“Phantasy Star Online” remains one of my most treasured online experience. I haven’t found a game that’s since stacked up.

Naturally, you might think I’ve tried “World of Warcraft.” I haven’t. I’ve avoided all MMOs after having a less-than-stellar experience with “EverQuest II.” Too much aimless wandering around, too much forced group work. I didn’t play for very long.

That’s my impression of most MMOs. I’ve yet to see one that acts much differently. So when presented with a chance to check out “Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning” from EA Mythic, I told content director Destin Bales about my genre apprehension.

Bales responded with some very interesting ideas that just might convince me.

MMOs are inherently a timesink. I realize that and accept it, which is why I’ve been so picky about jumping into a particular MMO. If I’m going to dump countless hours into a single experience, I want it to be a memorable one and one that I’ll want to stick with.

What’s bothered me is what’s referred to as the end game. The end game is the gameplay after you’ve finished leveling and accumulating new powers. World of Warcraft’s end game is raiding, which you join dozens of other players to take down a dungeon or boss.

But what if you don’t want to interact with other players? I know, I know. It’s an MMO — isn’t that the point? Sometimes. There are instances where I want to interact with the other players, other times that I don’t. So it’s frustrating when I’m not given a choice.

“Warhammer Online” has an interesting approach to solving that problem with “public quests.” These take the appeal and fun of group quests and raids and remove the social factor. Public quests involve everyone working together towards a singular goal, but you can leave the quest at any time without affecting the outcome for others.

The public quest Bales showed me last night was outside a giant ship. Waves of enemies poured out, with a counter in the screen’s corner. The game asked for players to defeat 30 enemies to collect a reward. That’s not 30 enemies each, it’s 30 enemies in total. Each kill counts towards the group’s 30 needed kills, and you can leave the battle at any time.

Once the kills are achieved, the public quest moves into another phase. There are several phases to each public quest, but you’re not required to stay for the next. Bales cheated forward to show me the last phase of this particular public quest, and a giant hydra emerged from the boat to wreck havoc on players. Bales said there some public quests with as many as ten phases later in the game.

As for my other issue — seemingly endless aimless wandering — Bales had to concede a bit. Exploration is part of the adventure. I can deal with that, so long as the exploration is interesting. There was never anything very interesting to look at in “EverQuest II,” but I’ve always admired the art of “World of Warcraft.” I didn’t see enough of “Warhammer Online” to get much of a feel for their art direction, unfortunately, but I’m hopeful.

I’m interested to spend personal time with “Warhammer Online” on my own terms, but public quests have me hopeful that this MMO understands the need for various styles of play. A big part of an MMOs appeal is the social experience, but if you’re like me, sometimes you just don’t want to be bothered with other people.