Ok so just a brief survey, for my own interest. Those of you who enjoy MMORPG's, whats your favorite? Ill break down the ones I've played and why I thought. In chronological order of play.

1. World of Warcraft - my first MMO experience, was very pleased with my initial experience, got in with a friendly guild, but never really progressed beyond the gunship in ICC. When Cataclysm came out, I was stoked, I maxed, wiped out the raids, but then found myself bored as hell. Finally I turned it off, and picked up RIFT. Have never even once looked back, and since the announcement of the panda bears, I dont think I ever will.

2. RIFT - Im generally lazy when the choice is there, and RIFT is a lazy man's MMO. You can basically macro EVERYTHING into a Press Key 1 layout, with an occasional Key 2. I enjoyed playing it, the content was interesting, the raids had some unique mechanics, and if I liked most classes had uber versatility. As a cleric shammicar I could beast my way through even Elite mobs with ease, ultimately got a bit boring, but I have not played the newest expansion.

3. Like most folks, I dropped what I was doing instantly to try the newest Bioware intallment that was Star Wars. I REALLY enjoyed it, but as a solo game, it really lacks the MMO content that it needs. It was the first MMO where I actually wanted to quest through alts. Sadly, everyone left about as quick as they came, and the servers are barren. I hope to play again when the servers consolidate, and the end game content gets a revamp, and the FlashPoint finder gets implemented, but time will tell.

4. Now, my newest endeavor is TERA online. I have to say, thusfar I am really enjoying it. I dont think I will ever roll an alt, for one, you can do EVERY type of crafting on one character, most of the time alts for me have just been crafting convenience. TERA has some intersting aspects to it that I like. For one, it forces me NOT to be lazy, as you have an active combat system, with aiming and what not, no tab targetting here folks! You can war with other guilds. Pretty neat, and I have to say its the most solid at release as any MMO I can remember.

Side Notes - I have also played GuildWars 1, Warhammer Online, and I even dabbled in that so called Star Trek game that came out. I liked aspects of GuildWars, like NPC's in your group to do healing or tanking or whatever. I liked Warhammer's world events, they were neat. Star Trek was about the biggest joke, I think Rodenberry's folks were trolling us with that one. I know there is GuildWars 2 in beta now, might be fun anyone tried it? Warhammer is supposed to have a new launch in the works. Ive never tried D&D online, or War online, or Aeon. Anyone like those?

Ultimately, I guess my favorite, with a sentiment akin to your first time getting laid, World of Warcraft is probably my favorite of experiences, but as often times your first lay is sloppy, you dont know what you're doing, she's pitying you horribly, such was my WoW days. When I got to SWTOR, boy I knew what I was doing then, I showed that chick a good time, and really had the most success there, but it died out too fast. Ultimately, my favorite thus far would have to be RIFT. If TERA tanks, and SWTOR doesnt make a comeback, I'll be heading backing into the world of the ascended in RIFT.

Anything I don't have to pay for. I paid for a WoW subscription for years. I feel like I wasted a LOT money. Subscriptions suck. The worst part about them is that they narrow your play experience. If you're paying for one MMO it's hard to justify paying for a second. Which means you just stick to the one you've already sunk your time into. Even if it's not the best, or most fun.

I liked Rift a lot (played the beta). I was not willing to pay for it, though. I thought about it. But subscriptions suck.

I gave SWTOR a try, too. It did a lot right. But the biggest thing it did wrong was to not feel anything at all like Star Wars. The reason WoW sucked me in was the universe: I had played and loved all the Warcraft RTS games, and the universe was one I had grown fond of. So playing within that universe made all the MMO tedium more bearable.
My hope with SWTOR was that the Star Wars universe would bring that same "home sweet home" feeling to another MMO. It didn't. SWTOR just doesn't feel like Star Wars. Doesn't even feel like The Old Republic. It feels like a WoW/Champions hybrid set in a fantasy universe that happens to have spacecraft and blaster rifles.

A lot of friends tried to talk me into Tera, which has a lot of appealing stuff going on. But SUBSCRIPTIONS SUCK.

I played Champions Online and loved a lot of it. But it wasn't really an MMO (the Shard system is TERRIBLE AND AWFUL AND BAD) and made the subscription suck EVEN MORE. When it went FTP, Cryptic took out all the insane customisation that made the game appealing for free players.
Star Trek Online was a letdown for the same reason as Champions. It really did feel like Trek (I loved the ship combat). But paying a subscription for a not-really-massively-multiplayer game was a bitter pill. And when it went FTP all the fun parts were chopped off for free players.

In the end, if Cryptic would make STO TRULY free-to-play I'd go back to it. I already paid for the box and several months of subscription. I'm not playing "for free". I simply want to play without a subscription fee. I realize there's a legitimate reason for it (server upkeep, new content updates, etc.) but it's still not worth the price to me. I'd consider paying a subscription if they'd go truly MMO, with high-population servers rather than shards with ~20 players apiece. I'm a big Trekkie and I love the customization available in the game. I also like the mechanics overall. I just can't take the low-pop shards and subscription fees.

I played a bit of Guild Wars when it was new. I didn't like the focus on PVP. But I hear very good things about GW2 and love the way it seems to take the effort out of grouping and focus on putting you with other people to kill stuff (Warhammer Online was the first game to get this right with area group events).

I tried Warhammer Online, too, and enjoyed it. Again: Subscriptions suck.

SWGEmu, which emulates the "good" version of Star Wars Galaxies before Sony Online Entertainment revamped things massively twice and alienated their entire playerbase.

The original Everquest went free to play and out of curiosity I stopped by just to see it to check out the old neighbourhood, so to speak.

I was amazed that after over ten years off inactivity that, for one thing I could remember my login information and even more than that my primary character was still around!

I really like Ultima online. Even though its old as s***. The game is great.

Does DayZ count?

No.

This is my vote.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ujQ0HB5Ng[/youtube]

WoW will probably be the first, best, and last MMO I'll probably play. I just don't have the time or patience to do that s*** again.
Played from beta till the end of Burning Crusade. The game had fricking everything and who knows hour many hours of my life I sunk into that crap. I did everything from casual with buddies to high end pvp and raids. The social aspect was what did it for me. How a large group of complete strangers could develop a relationship and work together (mostly) well with no physical contact is a pretty epic happening. Met several real life friends and a whole bunch more online ones. This single form of entertainment has had the biggest impact on my life.

I am reallllllllly close to picking RIFT back up when Storm Legion is released. That was the funnest one so far for me, gameplay wise. Its more conducive to button mashers, which I can proudly call myself. But the storyline is good too.

I have actually gotten some good reviews from friends from the MoP expansion to WoW. It'll have to be under 20 before I pick it up to try though.

Supposedly Blizzard is working up a new MMO to be announced shortly?

Honestly I've been strictly playing PS3 lately. Just flashed through the Uncharted series. Thats a good series if you're into passively participating in a set plot presentation.