Recommend an MMORPG

[Molyneux]

As they've said, forget about MMORPGs if all you want to do is quests. Every single MMORPG out there is just awful in that area, you'll get much better storyline and gameplay from a single player game. In all of the ones I've seen, the quests and stuff are just a means to an end, leveling up your character and providing income for the real content.

And you reveal yourself as someone who's never played Final Fantasy XI.

If you dislike PVP, like doing storyline quests and enjoy teaming with other players, then I'd say FFXI is for you.

It's a couple of bucks cheaper than other MMOs...the downside is that you start with just one character, and it's an extra $1/month for each additional.

You CAN level up literally every class in the game, switching at will, so you're not limited in that respect...but there is no way to change the race of a character once you've started.


I've played Guild Wars, CoH, FFXI, and Star Wars Galaxies, and the only two of those four worth playing at ALL are City of Heroes and Final Fantasy. WoW isn't even worth trying, from what I've heard (and it has nearly as bad of a PKing problem as Ultima Online).


City of Heroes is fun, but it's more brute leveling-up than storyline-based.

[Stark]

My experiences suggest that GW is good for PvP without the possibility of ganking, WoW is good for 12you 'I'm playing Diablo' feelings, and EVE is good if you want to get involved in massive galaxy-shaking wars, corporate intrigue and the like.

GW is entirely instanced, so highlevel guys can never, ever fuck you up. It's just you and your team against the world in PvE. PvP is arenabased, and GW's system is based on the idea that everyone gets to lvl20 very quickly, so everyone is at the same powerlevel. It's decided by teamwork, skill builds and player skill, not zomg teh levels.

I found WoW to look like shit, be full of retards and basically be Dungeon Siege with other people running around. The GW-instance and WoW-united systems have their plus points, but WoW was just too bland to hold my interest beyond a trial period. And of course WoW is full of griefers and tards.

If Neph could spend a month ingame with EVE and not do anything interesting, that really isn't the game's fault. You can get into alliance wars inside a month if you talk to people. And package missions? You fail at finding excitement.

[Tatterdemalion]

WoW isn't even worth trying, from what I've heard (and it has nearly as bad of a PKing problem as Ultima Online).

Eh? I have never, ever heard this complaint of anyone who's actually played the game. Sure, if you sign up for a pvp server then once you get to about lvl 25 you'll start running into griefers, particularly if you play on a high population server, (prior to that you'll be playing in faction territory, where it's impossible to be ganked by the opposing faction unless you attack first) but there's a simple solution to this: don't play on a pvp server.

The advantages of WoW are that it's very forgiving compared to most of the genre. It is very, very hard to fuck up your character in WoW, and until you reach level 60 and min/maxing actually matters there are no completely useless builds and the death penalty is very light. When you die your durability goes down (meaning if you die to much you pay a little money to get your gear repaired) and you have to walk a short distance to where you died. Compare this to Final Fatasy XI where it's entirely possible to spend an enire weekend playing and ending up a lower level than when you started. Personally I'm slightly more charitable towards the quests in WoW than some here for while there's plenty of grinding some quests, particularly those revolving around instanced dungeons, are quite fun (I have yet to find anyone who didn't enjoy their first run through the Deadmines, the first real dungeon for Alliance characters).


WoWs faults, on the other hand, are myriad. If the cartoonish nature doesn't appeal to you then you may as well quit right at the start, as the entire game is basically a slightly tongue-in-cheek saturday morning fantasy cartoon spoof. Seriously, don't let anyone tell you the backstory for WoW is deep or compelling, it isn't, it's very deliberately generic. Likewise its accessability means that while it's a good gateway to the genre it isn't very challenging. Only at level 60 does the game become truly hard and even then it's more a case of finding 40 people who aren't idiots than particularly challenging encounters. I find that once you reach 60, weather or not you stay on is generally dependant on how cool the people in your guild are, which says a lot about endgame WoW.
If you want to play a MMORPG as a single player game

[Ghost Rider]

WoW has it's up and downs, but complaining about PvP deaths is stupid on a new level. Literally it wastes at most ten minutes of your time and a little cash on your character. A outlandish PvP server may have some gankers in select zones but they warn you outright what PvP servers entail.

The advantages of the game is it is by far the easiest interface and one of the easier games(which is why so many people who play it are fucking morons).

The biggest downside is once you hit sixty, there's three things.

1. PvP for Grand Marshall. Got up to Field, and stepped down because I saw how much I needed for Grand.....and I already had a better fucking weapon...two of them in fact. Thus aside from having the Oooooh and AAAAAaaaah factor, was not worth another 3-4 weeks of grinding against our jackass of a Grand Marshall(ever since he got the rank, which was more then a few months...in fact he was number 5 on our server...he continously PvPs to maintain it, thus making the road to it...that much worse).

