I did my storyline as far as I could. I completed every heart and every exploration point for every zone up to where my storyline was. (So, the first two zones for each race. I think my 26th level mage got to the third zone but didn't complete everything.) I did dynamic events when they happened near me, but I didn't go out of my way for them. I even tried crafting. With all of that, I was still underleveled for my storyline missions and could not handle PvE in the next zone.

My only choice to level was to re-do all the heart content that I've already done, pour more money into crafting, and just generally whack monsters to grind for xp. I can't get into dungeons, I can't survive in any new zones, and I can't progress in my storyline. I had five characters with no choice but to grind or give up on, so I gave up. I'm a casual player; I don't have the time to waste grinding the same content over and over.

(I did have the option of entering PvP. I don't like PvP in general, but I'll play it if it's fair. It's not in GW2. While my low-level character was boosted to level 80 upon entering the PvP zone, everyone else had three more skills than I did and better equipment, not to mention guilds backing them up. PvP in GW2 is very, very unfriendly to solo casual players. I'd prefer grind over PvPing.)

I can't speak to WoW; I've never played it. I'm just referring to the classic Bartle theory of MMO game design: Achievers, Explorers, Killers and Socializers.

You make it sound as if there is little social interaction in WoW. Other MMOs have a lot. In some MMOs there are entire zones dedicated to social interaction with no combat possible. (TSW has a nightclub/bar, CoH had a rave, etc.)

To help clarify:

2. The first four skills, those defined by your weapon, defined your role. The last four skills were utility skills; seldom used, usually on long cooldowns, and generally not important to the character's role. They also took forever to unlock. I don't think I ever unlocked the last one, so most of my characters only had 5-6 skills to use, with little choice.

5. I played GW2 casually for a year, splitting my attention between 5 different characters. My highest level character got to level 26. That's not even high enough to get into the lowest level dungeon in GW2. If you wanted to gain levels you needed to grind. The story outleveled you quickly; my level 26 character was facing level 30 enemies in her storyline missions, and of course failing. In order to level you had several options, all of them distasteful to a casual player: Grind xp by re-doing zone content (encouraged by the daily reward chests, but who wants to do the same thing over and over again); grind crafting (at outrageous expense that could only be supported by PvE grinding or a guild's funds); or PvP (where you are under-equipped because you're low level). In contrast, a character in GW1 was max level before leaving their newbie zone, at which point the game and the story really began, and in PvP you felt that you could contribute.

In just about every way they made GW2 unfriendly to casual players. They probably decided that fanatics were their main moneymakers so they designed the game for them, and that's fine...but they shouldn't be surprised when their player numbers are low because the casual players stayed away.

You're missing the point. Players play MMOs for four main reasons: Achievement, Exploration, Competition, and Socialization. You play because you enjoy the game -- you're an explorer or socializer, or if you enjoy PvP you're a competitor. Some people play to get a sense of achievement. They want to vanquish a monster or loot a dungeon or solve a puzzle, and they want badges and items that show their accomplishment. Skill doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it; they're not trying to increase their skill, they're trying to earn trophies, and in these games trophies can be won with enough determination and time.

The problem for other Achievers is that is level 90 is an achievement in itself, and being able to purchase it with real money cheapens the prize.

I'm not the OP, but I'll give you my reasons for why GW2 didn't work for me.

1. Gameplay was too dissimilar to GW1. I felt like I had been taken in a bait and switch.

2. Poor/no character customization. Every character was exactly like every other character of their class and weapon. MMO replayability requires diverse gameplay options, and social games require character uniqueness. GW had little of the first and none of the second.

3. Bad and inflexible control layout. This was my breaking point. What abilities I had were defined by the weapon I used, and were locked in place. In every game I like my fast attack to be on 1, my heal to be on 4, etc. In GW2 the ability keys were chosen for me and were not rebindable. This made play difficult unless you specialized in one character using a single weapon...and I don't play that way.

4. Bad storyline. A minor point for me, but the character story was not good. Some races were better than others. It wasn't good in GW1 either, so I'd overlook this, but it was a flaw.

5. Grind. Too much grind. You could avoid some grind by paying real money to buy better equipment, and I know that's a business strategy for MMOs now, but casual players like me are the least likely to engage in microtransactions *and* we hate long grinds. Put outrageous grinds in your game thinking you can mitigate it with an auction house, and you'll lose the casual playerbase.

Approx. 10 Years ago:

Everquest
Asheron's Call
Guild Wars
City of Heroes

Now:

(tumbleweeds blow through the space where enjoyable MMORPGs used to be)

Yeah. I'm still playing games, but much less than before.

Chernobyl was a completely different design. It had carbon graphite moderator rods that, once they caught fire, turned the whole mess into a radioactive barbecue pit. They were literally roasting uranium over charcoal briquettes.

Fukashima won't put up the huge smoke clouds that Chernobyl did. The main concern with it melting down has to do with steam release after it hits the water table. Which is bad enough.

You are neglecting the possibility of true dualism -- that we have a soul. If a portion of our decisions comes from an extra-universal source that does not follow the deterministic rules of the universe, that would provide us with true free will. Sadly, such a thing may be innately non-provable.

A year from now you should expect to hear about this research again, but it will be delivered as a dramatic result: "Scientists have proven Free Will exists!", or "Scientists have disproven Free Will!" The experiment won't actually do this, but that's how the press will report it.

The thought that some hidden variable may affect not only both sides of the universe but our own minds is frightening. It would really shake things up. So I expect that QM and 'free will' will come out triumphant in this test. Whether it's an actual assessment of Free Will or not will be the interesting argument afterward.

I've beaten FTL using every ship -- both configurations -- except for the Crystal ship which I've never unlocked. But even so, I still get into unwinnable situations now and then. The game sometimes gives you a death ship opponent specifically designed to take your ship apart. I can't believe that's completely random. But it's a roguelike, so you can't expect to win every game.

I played the hell out of DF years ago, but I don't like the direction the game is going now. I'm only interested in Fortress mode but most of the latest enhancements are to Adventure mode, and that doesn't appeal to me. On top of that the releases have gotten further and further apart -- it's nearly two years now since the latest patch.

Still a fun game if you like micromanaging complexity, but it's gotten very old and I don't believe Toady cares much about improving it anymore.

This is my impression about The Secret World as well. I played through the main story line, looked at the outrageous time requirements for the high level game, and walked away. A neat game, but not something I'd recommend for long-time play.

I miss City of Heroes sooo much. No other game is like it. Tried Champions Online years ago and it didn't appeal to me.

Since CoH died I played and finished or dropped Borderlands 2, Guild Wars 2, The Secret World, and Bioshock: Infinite. Only ones that I'm still playing are League of Legends (I dabble; nothing serious) and FTL.

I still hunger for an MMO as sweet and exciting as CoH. Might try Everquest Landmark someday, if I can get over my hatred for all things Sony.

Just as a warning: 'Altslash' sounds, well, sexual. 'Slash' is a popular term for erotic fan fiction, and putting 'alt' in front of it just makes it sound dirtier.

I agree with you that formatting and proper line breaks are essential in any useful discussion forum. Sigs? Eh, they're nice, but I can see arguments for disabling them.

The Javascript sliders were just an example of the innovations that we have now that are being thrown away. Maybe I'm one of the few who use them.

The whitespace argument is weird. I don't mind excess whitespace in a comment; presumably the comment could take up more of that space if it changed in length and format, and that's fine. I don't like all the wasted whitespace in the right side frame -- it's distracting, and looks like it's destined to be filled up with ads someday. But I'm not inclined to vilify the design just because of this.