistence the game offered in terms of unlocks is now also offered as a feature by free to play games.  The only thing PS has going for it is HUGE battles.. but it doesn't do those well enough to deserve $15 a month.   Particularly when even large battles come down to squads of 12v12, which free FPS offer in spades.

Game: SWG
Main Character: Carbineer/ Entertainer/ Merchant/ Miner
played: Release until about November of '03.
Why you quit  I was willing to try out a 'world' game, despite my thoughts on 'worlds' vs 'games.'  Plus it was motherfucking STAR WARS.  I just couldn't stay away.   I decided to try out an entertainer/ merchant/ miner at first, to get into the 'world' aspect rather than combat which had taken up so much of my game time to date.  Plus, all the UO folks had the best stories about non-combat stuff, so that seemed the best way to go in a "world" game. 

I quickly realized that this was a mistake of epic proportions, however.  I couldn't defend myself in the "wilds' around populated cities, meaning I died a hell of a lot trying to run around every 2-3 days to re-place my harvesters for the best ore & power.   On top of that, since I actually had a job and the resets would happend while I was at work I'd get stuck on only a 30-50% yield spot, and never ever hit those sweet "70-90%" areas, because they were already jammed full of harvesters by the time I got home.

It was obvious, however, that if I wanted to make credits this was the best way to do it, because crafters were rolling in bank and adventurerers were really poor.  Particularly rich were the 2-3 "top" crafters on my server who were able to exploit the factory bug to mastery in a few days.  A full month ahead of anyone else who actually had to grind to the top once it was fixed. Way to not roll-back skill gains from folks who exploited, SOE.

After a few months of my harvester dance, and 1-2 hours surveying every time I logged in to make sure I was still pulling down the best resources, I realized this game was a job.  I wasn't having fun, I was busy micromanaging buillshit.  I wasn't making friends, because I was out in the wildreness humping my surveying crap around or running back to where I'd just been pwnd by killer rabbits, or micromanaging my merchant dummies trying to get that whole buggy system to work for me and actually sell my goods.

THEN, when I was done with that I'd get to go to the caninta and macrodance.  I found a group of folks to talk with, but they and I were quickly driven away by the macrobots and people just looking to grind the profession up so they had a pocket wound healer for their combat account.  It was obnoxious and annoying, because in the middle of a conversation you'd have a doid named "TIP SHALAKABOOMBOOM PLZ" running about while shalakka spammed "DANCING FOR WOUNDS! WATCH ME AND PLEASE REMEMBEr to TIP! THANK YOU YOUR pATRONAGE IS APPRECIATED!!1" every 30seconds.

It was crap.

So I started dropping entertainer for combat.  That's when i got to see how truly craptacular SWG's original combat system was.  When i realized that was no fun either, I changed my shop name to "CLOSED- SEE YOU IN FINAL FANTASY XI" gave away the last of my resources and quit.

The game was a cluster fuck of mismanagement and lousy, unfun design from the top down.  I regret playing and paying for the little time I was there to this day, and really, I think it's what soured me on all SOE products.   I didn't last long in EQ after my return from SWG/ FFXI and I haven't had a sub to a single SOE product since I left EQ after, and none of them have proven that to be a mistake.

  I beta'd EQ2 and PotBs.  I could tell neither was going to catch my attention for various reasons, but since you asked for games we actually subbed to, i won't expand on that.

Game Title: Ultima Online
When You Played: 1997-1999
Your 'Main' Character: Decker
Why You Quit: Everquest came out

Game Title: Everquest
When You Played: 1999-2000 or so
Your 'Main' Character: Pheseus, an enchanter
Why You Quit: Reached the end-game which involved raiding, which I decided I hated (even though there were few raids in the game at that point - there were a few planes)

Game Title: Star Wars Galaxies
When You Played: When it came out (2003?) for about six months
Your 'Main' Character: Can't remember. He was a tailor
Why You Quit: Euro servers opened up some time after we had already started on US servers, causing the guild to split into two.

Game Title: LotrO
When You Played: April 2007 - Oct 2007
Your 'Main' Character: Linthir, a minstrel
Why You Quit: Reached the end-game - it was raiding. Not for me.

Game: Everquest
Main Character: Barbarian Shaman
Played: November 1999 up to Gates of Discord (with pauses).
Why I quit: Direction of the last few Expansions (from Planes of Power onwards) showed the Developers were not interested anymore in the "nicely crafted world" aspects that drew me to the game. The randomly generated dungeons were the drop in the bucket that didn't allow me to ignore that anymore.


Game: SWG
Played: A few weeks
Why I quit: Bored to tears, wasn't even able to regenerate without other people.


Game: Everquest 2
Main Character: Barbarian Shaman
Player: About a year, on an off
Why I quit: With my random playing schedules it became too expensive to pay a months worth to play a week. I instead settled on Lotro because the lifetime subscription gives me the ability to log in when I feel like it and ignore it the rest of the time without actually feeling like losing money. I would love for EQ2 to have a lifetime subscription model so I can return.

Game Title: SWG
When Played: Mar '05 - Sep '05
Main Character: Dakken Kuiper - Master of Teras Kasi
Reason for Leaving: I had just overcome the game's learning curve (this was my 1st MMO) when the CU hit. I stuck it out for several more months because the game already had its hooks in me and I hadn't invested so much into the old system; however, the noticeable decline of activity in NPC city cantinas and hospitals nagged at me until I eventually quit. Maybe I'm crazy, but I enjoyed exiting a starport and seeing word balloon spam. The game just wasn't immersive anymore.

I can make mine pretty short and sweet:

Game Title: EQ, EQ2, SWG pre and post NGE

When You Played: On and off in stints, typical 2 or 3 months at a whack.

Your 'Main' Character: The names elude me. Perhaps that is in itself most telling.

Why You Quit: For the dikus, to include SWG post NGE... the pace of character advancement at mid to upper levels. I don't have the patience for repetitive combat. For SWG pre NGE it was due to the pace of repair of numerous system flaws. A lot of things were buggy or just whonky system wise.

That is truly a thing of beauty. Craig, if you use it, you should send this guy a consulting check for a grand or more.

Game Title: EQ and all other SoE games
When You Played: 1999-near present
Your 'Main' Character: raid-capable SK on EQ
Why You Quit: EQ poped my cherry, and times were wonderous and all consuming for about 3 years. Attempts to relive the experience failed time after time. Main reason, in summary, is that you can't go home again.

Title: SWG
When you played: Umm, launch time ... 2003? Off and on for about 6 months.
Your Main Character: Expert Bounty Hunter
Why You Quit: It wasn't "Star Wars", obviously


Title: EQ2
When you played: 2004, for a couple of weeks
Your Main Character: Newb Dirge
Why you quit: My character looked like he was made of Play-Doh.

Thanks!

I asked for only SOE titles because I'm looking for anecdotal quotes I can reference to show personalized reasons why individuals quit. I have Yee's information already included, but UnSub... yours I didn't have. Do you mind if I use and attribute properly?

I've got enough of a start here, so if you want to broaden this to other companies/games I'd still be interested even if it's not for my project. :)

Ok then..I'll add a couple more  :-)

Title: Shadowbane
When you played: 2003-ish
Your main character: Bard
Why you quit: Because Wolfpack got feature characters involved with rivaling guilds, and destroyed my city

Title: City of Heroes
When you played: 2004, off and on
Your main character: Katana/Scrapper
Why you quit: teh grind

Title: Eve Online
When you played: Launch
Your main character: Don't recall.... one of those frenchie dudes
Why you quit: Sparse presentation and convoluted UI

SWG
Launch- NGE
Ryeun Dharow- Master weaponsmith/ Pistoleer
Quite because: The NGE ripped the soul out of good game that needed bug fixes/ balancing and content while at the same time trivializing the work thousands had done to get their Jedi.

EQ1: Beta (back in early 1999 or so? I think... I slept alot since then and was trying to study hard for circuit theory courses).
Quit: I didn't buy it because it didn't run nicely on my machine at the time (very choppy and laggy).  While watching from the sidelines and upgrading my machine Abashi and Brad McQuaid caused me to never ever want to buy a Sony product again.  Sorry if that was 8 years ago, their attitude and Sony's at the time basically gave a big middle finger to any paying customer who didn't agree with them.  I have voted with my dollars ever since by not paying for SOE's products despite how much fun they look like they might be.  It's going to take one hell of a game to come out to convince me to become a paying customer again.

Non-SOE products:

UO: early 1999 to early 2001
Characters: 10 across 3 different servers
Quit: Trammel.  Mostly the loss of my in-game friends who stopped playing because of it.

I'm still playing WoW ever since release, albeit very casually (1 60, no 70s) and have never cancelled my subscription yet.

Those are the only MMO's I've played\tried besides the "free" Japanese ones that come out every now and again that make me want to break out the eye-spoons.

Title: Star Wars Galaxies
When: Launch + 1year or so
Character: Irek Dabry, Master BH, Imperial PvPer
Why I Quit: After the CU and adding 'bases' for the PvP folks,  tons of bugs and imbalances were introduced into PvP play. Because we could never get a fight without someone exploiting something (shooting from the bottom of the base, shooting through walls, etc) or using overpower abilities (way over powered AoEs), or grinding to a halt with more than 10 folks.. I decided to find a pvp game that was a world *built* for pvp, not tacked on at the last minute. Over reliance on random foods to be competitive in pvp was also annoying - changed from combat skill to who had the most pie. That, and I think simplifying combat was the wrong way to go - simplify the UI/interface, but we want more depth to dig into when we are ready for it.

SOE

Game Title: Star Wars Galaxies
When You Played: ~3 Months after Release off and on up to ~2 Months post-NGE.
Your 'Main' Character: Aen'ene Escaa on Tempest, Combat Medic/x pre-NGE and Medic post-NGE
Why You Quit: Usually related to guild/friends leaving the game for some other new shiny that was recently released.  Bugs didn't help though.