2. Raid like nuts. This is the real route I took, and have quit because sure Burning Crusade will be new material...but eh. This is the route to the best equipment...not the best fun. Though this is one of the more social routes, and will net you the ability to see some of the really cool things the game has to offer.

3. RP aka Role Play. A route many take because the first two are grinds and you will feel them. Completely depends on server.

But like Tatterdemalion said, you cannot fuck up anything, in fact...you can alter your tree constantly for a fee, and seriously...you'd have to be a true retard to complete fuck up your abilities that you are completely useless.

Between the two intially asked, WoW is easily the superior choice...especially given the fuck ups they've done to Galaxies.

[Stark]

Yeah, the lack of endgame content is a big problem. Things like GW are designed from the ground up for the endgame, and the rest is really just a tutorial/moneymaker. EVE of course has the greatest, most complicated and rewarding endgame I've ever seen.

On player quality - GR touched on this. WoW is very easy - not just to play, but the UI and character system are very easy to understand and use. Thus, you get hundreds of thousands of drooling retards, but that's to be expected when you've got 4.5M players. GW is primarily PvP, so it attracts a particular sort of person, and EVE is relatively complex, longterm, and doesn't reward grinding like most other MMOs, so it drives away the standard tard and has an almost total lack of 'roffle chuck norris' bullshit and almost universally helpful and intelligent players. It also has one of the harshest 'death penalties' that I know of (as your ship is utterly gone), which is a major turnoff for many people.

[m112880]

anyone played City of Heroes/Villians? How is it?

I play COH/COV and realy enjoye it a lot. COH was made with no PVP and was added on later on so its not a major focus in the game. Its easy to get into and most players are nice and helpfull towards noobs.

[LordShaithis]

And you reveal yourself as someone who's never played Final Fantasy XI.

FFXI is, by all reports, a grind-heavy piece of shit with a crushing death penalty where you can't even choose which server you play on, but will need to group with other players to do everything. The graphics are nice though, if you like that Japanese femboy crap.

I've played Guild Wars, CoH, FFXI, and Star Wars Galaxies, and the only two of those four worth playing at ALL are City of Heroes and Final Fantasy. WoW isn't even worth trying, from what I've heard (and it has nearly as bad of a PKing problem as Ultima Online).

This is a staggeringly ignorant statement. UO has been around for nine years, and only had a "PK problem" for the first three of them. Meanwhile WoW has never had a PK problem. Unless you choose to play on a dedicated PVP server, you can walk right past an enemy faction member without being at risk of attack. The fighting mostly takes place in Battlegrounds, which are organized "capture the flag" type affairs.

The advantages of the game is it is by far the easiest interface and one of the easier games(which is why so many people who play it are fucking morons).

Please. WoW is full of idiots because it's popular and accessible, not because bullshit like Everquest demands any sort of intelligence.

As far as the OP goes, try WoW. I ended up not liking it much in the end, but your milage might vary. It's the world's dominant MMO, has extremely good production values, and merits at least a try.

EDIT: Oh, and speaking of UO, it has a new expansion coming out next year that completely throws away all the old graphics and interface and updates the entire game. UO still has more depth than any other MMO on the market, with a fresh coat of paint it may be something to check out.

[Spyder]

Play WoW. It's honestly the most accessable and enjoyable MMO for a newcomer. I played EVE for a month too, and I found it neat in enviromental aspects, and possibilities... but I spent that entire time on autopilot, letting my computer run packages. Not exactly exciting. Oh, I went to clear out some drones in Deadspace Pockets, but one gets damn little compensation for that.

Eve can be quite cool if you're in goonfleet, which requires a somethingawful account. Massive operations that involve legions of frigates taking down battleships, and if you're on teamspeak it's done to the tune of the Picard Song. Quite a surreal experience.

[Stark]

Or you could do absolutely anything else. Courier missions? They're boring? No way. It's not a game that holds your hand, but you can go from n00bcorp to being involved in alliance wars and organisation in only a few weeks. Profits from mining, manufacturing, piracy or trade are much higher than agent missions.

[lPeregrine]

Play WoW. It's honestly the most accessable and enjoyable MMO for a newcomer. I played EVE for a month too, and I found it neat in enviromental aspects, and possibilities... but I spent that entire time on autopilot, letting my computer run packages. Not exactly exciting. Oh, I went to clear out some drones in Deadspace Pockets, but one gets damn little compensation for that.

