[saraid216]

I had a similar experience with WoW, except that mine was pre-launch. After following it for some time, it was announced that cities could not be captured and I realized it was just not going to be a deep enough game to be worth paying attention to anymore.

I did finally run a trial of it earlier this year, after I had tired of Rift and SWTOR, and it was about as vapid as I expected; I got to level 20 and stopped.

[debacle]

How did you find it in relation to Rift and SW:TOR? I tried the free version of Rift and found it cool but not worth a monthly fee. I got a few WoW characters up past level 50 a long time ago, but the only other MMO style game I've played since then would probably be Hellgate: London.

[saraid216]

Unremarkable. Of the three, I'd rate SWTOR the highest because (1) crew skills are an interesting mechanic and (2) the sheer overwhelming quantity of effort they put into the story was palpable and very impressive for an MMO. I'd like to see a new MMO borrow the crew skill concept and take it to the next level; it was under-exploited in SWTOR. The story made it enjoyable as a single-player experience, but it was otherwise meh. (I didn't finish any storyline, though I did make progress on all 8. My consular nearly finished, but I quit.)

With Rift, the invasion mechanics feel like something I'd enjoy, but that's probably it. I find myself feeling a bit lost about the mix-n-match class structure, but that is more a lack of research on my part than Trion's fault. The invasion mechanic is probably just like EVE's incursion mechanic. Neither was novel to me, though I had never seen it done in formal phases before. (I have experienced masses of suddenly-spawned enemies in GM-directed waves.)

And in WoW... all I experienced was the 1-20 grind of quest lines and vague storyish backdrop. I didn't have a build worth remarking on or any hint of the endgame, so I'm sure my experience is easily dismissed by people who believe you need to be level 80 before you're fit to judge the game. /shrug

I've never tried Hellgate. I did try out The Secret World for a little, but horror as a genre bores me (existential terror doesn't really do anything for me), and I found it hard to figure out what to do in a lot of cases. I didn't put a lot of effort in it.