A question for you, faithful reader, as a bit of data gathering to test a theory: what MMOGs have you played (in approximate chronological order, if it’s not too much trouble), and how long did you play them for (very roughly)? If you started with Meridian 59 and/or Ultima Online and have played everything since, feel free to go with edited highlights.
As a starter for ten, my MMOGing goes something like:
City of Heroes – 48 months and counting[1]
World of Warcraft – 14 months[2]
Auto Assault – 3 months[3]
Guild Wars – 2 months[4]
Dungeons and Dragons Online – 1 month
EVE (trial) – 14 days
Second Life – couple of days
Lord of the Rings Online – 2 months
Star Wars Galaxies (trial) – 10 days
Tabula Rasa (beta) – couple of days
Pirates of the Burning Sea (beta) – couple of days
Hellgate: London – 1 month
Age of Conan – 1 month
[1] Two main stints, first for the original release in 2004, then City of Villains in 2005-6
[2] Two main stints, first for the original release in 2005, then The Burning Crusade in 2007
[3] Technically was released after Guild Wars and DDO, but I’d been in beta and and off for about a year before that
[4] Total time spent on a couple of attempts at the original campaign then one of the expansions at various points over a few years
Discworld MUD (not technically a MMO), 12 months
World of Warcraft, 36 months (from release until this year some time)
Tabula Rasa, 2 months
Hellgate: London, 1 month
EVE, 1 day (till I was bored)
Age of Conan, 1 month and counting
That’s it, I’ll hang my head in shame for not having played more.
Phantasy Star Online – 6 months
Dark Age of Camelot – 14 months
Asheron’s Call 2 – 4 months
Final Fantasy XI – 6 months
Star Wars Galaxies – 4 months
City of Heroes – 40 months
World of Warcraft – 42 months
Guild Wars – 10 months
DnD Online – 1 month
RF Online – 1 week
Lord of the Rings Online – 3 months
EVE Online – 1 month
Everquest 2 – 1 month
Hellgate: London – 1 month
Age of Conan – 1 month
There are probably a few more, for brief stints, but I think that list is embarrassing enough as it is.
Hmm it seems my prior comment didn’t make it to the press, so I’ll try again.
Ultima Online – 1 month
Everquest – 2 months
Anarchy Online – 5 months
Neocron – 1 hour
Star Wars Galaxies – 9 months
Guild Wars – 2 months
Linage II – 1 month
City of Heros – 2 weeks
Jumpgate – 1 day
Eve Online (trial) – 5 days
DnD Online (trial) – 30 minutes
A Tale In The Desert – 10 minutes
RF Online (trial) – 7 minutes
World of Warcraft – 14 months
I might not be completely right on the chronological part of it, or perhabs even of the length of time played, but that is my list never the least.
World of Warcraft – 40 months and continuing.
City of Heroes/Villains – 2 months and continuing.
EVE Online – 2 weeks and about to be continued.
This is all on a Mac, so not much choice for games.
Thanks for the feedback folks. No shame in that list, Guido, it’s a good selection; I think a slightly over-zealous spam filter ate your first comment, Stargazer, it’s been sent to bed with no dinner and made to promise not to do it again. 7 minutes in RF Online, huh? Maybe I should try and find a free trial somewhere just to experience it…
Hurray for Crossover Games, now Mac-istas can join the eternal slightly dissatisfied flitting from game to game.
Bit more tinkering with my theory, and then I’ll unleash it upon an unsuspecting world…
Hmm, can I remember that far back?
Ultima Online. Probably a year or so
Anarchy Online. 6 months?
Star Wars Galaxies. Probably only a few months, but seemed like a lifetime at the time.
Final Fantasy XI: A week!
Jumpgate: About 2 weeks
EQ2: 6 months
WoW: 12 months
Planetside: Several months spread over the years.
LOTRO: 3 months or so, so far.
AoC: Nearly a month, continuing is to be decided in the show this week.
Eve Online: 5 years so far
Hang on, those numbers don’t add up as I always have at least 2 on the go.
I think it will be hard to find a free trial for the now free to play RF Online. I only played it for 7 minutes, or something to that extend, because the tutorial was really bad and the npc interaction seemed broken; In the tutorial you couldn’t skip ahead, you had to listen to their bable in order to advance and they started by showing you how to set the gamma level for you monitor and then moved on to setting the lighting [skip]. I eventually managed to steer my character over to one of the npcs standing nearby and was presented with a few options, one of them being [quest]. Selecting said [quest] resulted in the termination of the conversation… Impressively enough it even resulted in the complete uninstallation of RF Online on my computer.
WoW – 4 years before I quit
EVE Online – 4 months and counting
SWG – 10 months till SOE killed it with nerfs
FFXI – 3 years
Tabula Rasa – 2 days in beta
LoTRO – A week of beta, a week of launch
Lineage II – 5 minutes.
Fury – 10 minutes.
Pirates of the Burning Sea – 20 minutes
City of Heroes – A couple days.
Hellgate London – a week or so.