sheer expanse of what all can be done. if you feel crafty, build a house, if you feel studious, study a tradeskill. if you feeling casual farm some plat or materials, simple xp, if you feel ambitious, go farm some mission achievements, and if you're feelingchummy and militaristic, go raid. i do all of the above at different times in different moods and for all different reasons, and to me every one of those aspects is better in eq than anywhere else. (keyphrase: in my opinioin) also, i ahte cartoony games and anime type games and seems nearly all toehrs are like that, or htey only last a month or two before you're done and bored. yes, the people are in addition to that, but yo udont know the people til you play the game and yo udont continue playing the gamel ong enough to meet all those people unless the game is interesting enough.,
Honestly the only thing that keeps me coming back is familiarity and content. It's not new content, but that there is so much of it available that I can usually find something to do when I'm bored even if it is going back to Veksar to look around and peer into all the nooks and crannies. Other than that it is entirely familiarity. Most of my in game friends either rarely play or gave up years ago so the fact that I have played this game for 14 years and it seems like a part of my life is all that keeps me here. I even take breaks often without unsubscribing just to do other things. EQ isn't the only game I feel like this about though, when I stop playing it is the memory of fun times in EQ that brings me back rather than actual play. I felt and feel this way about Ultima Online, City of Heroes, and numerous other games too, but I didn't play them nearly as long. If I found a great game that was as well rounded as EQ, but friendly to casual players and with a real population and a lot of content I would probably quit and never look back other than nostalgia.