You probably just didn't find the right parts of the game. EVE has a really steep learning curve, and it's easy to get overwhelmed. If you liked the possibilities, I'd go back and try to find a corp to introduce you to the better parts of the game. EVE at its core is a PvP game... those things you did are just the more boring of the "keep the bills paid" activities. If you're going to do agent missions to pay for your PvP, at least do the combat ones. They're at least less boring, and give you decent practice for the real world.

[Spyder]

Or you could do absolutely anything else. Courier missions? They're boring? No way. It's not a game that holds your hand, but you can go from n00bcorp to being involved in alliance wars and organisation in only a few weeks. Profits from mining, manufacturing, piracy or trade are much higher than agent missions.

You do if you get into goonfleet. They get you to pod jump strait into .0 space, they dump you with some cash, skillbooks and some starter ships and send you fighting. It's kind of scary how organised it is, they break it down into smaller groups, conduct training exercises, they've actually managed to get quite a few people involved in major operations within their first two weeks.

[Stormin]

You do if you get into goonfleet. They get you to pod jump strait into .0 space, they dump you with some cash, skillbooks and some starter ships and send you fighting. It's kind of scary how organised it is, they break it down into smaller groups, conduct training exercises, they've actually managed to get quite a few people involved in major operations within their first two weeks.

That actually sounds pretty fun. If I wasn't having such a blast on my new Valk I would probably get the EVE trial and atleast look around.

[Walsh]

Check This Shit Out: 'Infinity: Quest for Earth', a game which the designers claim will have billions of planets, where you can purchase planets and set up mining operations on them or on asteroid belts, build fleets of ships and orbital space stations, or be a pirate and prey on them. It will also utilize Newtonian physics.

Unfortunately it won't be released until at least mid next year, but I reckon just about everyone here would love it. Maybe we could set up the SDN empire on there one day.

As for MMOGs which you can currently play...

If you like Tolkien's fictional universe, go for 'Lord of the Rings Online' (formerly Middle Earth Online).

If you like non-Tolkien fantasy, go for Dark and Light. With 15,000 square miles of land (almost twice the size of New Jersey state), and far too many cool features to mention here, it would be worth checking out.

[Slacker]

WoW is a nightmarish gankfest only if you allow it to be, by rolling on a PVP server and then not joining a guild and questing socially.

As for endgame, depending on your server, endgame is still quite accessible for the casual player. On older servers, ZG, AQ20, and MC can and are PUG'd on a regular basis. You won't be on the bleeding edge of new content, no, but...you'll be buried in stuff to do as you level and start to play at 60 anyway. And then the expansion will come out, which offers even more in terms of small (5-10 man group) content.

The game is a ton of fun if you find a good group of people to play with. It's the only reason I'm STILL playing this game two years after I got it, when I'd never played an MMO before in my life.

[Stark]

You do if you get into goonfleet. They get you to pod jump strait into .0 space, they dump you with some cash, skillbooks and some starter ships and send you fighting. It's kind of scary how organised it is, they break it down into smaller groups, conduct training exercises, they've actually managed to get quite a few people involved in major operations within their first two weeks.

Or you could join ANY OTHER CORP. You've obviously got a lot of love for goonfleet, but every corp I've ever heard of has this level of organisation. Being a SA goon is *not* required to get into the 'meat' of the game in a few weeks.

[LordShaithis]

Check This Shit Out: 'Infinity: Quest for Earth', a game which the designers claim will have billions of planets, where you can purchase planets and set up mining operations on them or on asteroid belts, build fleets of ships and orbital space stations, or be a pirate and prey on them. It will also utilize Newtonian physics.

I love the smell of vaporware in the morning. Even if "billions" only meant two billion, and every single person on Earth suddenly had internet access and could play this game, you would still only have three people per world. Hello McFly, anybody home? You're being bullshitted.

If you like Tolkien's fictional universe, go for 'Lord of the Rings Online' (formerly Middle Earth Online).

Smart money says this is going to be another forgettable turd from the folks at Turbine. Just like their Dungeons & Dragons Online.

If you like non-Tolkien fantasy, go for Dark and Light. With 15,000 square miles of land (almost twice the size of New Jersey state), and far too many cool features to mention here, it would be worth checking out.

I've yet to hear anything good about this game. The OP should just try WoW. Maybe EVE. Or even UO, especially once they revamp the game. Enough with the indie/vapor hooey.

[Stark]

I've heard very good things about UO over the years, usually in comparison (ie, UO did this better). I'll be honest: it looked like shit when I investigated and I've no interest in playing.

[LordShaithis]

Compare.

Current UO screenshot.

Screenshot from forthcoming UO expansion.

Apparently they're tossing the entire current client and interface overboard as well. They're also hiring world-builders to completely rebuild the gameworld. Now that EA has bought out Mythic, the guys behind Dark Age of Camelot and the upcoming Warhammer MMO, some of their guys are working on UO as well.

