a little bit like that for me. Early on, I always loved pvp. The question was which mmorpg would be worthwhile to me to invest the thousands of hours to grind a character. I didn't want to end up grinding up and hating the game, which would be a huge waste of time. Studying all the candidates, I realised I wanted some key elements which would assure enjoyability:

1. It had to have a commitment to RvR open team pvp;
2. The devs had to show that commitment, preferably playing the game themselves regularly;
3. It had to have combat abilities like my favourtie pvp game, NWN from 2002, which meant tab targeting; and
4. The game had to prioritise gameplay and fun pvp balance, over gfx.

Only after finding an mmo meeting all the the above, did I slowly play the game and over time, realised that a solid RvR open pvp game actually taught a player about real life and its challenges. How to win, how to lose, how to have the right attitude to challenges, how to endure tough times, succeed during good times, what it meant to defeat an opponent, what it meant to die in battle, and so on. Hence, I have been playing Champions of Regnum for more than a decade, and still love the game.