EverQuest

I've played EverQuest on and off for the past few years. There's nothing quite like it.

Like, it's a bad game. The combat is very repetitive. Most of the time is just hitting the auto-attack key and that's it. I'm sure end-game bossing is better, but that's hundreds of hours away for most new players.

It's not clear what most skills do. It's not obvious which are important. Movement in the world feels janky. I don't think there's a main quest, and side quests are the most dull affairs of any RPG I've played. There's nearly no sound effects or music. The game's map system doesn't even have the majority of area's supported, so you don't know where you are going most of the time. I don't know if I've seen another player in 50+ hours of playing, and I've certainly never gotten a response over the in-game chat. Loading times suck.

And yet, I've gone back multiple times to it. There's something alluring about the world. Better than any MMO I've played, EQ has a since of wonder. Exploring the world is just interesting, as there's almost too much stuff to see. And while the mechanics make the game a chore to play, it does feel like stepping back in time and experiencing what MMOs used to be like. So who knows, maybe I'll go back again someday and take another stab at it.