Game Title: Matrix Online
When You Played: Late Beta through August 06 and again in mid-07
Your 'Main' Character: Caladein Arsou on Regression/Method/Recursion, Team Patcher (Force Multiplier w/ Corpsman usually, although I had everything outside of MA made and leveled)
Why You Quit:  For context, I was a Machine PvPer and later my faction and I went Cypherite.  There probably wasn't one thing that did it as I wound up quitting when the game was simply "not fun" and most of our faction had gone to greener pastures.  Near the end of it, my main frustrations were from PVP being broken.  For a top five though:

(1) Exploits and bugs all over the place.
(2) Side balance was a joke. 3:1 odds were pretty commonplace as a Machinist PvPer.  With smart play those odds were sustainable for us to the point it became a battle of "who got bored first", although that may have been an issue in-and-of-itself.
(3) I usually play Healers in MMOs, and Patchers were outright retarded.  I was one of two or three primary PvP Patchers on our entire server.  I was able to do some pretty cool things with it, but the trees didn't make any sense... at all.
(4) As a general theme, abilities/trees were either broken or wildly overpowered.  It was at the same time a theorycrafter's greatest day and worst nightmare.
(5) The interface made me want to kill small woodland creatures.

Non-SOE

Game Title: Asheron's Call
When You Played: ~1999
Your 'Main' Character: Garnet Monk on Frostfell, Bow/War Magic
Why You Quit: I started playing FPSs (probably Tribes 1 and DoD).

Game Title: Lineage 2
When You Played: Late Beta up to ~2 months after release.
Your 'Main' Character: Caladein on Kain, Bishop
Why You Quit: Grind started to get to me, and friends went off to play SWG (again).

Game Title: City of Heroes / Villains
When You Played: Late 05
Your 'Main' Character: Cauldreth on Virtue (?), Dark/Dark Defender
Why You Quit: Grind + no need to level past travel power for the most part.

Game Title: World of Warcraft
When You Played: November 05 to Present
Your 'Main' Character: Caldaron on US-Wildhammer, Priest
Why You Still Enjoy It: Few bugs, PvP game is balanced, friends are still playing.  Also, being able to "choose" to do PvE is awesome, instead of having to do it to stay competitive in PvP.

Game Title: EVE Online
When You Played: February 08 to Present
Your 'Main' Character: Cal Escaa
Why You Still Enjoy It: Sandbox-y and lots of different types of PvP with lots of ways to participate.

Game Title: Everquest 1
When You Played: From 2 weeks before Kunark came out until 2 months after WoW came out
Your 'Main' Character: L70 DE Shadowknight
Why You Quit: The mess that was GOD caused fewer of my casual raiding guild to log on, and while OOW was better, the release of WoW/EQ2 halved my guild's active players overnight. I played WoW as well, and would play wow, soloing happily while I had my second box logged onto EQ1 for hours while waiting for guildmates/friends to log on so we could group. - Yes - I played WoW for something to do while LFG in EQ1. After a couple of months, common sense prevailed. WoW didn't have the baggage of years of implied and real dev arrogance, and was soloable, pretty, and fun. I could log on and just play immediately whenever I wanted to.

Game Title: Planetside
When You Played: At release - for the trial month.
Your 'Main' Character: Can't remember - some guy with a gun
Why You Quit: I thought it was fun, if suffering badly from lag. My exact comment at the time was "I would play this if I didn't have to pay a monthly fee for it". Compared to MMOs, it didn't offer a compelling reason to keep paying, not with 2549243 other free-playable MP FPSes out there.

Game Title: Planetside
When You Played: Started in closed beta, quit about 1 year later (subbed off and on during the year)
Your 'Main' Character: Damijin, Vanu, Emerald Server, Outfit: Ahriman Corps
Why You Quit: AC was made up of several stat-whoring power gamers. At some point they generally grew upset with the slow updates to the game, the repetitive game play, and the consistently growing hacker issues. At this point we began griefing as an outfit to amuse ourselves, including some strategic orbital strikes on packed friendly vehicle spawns, and strategic destructions of generators in our own bases just for laughs. The CSR in charge of Planetside banned a lot of our outfit, banned our leader, and threatened to disband the outfit. Our leader talked him out of all of that, we got back in the game -- but it didn't solve the core issue. We were bored. We had played too much in a game with too little content. When the beta for Lineage 2 came out we left the game as a guild and migrated.

Game Title: Lineage 2
When You Played: 3+ years on and off.
Your 'Main' Character: Name: Verloren, Class: Overlord
Why You Quit: The overlord class was a very useful PvP class for any clan/alliance, but it was extremely difficult to EXP. The class was so integral to PvP, but unless people were willing to power level your character for you, only those with an extremely strong stomach for grind could actually play one on a day-to-day basis. Because my main was such a bitch to EXP, I eventually quit it and just started playing other people's characters. Since I did not own those characters, I felt no attachment to them and never played them outside of raids and PvP. Eventually the lack of attachment to the characters weened me from the game entirely as I refocused myself toward real-life goals.

Game Title: Everquest 1
When You Played: Until Luclin
Your 'Main' Character: Messa Booggie
Why You Quit: The release of luclin had a new grafix engine that made the game nearly unplayable on my computer. On top of that, I had just really started to get into raiding (never really enjoyed it before then) the graphics update made it nearly impossible for me to raid. I quit in frustration. I could have gotten some new hardware, but the support forums were terrible. They were listing specs that put my computer well within what I had as capable of running the game. They never said what you'd need for a full raid. If there had been a lot better communication in that department I probably wouldn't have quit.

Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: From Launch day until the Xchange servers went live.
Your 'Main' Character: Charlie Mopps
Why You Quit: The Xchange servers, the Froglok thing, general dislike for SOE and the direction I perceived they were steering the mmo industry. To this day I am still a seething Smeadly hater, mostly due to the exchange servers.

Game Title: SWG
When You Played: Didn't make it past the trial
Your 'Main' Character: dunno
Why You Quit: The game sucks. I mean, terrible... really terrible.

Game Title: Vanguard
When You Played: Beta, then again a couple months after release
Your 'Main' Character: Charlie Mopps
Why You Quit: The games not done. Nothing to do, no-where to go. Glaring flaws in design.


Game Title: Pirates of the Burning sea
When You Played: For about 1 month at the beginning.
Your 'Main' Character: Charlie Mopps
Why You Quit: The games not done. Nothing to do, no-where to go. Glaring flaws in design. It was fun for the first week or so.

Non-SOE

Game Title: Guild-Wars
When You Played: Original Beta through to a few months after release.
Your 'Main' Character: War/Mon I think.
Why You Quit: The PvP got boring and the PvE stuff felt empty (like Diablo but even worse, it didn't feel like an online world or community). Was not interested with the focus they took the PvP stuff towards the end of the beta either. WoW was around and I enjoyed playing it more, despite the fact that I had previously been massively preferential to GW.

Game Title: EVE
When You Played: Couple of years ago, 2005? For about 2 weeks.
Your 'Main' Character: No Idea.
Why You Quit: Skill system shitted me up the wall. Pressing a button and afking is not my idea of fun. The awful UI also contributed a lot.

Game Title: WOW
When You Played: Release to 3 months later. A couple of months before TBC to 4 months after TBC. Now to...
Your 'Main' Character: Orc Warlock.
Why You Quit: Originally I quit because there was nothing to do at level 60 that seemed to lead towards anything, or were themselves fun. The things that could be done were an absolute grind (Ony keying) or not at all challenging (zerging UBRS, Strath) and there was nothing else to do, nor remotely near to being implemented.
The second time I quit because I had seen most of the TBC stuff. Many of the changes that were to be implemented in the next patch, which was only weeks away, would have made the game better or so I thought, but I'd just had enough. The barriers to new content were beyond my control, being either restricted by poor implementation or the incompetence of others, and I had no desire to bash my head up against that wall.

One thing that did shit me up the wall about WoW was the fact they wouldn't let me cancel my account unless I told them why I was canceling. Because of that fact I never gave an honest answer either time. Fuckwits. Never force a paying customer to give you feedback, if I want to quit and you fuck me about you're only making it worse for yourself.

Game Title:  EQ1
When You Played:  Launch to Kunark or possibly the next expansion after
Your 'Main' Character: Warrior
Why you quit:  Hit lvl 54, took me MONTHS and still didn't appreciably advance.  Sold the character.

Game Title: SWG
When You Played:  Beta + Launch 30 day incl
Your 'Main' Character: A Rifleman/Something
Why you quit:  Lost interest, bored.

Game: EQ2
When You Played:  Beta + Launch trial; several resubs
Your 'Main' Character: Assassin
Why you quit:  It's always been lack of advancement when I quit.  Usually, when I return things at the level I was at have become easier due to mudflation and wimping from group to single player style.  I play until I again get caught up to the excessive time investment to advance point and then unsub again.  This last time I unsubbed it was because I COULD NOT BUY KUNARK without paying for, again, everything I already owned.  To which I still feel I should add a hearty 'fuck you SOE'.

But they use that money to buy fantastic games like Vanguard.

Off topic:

This sounds like a reaction to forum whiners basically. A lot of forum trolls used to hate the whole buff selling/giving thing and cried for it to be nerfed in EQ1.

Hmm, I used the new Sony launcher, and they have a record of all I have purchased, so all I needed to do was download my previous purchases. http://launcher.station.sony.com/

SOE only to save some time, my non SOE list is longer with more  :awesome_for_real:.  Time lines are fuzzy.

