It is, in the end, surprisingly difficult to quit an MMO for good. If you’ve invested in something heavily, you may find yourself slinking back now and again even if you get tired of it.

Such seems to be the case with me and Guild Wars 2. While I stopped playing regularly a long time ago and almost entirely lost interest in it, I nonetheless felt my curiosity peaked when they decided to offer everyone a free preview of the next expansion, Path of Fire.

My full thoughts on the new expansion can be found over at MMO Bro. Overall, it was better than I expected, but probably not enough to bring me back to the game after so much time.

That said, even after the preview ended, I kept playing sporadically for a few days. I revisited my three main characters — thief, warrior, and mesmer. I wandered the maps, did some events.

Although it’s a fairly useless talent, one skill I’ve discovered I have is that I don’t forget how to play video games. I don’t experience the need to relearn things I’ve heard other people report when returning to an older title, or if I do it’s only to a very minor degree. For the most part I was able to jump right back in as if no time had passed. Of course it probably doesn’t hurt that 90% of my thief’s playstyle is just spamming Death Blossom…

On the whole, it was a good time. I found my way to a zone in Ascalon that I’d never visited before — Iron Marches, I think — and it turned out to be incredibly gorgeous, even by Ascalonian standards. Many a screenshot was taken.

GW2 was always a pretty game. I was also reminded how much I love its armour models. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it probably has the best looking gear of any game I’ve played, MMO or otherwise. I’ll admit a large part of my motivation to revisit the mesmer was just to gawk at how pretty her clothes are.

Had a great time with my warrior, too. Normally I’m not fan of the warrior archetype, but something about GW2 warriors just feels great. They’re a fantastic class. I also love the voice-overs for human males — very charming, very charismatic — and the Simpsons fan in me is still laughing at, “Urge to kill rising…”

And then I just stopped logging in.

This is consistent with the other times I’ve returned to GW2 since leaving initially. I play a bit, I enjoy it all, and then I completely lose interest for another year or two.

We often talk about “stickiness” in relation to MMOs. I think GW2 might be the least sticky game I’ve ever played. It’s the opposite of sticky. It’s slippery.

It’s a strange situation. Guild Wars 2 is a very fun game that I have no desire to play.