I started Ultima Online around the start of December 1997.  I finally hit cancel for good late spring of 2002.

I played SWG from launch until the day the NGE hit before I hit cancel.

There are other games I've played over the course of years.. but none that I didn't cancel for breaks. (some of those breaks were many months).

/random ramble..

A few posts up from the end (when I started to write this) I noticed someone said they played EQ until Sony took over.. I was thinking then you never played EQ...  

I guess most people somehow don't realize that Verant and 989 Studios were both always owned by Sony Corp.. and were only ever the names used after Sony decided SCIA should be "console only"... (ie: John Smedley was an employee of Sony Computer Interactive America when he was tasked to create an online game... etc etc etc)

/endrandom ramble...

started playing FFXI from first day of NA PC release (Oct. 28, 2003) until about 5 months ago (Novemberish? 2008).  So I guess the answer is a little under 5 years, though I admit there were some periods of light/very casual play.

At the start, my playing was really heavy, but still irregular at times because I was finishing my bachelor's degree.

When I started working (teaching), I kept my account but I rarely had time (or energy) to play.  As the years have passed, my job remains stressful and demands too much time to properly play... I didn't want to quit FFXI, and my character still had many little side projects and quests going... many loose ends to tie up.  But, after going several months between playing... well, I just couldn't justify spending money on something I wasn't using (I had mules... several... it became costly to keep what I had built sadly enough... typical money sink BS).

I miss it terribly, but after this school year, I am taking a break... going to take some online classes for a master's, and just substitute once and awhile to pay the bills (if I can even find a job doing so given how messed up the economy is).  I will get serious about my master's next year, but I will have a year to dabble a bit (and drool/prepare for SE's new MMO).

I can't wait to play videogames again... ;^_^

I put well over 700 hours into just one character in WoW. If you count every character I made in that game that's quite a lot of time played...

WOW classic -- 1 year  Each expansion was a few months each.

The most I've lasted in any other MMO has been around 6 months.

DAOC. Played it on and off for 5+ years.

FFXI 4 yrs

CoX for 5 years thanks to a wonderful group of friends and a great SG.

SWG could have easliy been the winner if SOE didn't screw the pooch with the CU and NGE. Guess SOE didn't want my money.

2.5 yars with SWG (They NGE'd it), after that my MMORPG membership time drastically decresed.

If there were no NGE, then I'd still be playing SWG.

I played Asheron's Call for about 5 or 6 years before cancelling.  I don't "invest" my time into games.  I play for the fun not the "investment".  Whether a game goes away or I leave the game I played it for fun.  Anyone who "invests" into a game is getting too serious about a game.

 5 years with Dark Age of Camelot. MMOs these days really don't seem built to hold attention or dedication, so why bother putting the time into a new character. Since quitting DAoC, the longest an MMO has held me was 4 months. 

Average time before I move to a new MMO is now is 3 months, the longest period is 6 months. 

I did play Everquest for over 3 years.  However, Everquest was my first MMO and there are now many more MMO's to explore.  I doubt I will ever stay this long in any MMO again. 

Eve online since November 2004. I doubt I'll quit this game ever until they turn the server off.

Only lasted 3-4 months in LoTRO and WoW

 Almost 2 years w/o cencelling in AO a bit prior to LE launch , then in and out for a while and completely out! Never found something similar ...it was my mmo virginity game afterall :) oh yes wow in and out for 1,5~ . Name 70% of p2p mmo's 2 months~

 Asherons Call-Old beta world red then for around 2 years

Anarchy-Online from beta through Alien Invasion about 5.5 years

world of Warcraft- beta to now (some breaks in between)

wow: Account Created: 11 February 05 23:24 CET and still going strong (plus a little beta)

eve: about 1½ years still renew a month every now and then

AoC: about 2-3 months, thanks to the horrible launch

anarchy online: around a year or so

asherons call 2: about 4-5 months

daoc: only a few weeks

and then ofc all the chinese/korean cookie cutter games that last anywhere from 4 minutes to 3 days

Originally posted by Nerph

wow: Account Created: 11 February 05 23:24 CET and still going strong (plus a little beta)

eve: about 1½ years still renew a month every now and then

AoC: about 2-3 months, thanks to the horrible launch

anarchy online: around a year or so

asherons call 2: about 4-5 months

daoc: only a few weeks

and then ofc all the chinese/korean cookie cutter games that last anywhere from 4 minutes to 3 days

wait, you list the asian games as cookie cutter in the same sentence you say you've been playing WoW for that long? I find that kind of ironic :P 

I played vanguard for about 2 years. That is my longest. I cancelled after Silius, the lead developer, fuck3d the game up beyond recognition and on those days I considered resubbing, I just read about the cash shop that Smed added..

Just canceled WoW: unlike other times I've quit and deleted all my characters this time I don't feel anything towards that game anymore. It's kind of weird because I've quit before and thought about how long I've spent in the game and what's left to do, but I just can't be bothered again. I've deleted and had my characters restored 3 times now, apparently once they are high level they are almost permanently in status.

Even though I deleted all my characters I could still create a death knight on any realm, Blizzard really want people to stay in their game every little crumb is there waiting. I had enormous fun yesterday giving away epics for like 40 silvers, that was the most fun I've had in the game and buying titanium bars and relisting them on the auction for 1 copper. Like vultures around a carcass people picked on my avatar and stripped it off it's flesh.

Such a soul-less game that sucks away your grey cells slowly like a disease rotting filled with RAF 2nd-gen fans that know little of the blood and sweat that went before because there is nothing there to remind them of past glory. No trophies to show, no-one goes to Silithus and say Hey that took real effort to open those gates, Ragnaros is still there in Molten Core waiting to be killed now like he did before. Battlegrounds take minutes to complete and before either side wins you are queuing again to do the same thing, everything is super-fast now like a sprint even the cool-downs have been shortened or removed altogether.

Then the patch came and I'm like "Do you know what, I just don't care anymore."

So that was the best part of 4+ years I'll never see again.

It would be a toss up between EQ1 and L2. I put about 3 years into both and never fully quit either. I still go back to both every once and a while just to see whats new and to talk to old friends that still play.

Bren

I never really permanently cancel, I just take a break for a bit, then resub, take another break, then resub.

So I'm in and out of several games over a long period of time.

On the other side, if I don't like a game I will either have not bought it, or cancel within the first month.