Game Title: Everquest
When You Played:  Launch for 2 or so months.  Later rejoined the game with my roommate and his brother for Kunark. Quit late in Luclin.  Rejoined a third time during PoP time frame.  Lasted a few months.
Your 'Main' Character:  Tellan - shortie druid.  Rasix - Iksar monk. Last time I can't remember the name of my "main".
Why You Quit:  The first time?  Game's punitive nature and lack of a social desire to stay in the game made it expendable.  Yantis offered me cash for my account to use for farming (I was a charter acquisition). Having a monetary incentive to not play a game I was bored with was good enough for me.  Second time I quit: I wasn't happy with my guild basically dissolving, realized I was playing a game I didn't like very much (raiding in a 3rd tier guild was like paying to be virtually bullied), and I wanted to get away. Plus, I knew I could Ebay and make the sting lighter.  Third time I quit, I just realized I wasn't having fun after "owning" the bazaar and making twinks for a few months.  Monetary reward was waiting, and I ebayed again.

Game Title: SWG
When You Played:  Launch + 6 months? 2-3 months I believe when player cities were put in the game.
Your 'Main' Character: Rasix - Dosh Droid Engineer and later Smugger, Creature Handler and finally Commando.
Why You Quit:  The first time it was because there were too many broken things in the game.  Droid engineer was never working properly at any time.  The second time I quit, it was just due to not having any fun at the moment. For SWG it was just too many "this will work" some day promises. 


Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: Mid - Late 2007 for less than a month.
Your 'Main' Character:  Never got past the newbie experience long enough to consider any character a main.
Why You Quit:  Honestly, I was so sick of DIKU mechanics I just couldn't stomach leveling at the time. It was really just a wrong place/wrong time for EQ2 as I thought the game was pretty solid.  Also, I did not care for the art direction but that didn't factor into me quitting.

Game Title: Everquest
When You Played: Release-2001
Your 'Main' Character: Haemish (Barbarian Warrior)
Why You Quit: Lewt whorez, lack of guild management features that made a guild leader's life a living fucking hell, lack of support by SOE for the most basic of community interaction between the world and community, lewt whorez and the rewarding of lewt whoring by the game system, assinine and fucktarded requirement that everyone raid or stagnate thus creating lewt whorez, timed epic spawns, lewt whorez, the holy trinity, lewt whorez, kill-stealing lewt whorez, manipulative cunts and the people lewt whorez who followed them, Dark Age of Camelot and its PVP

Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: March 2006 - May 2006
Your 'Main' Character: Marcus (Assassin)
Why You Quit: Solo play cut me off from too much content

I only remember ever playing one SOE title:
Game Title: Star Wars Galaxies
When You Played: Mid 2004 or so?  I think?  For about a month... before JTL, sometime.
Your 'Main' Character: Absolutely no idea... some kind of submachinegun combat guy (marksman?  One of the base classes, I think)
Why You Quit: Couldn't find anything to do.  The towns I found were all mostly empty.  I could run missions from the mission terminals, and they'd give me money, but I couldn't find anything to spend it on.  Nothing fun or cool, just endless running and shooting womp rat nests and crap.

Non SOE stuff:
Game Title: Guild Wars
When You Played: Sporadically since release
Your 'Main' Character: Kel Makabe (Monk/Warrior)
Why You Quit: Levelling hit a blockade; can't advance solo, and failed the same mission four times with PUGs.  Just killed my interest.  Also, combat spells have these bizarre sound effects that bug the hell out of me (sound like someone playing ping-pong in an echo chamber).

Game Title: Anarchy Online
When You Played: 2006?  I think...?  Pretty late.
Your 'Main' Character: No idea
Why You Quit: Logged in, created a character, futzed around, logged out, never came back.  Nothing grabbed me. 

Game Title: EVE Online
When You Played: 2006-2007
Your 'Main' Character: Kel Makabe (combat pilot)
Why You Quit: Nothing to do in high sec but run missions over and over again for money to buy a slightly bigger ship.  Nothing to do in low sec but get destroyed by the guy who has already bought the slightly bigger ship.  Combat wasn't interesting enough to keep me there on it's own merits.

Game Title: A bunch of KMMOs (Lineage, Ragnarok Online, a bunch of free betas, etc.)
When You Played: Various times
Your 'Main' Character: No idea
Why You Quit: Nothing to do but grind.  Fun for maybe a week.

Game Title: World of Warcraft
When You Played: Since launch (though I did unsub two or three times)
Your 'Main' Character: Lender (Blood Elf Paladin)
Why I Still Play: The game runs well, there's stuff for me to do.  Not so much "THIS IS AN AWESOME GAME" as "this is the MMO that has sucked the least".  The graphics I really like, though.

As much as I hate to defend SOE, they actually fixed this. You can solo pretty much to your level cap now. You can't do raid content... and there's always a mob at the end of the zone that needs at least a full group to kill. But there is definitely a lot of solo content now.

Game Title: Everquest
When You Played: 1999 - 2005
Your 'Main' Character: Half-elf Ranger
Why You Quit: My guild fell apart, some for WoW, some for EQ2, I chose to sink myself fully into the jedi grind in SWG

Game Title: SWG
When You Played: From beta to shortly after the NGE
Your 'Main' Character: First a carbineer/ranger, then a bio-engineer/ranger, ranger/smuggler, smuggler/musician, musician/smuggler/bounty hunter and finally jedi
Why You Quit: The NG-fucking-E. You dance with the ones that brung ya, and yeah, you left that crowd hanging like Duckie at the end of "Pretty in Pink" I really tried to like it, tried to come back to it a year later when the bugs had been ironed out, still leaves a bad taste.

Game Title: Matrix Online
When You Played: Beta to a little after SOE acquired it.
Your 'Main' Character: No real main, just a bunch of alts.
Why You Quit: Really wanted it to be fun, it wasn't.

Game Title: Planetside
When You Played: Beta to about a year ago.
Your 'Main' Character: Cheradenine and later Diziet (my girlfriend's sniper)
Why You Quit: Nobody to play with most of the time anymore.

Game Title: PotBS
When You Played: Launch to about a month.
Your 'Main' Character: Spanish priavteer
Why You Quit: Couldn't get into it. Wanted to, couldn't.

Game Title: Vanguard
When You Played: Beta to about three days after launch.
Your 'Main' Character: Half-elf ranger in Tanvu.
Why You Quit: Ran like crap. Largely uninspired gameplay. Loved the huge vistas, (the city with the huge, keyhole shaped dock still floors me) but the game couldn't keep me occupied.

Game Title: EQ 2
When You Played: About six months after launch to present (off and on)
Your 'Main' Character: Half-elf ranger (notice the pattern?)
Why You Quit: Actually haven't quit this one, though I am on a hiatus while I play AoC.

Non SOE games (Just for shits and giggles and to balance out the other stuff)

Game Title: WoW
When You Played: Launch to about two weeks later.
Your 'Main' Character: Tauren hunter
Why You Quit: Bored the living shit out of me. This was coming off of EQ and it wasn't as deep, as fun or as interesting. If I wanted to play EQ on training wheels, I figured I'd play EQ2. Plus, SWG beckoned.

Game Title: CoX
When You Played: Issue 8 to Issue 10
Your 'Main' Character: Natural blaster
Why You Quit: hit the grindy wall at 30.

Game Title: Tabula Rasa
When You Played: Beta to about a month ago.
Your 'Main' Character: A sniper and a spy.
Why You Quit: Kinda lost interest. I intend to go back in about six months to check on the state of the game though.

Game Title: AO
When You Played: Beta to about a year after launch
Your 'Main' Character: a spy.
Why You Quit: Didn't live up to its promise IMO.

Holy Shit! I've got a free month of Planetside comin' to me!

... oh yeah. 1.33 hrs of patching.  :uhrr:

Game Title: Everquest 1
When You Played: Not exactly sure...2000ish?
Your 'Main' Character: Dark elf Wizard, no idea what his name was
Why You Quit: My computer could barely handle the game; everything ran choppy and having dial up didn't help. Made it to level 2 or so before getting fed up dying to ants because of lag and went back to MUDs.

Game Title: Star Wars Galaxies
When You Played: Late 2003 to Mid 2004, subbed about 6 months
Your 'Main' Character: Started as a crafter trying to make guns, then respecced to Marksman
Why You Quit: The game never really grabbed my interest. Finding good resource areas was nearly impossible, and the community as a whole was less than helpful. When I switched to the combat side of things, hoping that'd be enjoyable, I got bored even faster. Walk to this random spot, to kill these random dudes around a den, then kill the den. Then walk to the next one. More boring and repetitive than CoX's missions, without even a vague hint of variety.

Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: From launch til late '05, re subbed a few months ago, still playing.
Your 'Main' Character: Azhala, first 50 Warlock on my server and catass extraordinaire.
Why You Quit: First game to really capture my interest since MUDs. Played really hardcore with a couple RL friends, and because of various other conditions ended up doing little else. Grinded really hard to max level. Raided for a bit. Mostly left due to very poor itemization for casters: finding +int on an item was nearly impossible, and all that did was up power. There was literally no way to increase your damage once you had master spells. Character customization was also virtually nonexistent. Between no meaningful way to advance my character and realizing that the game was taking most of my life, I left. The addition of AAs and more gear options for characters of all classes (between multiple crafted sets and RoK's very well itemized loot) make the game a LOT more enjoyable.

Game Title: Vanguard
When You Played: 2nd wave beta to almost launch
Your 'Main' Character: Played a warrior, necro and druid.
Why You Quit: The game was never really finished, and I didn't like the attitude of most of the community. Everyone was always screaming for everything to be made harder. "WTF!? They added a map!? Omg Vanguard is WoW 2.0! ZOMG no, don't put a GPS dot on the map!! And I want longer corpse runs!!" etc. And those who weren't screaming "harder" were more subtle about it, screaming "EQ1 was like this, so VG should be that way. I want 'feature x' from EQ1 back!!!!" which didn't appeal to me very much either given my limited EQ1 experience. All in all I never felt inclined to spend a dime on it, and by late beta I'd only log in on patch days to see what they broke this time.

