[Daeanor]

I loved EQ so much that it still grieves me to think of my character and the times I had in Old Norrath. But the game evolved away from all the things that attracted me. Especially post-PoP, when the only way to advance meaningfully was raid, raid, raid ... I was a guild leader for years, and hung in for the sake of my guild, but my heart had already left the game. It took nearly two years, but when I finally found someone I could trust to take over the guild, I quietly retired and disappeared from Norrath.

I was an EQ2 beta tester, and I loved the game at first. But after only a year from release, I found myself bored with it. The world was too small, there was too little to do. I felt like I was repeating everything I had already done, with harder monsters. I feel they spend too much time making the graphics and appearances too advanced at expense of the game play. I stopped playing at the end of 2005.

I have been amusing myself with WoW since, but it has already grown somewhat stale. Blizzard did one thing right - Azeroth is a well detailed world, with lots of ways to customize your character, and a very in-depth world to explore, and lots of different ways to play in it. But WoW has two flaws. First, the graphics are really horrid. Textures that look 2D, even when on the face of a mob - yech. Hands and feet on player models ... yick. It's not very visually appealling, even if you are OK with the exaggerated cartoony aspect of the world (which I can tolerate, but I wouldn't say I like it). But worse than that is the community. I sometimes think everyone playing WoW is 13 or under, and has been recently pummelled in Dodge Ball at school. The imbecile, chip-on-the-shoulder, immature attidues are maddening. I know there are class players, and have even run into a few, but they are mostly quiet, an you have to search for them. The in-your-face-majority are infantile children. There is not even a pretense to courtesy, no respect for what you are doing, or how their actions will intrude ... unannounced, unsolicited invites to groups, to guilds ... kill steals, harvest steals, ninja-looting of treasure chests ... these things are the rule rather than the exception, and people think you are crazy if you say anything about it, its that rampant and accepted.

So .... I find myself not really happy with any MMO I currently have access to. I look forward to Vanguard most because it is being made by some of the original team from EQ, and I hope to recapture at least some of that magic.