Some people stick with an MMO until the servers close. Some MMOs are still going strong even after several years, like EverQuest I. Many people just leave when it gets dull and others stay for the free trial and then call it quits.

My first two MMOs that I played was EverQuest II and Star Wars Galaxies. I found myself in the middle of no where without any other characters around me. I guess that I was my fault for wanting to explore. After a short time, it got boring so I quit without a second thought.

I then started to hear about City of Heroes. Since I love super heroes and comics, I really wanted to try this game out. One of the girls at work started to play it before I did and told me to join her on the Infinity server. Eventually I got my hands on the game and loved it. Unfortunately the girl who told me to play was no longer playing. I found it a bit hard to find groups at first but a few months later I met up with this group of girls who started their own Super Group. I joined up and had heaps of fun with them. One of the good things that I liked about City of Heroes, is that I was able to solo if I wanted to play by myself or if I couldn't find a team.

City of Heroes, up to now, has had free expansions. With Mission Architect, you are able to create your own missions. They've even commissioned popular writers to create missions for the game. Other expansions allows you to change the color of your powers and to fight new arch-villains.

Once NCSoft left City of Heroes, things started to slowly spiral downward. I didn't want to see it but this is something that I realized last night. For the past few months, it's been harder to find people to group with. I don't mind soloing at all, but a few of my toons need a team while at lower levels. The Super Group, which was in the Top 100, died out and I feel that I use the base as my personal home now. Not sure if this is because of the changes done after NCSoft or not, but after over four years of playing City of Heroes, it starting to feel more and more like a ghost town.

I had forgotten to change my card number on my account, so as of yesterday, I am am inactive player. I've been debating on leaving City of Heroes all together. I would like to have gotten all of my characters to level 50, the cap, but it seems the journey to reach that mark seems far off. No one that I know plays the game anymore so unless I can find a team, I'm on my own.

Since the Halloween Event, I've only played about four times. I'm paying $14.99 a month and I'm not even playing for more than an hour, when in the past I've played six hours or more in one sitting.

Yes, I put a lot of time into the game, especially with my main 50, but that was back in it's prime. I want to keep playing until the end, but is it worth paying monthly for it? Especially when there's several fantastic games coming out soon. My time will be used up on them rather than an MMO.

When does a player decide to leave an MMO? What keeps them playing? Is it new content? The people and groups that you play with? When something better comes out? A blind sense to stay faithful to them until the end?

City of Heroes has gotten new content, but after a few weeks, or perhaps months, it gets old. Then again, it's free content. I'm in zones that used to always be active with other players, only to find them dead now, with maybe about a handful of players.

It's sad to admit it, but I had my fun with City of Heroes but I think, even with the upcoming Going Rogue expansion, I think it's a bit too late for me. I want to keep playing until the very end, but with other games coming out, I don't want to pay for something that I'm not playing that often anymore.