That's it for my SOE experience. Might post the non-SOEs later.

Game Title: SWG
When You Played: July 2003-July 2004
Your 'Main' Character: Weaponsmith/Rifleman
Why You Quit: It became clear that fixing the basic flaws in the crafting game (which was all I was really there for) was not really any sort of priority and that all of the improvements that the community reps kept promising would be in the next publish were being delayed indefinitely in favor of add-ons I had no interest in (JTL and the Jedi trial stuff).  I might have at least stuck around to see JTL had I not been so irritated by the deception.

Game Title: Everquest 2
When you played: First 6 months after launch, then Nov 07-Jan 08
Your 'Main' Character: First Main Barbarian Mystic, Second time round Barbarian Guardian
Why you quit: First time I quit was because I couldn't find enough people in my timezone to play with, and I got really burnt out harvesting forever for rares.  Really enjoyed the game with all the changes when I tried the game a second time but I didn't have any friends playing and the MMO RL friends I have kept begging me to return to WoW and raid with them.  In the end playing a game I was kinda over but with a bunch of close friends is still a better experience than playing a fresher game you are enjoying but alone.

Game Title: Vanguard
When you played: early 07
Your 'Main' Character: Human Ranger
Why you quit: I think it is pretty much accepted now that no-one now needs to justify/explain their reason for leaving Vanguard.  If you played it you left it.

Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: 3 months after launch - present
Your 'Main' Character: Sumatai - Wood Elf Troub (Crushbone)
Why You Quit: Championed EQ2 for a long time. Just recently canceled - no compelling reason to log in at the moment.  Two characters to 80 (well the other is 78), so an alt is out of the question.  Hard to upgrade characters at this point (without raiding or extensive grouping) - 80 Troub/80 weaponsmith/80 tinkerer/pretty much max AA. I can not upgrade spells at this point, Adept III's cost a frickin fortune for scouts (which I did pick up - but felt like a job grinding cash/rares) and Masters are unobtainable at the moment due to crazy ass prices. Not sure I can pinpoint a problem with EQ2 (besides shitty performance issues). I just mainly solo (90% if the time), and just ran out of solo content.    I have to admit grim, the forums also suck at the moment, pretty much a ghost town - threads usually suck if someone is actually posting (with the same fuckin 5 people commenting in the thread). The alternative at EQ2Flames isn't much better, more active but it seems it is a contest for who can bitch about SOE the hardest, with the most profanities.  Fuckin' idiots.
 
Game Title: Planetside
When You Played:  subbed about 6 months a couple years ago
Your 'Main' Character: Trebler
Why You Quit: Not a bad game, just is obvious that there is little or no future for it.  No lore, very repetitive.

Game Title: Vanguard, waste of time to type out reasons.

I wish SOE would put up more money and development of existing games, instead of adding volume to the stable of suck (Station Access).

Well, I'm sitting here working on Memorial Day with my thumb up my ass, so:

My MMoG history, as best I remember.

Game Title: UO
When You Played: Beta to one year in to Siege Perilous (never made it to the big split)
Your 'Main' Character: Bunktavious (gimpy bear tamer, golf club weilder)
Why You Quit: Urban Sprawl, losing track of the people I played with, repeated goofy rule changes.

Game Title: Asheron's Call
When You Played: From Day One, for about 2.5 years
Your 'Main' Character: Bunk (unarmed/bow with no Life Magic), Thrudd (mace fighter)
Why You Quit: Left Darktide after about a year, because of the leveling trees and bots. While AC was good for making pvp viable between varying level toons, eventually the spread just got too big for casual players like me. Continued playing on non-pvp for quite a while. Eventually quit becuase most of my guild had moved on.

Game Title: Star Wars Galaxies
When You Played: From about four months in, played probably 8 months
Your 'Main' Character: Kaede (pistoleer/tailor/ranger/entertainer)
Why You Quit: The day I realized that I was logging in everyday to check my factories, and it felt more like a job than a game. I really liked the idea of how the social and trade classes worked, but they needed a better mechanic for advancement than just plain grinding. Once everyone started grinding Holocrons (worst ider ever!) there were suddenly Master tradespeople everywhere who had grinded there way there in days - it took away the sense of accomplishment for the casual player. I tried the game again very briefly after the big change - as soon as I discovered that if I wanted to play an entertainer or tradesman, that I would never be able to kill anything tougher than a beetle, I immeditely dropped it again.

Game Title: Shadowbane
When You Played: For about two months after launch
Your 'Main' Character: Bunk (Shade Scout)
Why You Quit: my original guild was formed on message boards almost two years before the game launched. We were established, built up, and finally self destructed before the game even launched (you may remember this group Grim, you were smart enough to leave earlier). Once the game launched, I ended up playing with a random guild that let me join. Was fun for about two seiges... Just wasn't that great a game.

Game Title: City of Heroes
When You Played: a few months after launch, for maybe 3 months
Your 'Main' Character: Bunk (radiation controller I think)
Why You Quit: GRIND!!! Endless GRIND!!! Just found the combat way too repetitive and the curve over which you gained new powers way too slow. The character creator is all that kept me there for as long as I was.

Game Title: WoW
When You Played: about six months after launch to now
Your 'Main' Character: Bunktavious (dwarf hunter/engineer)
Why You Quit: stopped playing from time to time, but have never quit. Playing another reroll again now. The game works for a casual player like me. I know I'll never be involved in the high end raid stuff, but that's ok - I usually start a new character before the last one hits 30. It's a simple, addictive, and well pollished game, that lets casual soloists play.

Game Title: MEO
When You Played: beta, for about one week a few months back
Your 'Main' Character: can't remember
Why You Quit: hated the combat, hated the animations, wasn't a big fan of the art. Being Middle Earth wasn't enough to make me care.

Right they have a record of everything I have purchased.  Which is everything except the Kunark expansion.

See if you can find the Kunark expansion that doesn't include everything else.  I would have bought Kunark for 25 or 30 bucks but when the price was 40 and there was no option to get it cheaper with out all the stuff I already own I pretty much said screw it, and decided not to support that business model.

Server merge just happened, Battles are huge again. Good times to be had.

Game Title:EQ1
When You Played:1999-2000 / 2001-2002
Your 'Main' Character:Sarlyn / Shiz
Why You Quit:Camping the ranger leggings killed me and 3 guilds collapsed in rapid succession / new baby made raiding impossible

Game Title:PS
When You Played:off and on since launch
Your 'Main' Character:MrJoshua
Why You Quit:Game just gets old after 3 months and taking time off makes me suck again


Game Title:Vanguard
When You Played:launch month plus a little
Your 'Main' Character:Darkmane, Pai
Why You Quit:Travel time sinks, especially to train new spells. Loved group combat but groups were hard to find and dungeons required 2 hours+ committment.

I saw that. I got about a days worth, capped some bases and shot some guys, and then they shut me down again.  :cry:

If I had the fun money, I'd be temped to sub up again for a little bit.

SOE Titles:

Everquest 2
Played: September-October 2007, March-April 2008
Characters: Rokal (Fey Swashbuckler), Rokal (Sarnak Inquisitor)
Why I Quit: The first time I quit because I didn't like how spammy the Swashbuckler felt to play. I had like 30 spells that all did virtually the same thing. Combat was based on choosing which spell to select based on whether it was ready or not, not based on which spell fit the situation best. Because of this, all combat played out exactly the same where you hit like 8 buttons at the start of combat and then re-cast a few of them when they were up. I had been playing WoW, where less was more and the abilities really stood on their own instead of just seeming like more of the same. There was no excitement in leveling up because whatever spell I got would just be the same exact shit as before only under a new name. I didn't level any other classes high enough to see if they had the same issues, but I could tell they did. Also, me and a few friends tried the Splitpaw Saga dungeons, and we unanimously agreed they were awful. This was add-on content that came out after launch, that we paid extra money for, and it was far worse than even the starter dungeons in WoW.

The second time, I came back because I heard combat had been condensed and the new race looked cool. I got to the exact same level as before (think it was 26) before deciding to quit again. Again, I disliked the combat. It seemed like the number of abilities I had was cut down and condensed somewhat, like I'd wanted. However, once I started grouping I realized that combat in groups was just a cluster-fuck where everyone spammed whatever they had until the enemy was dead. Because the spell effects in EQ2 were so grandiose, you could hardly tell what was going on or make out who was doing what. Playing as a group of 3 in EQ2 felt as chaotic and blunt as a fight with 20 in WoW. The game has seen some really nice improvements over the years (such as not running like shit on decent systems anymore, a problem I recall at launch), but in the end the combat, spells, and classes sucked.

Vanguard
Played: August 2007
Character: Rokal (Kurashasa Psionicist)
Why I Quit: Game ran awful, was completely empty of players. I could play the latest FPS games on my system, or WoW or EQ2, and get at least 30 fps. In Vanguard, I would walk into a small empty town and my computer would hit 2-3 fps trying to load everything. The game didn't have stellar graphics to justify the problems either. Even with medium-low settings the game would look terrible and would play to match it.


Non-SoE

Dark Age of Camelot
Played: May 2003
Character: No idea, was a Reaver
Why I Quit: I joined the game too late in its lifespan to really get hooked on it. Grouping consisted of traveling to a non-instanced dungeon and killing random things inside it for however long you wanted to. I didn't really like that style.

World of Warcraft
Played: Launch-January 2008, April 2008-present
Character: Rokal (Dwarf Priest), Tellus (Tauren Druid)
Why I Quit: I disliked the direction the game was going. I had loved 40-man raids, and 25-man raids didn't live up to those memories. By the time we had killed Illidan I looked back on the raid instances in TBC and asked myself which of them were memorable. I could think of only 2-3 bosses out of 30+ that lived up to even the most basic post-MC bosses of Vanilla WoW. I've returned to play casually with a few friends, so I guess this entry is incomplete.

