My first real MMORPG was Dark Age of Camelot, and it was fantastic until they decided to protect cheaters who paid. After that was Guild Wars, which was almost as great. I bounced around between a handful of smaller ones until I came across RIFT, and instantly loved it. So much borrowed from the previous games, but the idea of rifts was really damned cool.
About once a year I log in, and realize that it’s turned into an unplayable disaster. Then I log out, feeling sad.