"There was a time when reflecting on months of cumulative grinding and dungeon crawling wouldn't have phased me. "

That should be "wouldn't have fazed me." http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/faze

Have you heard of a game called Requiem?

If your goal is to not become drawn into MMOs again. I would suggest you stay far far away from this one. It's a lot like WoW, but better.

As in different from other games and it sure to get a M rating when it does release, which will hopefully mean less 12yr olds crying nerf because they don't want to defend a base.

This is EXACTLY how i feel about MMO's. I just can't let myself play them because i will lose all my free time to them. At least a decent single player game will only hold my attention for days not years...

I can't say I've ever been drawn into MMO's...I guess I'd get bored too quickly from the full-time grind most have. To tell the the only game I ever spent alot of time on was Final fantasy VII. But back in those days FF7 was a cult..

I've sat back and watched friends of mine waste hours and hours on WoW...One of which spends every weekend on it still....The other is slowly returning to the real world.

I recently put down the WoW crack pipe as well. Its not the first time, but hopefully the last.

I much rather have short, easily pause-able game sessions. Games that attempt to put you on an endless path of grinding are pretty unhealthy for anyone with real-life responsibilities.

I think some people are just more prone to the near-obsessiveness that drives some players to become drawn into these types of worlds - every MMORPG I've tried (Everquest, Asheron's Call, Star Wars Galaxies, WoW) always results in the same thing - I play so much, become 'virtually' successful in terms of gear, skill, networking, guild membership - but real-life responsiblities are let to slide.

That doesn't happen if I'm playing Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Oblivion, Bioshock....