Game Title: SWG
When Played: From about 3-6 months prior to JtL to CU
Main Character: Ler Dorrin
Reason for Leaving: Played with wife and friend. CU changes destroyed wife's character (Bioengineer), destroyed my character (TK/Architect), destroyed friend's character (Ranger/CH). I disliked the CU's new style, disliked having to utterly change my character, and disliked having the game entirely rewritten under my feet. Was unwilling to tolerate the game's crushing level of bugs at that point. So -- gameplay changes, bugs, upheaval of game social network.

Game: EQ1
Time: 1999-2000, quit a month or two after kunark
Main character: Geez, I can't remember. I think "slant", a shaman.
Why I quit: Abashi, general burnout, wasting entire nights sitting at zonelines trying to find groups, not enough content to consume, glacially slow advancement, clueless designers/developers, and did I mention Abashi? Also, Abashi.

Game: Planetside
Time: don't remember
Main: don't remember
Why I quit: Never grabbed me. No guidance, no community. Didn't last past the trial.

Game: EQ2
Time: 2006?
Main character: don't remember
Why I quit: Took me years to even look at this after EQ1. Also didn't make it past the trial. I thought I'd try it with the new faerie intro area. It was fairly well done, but nothing special. More of the same, so I uninstalled.

Game: SWG
Time: 2005?
Main: don't remember
Why I quit: Again, didn't make it past the trial. I ran around and everything was empty. Also, HAM. Please.

Game Title: Everquest
When You Played: 1999 - 2006
'Main' Character: Enchanter (Level 71)
Why You quit: I temporarily "retired" to deal with some family issues in early 2006. By the time I came back a few months later, the level cap was up to 75 (from 70), my old guild had broken and the game had thoroughly palled to me. A lot of the gameplay felt old, tired and unnecessarily punishing. On top of that, since I was a hardcore raider - it was impossible for me to get backflagged for the content and levels (and the new aaxps) that I missed in my absence. Once you quit or take a leave of absence, there are far too many roadblocks in EQ1 for you to come back. Final nail in coffin - started playing WoW soon after.

Game Title: Star Wars Galaxies
When You Played: somewhen 2006 (in the above hiatus)
Your 'Main' Character: I forget - he never lasted beyond the tutorial or thereabouts.
Why You Quit: I was so NOT impressed. NGE? Star Wars experience? blah...

Game Title: EverQuest I
When You Played: 1999-2004
Your 'Main' Character:Salamok
Why You Quit:I needed to scale back from my 40+ hour a week game fiesta, unfortunately once I scaled back I realized there simply wasn't very much you could do in the game in under a 2 hour session that was fun.  The entire point of playing an MMO for me was to play with friends and after I scaled back it wasn't long before the content they were accessing was beyond me.  9 months after I quit WoW came out and for the 1st year or 2 it actually had a decent amount of fun "trivial" content.

Game Title: WoW
When You Played: 2004?-2007  (can't remember when it came out Nov 04 or 05??)
Your 'Main' Character:Salamok
Why You Quit:Fun stuff but they did the item stat shuffle on me 1 too many times and the game shifted away from what I originally liked, mostly enjoyed top notch/fast paced 5man content and the game definately shifted away from that (until TBC then it was in style for all of 6 more months).

Both EQ and WoW started out with awesome worlds that were a wonder to explore and have fun in, somewhere along the way focus shifted from designing content for people to see to designing ways to deny people from seeing your new content.  flagging and factioning sucks for the casual gamer, it even sucks for the hard core gamer they just put up with it because it helps maintain the equipment gap between them and the casuals.

I think I've at least beta-tested every big western mmo to come out since DAoC. Here are some I actually remember playing.

Game Title: EQ1
When You Played: For about 2 days when I stayed over at a friends house for spring break I think in 2000?
Why You Quit: I had some fun playing it, but I promptly forgot about it as soon as I left the friends house.

Game Title: Dark Age of Camelot
When You Played: Release - Early 2005 off and on.
Why You Quit: Mainly it was the fact that by the time I got to level 50 (final level and time to pvp) they had changed the class balances and made the character I played (Sword/Board Champion) pretty much useless... Then they added the whole artifact system, and that just killed it for me.

Game Title: ShadowBane
When You Played: Beta, then for about 6 months after that.
Why You Quit: The biggest alliance became overwhelmingly powerful and would crush any opposing city before it could gain more than a toe-hold (my guild was part of said alliance). Something happened that very few people seem to think about when they think of an open PvP world. Instead of an overabundance of chaos, where people are grave camping and high levels are wtf-pwning newbs, there was an overabundance of law, and people could only fight in the “Arena”. I'm sure they were overthrown eventually, but I didn't want to start gaining new guild-ties on a different server.

As a friend put it: "In the begining only a handful could own cities. They were such a huge investments, people got greedy and were fearful of losing their cities, so each server essentially had 3-5 guilds that allied and owned the server."

I actually had a lot of fun in PvP (before the whole arena fiasco at least), but the PvE seemed to be a pointless time-sink. People in my guild were asking to power-level me within a week of release.

Game Title: Lineage 2
When You Played: Not sure, sometime around release for about 2 months.
Why You Quit: At times it felt like me and the 4 friends I played with were the only people on other than bots, limited character customization, I'm not too fond of grindy bullshit.

Game Title: WoW
When You Played: Mid 2006
Why You Quit: I got to the point where I could start raiding with my guild, and hated it. When I asked if this was the only option for end game, I got a yes.

Game Title: Lotro
When You Played: Beta for about 6 months.
Why You Quit: It was pretty much WoW with a few cool bits tacked on.

Game Title: Tabula Rasa
When You Played: Again, beta for about 6 months, could have been more.
Why You Quit: Early on in the beta, it was a ton of fun. They made it 2x more grindy by lowering PC damage while lowering xp rates and increasing mob damage. If they could have had some meaningful end game content, it might have been great.

Game Title: EvE online
When You Played: 2004 - Early 2008 off and on.
Why You Quit: I couldn't find a corp I liked playing with, or one that pvped enough for my liking. I wasn't satisfied with the character progression.

Game Title: Age of Conan
When You Played: For about a month in beta.
Why You Quit: It seemed like they were releasing the game about 6 months too early, but I've chosen to withhold judgement for a few months to see if it turns out to have half of the things they offered working right.

In between these I beta tested EQ2, PotBS, Vanguard, EQ2, The Matrix Online, and a bunch of others I can't even remember the names of. Either they were all buggy messes, or I just didn't have fun playing them. To go along with those, I played quite a few kmmos, pretty much read the Lineage 2 review above for my views on them.

Just for shits and giggles, I tried to tally up the number of mmos I've played and I think it is around 15, including betas, but not kmmos.

Sorry for the TL:DR post.  :grin:

Edit: I almost forgot PlanetSide! I had some good times with some Bat Country people in that game. I think ultimately I quit because half the time I couldn't find a battle (that and I got my shit pushed in all the time... Must have been because I was limited to br6 or whatever  :oh_i_see:).

Game Title: UO
When You Played: Beta - 2000 or 2001
Your 'Main' Character: Sky
Why You Quit: Trammel. Came back and played Siege Perilous for about a year until they lifted a lot of the restrictions that made it a good server.

Game Title: EQ
When You Played: Beta - A couple months after launch
Why You Quit: Loot whoring, training, kill stealing. Broken players.

Game Title: EQ
When You Played: Kunark - Luclin
Why You Quit: Got tired of group-focused game design. Actual straw was while exploring Luclin. Saw a blue, dropped invis and conned it indifferent. Went to hail it and it attacked and wiped me instantly. Logged off and canceled.

Game Title: PS
When You Played: Beta - on and off for a few years.
Your 'Main' Character: Komoto-K
Why You Quit: Odd dev decisions. Weird code changes for balancing, garbage cave expansion, cave expansion reqs for the battle bots. Finally just got to be a dated product with too many years of dev changes (See: UO). Would love to have a modern PS.

Game Title: EQ2
When You Played: Launch on and off until a couple months ago
Your 'Main' Character: Vith (SK)
Why You Quit: Bought a house. Middlingly discontent with the amount of group content, but there was enough solo content to keep me around, I'd still be playing if I hadn't bought the house, I will play in the future when things settle down. Would like to get the Station Access stuff moved to the normal sub price, it's like holding my characters hostage. $30/mo is too much, so the price increases are a part of it, I guess. Maybe moving the guild and web perks to the Access Pass would make it more attractive.

Game Title: WoW
When You Played: Launch for about six months
Your 'Main' Character: Grukla (Hunter)
Why You Quit: Endgame blows. Raids, meh. Elite mobs. Group-only dungeons (also a peeve in EQ2).

Game Title: CoH/V
When You Played: Beta on and off until last year
Why You Quit: Even trying to ignore the grind the game gets a little grindy. Still a lot of fun and I often get the urge to play.



Leaving out a bunch that I don't really have any constructive comments for. DAoC was kinda meh for me, just didn't click. AO...well, was AO. Ok, in AO I think it was the fucking shopping. AC also just didn't click. SWG hologrind, but mostly just not clicking, either. If you had the time and dedication it was probably a great game (like early UO). I ran out of both. Also, HAM. And clueless devs who ignored the community despite having community reps. I remember trying to explain the whole rifleman fiasco and getting the internet equivalent of a blank stare. Dev: "Doing unhealable mind damage is your strength!" Me: "But it damages OUR mind pool to deal it!?!" Or the whole 'pistols are better ranged weapons than rifles' thing. What a mess.

