I left after season 7. I left in large part because I needed to step away from computer games and MMOs in general.
I did this once (stepped away). After gaming since .. I was little and my grandparents taught me how to solve those little (wood! and plastic..) square word puzzles that you slide the letters around in, to make words. Gaming had completely lost its appeal for the first time ever, since then, and this lasted.. for several years +/-.
Then, I was making the rounds to make sure my gaming accounts hadn't been hacked lately (for whatever reason - I guess, due to they were still considered 'possessions' that I didn't want stolen), and someone from CoH got me interested in Veteran awards and FTP... Somehow, in the process, I got sucked into playing again. And somehow, in the process, I ended up enjoying it as much as ever, which, is a lot. And I ended up making and playing a long string of Melee Toons that not only rocked, but, I actually understood how to play them. Very unusual, the whole experience. For the record: I never FTP'ed CoH. I subbed up and stayed subbed and they even managed to pry a small amount of cash from my steely grip in their store.
And here we are, today : ) Back to gaming and blabbing on about it.
at some point I'll end up playing through all the storyline content
When I first started playing I made it my mission in virtual life to play every STO mish. I played nearly all of the Fed mishes available, at that time. I played some Rom mishes.. I played no Klingon mishes and not many of the many, many, many-many, mishes that have been made available since I started playing.
They make a LOT of new mishes! And there were already a ton when I started playing.. If you can play every single STO mish and keep up with all the new ones, well, more powah to ya : ) I personally am mished-out. If there is a reward I want - I'll run it. Or if any of the TOS crew is in it, I'll run it. I've enjoyed some of the newish TNG stuff, too.
... grinding for gear is not enjoyable.
Hmm... It depends on the grind.. I can grind with the best of'em : )
I've got to be motivated to grind, though. Take this CO story for example.. They changed the grind, there, to where you had to run new content on top of old content, to get the same old rewards as ever. And you know what, I didn't like the people I was meeting in the new content, so, I said screw it, and that was the last time I had any interest in 'endgame' in CO. You won't see me grinding for anything, there, except Q - so I can buy Z - so I can buy frivolous crap. Someday. Maybe.
STO grinding... Geez.. What kind of grinding would you like to do? Dil? Spec XP? Rep? EC?
I can log on to STO, if I want to, and just .. press buttons .. for *hours* for worthy rewards.. To me, that is a grind.. A tempting grind! And one I fall prey to, sometimes... But it doesn't really make me a better pilot and it's so boring..
I grind for different things at different times in CO. I nonstop do a slow grind for Dil and EC. The EC grind usually takes 2 - 10 minutes and I get the reward of thinking of all the STO newbs out there that are running around in my gear. Tradeskilling was also super appealing to me in the beginning, just due to, I hadn't done it in forever. The dil grind... I usually just do stuff that gives Dil that I can do in Space.. Usually this means running the Queues. Event queues included, all queues included. This works out well for me, due to... the funnest thing in STO for me, is, running the queues - and the queues pop faster than ever, ever since the Random Button for PVE queues was invented, so, I'm a happy camper.
I care about my deeps and survivability. I do more, when and where I can, to improve them both, and, they both seem to be steadily improving. I'm not competitive about it to the point of having to be in the top 1%, today, though. I can wait. At the rate I'm going.... I should get there... Hopefully.... sometime before 2030 : )
I personally cannot play the crap out of STO to the point where I'm sucking the marrow from it. I've just not got the hours available to me (especially after writing these windy posts : ).
I think it really boils down to, is it fun. If you enjoyed playing, before, I'd definitely recommend coming back and checking out today's STO. Some people really don't like where it has boldly gone. I personally am perfectly fine with it and want more gametime and a new machine to play on.
If you return and find that you're having fun but quickly manage to blow through the new content, and, get yourself current with your ship(s), and, bored with the game - then, #1, you're a badass, and, I would suggest using STO as a backup game : ) hehe