The is nothing as addictive, immersive, and fun, as a game that really plays on your curiosity and desire to explore. Strictly story-driven games can often become tiresome. I still haven't been able to finish Icewind Dale and similar D&D games, I simply gorw tired of it way too quickly. In MM6-MM8 (especially when you haven't played it to pieces for year and years) you're constantly asking yourself: - "can I fly up there?" "is there something up there?" "does this lead somewhere?" "what is this?" "where is this?" "are there any secret doors?" "are there any secret chests?"

MM6-8 is far from great, there are a lot of things that could be improved upon, but it is still one of THE most fun RPGs I have ever played. Besides playing on your curiousity, there's also:

* its simplicity
* basic non-linearity
* the history and lore
* the mix of fantasy and sci-fi

Some of the drawbacks are:

* the ingame story is quite simply and short -- this is separate from the history and lore. When you start discussing H&L at any forum with plenty of MM players, the thread can quickly grow to huge proportions. Even though the actual ingame story, history, and lore, in MM6-8 is quite simple and lacking in quite a few aspects... there's still a lot of it: combine all the games (MM6-8, HMM1-3), include the books and other additional stuff, and you've got quite a universe.

* compared to the world of MM6, 7 and 8 were quite small (IMHO) and could have been larger/better.

* the graphics engine could use a little updating. Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against the MM6 engine and it's updated versions for 7 and 8 -- I actually prefer it over a fully blown super-duper 3D engine with all sorts of shit and shaders... it's sort of simple, yet appealing -- but it could be bettered in some areas.

Aaaah, MM6-8 is such a passion for me, I often start rambling on and on about stuff I've been wanting to make a NetHack-like MM game... but just been a dream so far, busy with other stuff. There are people out there doing mods for the original MM6-8 games, but that sure as #&?* can't be easy, and then 2 or 3 tributes (MM Tribute, and something called Warlords of MM, I think, and some mod for Oblivion)... but otherwise not very much going on with the MM6-8 world (*still* don't quite know whether I should call it Colony or not )). Also seems that not that many are interesting in starting any new MM projects. At least it saddens me, that the MM world has... well, not quite died, but at least fallen comatose.

At the same time, I sort of feel relieved that 3DO went bankrupt and NWC/MM "died." From what I've read at various forums, NWC had as a plan to quickly develop several games each year, and with MM9 and the destruction of the old MM world... I wasn't very keen on the new direction. I don't quite know if they would've just pulled themselves together after MM9 and improved their jump into full 3D... but meh, I don't know.