You can absolutely 100% quote me in an internal document

Game Title: SWG
When You Played: 1 week after US launch until NGE
Your 'Main' Character: Akanseh (Eclipse)
Why You Quit: NGE (I was able to put up with the CSRs, the CU and being a Droid Engineer but the NGE finally killed the game and SOE for me)

Game Title: Planetside
When You Played: No idea, initially only the free month and then another month when Core Combat was released, then alongside SWG (Station Access) + free account I used occasionally occasionally after I cancelled Station Access
Your 'Main' Character: Warlock (Werner)
Why You Quit: Pre Station Access: Fun for short periods but not worth a monthly fee, faction inbalances; Station Access: SWG NGE

Game Title: Everquest
When You Played: No idea
Your 'Main' Character: No idea + Alongside SWG (Station Access)
Why You Quit: Pre Station Access: Graphics too dated, Station Access: SWG NGE

Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: Alongside SWG (Station Access)
Your 'Main' Character: Zaraza (which I discovered while playing EQ2 is apparently something offensive in Russian)
Why You Quit: SWG NGE

Game Title: Everquest Online Adventures
When You Played: Alongside SWG (Station Access)
Your 'Main' Character: No idea (didn't really play, Graphics too dated)
Why You Quit: SWG NGE

Game Title: Matrix Online
When You Played: Beta + Alonside SWG (Station Access)
Your 'Main' Character: Crash Dump (I think)
Why You Quit: SWG NGE

Game Title: Pirates of the Burning Sea
When You Played: Beta
Your 'Main' Character: No idea
Why You Won't Pay For It: SWG NGE

It's probably also worth noting that since unsubscribing from Station Access I have purchased Vanguard and Pirates of the Burning Sea, but on principle (see SWG NGE) I will not pay SOE to play these games (i.e. I'll play the free time only) - its also worth mentioning I bought both brand new on eBay for ~$5 each (<£10 actually)

Non-SOE

Game Title: Anarchy Online
When You Played: ~6 months after launch for 12 months + when free account went live (don't really play the free one though)
Your 'Main' Character: Technoman (Rubika 1)
Why You Quit: Lack of story, Grindy treadmill, difficult to solo, borked economy, spawn timers, drop rates, loot level ranges

Game Title: Neocron/Neocron 2
When You Played: Open Beta & Launch + 12 months, Neocron 2 launch for 1 month + 2 free activations IIRC
Your 'Main' Character: Rafe Zetter (English, 4 slot server)
Why You Quit: The only reason I played for a year was I was awarded a free years subscription from the developer (long story) I would have quit due to bugs/lack of patching/story long before then otherwise

Game Title: Dark Age Of Camelot
When You Played: No idea, 1 month initially, 1 month on release of first expansion.
Your 'Main' Character: No idea
Why You Quit: Grindy Treadmill

Game Title: Eve Online
When You Played: Launch for a few months, 1 year + off, back for a month, 1+ year off, back for over a year now (since quitting SWG)
Your 'Main' Character: Sol Basso
Why You Quit/Are Still Playing: Mining/missions very boring, only playing now because of PvP really and lack of anything else worth playing

Game Title: City Of Heroes
When You Played: A few months prior to Euro launch for 1 month, Euro Beta + a couple of free activations
Your 'Main' Character: Red Megaman (on the first server in the list)
Why You Quit: Turned into a boring grind around level 10, difficult to solo in places, no depth.

Game Title: Guild Wars
When You Played: No idea
Your 'Main' Character: No idea
Why You Don't Play It: I was never really able to get into it.

Game Title: World Of Warraft
When You Played: No idea, 10 day buddy key
Your 'Main' Character: No idea
Why You Didn't Buy It: Graphics too cartoon-like, grindy treadmill

Game Title: RF Online
When You Played: Since it went free
Your 'Main' Character: No idea
Why You Don't Play: Grindy treadmill

Game Title: Archlord
When You Played: Since it went free
Your 'Main' Character: No idea
Why You Don't Play: Grindy treadmill, Lag

Game Title: Dungeons & Dragons Online
When You Played: Beta
Your 'Main' Character: None
Why You didn't play: Didn't work on XP 64 bit IIRC

Game Title: Earth & Beyond
When You Played: Beta
Your 'Main' Character: No idea
Why You Didn't Buy It: Didn't like it enough to buy it (Monsters in space for example)

Game Title: Auto Assault
When You Played: Beta
Your 'Main' Character: No idea
Why You Quit: Wasn't worth the monthly fee

Game Title: Seed
When You Played: Beta
Your 'Main' Character: None
Why You didn't play: Didn't work on XP 64 bit IIRC

Game Title: Lord Of The Rings Online
When You Played: Beta
Your 'Main' Character: No Idea
Why You Didn't Buy It: Grindy treadmill

Game Title: Pirates of the Carribean Online
When You Played: Beta
Your 'Main' Character: No Idea (but I remember they wouldnt let me have Captain Yellowbeard)
Why You Didn't Buy It: Shallow, boring, disney

Game Title: Bounty Bay
When You Played: Beta
Your 'Main' Character: None
Why You Didn't Buy It: Didn't work on XP 64 bit IIRC

Game Title: SWG
When You Played: US Launch until ~6 months after
Your Main Character: Cleetos Cicano (Radiant)
Why You Quit: Bored, unbalanced PvP due to Mind damage being >>>>>>> anything else.

Game Title: Planetside
When You Played: Open Beta until 1yr after release, off and on next few years
Your Main Character: Macharius, TR/Markov
Why You Quit: Lag.

Game Title: Pirates of the Burning Sea
When You Played: Pre-release to 1 month after
Your Main Character: Scarlett Wood, Pirate/Antigua?
Why You Quit: Firewall/connection issues with my ISP (could not connect)

Game Title: DAOC
When You Played: from open beta to ToA
Your Main Character: Shaman
Why You Quit: ToA expansion - pve sucked, pvp was great, but having to level equipment in order to pvp was ludicrous.

Game Title: WoW
When You Played: open beta to now
Your Main Character: Hunter
Why You Quit: I have never actually quit, but have taken a couple of breaks due to boredom.  I don't raid, but just battleground and craft. 

Game Title: Pirates of the Burning Sea
When You Played: Pre-release, bought box, it still sits unopened
Your Main Character: Freetrader
Why You Quit: land combat broken, trading broken, too much unfun

Game Title: CoH/V
When You Played: from open beta to now, off and on
Why You Quit: Grindy.  I keep going back to it for casualtastic fun, but after a few months it feels too much the same.

Game Title:  LoTRO
When You Played: beta to few months after launch
Why You Quit:  Pretty, but fundamentally not much fun - combat wasn't much fun.  PvP wasn't much fun.  It was ok but nothing was great.

Tried EQ1, lasted about 4 hours, tried EQ2, lasted a month or two.  Neither of those games engaged me for some reason.

Game Title:  EverQuest
When You Played:  Launch to about 9 months after; resubbed some time after Kunark for a few months
Your Main Character:  Ranger/Test - got to early 40's before I quit
Why You Quit:  Lack of solo content and generally punitive gameplay

Game Title:  City of Heroes/Villains
When You Played:  I7-I9
Your Main Character:  Mind/Psi Dominator/Infinity - got that one and a few others to mid-20's before I quit
Why You Quit:  More grind; one can only make so many alts

Game Title:  WoW
When You Played:  6 months after launch until 3-4 months before BC; resubbed at BC launch until late last year.
Your Main Character:  Hunter and a couple other alts I ran to 70/Draenor (US)
Why You Quit:  Endgame gear grind and the guild drama that comes with it

Game Title: EQ
When Played: Beta to Jan 2004 (I think)
Main Character: Half-elf Druid
Why I Quit: There are many, many, many straws on that camel's broken back, including but not limited to: bugs (and the way they were or often weren't handled by Sony), tedium, down-time, travel times, corpse recovery times, forced grouping, class unwanted/unneeded in groups, "camp check!", broken quests, broken crafting, broken promises, pointless crafting, crafting as a time and money sink, friends out-leveled me with no way to group, keys/flags & other obnoxious content-gating techniques, Abashi, Aradune & general corporate contempt for customers, unreasonable bannings, corporate doublespeak, foraging for morning dew, alchemy, far too much wasted time between "fun" moments finding group + travelling + buffing + travelling some more + waiting on stragglers + replacing dropouts + rebuffing + finally entering zone only to wipe to a train and have to start all over again, spending 90% of the time not wasted getting a group going sitting on my ass in one spot waiting for mana before the next pull, death penalties, quest lines that abruptly ended and were never updated even years later, camping for the Paw of Opalla, helping my wife camp a stump a week for some Cleric quest, mobs that never stopped chasing you, mobs that attacked you through walls and terrain, mobs that teleported onto you if you managed to outrun them, MONTHS of playing several hours every single night and not gaining a single level.

Game Title: SWG
When Played: Release (or open beta?) to just prior to CU
Main Character: Pistoleer/Artisan/Scout
Why I Quit: broken designs, broken systems, broken servers, broken database, broken professions, broken combat system, broken content, broken crafting, broken game balance, broken combat abilities, broken guild tools, broken promises, broken dreams.  Learning to craft gimped your ability to combat.  Single character per server per account design, so if you wanted to craft AND do combat, you had to buy two accounts (and later, 2-box them in order to survive maintaining your harvesters).  Queues for buffs.  HAM.  Repeated attempts to coerce everyone into PvP without bothering to make it balanced or fun much less meaningful.  Crafting (when it worked) became a chore, and pretty much required an hour or more every single day just to maintain harvesters.  Droid Engineering.  Monsters spawning in your house.  Dieing just trying to get to my house.  Remote planets consisting of nearly impenetrable rings of mobs around the landing sites surrounded by vast swathes of empty land.  Lack of content.  Meaningless combat.  Combat that ignored walls and terrain. Creatures that were way too powerful and droids that were useless.  Holo-grinding.  Trying to get Mind damage healed.  Heh, and all that before the CU much less the NGE!  :ye_gods:  Oh, did I mention too much broken stuff? 

