Left shortly after gearing in heroics after release.

Came back for 4.1/4.2 been having a blast.


Until something offers the flexibility with a polished (...laughable at times) finish that WoW has more often then most games, it will be a contender.
Rift was fun for about 3 months but it's just that, how do you make a fun game that is similar in characteristics to WoW but not WoW? After 3 months I felt, "Well I have 5 years invested in the other game, I should just play that..." Even with all the little perks and extra's (Loved the ability to just run up and rift...)

The MMO style game may die, but how do you describe a persistent world that constantly evolves and never ends? In my opinion the next "ground breaking" game will be a polished, story driven, hunting style flexible game similar to WoW but without a holy trinity. Because inevitably no matter what you do with the current system it is just "Genre Style DPS/Tank/Heal Type"

With what they just released about talent trees, I see changes yet again in WoW to get more people back and interested for a couple months again. We'll see though, give it 15 years and we may just interface with our brains...