Sorry to hear that your guild broke up, but it sounds like you all hit the same issues that myself and the group of friends I normally play with also experienced.

Some of them are still playing, but not to the extent that we all hung in and kept playing Diablo 2 for (as an example).

Each of the later generation of games has brought problems for our original group. Some of us tried out SWG (Star Wars Galaxies) and had fun, but then the game balance issues went nuts as the developers kept responding to idiots that demanded "nerf this class" and "nerf that class" because they thought the classes were out of balance. Meanwhile, the developers also started the rush to get to Jedi status, and that just made things worse as some of the group decided that they had to have a Jedi, were owed one dammit!, and life just couldn't be complete without cranking through every possible class of character in trying to grind out a jedi. After weeks of doing that (for the power gamers in the group) the frustration grew to be too high, and they just left the game. A few patient individuals stuck it out, got the Jedi grind done, and actually still play a little. I tried the Jedi grind very late in the game (before they revamped the path to Jedi status) and had a shot at it, but I grew tired of the grind too, and my friends had all moved into WoW.

In between SWG and WoW most of my friends tried Final Fantasy, and some enjoyed it, but as with all of these games, there seems to be an eventual plateau that gets hit, and then the game just becomes boring. (I skipped Final Fantasy and kept grinding in SWG...) As Final Fantasy was winding down for my friends, they got into the WoW beta and worked up through there. Actually, I think the time that some put into the beta helped hasten the end for them, as they were just too familiar with the grind.

Sadly, it seems to happen with just about every game. Eventually the games become the same old thing. Changing the game too much kills the core audience, and not changing enough doesn't draw in new people. The best option is perhaps to keep trying to develop a better mouse trap (new game), which keeps tech workers/developers like Stardock and their friends in business, but it's not an easy road to follow. Check the link that Draginol posted before on the developers that were working on a new next-gen game. Not fun stuff for them.

I'm personally looking forward to games on the Xbox 360 platform, but I know from prior experience there that Xbox live gaming is not the same as playing online in a nice MMORPG with friends. Sadly, it's just not that easy to find a game that a good group of friends can enjoy. Xbox Live includes tons of nice features, and the communication (voice) while in game is awesome. But there are so many different games to be played, and only so many slots available in most games, that you have a hard time getting a lot of people into the game(s).

I hope to someday stumble upon Draginol in one of the virtual worlds where I might play. Either as a friend, or as an opponent in the game. It should be a nice experience at least.

Yeah, I quit playing WoW last month and don't regret it. I got many, many hours out of my playtime, so I don't have any regrets - it was fun while it lasted. From what I'm told, the guild I was in has started to self-destruct now also.

Game is fun to level to an extant, but once you hit the wall (lvl 60) its just a friggin bore! 100 hours to get one friggin item? And you need how many items? 13? GG Blizzard you are total morons. Just a classic case of nothign at the end of the tunnel sio they just made the tunnel longer. Its more than obvious the game shipped totally unfinished and they were just thinkign they could add crap in as the time goes on. It's pretty discusting.

The only game I was NEVER able to put down was Warcraft III: Frozen Throne (seriously - it was so distracting that I eventually had to snap the CD in half to get myself out of the hole). Warcraft had excellant replay value because it was so easy to mod - the World Editor that came with the game was somewhat unintuitive, but was very powerful if you knew how to use it properly (the same could be said of most in-game mod applications, perhaps, but still). Almost all games eventually lose the thing that made them fun and unique (except Pakman and Pong, of course) - sure, you might come back to it in a month, or a year, or a decade, or your children might one day find it, but no game can keep you entertained indefinately.

By the way, is anyone who stopped playing WoW thinking of going back for The Burning Crusade?