Game Title: EQ2
When Played: For just a month, around July 2007. Then casually from a few months ago to present.
Main Character: Fae Ranger
Why I Quit: Game ran like a spastic, one-legged, blind dog on my machine. Too many quests for rare drops from rare spawns.
Why I Came Back: Some minor hardware upgrades allowed the game to run like a spastic, THREE-legged, ONE-eyed dog. (yay for progress  :| )  Lots and lots of things done right (even if it took them two or three tries to get there). I figured out I could dump every quest I didn't like, and STILL never run out of quests that grayed out faster than I could do them, even with combat experience turned off.

against my better judgment, I'm going to post post this for what seems like the gazillionth time, but the condensed, more sane version:

Game: EQ1
When Played: I forget, but I remember I started during the summer the year in launched, played off and on.
Main Character: Paladin
Why I quit: The grind. Nothing much compelling to do other than the grind. My best and worst experience in the game was the Falchion of the Koada Vie quest. Now, the reason I did this quest was because of the back story: the koada vie were a group that took orders directly from the King of the High Elves.  It turned out the only point of the quest was the sword.

It was fun for about a week but reminded me of all the reason I never went beyond the free month initially.

While the merge may have been good news for US players, it didn't help the Euros (TR typically have the lowest pop yet their equipment/tactics are based on having lots of people available to man all those guns)

and there are still some imbalances in the game (just picking one at random the TR AA Max is crap against anything other than aircraft yet the other 2 AA Maxs are much more useful against non-aircraft)

They had an EOF version alone and it was the same price as the EOF package that included the previous expansions. That resulted in a lot of people being told to call the CSRs or so I remember The reality is that the Kunark pack was $40. If they didn't include the others, you were still going to pay $40, but a lot of new players were just plain not going to play the game.

Game Played: EQ1 and EQ2
When You Played: From the beginning until present with multiple breaks in between.
Main Character: 70 Druid
Why I Quit:
1. Because your Guide Program was corrupt. If I could go back and retrieve my series of e-mails during the time I was in that program, you'd be mortified.
2. Because SOE has a serious issue with class balance.
3. Because your customer service is absolutely horrendous.
4. Because the GM's leave the guides effectively without any tools to help "govern".
5. Le Grind. Seriously? Hell levels at every 5th level is total crap. It's the 4th and 6th of each level. We aren't stupid.
6. Exploits. Really? There is an exploit in the Karanas that is STILL there and has been there since launch yet you expect us to not use it and then ban us for it when we do. Hi? Please to take these out of the game. Thanks. Otherwise, just leave people alone.  This goes for a varied amount of other bugs and exploits that you guys "let slip". You are directly responsible for the banning of a lot of accounts due to primarily an oversight on your part.
7. The constant release of expansions. - Listen, honestly, it's great you put out new content but if you'd just improve your current content we'd be blissfully happy. I'd take a graphics engine upgrade and better storytelling over a new expansion any day of the week. Call me crazy but..yeah.

I'll add to this later. However it needs to be said I am as of now a current player and although things are getting better..
They could be much improved upon.

Game Title: Star Wars Galaxies
When You Played: Launch for 13+ months; resub for three or so months ending days before NGE announcement; 1-2 months after introduction of Beast Master during NGE period; board vet since April 2001
Your 'Main' Character: Lantyssa, a Bothan Creature Handler + Ranger/BE/dabbler in everything
Why You Quit: Burnout from leading a PA.  The Combat Rebalance never materializing and game bugs caused a lot of venting of frustrations and people trickling away.  Broken promises (CH revamp of December 2003 starting a three part rebalance that never happened, except for gutting CH power).  The resub was great fun since I was playing JTL, however the ground game wasn't holding me due to its attrocious state and the CU not addressing any of the real problems.  The NGE forcing class roles and levels killed most of my interest for a year and a half.  I returned to try the Beast Master and dabbled with other professions, but it couldn't hold my interested like the freedom of the old system.  Also with all the problems a hybrid BM skill tree had (should have been its own profession), a patch that fixed quite a bit was reverted and made worse in the next incremental publish.  The real problems still aren't addressed (insanely high resource requirements, too much interdependence for every BM required item, terrible grind, significant loss of ability for little gain).


Game Title: Everquest 2
When You Played: January of 2008 for two months
Your 'Main' Character: A Bruiser and a Shadow Knight
Why You Quit: It was an okay game, but the setting didn't really hold me.  Things felt like they were starting to become a grind in the mid-30s.  I'm tired of high-fantasy.  My friend whom I was playing with stopped playing.


Game Title: Planetside
When You Played: A month or two before the Reserves Program ended
Your 'Main' Character: New Conglomerate
Why You Quit: I'm not big on first person shooters as a primary game.  The Reserves Program ended, so I not incentive for playing casually.  The fee was also raised to $15 a month.  At $5 I would consider it for a semi-persistant world without a huge amount of character development or content, but at $15 there is no way.

STEP AWAY FROM THE CRACK PIPE.

lol No way, I'm actually enjoying playing.

Thanks  for all the replies so far. I'm going to grab a few quotes for the doc and put them to good use. :)

Guides shouldn't exist. Volunteers shouldn't exist.

It's all fucky.

Not liking an inherently flawed program seems a little too hindsight 20/20 when it should've been foresight 20/20.

It was 1999. We might as well have been shitting in the woods and beating two rocks together to make fire in MMO terms.

Yeah well at least they were consistent. A few years later and I tried again.

Same freaking day.

Which quotes? We need to know in order to fuel basless speculation.

Yeah, while we understand we will likely never see that document, our own comments should be fine with your superiors.  :-)

Game Title:
EQ1

When You Played:
Around the time Luclin was added in, for a few months.

Your 'Main' Character:
Ranger

Why You Quit:
No fun at all solo, and because I joined so late I couldn't find enough groups or a guild with enough people my level actually playing the game (rather than twinking it)



Game Title:
DAoC

When You Played:
Launch, to 3 years after that.

Your 'Main' Character:
A cleric.

Why You Quit:
ToA.
Tiresome PvE grind.
(RvR had kept me playing until ToA)




Game Title:
Planetside

When You Played:
From launch, for a few months, then again for a month a while later.

Your 'Main' Character:
Mosquito guy.

Why You Quit:
Gameplay doesn't vary enough. Was fun to go back to.



Game Title:
SWG

When You Played:
From launch, for a few months, then again for a month after they patched in cities.

Your 'Main' Character:
Sort of pistoleer, miner, weaponsmith hybrid.

Why You Quit:
Game was complete shit.



Game Title:
CoH

When You Played:
From launch, for 3 years.

Your 'Main' Character:
Mains? In CoH? What now? I played mostly Controllers and Defenders, but a bit of everything except tankers.

Why You Quit:
CoH relies on a steady flow of new content to keep it interesting (both classes and zones). The flow of content slowed to a trickle. I'd seriously consider going back once a few more patches have added enough new stuff for me to try out. For my money CoH remains the best pve mmog running.



Game Title:
EQ2

When You Played:
2006 I think, for a few months.

Your 'Main' Character:
Various priests, In particular a Defiler.

Why You Quit:
It did what it did well, but nothing new, no PvP, and CoH did everything EQ2 did, only CoH did it better.




Game Title:
Guild Wars

When You Played:
From launch, for a few months.

Your 'Main' Character:
Priest

Why You Quit:
Godawful PvE grind, and the PvP endgame absolutely requires organised teams to be interesting, I don't have the time or energy for regular organised PvP teams.




Game Title:
WoW

When You Played:
Beginning of 2007 - duration of the trial

Your 'Main' Character:
Priest

Why You Quit:
Seen it all before. I could appreciate the greater level of polish, but it just felt like a shinier retread of the eq and daoc generation with shorter grind times.





Game Title:
EVE

When You Played:
Started a few months ago - still going.

Your 'Main' Character:
n/a

Why You Quit:
So far I like the shiny, I like the lack of elves, I like the pvp, I like the casual-friendly advancement system, I like that advancement gives options rather than purely power, I like that the EVE community are not all completely retarded.

OK my dates are very hazy, but I'll do my best.

Game Title:
DAOC

When You Played:
Early 2002 to mid 2003 (just before ToA hit)

Your 'Main' Character:
Played a Hib Bard until ToA hit and then our guild swapped to Albion en masse and I then played a Cleric, a Reaver and a Necromancer pretty much equally. DAOC was when I started 2-boxing too (hi buffbot!), a habit that stuck, so all of the MMORPG's I list here have at least 2 mains.

Why You Quit:
The PvP got worse and worse, month on month. Got utterly bored of spending hours waiting for a group and then dying in 2 minutes to an uber 8-man gank squad. The large-scale aspects of PvP that used to be so fun (keep taking and defending) disappeared, being replaced with alarm-clock relic raids and "perfect" gank groups. It became so elitist and inaccessible that only a tiny % could get any fun out of it. Also the community relations in the EU were awful. GOA did a very poor job of liaising with the EU players and we were mostly left with the feeling that Mythic considered us 2nd class subscribers compared to the US. I know now that GOA's hands were mostly tied, but that doesn't change the dismissive and arrogant way they communicated with us. Made worse by the closure of the official forums and leaving us to rely on BarrysWorld ffs - it's as if CCP suddenly announced that there would only be Wrangler from now on and he was only going to post on SHC! And then when ToA was announced - lots of crappy PvE grinding to enable you to carry on competing in PvP I decided enough was enough.


Game Title:
Asheron's Call 2

When You Played:
Mid 2003 til slightly later 2003... only played for 3 months I think.

