The only one I have played is World of Warcraft. Yes there is a story. I love the story-- especially in Wrath of the Lich King. That is not the real "hook" though. The hook is that they constantly add dungeons, fun events, zones, classes, races, professions, spells, achievements, rewards, landscapes and all sorts of other improvements, revisions and "toys" to keep you playing. Every few months there is a "patch" that changes so much or adds so much that it is more like an expansion pack. There is so much to do, change, and get after each patch that you won't have it all done or accomplished before the next new, even MORE entertaining and more MORE interesting and MORE exciting things come... then you want to see/experience those... and the better the things are... the more hours you have to put in... and the more world wide players you have to get involved with to get it... Ergo, it is damned near impossible not to find yourself constantly hooked or even badly addicted at some point. At that point you don't even bat an eyelash over a monthly fee. I started out playing a reasonable amount of time while leveling characters, exploring, and enjoying events and toys. Once I joined a guild and started raiding it was all over for me. When I look back I am SHOCKED by how many HOURS I could sit at my computer. At some point I even re-built the guild I was in, became GM and took us to a very high ranking-- THAT meant I spent another billion hours interviewing, emailing and administrating outside of the game-- FOR the game. For those who don't know... you need more than 25 players as dedicated, reliable and attached to the game as you are to achieve that. All of them have to be willing to "talk" on vent, spend hours preparing for raids, evaluating combat logs, learning strategy, watching videos of the fights/strats... In order to get all these people to cooperate you need to develop a fair and equitable invite system and loot distribution system and individual performance evals... There have to be add ons, people have to bond and get along... and when that happens and when you spend so many hours talking to each other you become friends... then you are emailing and chatting with WOW friends... and the entire "thing" can add MORE hours to a WOW habit. This is all by design and it is quite common for people to get addicted-- for a year, two years, or more. I was hooked for about a year and a half. Never, once, did I think about the monthly fee. I put in my credit card and by the next month I was having so much fun playing that I never, ever, thought about it again. Not even for a second. I finally stopped playing six months ago. I absolutely love World of Warcraft but for me it is just too addictive and my real life suffers.
Around 2001 I remember playing a RPG where I was part of a small unit of explorers on a moon or planet? There were centipede looking creatures and a capsule like transport you had to take to get to the exploration area. Does anyone remember this game or know the name? It may have been released before 2001. I'm drawing a total blank.
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