Looking for a game to play in small bursts

[jagged spade]

Hello!

I am looking for a game currently that I am able to play mostly solo for the time being in small segments. Between having a full time job and a family with two kids I find my time to play being random in both time of day and length. I may get play times ranging from 20/40 minutes up to a couple hours. I was most recently enjoying the EverQuest TLP (mostly nostalgia for me with that). I used to play World of Warcraft and FFXIV quite a bit as well. I want to still play an MMO for those times where I get longer segments to be able to group up and play with others as well. I’m not looking into any sort of high end game content, just something I can play through and continue at end game to pick away at.

I’ve been tossing the idea between Star Wars The Old Republic and Elder Scrolls Online around to give a shot at. I don’t mind buying any sort of content or paying subscription fees as well. I also debated going back to FFXIV as well since I remember there was the ability to do dungeons with NPCs. I quit playing it since I was wanting to change my main class and getting it up to the level of MSQ to continue I couldn’t really find an effective way. My MSQ is at 84 and the class I wanted to level was 60ish I think.

Could anyone give any suggestions or information into ESO or SWTOR, or perhaps shine a light on something I should take a look at that might fit into those styles?

Thanks again!

[fallow dust]

ff14, wow, gw2, eso -- these all work for short bursts of play

gw2 you can play for a week, get bis, take a break for a year and come back you're still bis :) -- this is how much it doesnt demand your time or for you to be active 24/7.

ff14 the ideal way to play it is in short bursts, take the story one bit at a time, do other content in the game, take up crafting/gather and you wont get burnt out

for swtor it's free to play but i suggest you try to sub once (then cancel) to get all expansions and atleast try to be a premium user (have atleast subbed or bought something from the shop) just to lift some restrictions on pure free to play accounts

[jagged spade]

@fallow dust Awesome! Thank you! That is kinda what I got from my research. I forgot to add in that I tried GW2, played it with some friends back in the day. I had decent fun with it but it being so large and open it kinda got the best of me not really knowing what to do next, maybe i'll give it a shot again someday.

FF14 I enjoyed quite a bit, burned myself out hard because I did non stop Heavensward->Stormblood->Shadowbringers, took a short break and started doing Endwalker a bit. Once I started getting into Endwalker I was debating changing my main and that's when I started trying to level a alt job and between the burnout and slow exp gain I stopped and haven't looked back. Maybe I need to just get it again and start plucking away leveling from time to time.

Swtor I actually was playing a little earlier today and started a sage, story has been solid so far, still in the starting area right now. I'll definetly throw a 1 month sub at it for the unlocks since you mentioned it.

Hopefully the two of those can fill my need/itch to have something to play

[fallow dust]

yeah ff14 dont marathon the story ever. its long,its a good one but too much of it will burn you out. try the other things ingame.. right now theres a fall guys collab, its fun with fc 'friends' or your friend group, not so much alone

swtor i do recommend subbing if it manages to get you hooked into the story

just to unlock all expansions

eso and wow are good too, dragonflight expansion is definitely better than the past few releases.

eso, i cant say anything about it since i never played it

but i do hear its similar in many aspects to gw2, one of which is the horizontal progression gearing