Your 'Main' Character:
A Tumerok Hive Keeper and a Lugian Sage I think.

Why You Quit:
Everything was broken. Really. After DAOC it just felt like nothing worked properly. Even the chat ffs! It had been running for about 6 months I think when I picked it up but it felt like it was a beta. I just remember being constantly frustrated with the server performance and bugs.


Game Title:
SWG

When You Played:
Launch until roughly mid-2004 (before JTL hit)

Your 'Main' Character:
Well how do you define SWG characters? Thanks to the retarded Jedi unlocking system any resemblance between my characters at the end and at the start was totally gone. I started off with a Creature Handler and a Doctor but they became, over time, Pistoleer, Commando, Chef, Dancer, oh god all sorts of crap. I was always happiest with the CH, but look what happened to them :(

Why You Quit:
Really, does anyone still need to ask why anyone quit SWG? Worst MMORPG experience I've ever had. A game with such promise, so many awesome things about it shredded to pieces by moronic development decisions and utter contempt for it's players. 4 years afterwards I'm still bitter. There are so many things to list that this will turn into an essay all to easily, so I'll stick to the main, glaring ones. Hologrinding. Please, whoever decided that this was a good idea, leave the games industry now, forever. Community relations - again, this is crucial. Why don't game companies realise this? The SWG community relations were so bad that... well... heh, NGE (although the NGE hit after I left, it's the shining example of the whole problem). Surely I don't need to elaborate. Totally broken classes that never got fixed. Droid handler being the obvious example but the other crafters stand out too - couldn't compete on the market as crafter without being maxed, at which point you got killed by beetles, doh! Nerfing like nerfing has never nerfed before... Creature Handlers the world over know what I mean here. At the end of the day SWG should have been the first WoW. It should have had 2 million subscribers and be launching it's 10th expansion pack today. But it lost it's main developer too early (Raph, we don't forget and we never forgive, nothing you touch will ever get money from me again), it was tainted by a total lack of connection with it's players and it was destroyed by some of the worst decisions ever made in the MMORPG industry. Can't believe I still miss it so much and that I still harbor so much ire. Let it go man, let it go.


Game Title:
EVE Online

When You Played:
April 2004 to now, with a 12 month break 2005-2006.

Your 'Main' Character:
My mains are a Caldari and a Gallente, 45m SP's each, with a range of specialties.

Why You Quit:
Well I'm still playing, but I took a 12 month break to play WoW and that was promoted by a number of things. Mostly I got fed up of the crappy PvE content and (bit of a theme for me here) poor community relations at the time. PvE in EVE is fairly tedious and repetitive and when I unsubscribed I wasn't involved in PvP at all and I basically just got bored. I was also pissed off when CCP launched EVE in China because they sent all their best devs there to oversee that project. IMO this was when EVE's decline really started and I don't think it's ever recovered from that. The vision has gone and CCP's ideas are becoming more and more random, e.g. the entire ambulation thing, which is most likely (after Factional Warfare when if that turns out to be shit) to lead me to unsubscribe again. I've been pulled back into EVE again, mostly because of boredom with WoW, but also because of PvP. EVE really does have the best, deepest, most involved, most player-skill-based and generally awesome PvP of any game ever and I don't see that changing because no other developer has the balls tbqh.



Game Title:
WoW

When You Played:
2005-now, with a 6 month break from late 2007.

Your 'Main' Character:
Heh, lots. Currently got 3 lvl 70's, all Horde, a mage, a shaman and a paladin. Soon to have a hunter, priest, druid and warlock at 70 too.

Why You Quit:
The 6 month break was because I was burned out, simple as. I'd joined a raiding guild and just hated it. I found raiding incredibly tedious and detested the drama whores that came along with it. Left a nasty taste in my mouth so I took a break and blew people up in EVE. Came back for some gentle PvE in a highly polished game and am still bumbling happily along, with absolutely no desire to ever raid again :)

Game Title:
EQ2

When You Played:
Release to Still Playing with a brief WoW break

Your 'Main' Character:
Chars of note: Every tradeskill class to 70+ at least twice.
Adventure: 71 Swash, 70 Bruiser, 70 Warden, 54 Inquisitor, 53 SK, 52 Necro, etc...

Why You Quit:
The first time I got banned because I trusted a friend with the account and he decided to bot the shit out of my tradeskillers. I did manage to get the account back though (minus all of my level 70's) and subsequently started another so I could 2-box.

What's going to make me quit:
I'm probably going to quit shortly if you don't fix the fucking exchange. When it was run by SOE it was great and I could have seen myself playing EQ2 for years to come. Live Gamer on the other hand is a complete clusterfuck and has destroyed the SE server economies. Populations are already way the fuck down and getting worse. I'll be joining the crowd shortly if things don't improve in the next month or two. And please tell Live Gamer to fuck the hell off for asking for suggestions for improvement. Is it too much to fucking ask that it just work like the station exchange did? Are they really that fucking retarded that they never even bothered to use the old site? Fuck! Yes, it pisses me off that SOE fucked this up so piss poorly.

And please quote me on the entire above paragraph.


Edit: I've also played UO, EQ, DAoC, AC2, SWG, and WoW but none to the extent of EQ2.

I'm late to the party but what the hell.  I'll just do the games I paid for and ended up quiting.

Game Title: Dark Age of Camelot
When You Played: From a couple of months after launch to right before the release of New Frontiers
Your 'Main' Character: Based on most frequently played: Bonnie McGee, Minstrel
Why You Quit: Mythic's refusal to do anything about buffbots

Game Title: World of Warcraft
When You Played: Started at release, ended two months later
Your 'Main' Character: Allekto, Feral Druid
Why You Quit: I really liked the game from 1-59, but once I hit 60 it was very obvious the end game would be nothing more than grinding raids for phat lewts and/or grinding other crap for faction increases.

Game Title: Guild Wars
When You Played: Played it at release.  Stopped playing it for the most part maybe six months later or so, though I do still fire it up for an hour or two every couple of months, give or take.
Your 'Main' Character: Don't really invest enough into characters in this game to really have a 'main'.  Played Necromancer, Ranger, Mezmer(sp?) and Assassin more than other classes, though.
Why You Quit: While the game is entertaining, it's not really an MMO.  The game feels like a 3D Gauntlet you can play over the internet with friends.

Game Title: Eve Online
When You Played: Started around the beginning of March 07 (due to the War thread, actually) and finally let my sub run out around December 07 (I think)
Your 'Main' Character: Mel'pomene
Why You Quit: Casual play in Hi Sec was boring as hell and I just didn't have the time to commit to organized PvP in 0.0.  Plus I apparently suck mightily at the isk-making aspect of the game since I was perpetually broke even though I rarely lost ships.  To illustrate just how bad I am: I was never able to afford to buy and outfit a battleship despite having the skills to pilot one towards the end.

Interesting read, it seems that the vast majority of SWG players quit during the "golden" era of the game. If this small sample of players is representive it is easy to see why the CU and NGE were done from the SOE/LEC prespective.

Actually, you are describing exactly why the NGE should never have happened. To wit, the people who wanted Star Wars Pew Pew, or even those who just wanted a game that wasn't shit, had already left. SOE were taking money from a group of mining fanatics, Sim Beru obsessives, and bizarre cantina fetishists. Regardless of what was intended, these were the people playing the game, so to spend time and effort taking out functionality they used and enjoyed, in order to give them something they didn't care about, was the single most ridiculous decision in the history of computer gaming.

Count how many people in this thread are saying they started playing SWG because of the NGE.

There's your problem.

I'm on record and (unlike schild, heh) stand behind my opinion that playing right after the NGE went in was the most fun I had in SWG. At least they tried to make a fun, actiony, starwarsy experience. Too bad they couldn't make that goal all the way, would've been a great game with a great license.

I left during the "golden" era in large part because I saw what was coming and didn't like it.

Also because of the horrendous, game-stopping bugs, broken promises, et. al. that we went on and on about in the SWG threads.  The game failed spectacularly on many, many levels, over many years.  The NGE was just the ultimate insult as Eldaec said.  It cut off the one group of customers left -- those absolutely loyal to the game despite everything before.

Hologrinding.

Got me a ton of credits, but wasn't so good for the game in general.

With all the bugs and broken systems at launch, SWG proved the adage about being able to crap in a box and still sell it so long as it had the Star Wars logo on the box. The NGE was shipping another box of even smellier poop and telling the customer they had to eat it before they could play any more.

The "golden" era was tarnished brass at best.  The folks responsible for the mess from Raph on down to the database coders were awol.  And the summer interns left trying to keep the servers up were obviously clueless and totally incapable of actually fixing ANYTHING, much less redesigning the thing.  Everything they touched, they broke, and any adjustments they made to design or balance made things less fun or balanced.  The CU and later the NGE were desperate attempts to do anything but finish the damn game that they shipped since the B-team left to do it obviously wasn't up to finishing what the A-team had started.

btw, anyone know if they STILL have to reboot the servers every single day just to keep the database from asploding?

Dunno, but WoW and AoC both run oracle backends and do fine with weekly scheduled maintenance periods. Some of that performance is cheaper/faster commodity hardware but the real reason is that they batch up changes on the app servers and then commit to the DB every so often instead of making every single autoattack a separate transaction. In other words, they weren't designed by rabid spidermonkeys.

Nevermind gutboy, he's just looking for reasons to justify why he plays that POS still.

I wouldn't doubt it. :) From all appearances, their DB schema was done by programmers and with half the hardware and licenses they really needed. Since none of the "revamps" really removed anything, just obfuscated and added to it, I'd bet money their DB schema is even more convulted, unoptimized, and harder hit than before.

Motto of the story: Hire real DB experts to design your DB, and don't fucking cheap out on the licenses.