[Neko_Oni]

GW is great, it's free (well no ongoing fees anyway), the system is interesting, you can't be ganked ever. Though you pretty much can't solo anything in GW (you'll always have AI controlled friends at least). The game really starts at lvl 20, though in the expansion (Factions) that only takes around 15 hours or so to get to (I imagine it will be similar in Nightfall). After that it skill hunting, buying shiny armour, and generally mucking around. Good times.

[Walsh]

Check This Shit Out: 'Infinity: Quest for Earth', a game which the designers claim will have billions of planets, where you can purchase planets and set up mining operations on them or on asteroid belts, build fleets of ships and orbital space stations, or be a pirate and prey on them. It will also utilize Newtonian physics.

I love the smell of vaporware in the morning. Even if "billions" only meant two billion, and every single person on Earth suddenly had internet access and could play this game, you would still only have three people per world. Hello McFly, anybody home? You're being bullshitted.

[The planets] will be clustered at the start, and going out will be no easy task. You can go exploring, but you will still have to fund your expeditions, which means interacting with people.

Keep in mind.. Im sure 98% of the galaxy will never even be seen in the game. But the fact that it's there, and you could go see it, will be an incredible feeling.

Jump gates are rare and only serve as a way to link distant clusters.

The procedurally-generated non-core systems are mostly for people who just want to go exploring, and there will be other things to do, if it gets off the ground.

[bilateralrope]

One thing I have noticed in the two weeks I've been playing eve online so far is that the intelligence of the average player seems much higher than that of the average guild wars player. I have been involved in a few political and religious discusions in the chat of one of the newb corps (all characters get placed in one when created) without any flaming or dishonest debating tatics, and when I've asked for evidence to back up someones claim they do try to provide it. Sure they dont go into as much detail as they do here, but thats probably because its a chatroom not a forum.

One of the reasons I left guild wars was because the Nightfall missions shown in the preview all required you to bring one of the NPC heroes along in your party, meaning you could only have 7 human players instead of the 8 allowed elsewhere. Nightfall's leveling up rate in the preview was between that of the other chapters.

[wautd]

One thing I have noticed in the two weeks I've been playing eve online so far is that the intelligence of the average player seems much higher than that of the average guild wars player. I have been involved in a few political and religious discusions in the chat of one of the newb corps (all characters get placed in one when created) without any flaming or dishonest debating tatics, and when I've asked for evidence to back up someones claim they do try to provide it. Sure they dont go into as much detail as they do here, but thats probably because its a chatroom not a forum.

The average age probably helps (it's around 25 iirc). Most young people don't have the patience during the first weeks and want more instant gratification. Also, the skill system allows progress even when you are not online so this is a blessing for people with jobs or limited time to play in general

[Stark]

I play Eve in a very casual manner: perhaps 10 hours a week maximum. The skill system allows me to 'keep up' development-wise with those that play all the time. Of course, I don't have nearly as much money.

The n00bcorp you start in just staggered me with it's usefulness. The corpchat is always full of helpful, knowledgable people who are quite happy to explain the intricacies of the game and debate builds, moneymaking schemes, etc.

[Molyneux]

Compare.

Current UO screenshot.

Screenshot from forthcoming UO expansion.

Apparently they're tossing the entire current client and interface overboard as well. They're also hiring world-builders to completely rebuild the gameworld. Now that EA has bought out Mythic, the guys behind Dark Age of Camelot and the upcoming Warhammer MMO, some of their guys are working on UO as well.

...wow, they've gotten it up to Diablo II-level graphics.
Does it still use that fucking annoying reagent system?

As for FFXI - the only problem I've had with it is indeed the loss of XP when you die (I hit level 20 three times, largely because I was an idiot that day and kept attacking critters way too tough for me). Still, as long as you make sure to keep a buffer up you don't have to worry about de-levelling, and it's got to be the game with the single greatest amount of depth I've seen. Quests, missions, and sidequests galore!

And oh, the music...Final Fantasy is the only MMO, as far as I know, where they have a professional composer. The music of the four nations is distinct and instantly recognisable (the architecture is as well), and for people like me who rely on music to get them hooked emotionally into a story, it's simply awesome.

[Stormin]

If anyone wants to try out DAoC, now would be a good time

Happy Birthday To You, Too
Posted By: Sanya Thomas 2006-10-10 18:20:39

The dev team, particular a crazy man with the initials of RF on the content team, wanted you to have something nice. Here's the hot fix note:

In celebration of the Fifth Anniversary of Dark Age of Camelot, all Classic terrain and dungeon zones will yield double experience and coin for one month (until November 10th).