I want to play MMORPGs again, but I don’t like them anymore

Every year when a new update for World Of Warcraft gets announced, or Final Fantasy XIV reveals some mad collaboration with NieR: Automata, I can’t help but be sucked in again. Almost. I hover my mouse over purchase, but I can never bring myself to click.

Deep down, I know I don’t like MMORPGs anymore. But for some reason I still believe that maybe, just maybe, I actually do. That this particular expansion where orcs fight in a shadow realm, or I can strut about in a new cross-promotional costume, will be like coming home after many years lost in the wilderness.